Types of online panels. Learn which one to apply to your business
10 min read
We already know how important online panels are in today's market, but first and foremost, it's important to know the types of online panels and what each can do for your business.
Online panels are fundamental tools in brand building and consolidating any company, product, or service in the market. Furthermore, conducting online surveys provides countless benefits and advantages for your business and makes your professional life unimaginably easier.
An online panel consists of online surveys that have a very high degree of efficiency and a low percentage of time and money investment compared to other types of market research. We will better understand the most commonly used types of online panels today, but first, let's recap the main advantages of conducting an online panel for your business.
What is an online panel?
An online panel can be defined as a group of people who agree to answer a series of market research surveys, in order to contribute with their opinions and ideas. This audience, as it is also called, can also participate in discussion groups, in-depth interviews, or online forums, within a virtual environment, such as an online community, for example.
It is worth remembering that this group of people must be previously registered and validated so that an online panel can extract true and honest ideas and responses from them, so as not to compromise any project that depends on real and transparent feedback on the topic in question.
Respondents for market research. List of some profiles and how to use them.
Characteristics and purposes
Here are some common characteristics and purposes of online respondent panels:
- Diversity: Panels are generally composed of individuals from different demographic profiles, such as age, gender, geographic location, education level, and interests, to ensure sample representativeness.
- Ease of access: Panel members can respond to surveys and questionnaires from their own internet-connected devices, making the process convenient and accessible.
- Market research: Companies use these panels to collect data on products, services, and market trends. This helps in developing marketing strategies and making business decisions.
- Academic research: Academic researchers can use respondent panels to conduct scientific studies and obtain information for their research.
- Consumer feedback: Companies can also use panels to collect consumer feedback on specific products or services.
- Public opinion: Panels can be used to measure public opinion on political, social, or environmental issues.
- Product testing: Some companies offer products or services for testing to panel members before launching them on the market, thus obtaining valuable feedback.
- Compensation: Generally, panel members receive some form of compensation, such as money, gift cards, points that can be exchanged for rewards, or donations to charities, in exchange for their participation in surveys.
It is important to note that the quality of data collected in a respondent panel depends on the representativeness of the sample and the honesty of the participants. Therefore, organizations that use respondent panels must ensure that members are selected appropriately and that surveys are rigorously designed.
Main advantages of online panels
The use of an online respondent panel brings numerous benefits to the research manager, such as:
1. Practicality – it is very practical to contact an online panel provider and conduct a market study. Just follow a few steps. In summary, this is how it works:
- Submission of the target and target audience to be interviewed. Provide the online panel manager with information such as: Desired number of responses, gender, age, social class, survey duration, etc.
- Construction of the questionnaire to be sent to the target audience (which can also be done by the online panel provider)
- Final approval before starting the field (field is how we refer to when projects go live. When the collection of responses begins with the target audience)
- Collection of 10% of the sample for preliminary analyses (soft-launch)
- If everything is okay, final collection of the rest of the sample.
- Delivery of data for final analysis and insights.
2. Low cost – The cost of using an online panel is 80% more economical than using online focus groups or face-to-face interviews. This is because the use of an online panel happens 100% in a virtual environment without expenses such as travel, room rentals for meetings, hiring third parties to apply surveys, etc.
3. Qualified respondents – Online panel interviewees must be previously qualified and verified to ensure the veracity of the collected information and thus faithfully meet the project's expectations. An excellent and secure online panel to register and qualify to earn money by answering online surveys is Opina TAP.
4. High percentage of responses – By working in an online environment, geographical and demographic barriers are easily overcome, and information collection becomes faster and more comprehensive.
5. Customizable aesthetics – It is possible to create mechanisms that generate greater engagement from interviewees so that they feel comfortable answering surveys for a long period of time without generating a certain boredom with the dynamic.
6. Convenience for respondents – Think that respondents can simply contribute their opinions wherever and whenever they want, through mobile devices or their computers.
7. Results available instantly – With the shared dashboard, the project manager can monitor data collection within the online panel in real time.
8. High degree of efficiency in results – According to a large number of filters that can be applied within respondent panels, the efficiency of collections is enormous, making it possible to complete a complex project in less than a week.
Types of online panels
B2C – One of the types of online panels is the B2C panel, the most used because it is the respondent panel responsible for interviewing the final consumer, creating a direct relationship between the brand and the target audience. The B2C panel is used for the most diverse types of businesses and also for the most varied types of purposes. Through the B2C online panel type, you can obtain data that allows you to better understand your audience and anticipate market trends and needs, as well as for the development of a new product line, along with feedback on a product already available on the market.
Whether used for a simpler or more complex strategy, the B2C online panel is about you talking directly to your audience with the aim of obtaining answers and suggestions that improve your product or service, in order to offer and satisfy the needs and desires of your audience.
B2B – For many, the most challenging and complex type of online panel of all. The B2B panel is a panel aimed at entrepreneurs, executives, and professionals willing to dedicate a little of their precious time to provide answers that will contribute to the improvement of a final product or service.
In the B2B panel, you can achieve even more assertive answers than in other types of panels, as the panelists are all professionals and understand the importance of the online panel in the short and long term. Through the audience composed of entrepreneurs and executives, you speak directly with other companies or service providers, as well as gain a broader view of businesses, competitors, audience, etc.
Political Opinion Panel: Respondent panels focused on political issues gather individuals interested in discussing and opining on political topics, elections, public policies, and other government and politics-related issues.
Health Panel: These panels focus on health and well-being issues. Researchers and companies in the health sector use these panels to collect information on medical conditions, treatments, eating habits, physical activities, and other health-related aspects.
Market Research Panel: Panels aimed at market research gather respondents with varied interests, depending on the research needs. They can be customized to meet different sectors and market niches.
Academic Research Panel: Universities and academic researchers often create online panels to recruit participants for their academic studies and research in various disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, economics, and more.
Product Testing Panel: Companies that want to test new products or services frequently use respondent panels to recruit people willing to try and provide feedback on these products.
Media and Entertainment Panel: Media companies, such as television networks and film studios, can create panels to understand audience behavior regarding TV programming, movies, music, and entertainment in general.
Travel and Tourism Panel: Companies related to travel and tourism can use these panels to collect information on preferred destinations, travel experiences, bookings, and other aspects of the sector.
Technology Panel: Technology companies can create panels to understand consumer preferences regarding electronic devices, software, applications, and other technologies.
Human Resources Panel: HR organizations can create panels to collect information from employees or candidates about job satisfaction, company culture, recruitment processes, and career development.
General population panel – If, on the one hand, the general population online panel type is less complex than the others, it can also be larger when the topic is about the number of respondents. In this type of online panel, respondents must meet the required profile according to the demographic data requested. Perhaps the biggest differential of this panel is its main purpose, which aims, in most cases, to select an audience to participate in studies and tests of products or services in question.
Expert panel – Similar to the B2B panel type, this type of online panel seeks professional opinions, but, on the other hand, its intention is not only to know the opinion of executives, but also of professionals specialized in the topic in question. For example, if you want to create an online panel about a gym shoe, your panelists could be athletes, runners, trainers, etc.
These are just a few examples of types of online respondent panels, and many others can be customized to meet specific research needs, depending on the industry and research objectives. The type of panel chosen will depend on the nature of the research and the target audience to be reached.
The importance of having a diverse audience in LGBT+ research
Strategies for choosing the best type of panel
√ Hire an excellent online panel provider (respondent sample)
This can indeed be the main step to choose the type of online panel that best fits your current needs. Having professional support helps you better understand your priorities and needs and analyze, among the characteristics of each type of research, which one best covers and will bring more effective results for your project.
√ Know your audience well
As important as having an intelligent and complete online panel software is knowing your audience. Asking the right questions to the right people is as important as formulating the questions correctly. If you don't ask the right questions to your audience, you won't get satisfactory or effective results, but if you ask the right questions to the wrong audience, the effectiveness of your research would be even worse. Therefore, know your audience and make sure to motivate them to contribute with greater interest and compensation in your research.
√ Study well and safely understand the differences between each
Above all, it is important that you understand the concept and strategies of each type of research so that the data analysis corresponds exactly to what you asked.
Each type of online research has similarities, but many differences between them, especially in the delivery of final results, which directly impacts the elaboration of strategies and their practice. At each stage of your business, you will be able to intelligently and strategically select the type of panel that meets what you want to answer at this moment.
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