Sampling from a set of the representative population holds a lot of significance when conducting a survey of an online audience. It ensures inclusivity and no bias in the results. A lot of businesses fail to get the desired survey outcome because they do not how to obtain a representative audience.
If you are struggling with the same problem, then this article is for you. Here, you will learn about different ways that you can adopt to obtain the right representative audience for your online surveys.
OvationMR is a leading firm that provides reliable and cost-effective online panel solutions. Their online approach to accessing global survey audiences significantly improves survey research outcomes. They also perform quantitative data analysis or explore respondent behaviours using qualitative data analysis.
Find Target Audience Via Research Panels
Panel companies hire survey respondents who agree to participate in surveys. Such firms match online respondents with the target audience of the researcher. A panel comprises a set of individuals who expresses interest to participate in surveys and fulfills the demographic criteria.
Panel companies charge based on the number of executed responses and the difficulty level in meeting the demographic criteria for the selection of a sample.
Design mobile-first online surveys
A business should make it a point to design their surveys for mobile responders. This is necessary because mobile-first surveys lead to a better user experience in the business. Mobile-first survey designs surpass functionality.
It embraces software advancements that, in turn, lead to an improved user experience. Remember to make your online surveys short and engaging to sustain people’s attention till completion and enhance representation.
Recruit from several sources
The next thing that a business can do is to recruit for a survey or panel. Diversity of sources forms the key to claim representation. Certain respondents are recruited by the way of applications and others through the web. Both audiences are going to have varying digital attitudes and behaviours.
Diversification of sources confirms that you include people with different behaviours that in turn, help lower the possibility of risk of inherent bias in the survey results. In this way, it leads to a more sustainable and long-term approach towards survey research.
Leverage inclusive profiling
The next thing that a business can do to obtain a representative audience for their online surveys is to use an elaborate and pre-profiled team of respondents in their survey research. Doing this will provide them the much-needed confidence in knowing their audience.
Sample for success
Sample sizes and quotas form key elements to a representative online audience. A business should use sample invitation quotas in place of setting quotas in the survey. Sampling technology is highly sophisticated and efficiently handles the quotas via the sample invitation process.
Conclusion
The digital universe is changing constantly and at a quick rate. In such a scenario, reaching a representative audience can act as a balancing act. Putting the work to ensure that your online audience is “representative” will make your survey worthwhile.
If you fail to select the right representative audience then there are risks that it will introduce bias and gather unreliable data. So, follow the above ways to reach a representative online audience for your online survey.