FAQ: Where Do You Recruit Participants for Focus Groups?
One of the common challenges lawyers have when it comes to running focus groups is where to find the participants. And if they do find them, how do they get them to respond to what they’re putting out there.
Therefore, part of the success of focus groups lies in the recruiting process. You want to have an ample amount of people to choose from. You want participants that mirror the jurors, and not necessarily perfectly mirror your community.
Right off the cuff, I use Facebook and Craigslist to advertise for focus group participants. But where exactly do you post the ad? And what would be the most efficient way to do that? In this episode, we’re going to talk about how you can set up a system for recruiting focus group participants so you can start getting more people to apply.
In this episode, you will hear:
- How much to pay people for focus groups and how to pay them
- Choosing the best day and time for running focus groups
- How to make the process easy for people to apply
- Posting Craigslist ads and setting up a Facebook business page
- Creating a masterlist for the participants
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Supporting Resources:
Have a question about recruiting and advertising for focus groups? Email me! elizabeth@larricklawfirm.com
You can revisit Episode 20 for more information on setting up your own focus groups:
Episode Credits:
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Episode Transcript:
Hello, and welcome to a new episode of trial lawyer prep with me, Elizabeth Larrick, your host. This is a podcast designed and dedicated to trial lawyers who are trying to get better at connecting with their clients through deposition prep or trial prep, [00:01:00] and also connect with jurors through focus groups.
Today, we are going to tackle in this episode, a question I’ve been getting quite a bit recently from lawyers. And so I wanted to take an episode to explain because I think it is really, really helpful for everyone involved, which would be, where do you find, where do you recruit focus group participants?
And I know we’ve had several episodes about putting together your own focus groups, which I really encourage you to do. We will put those episodes in the show notes if you want to go back and listen to those. But today in this episode, I really want to focus in on advertising and recruiting because I know some folks out there are asking this question, they’re scratching their head.
They’re just having some hard time getting responses to what they’re putting out there. So, initial glance, I can say right off the cuff that I use Facebook and I use Craigslist to [00:02:00] advertise for focus group participants. But when I started to actually think about, well, is that it? Is that all that I do? I really was remembering like, oh, actually this goes a lot deeper than just, hey, where do you post this ad?
Where do you put this location in the advertisement? So it led me to a few other questions that maybe you want to ask. Hey, in looking at your system that you have for recruiting, are we up to date? Are there things that we could change that we can get more people in the door? We want to do a good job recruiting because we want to have people to pick from.
Okay, we want to have focus groups that mirror jurors and you don’t necessarily have to perfectly mirror your community. What I try to say though is, Hey, I want to mirror people who are going to actually show up. Right. And then also for focus groups, what people who are going to participate now, sometimes those two things don’t match up, but I always feel like in our [00:03:00] recruiting process, when we want to have ample amount of people to choose from.
And then also have a few other things in there to prevent some of our career focus group folks that can come in here and just basically say whatever you ask them to say, which is not helpful feedback. All right, so let’s get back to looking at what is the system that you have for recruiting and what are people responding to your ads?
If at all, again, the problem people have been running to recently is like no responses. So, I always ask, what are you paying folks? What’s your hourly rate that you’re paying people? It’s all over the board. At the beginning of the pandemic, I was paying folks 20 an hour. Now I pay people 25 an hour. But we have different rates depending on how long we’re asking people to attend.
So the longer the focus group, we may be adjusting it to 25. The shorter the focus group, I’ve actually found you gotta actually pay more per hour. So 27 an hour, sometimes even 30 an hour. But that’s always kind of a range you can [00:04:00] test out to see what works best for you. The mantra would be that, hey, if I pay more, I’m going to have more people apply and better people to pick from.
Not necessarily true. Because the other thing that kind of correlates with paying people is what days and what times are you offering your focus groups. So focus groups may be a convenient time for you, but may not be for you. Convenient at all for folks who want to attend and this has happened for me where I just basically had to experiment and kind of look at, okay, when.
It is a good time to run a focus group. So before the pandemic, we were doing in person focus groups. We kind of went through a system to figure out when are the best times to run in person focus groups. And here in Austin, we really had to think about what are the traffic patterns. Because if we’re asking people to come over to a location, one, we had to be very specific about, okay, what’s our location?
We [00:05:00] really need to be on a main thoroughfare, which for us is either 35 or Mopac. And luckily we were on 35. So it’s a very easy location on the interstate. And then it became, well, let’s look at traffic. Let’s look at school hours. Try to play with what days of the week are best. What days of the week are terrible, right?
So Fridays are really, really hard. Because it’s Friday. People want to celebrate earlier and start the weekend early. So I always felt like Fridays were difficult. Although virtual has changed my mind on that. And naturally, when we go into virtual, same kind of thoughts of, okay, well, what are the best days and what are the best times?
And when we initially started doing virtual, I was starting them at 12, because we were doing in person, we would do start at 12, but we would do, please come early, we’ll have a meal for you, some kind of lunch, we’ll start right at 12, we’ll end right at 3 or 3. 30 or 4, however long we needed it to be.
Virtual, it’s like, oh, wow, we have all this [00:06:00] flexibility. So we started them at 12. And of course, what I was finding was people were basically eating their lunch while we’re trying to ask them to talk, which doesn’t work well when you’re asking people to answer questions. So literally just bumped it to 1230 and problem solved.
Okay, so sometimes really, really small tweaks. Make a big difference. I always found that mornings were difficult. We used to run Saturday in person focus groups, but we did them on Saturdays because we knew we’d be able to get more people as far as participant group. And then also we’d have easier people for traffic.
So Saturdays were always a great day for focus groups in person. I think Saturdays are great for virtual as well. We’ve done those as well. So it’s just one of those things to look at and you may have to try to experiment to figure out what works best. I always caution mornings because it’s easy for people to oversleep or just, Oh, I got to do something else.
So either way, I always say, give yourself ample time, at least a week to recruit people, but. [00:07:00] Again, when it comes down to what days and what times, you may be, what you’re picking that fits your schedule doesn’t fit focus group participant schedule. So be thinking about that as well. Another really small thing is how do you actually pay?
So we use PayPal here. I use PayPal here. And I know some people use Venmo. People use Zelle. I had actually a participant asked me to mail them a check. I said, absolutely not. I haven’t used a check to pay a participant in years. When we were in person, we always paid with cash. And when we switched to virtual, I just.
Picked a road, which would be PayPal, and that’s all we use is just PayPal. We’ve got to make it really, really simple for us. And also, it’s one of those things, if somebody doesn’t have PayPal, or they don’t trust PayPal, it’s just say, okay, well, this is the way, this is the way that we do it. So, making it easy for people to be paid, right?
Guaranteeing they’re going to get paid the same day, get paid within 15 minutes of finishing. That is the key. That’s important to people. So just keep [00:08:00] that in mind of how you pay people and also telling them that in the ad. The other thing that comes to mind, too, about recruiting is how easy are you making it for people who are interested to apply?
Are you asking them to call you? Are you asking them to send an email? Are you asking them to fill out a Google form or maybe a contact form on a website? Different things have different barriers, I think. Research has shown like asking people to make a call is really difficult as lawyers. This is why we all have that little pop up person, a little pop up chat, little bot that says, Hey, you looking for somebody?
It’s so much easier for people to type that in versus picking up the phone to make that first call. Not everyone is that way, but again, this is a general statistic. That’s why I say if you’re asking people to call, that could be a reason why you’re having low turnout. Asking people to email, totally possible.
I ask people to [00:09:00] fill out a Google form, right? That way, we’re cutting out some of the email chatter because someone just emails me, Yes, I’m interested. Then, hey, go fill out this form. And then they have to go fill out the form. And versus, I just put the form in the ad. If you’re interested, fill out the form, we’ll email you.
We’ve also done it where we’ve screened people after they fill out the form that we actually give them a call. And I’ll talk a little bit about why we move to calls after they fill out the forms. But either way, just be thinking about that system. Are you making it easy for people who are interested to apply?
Also, do you have an official email? Or is it just some random email? Or maybe it’s Austin focus groups, ATX at Gmail. People actually look for that. People want to know that you’re legit, that you’re not a scam. I use Gmail at 6 a month, right? So it’s info at advantage focus groups. That’s it. Super simple.[00:10:00]
But again, 6 a month gets you a business Google account. You’ve got the forms. You got all the other great things that go along with getting that Gmail, but it also helps with, is this real? You know, what is this about? Because occasionally I’ll have people tell me I saw your Craigslist app. I didn’t think it was real.
Okay. So we try to make our Craigslist ad actually talk about, Hey, it’s Advantage Focus Groups, LLC. We run market research. This is what a focus group. This is who we need. These are our requirements. If you want, if you want to apply, here. So we try to put as much information as possible in there. And I also write in there no long surveys and no politics.
Right, just so people know we are not talking about those things. But I generally try to leave out, Hey, this is about lawsuits. Who wants to join in? ’cause people don’t wanna talk about that stuff. So we have just a very general call for people who wanna participate in a focus group. But in that same vein, I’ve set up a website, advantage Focus groups.com.
We’ve got a telephone number that’s separate from my [00:11:00] office, the Facebook that I mentioned. When we post for Facebook or do a Facebook ad, it has Advantage. Focus Groups has its own Facebook group. Or not group, but it’s on Facebook page. Sorry, it doesn’t have a group, but that Facebook page is actually able to Join groups and that’s another kind of avenue for finding people.
We’ll get there Let’s stick to our list that we’ve got so far, which is are you looking official? Are you making sure you’re not looking too fishy? That’s another way to make sure people like think. Oh, this is real I’m going to apply for it. One of the things that I have found lately is I haven’t had a lack of people applying, I’ve had an abundance of people applying, and mostly from all over.
So eventually I asked, this was probably about a year ago, One of the people in my focus groups, virtual focus groups, Hey, how did you, how’d you hear about the Craigslist ad? Most of my Craigslist ads are [00:12:00] posted in the city of Austin. And he explained, Oh, well, I’m a part of this Facebook group for focus groupers.
And basically what happens is people will Join the group on Facebook, and then as things get posted on the web, on Craigslist, on Facebook groups, they will pull that ad and post it into this group. So then all these people, thousands of people, will go basically click on the Facebook group and go to the Craigslist ad.
I was like, oh, well that makes a lot of sense because I’m getting people from New York and California and all over the place. I’m like, what is up with that? So that helped because that told me like, okay, because I’ve been scammed over the past two years with virtual, where I’ve had several people who were not citizens of the U.
S. that joined my group that became very abundant after the fact. And so I thought, okay, well, how do I, one, how do I get a [00:13:00] little more keen on that myself, but then also how do I craft an ad, how do I look at things a little better so that I don’t have those people participating in my focus groups. And what I’ve done is a couple of things.
One of the things that I’ve done to try and avoid scammers is one, to keep a master list of all participants. I also keep what I call, A no list, which is if I have somebody participate and they are a scammer, or there’s somebody who would not be a helpful participant to return, I put them on my no list, but I keep a master list so I know and prevent repeats.
I don’t have a perfect memory, but I keep a master list of all of my participants that I go back and check. The other thing is on my Google Forms, I started about a year and a half ago just using one form. So I used to create a single. Get a new form for every single group and I stopped doing that and that has significantly helped me be able to see Scammers because they’ll hit up every single [00:14:00] Craigslist ad no matter where my Craigslist ad is.
So Recently, I had a Craigslist ad posted in Montana I actually had probably about two or three posted in Montana and I had people again all of a sudden from New York from Texas, all kinds of people spamming this ad. And luckily they were telling me they were from New York and not from Montana. But I had, of course, a lot of people telling me they were also from Montana or whatever the city was where I posted it at.
And I had my, who’s worked with me at the time, She just started emailing everybody who responded, and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. We really, we can’t email every single person who responds to attend, because one, we don’t have enough room. We only really need eight to ten people to participate, but two, we got to have quality people in the focus groups.
There’s an expectation about, one, we need to get some good, [00:15:00] Feedback, but we also need people who are actually from Montana. That’s going to be where the focus group is for, for the lawyers. Not everybody, don’t go straight down your list of form or whoever the first people who applied to your Craigslist ad, just wait and vet it out.
You want to have a good system set up. One, get lots of responses. That’s always super important. But then also so that you can actually vet and pick through people who are from the locale, location that you need are going to be good participants and aren’t necessarily our career focus group people that we, uh, that are not necessarily helpful because they say whatever you ask them to say.
All right. So if we go back and look at, okay, so. We’re having trouble getting responses. Where do you advertise? We talked about using Craigslist, Facebook, setting up a business Facebook page, and that business itself can actually go join other job [00:16:00] post groups. So if there’s a specific city or a specific location or area, you can go through Facebook and try and find a job.
Most, most places, counties or cities actually have job groups that someone has started and basically you just join it and just go in there and post your ad for a focus group and have people respond to that. That’s been fairly helpful. I’ve used folks. Facebook ads. I don’t find that as helpful for the money that you spend.
You’re really not getting a good bang for your buck. Craigslist is still works. I still get lots of people that apply through that. One of the other things that I have done is started a referral. Program. So I ask anybody who’s attended one of my focus groups that they refer me a name and an email. So with, then we then recruit that person to attend.
If they actually attend a focus group, then I’ll send a 10 gift [00:17:00] card to that person who referred them. And that has helped. Definitely helped. We talk about our referral program on our Facebook page. We tell everybody about it in our thank you emails just to remind people about that. And it definitely helps.
People are incentivized to send you people and generally. Going to send you somebody who’s going to attend so they can get the 10. So that’s always been a helpful way to get people and get quality folks and also people generally from the same location. Those are really some of the best tips that I have or what to look at, how much you’re paying, your dates and your times.
Are you making an easy payment? Are you looking official, not looking like too fishy? And then also just once you do start doing some of these things, you’re probably going to get scammed, you’re probably going to get spammed. I’ve definitely had recently somebody, I don’t know how this happened, but they took I guess an ad or a post that I had and put it on LinkedIn.
And I don’t have LinkedIn. I don’t know, for my focus groups, [00:18:00] because that’s not really where I need people from. I need people who are on Craigslist and Facebook to come. And so it just was unusual. I had a ton of email traffic all of a sudden. I want to do this. And I’m just like, I am not on LinkedIn. And you pay 100, 150, I’m like, whoa, it’s not me.
So anyhow, there’s definitely a lot going on. But I would say stick to it, get you a good system. Be patient. It’ll definitely happen. For you, and then when you do start to get more people applying, just make sure you’ve got a good vetting system. Either a couple of hoops where people jump through.
Definitely with confidentiality, I use that as a step to make sure people are actually going to show up before I give them the Zoom link. And again, those are just some of the things that I do to help with finding people, but then also vetting them to get them in the group. If you have any questions, or maybe stumped, or maybe you’re having some success, with a certain format or platform.
Please let us know. Send me an [00:19:00] email. I’m happy to tell the followers of this podcast and social media, other places that they can post or advertise. I’ve tried next door. I didn’t have a lot of success, but I would love for someone to tell me that they have. Either way. Thank you so much for listening and tuning in.
If you know somebody who’s running focus groups and they want some more information about recruiting, please forward them this podcast episode. So maybe they can have some more ideas about how to improve their responses to their. focus group ads. All right. Thank you again so much. If you enjoyed this podcast episode, please rate and review it on your favorite platform and also share with your fellow trial lawyers.
Thank you so much.