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Title Postal recruitment into a longitudinal online panel survey. The effects of different number of reminder
Source LORE Methodological Notes, 2013: 3
Year 2013
Access date 16.05.2014
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Abstract
This methodological note reports on an attempt to recruit respondents into a online longitudinal panel survey through mailed postcard invitations to a random population sample. The main 
questions answered in the report is whether or not it is feasible to use this strategy to recruit respondents into a non-commercial online panel survey, and how large the effects of follow-up 
contacts and reminders are on the recruitment rate. The sample consisted of 2000 randomly selected inhabitants of the Gothenburg region in western Sweden in the age between 18 and 70 years. The topic of the recruitment and the longitudinal online survey they were invited to concerned the controversial political issue of the introduction of congestion tolls around the city of Gothenburg. The sample was divided into three groups, where group A only received an invitation, group B one postcard reminder after the initial invitation, and group C a total of up to three follow-up contacts: one postcard reminder, one telephone call, and one last postcard reminder. No incentives were used. The results show that the recruitment rate in the group with no reminders was 11 percent and the average cost per respondents approximately 6.4 Euros, in the group with one reminder the recruitment rate was 17 percent and the average cost per respondent 7.6 Euros, while in the group 
with three reminders the recruitment rate was 27 percent and the average cost per recruited respondent 11.6 Euros. Thus the effect of follow-up contacts is about as high for postal recruitment into a longitudinal online panel as previously found for mail surveys. Further, the cost per recruited respondent increases with the recruitment rate, but most pronounced for when moving from 17 percent recruitment rate to 27 percent.
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Year of publication2013
Bibliographic typeReports, seminars
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Web survey bibliography (4086)

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