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FAQs →Frequently asked questions
About Talker Research
We have been delivering research solutions to brands, agencies and the media for over a decade. Our insights and data are leveraged by organizations of all sizes, to drive content and campaigns that resonate with audiences and get people talking.
Talker Research: stats that speak.
Talker Research conducts quantitative research. We run online surveys with opted-in panelists across the U.S. and internationally. We have two main types of research:
Custom research where you’re able to set the number of questions and respondents and have full ownership of the content of the survey. Use our research to gather insights, inform decision making, fuel thought leadership and create data-driven content.
PR surveys with earned media opportunities, where you can work with our editorial team to create a newsworthy, data-led story with guaranteed coverage.
If you have a very small set of questions, you may be eligible to join one of our omnibus surveys. This survey solution allows you to add your question(s) to an online survey that is shared with other clients. Omnibus surveys are conducted at regular intervals, polling a ‘general population’ or ‘targeted audience’ sample of Americans. Contact our team for more details.
Talker Research works with brands across all industries. We also conduct research for nonprofits, educational institutions, PR, marketing & advertising agencies and media organizations. Our clients commission custom online research to gain consumer and B2B insights, and drive media and marketing campaigns through data-driven content and storytelling.
All of our surveys are overseen and edited by our research team. Our research team are members of ESOMAR (the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research) and MRS (the Market Research Society). Talker Research is also part of AAPOR’s Transparency Initiative, which is designed to promote methodological disclosure.
The cost of online research depends on the number of questions (the length of the survey) and the target sample — how many people we are surveying and who they are, whether it’s the general population, or specifically parents, pet owners, etc.
Please contact our team to request a rate card and discuss your research requirements.
We do offer clients the option of joining one of our omnibus surveys if you have a very small set of questions. This can be a cost-effective solution as you share the questionnaire and the cost of the research with other organizations. Please speak to our team for more details.
We specialize in quantitative research, rather than qualitative.
Depending on the nature of the project and the purpose of the research, our clients commission online surveys with a typical sample size of 2,000+ respondents. We offer a flexible service and we are more than happy to advise on suitable sample sizes, demographics and questionnaire formats according to our requirements.
Survey set-up and question types
There are many types of questions that we can include in our surveys.
The most common questions are single-select questions — where the respondent can select one answer from the choices (yes/no, five-point scales, etc.) — and multi-select questions, where they can select multiple answers from a list of choices.
We can include other question types, too, including free text questions, where respondents can add a longer response. We always recommend including a variety of question types within the survey to keep respondents engaged, prevent any “survey fatigue” and achieve the most compelling results.
This is flexible, and the number of questions is usually based on the type of survey.
Custom research projects are allowed a different number of questions to a PR survey, and will be advised by our researchers. PR surveys that are conducted as part of earned media campaigns typically have about 20 questions, written with the help of our team of journalists.
If you have a very small set of questions, you may be eligible to add them to one of our shared omnibus surveys.
We have a team of experienced researchers and journalists who know how to phrase questions to keep them compliant with market research standards while still ensuring the strongest data points.
We’re happy to offer advice and suggestions while you’re drafting your survey, or we can draft the entire survey and share it with you for edits and feedback — it’s as collaborative a process as you’d like to make it.
Yes, we can embed a video within the survey for respondents to watch — we’re also able to incorporate images, audio files, maps, etc. as part of our surveys.
We are able to apply routing to any survey to ensure people only answer questions relevant to them.
An example of this would be if a respondent said they don’t have children; from there, they’ll be routed away from any questions about having children later on in the survey. There are different kinds of routing, too — we can also make this more complex, to hide certain answer options, etc. depending on the needs of the survey.
Absolutely! We won’t set the survey live until you’re 100% happy with the content of the questions. Our researchers will also make final checks to ensure the questionnaire is compliant with guidelines set forth by the Market Research Society (MRS) before setting the survey live.
Once the survey is fully approved, we’ll create a “demo link” for it. The demo link looks just like the real survey will — it includes all the approved questions, the answer options, etc. and we’d encourage you to run through it a few times before we set the survey live. It’s a great way to double-check that everything looks how we want it to before the survey goes into the field.
When conducting surveys for public relations and media campaigns, we are not able to include branded information. We need to remain unbiased within the survey, and telling respondents which brand commissioned the research could undermine that.
That said, questions can be asked to gain insight into brand awareness, and those may include a logo — for example, “What organization has the following logo?” or “What do you think of the following logo?” are questions could be included in the survey.
Yes, we can do this, and we call this type of survey a “white label survey.”
We’ll coordinate with you on the set up of the survey, then we hand over the link and you can send out the survey to be answered by your team, your customers, etc. Our team can then track the respondents as they take the survey, and we’ll supply you with the results when the survey reaches the desired number of respondents.
Research panels
An online panel is a group of people (panelists) who have agreed to complete surveys on the internet.
After registering online to be a part of our online panel, participants are asked to complete a questionnaire containing standard demographic information like age, gender, region, etc. They are then notified via email when relevant new surveys are available. From there, respondents will click through and take the survey as long as they meet the parameters.
All survey participants receive financial compensation for every online survey they complete. The amount participants are paid depends on the length and complexity of the survey.
Our respondents are incentivized via the platform, and we do not allow companies to incentivize them on top of that — we don’t want to create any bias within the survey. All surveys need to be equal as far as incentivization.
However, you can incentivize differently if you are polling your own database of customers via a white label survey. Please speak to our team about your requirements.
Every non-general population survey features “screener questions” at the start of the survey; these are used to terminate respondents who are not relevant to the story. An example of this for dog owners would be to first filter out all respondents who do not have pets, and then all respondents who do not have dogs, so that dog owners are the only ones able to enter the survey.
For general population (gen pop) surveys, we typically use a sample of 2,000 respondents. This allows the survey to fill quickly in the field, while getting enough respondents for a low margin of error and statistically significant data. That said, the sample size can vary for a variety of reasons — for example, if more niche demographics are required, if we are conducting state-by-state comparisons, or running international research with two or more countries.
General population surveys are open to anyone aged 18+ — there are no screener questions, and no quotas. Therefore, they’re the fastest type of survey to field. Nationally representative surveys also don’t have screener questions, but they do have quotas placed on age, gender and region. These quotas are based on census data, meaning the survey is an accurate reflection of the country’s population.
Yes. We are able to conduct research in other countries, and the feasibility depends on the country and the demographic you’re hoping to poll.
For international projects, we are able to translate the survey questions to a country’s local language. The questions will then be reverted back to English for the Excel results we share with you. Our team is happy to provide translation costs on request.
Research data
For a sample of 2,000 general population Americans, it typically takes a couple of days in the field, then we will quality check the data and we’ll package it up for you in an easy-to-read Excel spreadsheet. The time in field does depend on the panel — niche panels will need more time to fill — and the number of respondents; if we’re polling more than 2,000 respondents, it will, understandably, need more time.
Yes! The Excel results are easy to read and our research team is happy to help if there are any questions about the data.
Splits for age, gender and region are standard within our survey results — beyond that, it can depend on the survey. For example, a survey about pets may include a split for cat owners vs. dog owners, while a back-to-school story may have a split for the child’s grade.
We can create splits for any single-select questions (where the respondent selects one answer) included in the survey. That said, please let us know at the start of your project if there are specific splits you’d like to see, so we can ensure those questions are in the survey and quotas are set if needed to ensure statistically significant data.
It’s important that our research results are reliable. Research data is statistically significant, if it is likely not caused by chance.
For example, for a survey sample of 2,000 respondents, we typically need 80+ respondents in order to report on the data. If a statistic is pulled from less than 80 respondents, the margin of error is too high and the number can not be reported on.
Data for each survey is quality-checked and cleaned by our research team to ensure we’re receiving quality responses. Part of this quality-checking process includes ensuring respondents’ answers are consistent and not contradictory when responding to multiple surveys.
We can set quotas within a survey, often based on the panel demographic, to ensure the data is statistically significant. A quota will guarantee a specific number of respondents (for example, we can set a quota for parents and ensure half the respondents have children).
Yes, we can create cross-tabs to show the connection between survey questions — for example, cross-tabulation of age and gender would reveal what millennial women or male baby boomers think about a specific topic.
At the end of the project, you the client will own all the research.
While executive summaries are not a standard part of projects, this is absolutely something we can do.
When requested, we’ll create an easy-to-read executive summary highlighting the key stat or stats from each question within the survey, which will be delivered to you as a Word document. Our editorial team can also produce ‘pitch guides’ which include a story angle drawn from your research findings, key data pullouts and potential lede options. Speak to us for more information.
Absolutely! Our graphic design team creates infographics, animated infographics and social media packages every day — we’re happy to create those for any survey.
We also offer a data visualization; this is similar to an executive summary as it highlights key stats from the data, but it’s presented in a more visual way. It’ll be shared with you as a PowerPoint, and has various charts within, which you’re welcome to use for presentations, press releases or anything else. Please speak to our team about any other design and data visualization requirements.
What are the benefits of working with Talker Research?
- Account management: Every survey has a dedicated project manager. We handle the process from start to finish.
- Questionnaire design: Our researchers offer advice and assistance with question design and formatting to ensure compliance and effectiveness.
- Clear data presentation: Our results are very easy to read. We take the work out of the data analysis.
- News insight: We offer expertise in research and news, with over ten years providing data to the media. Our team provides insight and support on how to use research to create newsworthy data-driven stories and content.
- Quick scripting: Our turnaround from approved questions to the survey presentation is fast.
- Our panel: We have access to thousands of loyal, opted-in panelists who enjoy taking our surveys.
- Niche panels: We can poll specialized consumer and B2B panels, and international panelists.
- Cost effective: We offer a very competitive rate and a flexible, friendly service.
- Credible: We’re an independent third-party collecting the data on behalf of the client.
- Quality checked: We thoroughly quality check respondents and responses, and ensure compliance.
- Accredited: Our team members are members of the Market Research Society (MRS) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR).
- Robust: We design questionnaires to ensure respondents can’t contradict themselves and they can only answer questions that are relevant to them.