Not getting enough people for your study? Here are tried and tested ways to get respondents for your dissertation survey.

Conducting a survey may probably be the most important part of writing your dissertation, since this is where you can get hard data to support your study. It might be the most challenging part as well, especially when you need to get as many respondents as possible to support your results.

You may have everything down pat, from the objectives to the survey design, but without your respondents, your dissertation survey won’t be as useful as you thought it might be. Here are some tips in order for you to gather enough respondents for your dissertation survey:

1. Identify who your respondents are

Conducting a survey doesn’t just mean asking several random people to answer your questions – to save time, resources, and energy, you must first identify the respondents that represent your study’s target demographic. Knowing who your respondents should be will help you determine where, when, and how you can reach them. Not only will you get the right respondents for your survey, but you’ll also generate more useful insights from them.

2. Create a well-designed survey

A thoroughly planned and designed survey can generate more interest from your respondents, and they will more likely be able to complete the survey. Keep your questions strategically ordered, brief, clear, and properly screened so that your respondents won’t have any trouble with your survey. Also, try testing out your survey to a small sample of respondents so you can refine it.

3. Send out a personalized invite

Don’t just keep on throwing surveys to everyone – they will be more receptive to your survey if you reach out to them and discuss the survey before they answer it. Additionally, your respondents will be more enthusiastic to complete your survey if you send out an invite that somehow reflects and addresses their interests and needs. A study conducted by NewsCred in 2015 showed that 64 percent of millennials respond positively to content like surveys when they feel that it is useful to them.

4. Use your mobile device

According to the Digital 2019 report by Hootsuite and We Are Social, there are 3.986 billion active mobile internet users around the world. Thanks to mobile technology, you can reach out to more potential respondents more easily and quickly. However, you have to make sure that both your invite and survey are mobile-optimized so that your respondents won’t get confused with the details and will be able to complete your survey properly.

5. Maximize your social media

Social media is one of the most convenient ways to send out surveys, and you can maximize your reach by taking advantage of you and your contacts’ networks. For example, there’s a dedicated Facebook group for students who want to distribute their surveys and are ready to take part as respondents. Additionally, if you’ve created a survey that reflects your respondents’ interests, there’s a possibility that your survey can get shared with more respondents. The NewsCred study in 2015 also showed that 60 percent of millennials shared content that they see as thought-provoking and intelligent. You can encourage your respondents to share your survey by using user-friendly buttons and links.

6. Incentivize your survey

One good way to get more respondents is by using monetary or non-monetary incentives, you must think carefully first before deciding on this. Without a proper reward system, you might attract the wrong respondents and generate biased responses.

7. Use online research panels

One of the most cost-effective ways to get respondents is by using online research panels, which is a sample of persons who have agreed to complete surveys via the internet. There are agencies that offer online research panels, most of which are tailored fit to different requirements, like your dissertation surveys. You can browse for different online research panel suppliers online and check which one will perfectly suit your survey.

We wish you the best of luck in completing your dissertation survey! We hope that you’ll be able to gather enough respondents who will complete your study. If you need assistance in getting an Asian online research panel for your survey, or if you'd like to try our survey demo, feel free to contact us or try our free IR check. If you’d like to know more about online research panels, check out our special page about them.