Education market research: a guide to sourcing participants

After we've defined who the participants are, we then have to source them. Our experience has taught us that some of the best places to look include:

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Your existing customer base

Finding participants for education market research often starts with your existing network. Your current customers, past clients and mailing list subscribers are valuable sources. They're typically easier and more cost-effective to recruit, and they're already familiar with your offerings. When reaching out, strike a balance between being informative and respectful. Avoid spammy tactics; instead, clearly communicate the research's purpose and potential benefits. While this approach is efficient, be mindful of potential bias—these participants may not always represent the broader market you're targeting.

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Education market research recruiters

The market research industry relies on a vast network of recruiters. Instead of  sourcing candidates for job vacancies, they source participants for market research projects. We've used recruiters to find a diverse range of participants, from primary school pupils to companies employing apprentices. The main benefit is their vast network and ability to quickly locate hard-to-reach groups, which can save huge amounts of time and effort. However, for highly specialised and niche audiences, recruiters may struggle to find enough suitable candidates. When choosing an education market research recruiter, consider their track record in the industry and check for accreditation from bodies like the MRS Recruiter Accreditation Scheme.

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Panel providers

Panel providers are companies that have a large pool of individuals willing to take part in research. As they already have a diverse range of participants on their books, using a panel provider can speed up the recruitment process. While mainly serving consumer markets, some panel providers can assist with niche education projects. That said, education-specific panels can be limited. At Insightful Research, we've developed our own Teacher Panel to address this gap and have built up a pool of hundreds of teachers and school leaders we can call on for various projects. Find out more about the panel by clicking here.

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Advertising on social media

Social media advertising is another tried-and-tested way to find niche audiences for education market research. We've found it's especially useful for sourcing international participants. Over the years, we've had success in reaching specific groups through Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, running campaigns both under our clients' brands and our own. The platforms allow us to be really specific about who we target, which enables us to find the right participants.

Our social media recruitment efforts have helped us connect with:

• Professors and academics in US higher education institutions 

• International audiences learning English and preparing for IELTS exams 

• UK primary school teachers 

• Social media followers of our client's brands (even when the client doesn't sell directly to end users)

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While social media advertising can be effective, it's not without its challenges and drawbacks.

Reaching the right people often requires experimenting and trying out different ads. This takes time and uses up the budget. From our experience, social media recruits tend to be less committed too, so we have to factor in higher dropout rates when planning research. Screening participants and verifying their identities is also essential because people—who don't fulfil the requirements— apply to take part purely for the incentive.

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Snowballing and referral incentives

'Snowballing' recruitment involves asking the first few people who participate to help spread the word amongst their peers and networks. We find it particularly useful when targeting niche professional audiences and when there's clear value and benefit for the participant. For example, we used this approach successfully when interviewing FE college leaders on controversial government reforms—some were happy to share details of our research with their informal networking groups. Snowballing can lead to biased samples if not managed carefully, though. To mitigate this, we combine it with other recruitment methods and offer incentives for referrals.

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