We start by initially working with you to understand your research requirements, aims and the research methods you plan to use. This will help you determine the type of participants you need to recruit and the specific characteristics they should possess. It will also guide you in identifying the most appropriate recruitment methods and strategies.

Dataly will work with you to identify the number and type of participants you want to engage, in terms of their demographics and attitudes. We will then agree quotas with you to make sure you have access to the right types of participants to meet your research requirements.

We will then co-design with you a recruitment screener or questionnaire, which essentially operationalises your requirements and the types of participants you want to engage. The recruitment screener ensures we only recruit suitable, on-spec participants. On rare occasion we may need to discuss with you a degree of flexibility around the target audience and quotas, because recruitment is not an exact science, especially where there may be finite timescales and limited budgets.

There are various methods we use to recruit participants for qualitative research, depending on the nature of the research and participants. These include:

• Participant database: At Dataly, we have a database of nearly 100,000 participants, which we can call upon to participate in appropriate research studies. This database is continually being re-freshed and increased.
• List recruitment: We are experienced at recruiting from lists supplied by customers of their clients.
• Digital recruitment: Dataly regularly uses digital recruitment, through social media and digital adverts to recruit to specific qualitative research studies, as well as increase the reach of our participant database.
• On-street recruitment: More traditional methods still have their place in recruitment, especially where we are recruiting for studies in local areas.
• Postal recruitment: Similarly, recruiting through postal methods can still be effective for specific geographical areas.
• Professional organisations: For niche audiences or research with specific professions, we will often seek to recruit via or in partnership with professional and voluntary organisations or community groups. This can extend to recruiting digitally through LinkedIn.
• Snowball sampling: For particularly tricky or niche projects, we use snowball sampling, which involves asking participants to refer other people they know who may be interested in participating in the study. This method is useful when recruiting hard-to-reach or marginalized populations.

Ultimately, we often use a mix of approaches, which are determined by the nature of the research and participants, timescales and budget.

Whilst despite adopting best practice, there will always be one or two drop-outs, at Dataly, we have a high success rate of maximising participation. This is because we thoroughly screen our participants, to make sure they fit your requirements and are committed and engaged – we know that it’s not just about bums on seats, but also participants that will contribute effectively. We also make sure they have all the information they need to make an informed decision to participate in the research and know when and where the research is taking place. Importantly, we also send reminders a couple of days before the research and on the day itself. We normally also have a reserve list and are therefore able to replace any drop-outs. And it goes without saying that offering the right level of incentive is important ins maximising participation and thanking participants for their time and effort.