Despite well-documented challenges, researchers across the social sciences continue to rely on email to recruit research participants. However, few studies examine how different communication strategies impact email open and conversion rates, especially among surveys of establishments. Our paper aims to fill that gap by examining whether motivation-based appeals—which we develop from respondents’ reasons for participating—outperform a communication approach based on social exchange theory. Our study identified the top three motivations why current panel members participate in the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond Business Survey: (1) access to data and other benefits, (2) the ability to influence economic policy, and (3) to help make their communities better. Then, we crafted email subject lines and messages to match those three motivations and a version based on tenets of social exchange theory. Our results find that the social exchange version outperforms the motivation-based appeals in both email open and conversion rates—with a stronger influence on conversion rates. We discuss the implications of these results for how social science researchers communicate with potential research participants by email.

中文翻译：

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在电子邮件调查招募中测试基于动机的沟通策略与社交交流沟通策略


尽管存在有据可查的挑战，但社会科学领域的研究人员仍然依赖电子邮件来招募研究参与者。然而，很少有研究研究不同的通信策略如何影响电子邮件打开率和转化率，尤其是在对机构的调查中。我们的论文旨在通过研究基于动机的吸引力（我们从受访者的参与原因中发展出来）是否优于基于社会交换理论的沟通方法来填补这一空白。我们的研究确定了现任小组成员参与里士满联邦储备银行商业调查的三大动机：（1） 获得数据和其他好处，（2） 影响经济政策的能力，以及 （3） 帮助他们的社区变得更好。然后，我们精心设计了电子邮件主题行和消息，以匹配这三个动机和一个基于社会交换理论原则的版本。我们的结果发现，社交交换版本在电子邮件打开率和转化率方面都优于基于动机的吸引力，对转化率的影响更大。我们讨论了这些结果对社会科学研究人员如何通过电子邮件与潜在研究参与者沟通的影响。