Fieldwork: Letter design

The principles for designing the invitation and reminder letters were based on the Tailored Design Method⁵, along with a host of literature and best practice based on previous studies, that had been reviewed by the research team.

The main aim of the letters is to provide all the relevant information a respondent requires, to complete the survey, and to answer immediate questions which they may have.

Our guiding principles for designing the letter were:

• Use simple and easy-to-understand language, with no unnecessary complicating text
• To cover key messages that needed to be conveyed in the letters, including:
  • Importance
  • Motivators for taking part
  • How to take part
  • Your personal data are safe
• Importance (a) was to be conveyed in all four letters⁶ in the following ways:
  • Sport England, and OHID, logos should be prominent;
  • Visual clutter which could distract from the logos and the importance of the survey to be avoided;
  • Professional letter format with address of recipient and full date;
  • Signed by someone with authority (although the public may not have heard of this person, their title should reflect that they are important);
  • Highlight key messages in the text; using these to break up the text and make it easier to read.
• The main motivational statements (b) vary across the four letters, thus increasing the likelihood of converting non-respondents.
  • 1st letter: Help us improve leisure activities in [geography];
  • 2nd letter: Taking part will benefit you, your family and your community in [geography];
  • 3rd letter: We want to hear from as many people as possible;
  • 4th letter: An opportunity to help shape the provision of leisure activities in [geography];
  • In addition, letters 2-4 we include the following secondary motivational statement as a heading, to try and encourage participation - We will send you a £5 gift voucher as a ‘thank you’. In letter 1 this is included in the text but not emphasised in the same manner.

In addition to this, the letters also provide key information on the organisations involved with the study and contact details for Ipsos should the respondent wish to get in contact about any matter relating to the survey.

⁵ Dillman, DA. Smyth, JD. Christian, LM. Internet, Phone, Mail and Mixed-Mode Surveys: The Tailored Design Method (2014). Wiley.

⁶ See the following section – Letters and reminder regime – for further details on the four letters.