Making the Move from In-Person to Online Research

After having spent more than 10 years in the in-person research world, conducting essentially every task imaginable, making the move to the online research arena was a big change. I was prepared for some of the differences, but others were certainly unexpected. This got me thinking about the researchers out there who are considering throwing their hat into the online ring—especially those who may be facing the same uncertainty and apprehension.

Fortunately, you can throw your apprehension out the window. Adding online research into your toolbox will diversify your capabilities, add great value for your clients, and lead to more robust deliverables. With that, let me provide some tips I have learned along the way that have greatly helped me during this transition.

Get Ready for the Speed

Today’s society requires answers immediately. Gone are the days where you would have to find your encyclopedia or head to the library to answer your most pertinent questions. This is especially true in the research world. Our clients need actionable answers to their business questions quickly, and the in-person research world just can’t keep up. Online research tends to move at warp speed. I am truly astonished at how much can be accomplished online, in just a few days. In our experience, online agile research solutions are able to turn around projects from recruit to report in days, instead of the weeks and months required for in-person research. In order to meet these accelerated timelines, you as a researcher must be prepared to match that speed. This means signing on the dotted line, approving the methodology, providing stimuli, and preparing to present or incorporate the findings in a much shorter timeframe than what you might be used to. It may seem daunting, but as long as you have the right partners in place, timelines can be kept and quality results can be delivered when you need them. 

The Audiences Are Slightly Different

You can survey nearly every audience online that you can in person, no matter how niche. That being said, in order to keep to the speedy timelines that make online research so attractive, it is best practice to survey more general audiences with higher incidence rates. Keeping incidence rates reasonably high allows you to access different types of people from different regions of the US or even internationally with ease. With in-person, you are limited to researching those in specific Designated Market Areas (DMAs).

You may ask yourself, “How do I know I am surveying the right people?” or “How do I know the 24 to 39-year-old mother I am looking to research really isn’t a 55-year-old man just trying to earn an incentive?” These are fair questions, and something that online research panels take very seriously. For example, at GutCheck, our panel providers go through an extensive vetting process, which assures that their panelists go through an equally extensive vetting process to make sure we are reaching the right target audience. Further, while you may not be able to visually see the respondents as you would in person, online panels may actually give you and your team access to more respondents nationwide, increasing your chances of reaching better respondents. For respondents, signing up to do a quick online survey they can complete at their leisure is much less of a commitment than showing up at a specific place and time for an in-person project. Giving the respondents adequate time to think through their answers, instead of forcing them to answer immediately in a group situation leads to more thoughtful responses. Using a methodology like an Instant Research Group can also eliminate “group think” by requiring respondents to answer questions themselves, before being allowed to view and interact with others’ responses. Online research groups will also eliminate the possibility of having a “bulldog” whose answers and behaviors heavily bias the others in the group; the moderators easily remove these types of people as soon as they start to dominate the conversation.

Prepare for the Cost Savings

You can conduct exponentially more research with the same budget online as you can in-person. With in-person research, you have to account for higher recruiting costs, facility rentals, respondent parking, and very high incentive rates. This is before even diving into the travel expenses of your research team. Flying multiple team members cross-country, putting them up in hotels, and providing a per diem adds up very quickly. With online research, all of these extraneous costs can be saved and in turn go where they are needed most—directly to the research itself.

Use Online the Right Way

Online research is not the best methodology for all projects, but it is a great solution to have at your disposal. When budgets are tight or results are needed immediately, online research is often the perfect fit. Online research is a great tool for low budgets or short timelines, and agile solutions allow you to conduct “disaster checks”—unplanned conflicts or last-minute checks before rolling out a new product, package, or idea. Often times, these “last-minute course changers” come from senior management, and the process is much too far along to start from scratch and/or take the weeks and months necessary to conduct more in-person research. It is well worth the minimal costs to assess your final assumptions with your target audience before launching. A last-minute gut check can make all the difference between success and failure.

To learn more about online agile market research and how it can fit into your research toolkit, download our newest complimentary eBook.