Focus Insite

market research recruiting agencies are essential tools for companies to learn more about the motivations, experiences, needs, wants, and values from their customers. Market research is definitely a worthy pursuit, and for the investment of time and money, you want the end result to provide meaningful insights that can be leveraged into action. While there are many crucial components with any market research study, arguably the MOST important is the quality of the participants you recruit. If you’re wondering what we mean when we talk about the quality of participants, read on!   With market research, you often get what you pay for. Market research can be expensive, and many companies try and cut corners by using automated recruiting tools, working with inexperienced moderators, or try and conduct DIY market research led by internal teams. While we understand the reflex to cut costs, there is no point in moving forward with a market research study if the quality of ...

Market research studies wouldn’t exist without participants who are willing to share their insights, opinions, and values. qualitative research consultant require people, but not just any warm body will suffice! A successful study outcome is impossible without the participation of qualified participants who have been screened for their eligibility. As more organizations attempt DIY market research studies, the one area where it pays to outsource is with recruitment.     We have received many frantic calls over the years when it becomes apparent that attempting a DIY approach to recruiting eats up the budget and precious time. What’s worse is that even if you’ve managed to cobble together enough people to participate in your market research study, it’s likely that you didn’t end up with a group who could offer accurate, reliable, and actionable insights. The quality of your market study outcome can be jeopardized simply because you didn’t recruit the right people ...

  When clients contact us to manage market research recruiting firms , we can be tasked with recruiting for focus groups, in-depth interviews, surveys, or longitudinal studies. Since each market study is unique, the researcher may decide on a singular qualitative methodology, or a combination. By and far, the most popular qualitative format remains the focus group. Focus groups are effective at capturing the participants’ emotions, opinions, experiences, expressions, views, beliefs, motivations and responses, which is why they are an invaluable tool for market research. insite research can be used at various stages of a product or service idea. They are as effective in the earliest stages of development as they are in the final stages. Start-up companies looking for product-market fit will learn a lot by testing their ideas/concepts/or early-stage products with a group of potential customers in a focus group than they would by bypassing this stage altogether. Even l...

For a majority of our clients we manage all aspects of recruiting for their market research study, but for some, it’s not possible to do the actual recruiting, particularly if there are privacy or HIPAA regulations that don’t allow for third parties to have direct access to names and contact information. For many of the medical surveys for cash we help recruit for, we work closely with the client to help them manage direct recruiting for their study.       If you find yourself in a similar situation, where you want to recruit participants for your study, but can’t turn recruiting over to a nationwide recruitment agency , it doesn’t mean that you have to shoulder this responsibility entirely on your own. Below is a sample of a recruiting strategy we share with our clients who are required to manage aspects of recruiting on their own. With the following example, our clients have a solid structure that helps streamline the recruiting process and make it seem les...

Focus Insite was recently ranked 1,267 on Inc. 5000’s annual ranking of the most successful companies in America. Let us say that again, our company was ranked as one of the top companies in the United States! We are humbled and honored to receive this designation, and it validates what we’ve known all along: our employees are rock stars! What makes this ranking even more special is that we’ve managed to build a culture of excellence, even with a fully-remote team of recruiters and project managers.     Jim Jacobs, the founder and CEO of Focus Insite, set some ambitious goals over the past few years to grow the company, and his vision and commitment to quality have paid off. He knew growth couldn’t happen without a team of great people, and the long-term success of building one of the nation’s market research recruitment agencies required a diversity of employees who were equally committed to client success. In the depths of the pandemic, when market research st...

Recruiting qualified candidates to participate in a market research study is arguably the most important component of any study. Without the right participants you won’t gather the right feedback. A successful market study asks the right questions to the right people. It doesn’t matter of which research methodology you use, whether it’s focus groups, in-depth interviews, or mobile ethnographies, when it comes to market research, recruiting is the common denominator.     Understand your Target Audience Before designing the components of a market study, qualitative research consultant  first identify who the target audience is. There are a lot of factors that come into play, such as, is the study objective to gather insights across a broad customer base, or are is it to get feedback from a targeted segment of the market. The better you can define who the target audience is, the better the insights will be. After you’ve settled on who the target audience is to p...

For any researcher or moderator with experience designing qualitative research consultant , the one goal you want to achieve is randomization. Randomization reduces bias in participant selection by giving all participants an equal chance at participating in the study. Randomization is important for large, quantitative studies, because it assumes that attitudes, opinions, or whatever is being studied, will be distributed across a population. Recruiting a randomized sample for quantitative studies is considered a sufficient substitute for surveying the population at large.     While randomization is an ideal for quantitative studies, it is not an ideal when recruiting for qualitative studies. The reason being is that insite research (the go-to qualitative methodology) seek to understand, to provide insights, and to determine the drivers behind consumer choices. Quantitative studies, on the other hand, seek to find patterns, make predictions, test causal relationsh...

Qualitative market research includes tried-and-true methodologies such as focus groups and in-depth interviews. In between the topic to be explored in the market study and the study itself is recruiting. Finding qualified participants who can take part in the study is the beating heart of any study. Recruiting for market research studies can be tedious and time-consuming and, which is why qualitative research consultants often rely on market research recruitment agencies .     Why you should work with a market research recruiting agency Market researchers and moderators partner with professional recruiting firms because of the efficiency and focus recruiters can give to all aspects of recruiting—from finding the right candidates through incentive payments. Working with a nationwide recruitment agency allows researchers more time to devote to study design, screening guides, moderator or discussion guides, moderating, transcribing and analyzing results, and delive...

It requires minimal awareness to realize that there has been a cultural shift in gender norms. We no longer live in a binary world of he/her, man/woman, mom/dad, etc. While some companies are resistant to adopting more neutral or inclusive terms, others are realizing that inclusivity and awareness are not only good for employee morale, but also the bottom line. When it comes to market research recruiting agencies , it is important to include individuals who don’t conform to binary restrictions. We are starting to get requests from clients to recruit clients who identify as non-binary, trans, or prefer gender-neutral pronouns. Such requests aren’t limited to consumer studies, but to medical surveys for cash as well. Recruiting a diversity of participants for market research studies goes beyond typical demographic and psychographic groupings. Including insights from gender non-conforming individuals ensures that your study includes the opinions, insights, frustrations, and...

It seems that anything related to artificial intelligence (AI) gets a lot of attention, and market research recruiting agencies is no exception. There are a number of market research recruiting agencies that specialize in AI-assisted recruitment. While there is certainly a role for technology in recruitment, we’ve heard from moderators and researchers that have used AI-recruiting agencies that the quality of the candidates recruited to participate in market research studies is no match for humans leading recruitment efforts.   Market research is a social science, and it is all about the people. When you turn over a critical aspect of a study over to technology, you’re more likely to end up with participants that may meet the minimum criteria, but that doesn’t always make for a good recruit.  So much of what our team of recruiters do is engage with potential participants and get a feel for how honest they are in their answers, how familiar they are with the subjec...

With COVID-19 shutdowns mostly a thing of the past (for now), we thought we’d see a rush back to in-person focus groups. The reality is a bit murkier. It seems that a lot of market researchers saw how advantageous online qualitative studies could be, and are moving forward with in-person and online studies. I guess you can say that market research very much mirrors the hybrid work model—there is some face-to-face time, and some work-from-home time.      Qualitative research scholarly articles such as in-depth interviews and focus groups are easy to do virtually, and we’ll share some tips so you get the most out of your next online market research study. Market researchers and moderators have a number of online platforms available to host a qualitative study, but many researchers use Zoom since so many people are familiar and comfortable using this platform. Tip #1: marketing recruitment consultants to ensure they have adequate connectivity and can operat...

It wasn’t too long ago that when we needed to stock our pantries or fridges, we’d head out to a grocery store and select our items. Nowadays, more people are shopping online, skipping the grocery store altogether. This is but one example of how most of what we consume nowadays is done online. The past few years of living under Covid-19 conditions has only accelerated the online phenomenon.  Any retailer with an online presence knows how important UX design is to the bottom line. A poorly designed webpage will frustrate users, likely sending them to seek out easier-to-use alternatives. Given the ubiquity of online sales, we are seeing a steep increase in companies conducting usability tests. Usability tests are great at uncovering problems with the design; discovering opportunities to improve the design, and, learning about user behavior and preference when interacting with the design. There are similarities for market researchers when designing a usability study and f...

Recruiting the right candidates to participate in market research studies can make or break a study. We’ve posted a lot of blogs over the years that share tips and strategies for market research recruitment , and while we stand by these, our company’s success with recruiting comes down to our stellar team of recruiters and project managers .   Focus Insite wouldn’t be a leading nationwide recruitment agency without our employees. Our job is to identify the best qualified study participants, which gives us a leg up on identifying who would make a great recruiter for our team.  A good recruiter needs to have great communication skills, be organized, enjoy connecting with people, stay calm when things go sideways, and be able to assess when someone is not being honest. We attribute part of our lasting success as a company to our great employees . We always try to promote from within, and we’ve recently promoted a number of employees to new positions. Don’t just take ...

Over the years we’ve written about the importance of insite research for market research recruitment. We’ve gone into a lot of detail about why they’re essential to recruiting and the value of double-screening. Today we’re going to share with you 4 questions that should always be included in your screening guide. Adding these questions to your screening guide helps ensure recruiting the best qualified participants for your study. Question #1 Demographic Questions —No matter what the subject of your research study—from B2B to medical—your screening guide should include basic demographic questions. Not only will this help easily sort for demographic requirements (for instance, a study that is focused on millennials needs to find participants that fall within the general age span for this cohort), it also ensures that you end up with a representative sample for your study. Basic demographic questions about ethnic/cultural/gender-identity, etc. ensures that you end up with a...

Market research studies are effective ways to help B2B companies better understand how to market their services and products to business owners and decision makers. With all the turmoil in global markets and the disruption of supply chains, we’ve seen an uptick in B2B market studies. Our recruiting teams manage a lot of recruiting projects for B2C and B2B studies, and while the two types of studies share many similarities, B2B studies tend to be more challenging to pull off. From recruiting to execution, you’re often working with executives, niche industries, and/or proprietary information, which add layers of complexity from beginning to end. Focus group recruitment agency can help identify touch points for B2B companies and provide insights about their clients purchase decision-making process. B2B studies can also help companies determine the cost-per-acquisition of a client and how best to market their offering. B2B Market Research Benefits : When B2B companies invest i...

Market research recruiting is one of the key pillars to a successful market research study. If you’re thinking that it is just an administrative task that can be left to the last minute, think again! Recruiting is just as important as the client, the participants, and the moderator. We’ve fielded lots of frantic calls from businesses over the years after they realized that recruiting qualified participants was not as easy as they thought. Market research studies are more than asking questions. There are four pillars to any successful market research study: The client, the moderator, the participants, and the research recruitment agency . The Client There would be no market research study without a client to commission a study. Companies and brands looking to better understand what drives consumer behavior, or seeking more information before investing in branding and messaging; pricing; and UX design will often invest in a qualitative study. The Moderator The moderator...

By now we are all familiar with the gig economy. Whether your side hustle includes driving for Lyft or offering your skills on Taskrabbit, there are nearly limitless options for earning extra cash. One way that people can participate in the gig economy is by participating in qualitative market studies. While most offers to participate in a survey or focus group are legit, there are also lots of scams, so it’s important to know how to tell the difference. Participating in a qualitative study can be a great way to earn money, and market research recruiting agencies are always looking for qualified participants for qualitative studies, such as focus groups or in-depth interviews. One of the quickest and easiest ways to be considered for a study is to join a panel and include your name for upcoming studies. When deciding if a recruiting agency is legit, here are three things to look for: 1.) Respondent Bill of Rights —one of the first questions you should ask before adding y...

At its most basic, a focus group screening guide highlights demographic and psychographic characteristics of the people you want to recruit for your focus group. Screeners are essential tools for recruiters to find and select people to participate in your qualitative research scholarly articles . Typically, the moderator writes the screener and sends it to the recruiter, although it isn’t uncommon for moderators and recruiters to develop a screening guide together, especially for specialized studies, such as B2B or healthcare. 1. Screening guides help sort qualified and unqualified respondents, and given the number of ‘professional respondents’, market research recruitment agencies often double-screen, just to make sure all participants are genuinely qualified to take part in the study. Screener Criteria for B2B, Consumers, and Experts Screening guides include questions about demographic and psychographic criteria, as well as product or industry experience and knowledge. Le...

Our specialty is marketing recruitment consultants . Every day we work alongside researchers and moderators to perfect screening guides and find the most qualified and best-suited participants for qualitative and quantitative studies. Market studies are great ways and learning more about consumer behavior, attitudes, values, and influence. Many companies hire researchers to do phone surveys to get a pulse on customer satisfaction. Recently, one of our team members was called by an independent-research company to participate in such a survey. She jumped at the opportunity. Not only is it fun to sit on the other side of the fence, it’s also a great way to see how various companies conduct surveys, and how they word the questions. Our team member was alarmed at how poorly the survey was worded, and what’s worse, is the multiple-choice options were limited. She knew that her answer options were in no way reflective of her experience with the company that was commissioning ...

Our amazing team at Focus Insite does a lot of recruiting for focus groups. Over the years, we’ve recruited thousands of participants for all sorts of qualitative and quantitative studies, but focus-group recruiting remains popular for our clients. The reason being that focus groups are great at uncovering depth and context for consumers’ opinions, behaviors, actions, and thoughts–especially when it comes to purchasing decisions! As with any qualitative research consultant , finding the most qualified participants is paramount, but equally important is having an experienced moderator leading the focus group or in-depth interview. If you’ve ever participated in a phone survey or focus group that was led by a robotic moderator, you know how awkward these conversations can be. If a moderator is just ‘going through the motions’ and asking questions without follow-up, then a lot of important insights are being missed. There are so many important facets to a successful qualita...