Building a Panel in Rally is a straightforward process that involves creating the Panel, setting up a signup page, approving panelists, and recruiting them for Studies. By following these steps, you can successfully build a Panel in Rally, manage Participant signups, and recruit them for your research Studies.
Panels allow you to build opted-in groups of Participants who are interested in participating in research. There are numerous use cases and different user groups of Panels that may benefit your research. Some examples may be early adopters, highly active users, partners, managers, integrators, your own employees, enterprise customers, ICPs, or users interested in participating in beta testing.
Create a Panel in Rally
Follow our step-by-step guide to create a Panel in Rally. This process includes multiple steps, detailed in the sections below.
Create a Panel
Navigate to the 'Panels' section in the top navigation bar of Rally.
Select '+ New Panel'.
Add a Name for your Panel.
Add a Description to provide more internal context on who belongs in the Panel and how it will be used.
Select 'Create Panel'.
A confirmation message will show and you will be redirected to your new Panel to begin set up.
Create a Panel Signup Page
You have the option to add Participants manually or recruit them through a signup page. Using signup pages allows you to create multiple signup pages to test recruitment success through various channels, such as sharing the link directly on your website or mobile app, using LinkedIn ads or other marketing channels, and more. Each signup page you create will show the total # of views and the total # of signups. Give each different signup page within a panel a unique name to track where each newly registered panelist came from when you share the links for each signup page in different places.
Follow the steps below to create your signup page from start to finish, and view the complete walkthrough video below these instructions.
Setup Page
Within your Panel, select the 'Signup Pages' tab.
Select '+ Create New Signup Page'.
Select 'Edit'.
Provide an Internal Name for the signup page.
Select the Language.
If you choose to translate your signup page into a different language, please note that webpages and some emails will be translated into your selected language, but custom text elements must be translated by your team.
Elements that your team must translate during setup include the welcome page headline and description, consent forms, screener questions, response options, and completion emails, and welcome emails.
Select the desired page components to include, expounded on later:
Welcome Page: Introduce your research program and provide information about what Participants can expect.
Screener: Use a short screener to qualify Participants based on specific criteria.
Consent form: Require Participants to opt-in and provide their consent for research activities.
Welcome email: Automatically send a welcome email to Participants who sign up.
Select which Branding to use for the Signup Page to give each component a consistent look and feel. Your default Brand will be selected by default.
Further configure details in the Extra Customization section:
Collect First Name & Last Name: This setting is enabled by default and requires a person to enter their first name & last name to join this Panel. Optionally, disable this setting.
Collect Email: This setting cannot be disabled, so any person must enter their email address to join a Panel. In the dropdown below, decide whether to allow 'Personal or work emails' or 'Work emails only'. This defaults to 'Personal or work emails'.
Customize URL Slug: Optionally, shorten the URL and/or include an external Panel Name within the URL to improve the Participant experience.
Select the clipboard icon to copy the full URL to your clipboard.
Select 'Preview' in the top right corner at any time to preview the Participant experience and select between 'Preview Unpublished Edits' or 'Preview Published Landing Page'. The preview option in available on each signup page component.
If you've chosen to include additional signup page components, such as a Welcome Page, Screener, Consent Form, or Welcome Email, navigate to each section in the sidebar to complete the setup for each component. Configuring each included element is important to building a clear and successful signup page. Continue setup with each next section.
Welcome Page
If you've enabled the Welcome Page component during setup, follow these steps.
Select 'Welcome Page' from the left sidepanel.
Logo: The logo from your selected Brand will be included by default. Select the 'Show Logo' checkbox to hide your logo from the welcome page.
Headline: Enter a short, inviting headline for your welcome page, which will be shown in larger text as an introductory message, such as "Join Our Early Adopters Research Panel! 🚀"
Description: Enter a description for your welcome page to introduce people you recruit to your panel, such as an external description of the people this panel is intended for, the type of research you plan to conduct, and the benefits of joining.
At the bottom of the text box, use the customization options to edit your font style and formatting, add a photo, or add links as a link or customizable button.
Button Text: Invitees who decide to sign up for your panel will see a button at the bottom of the welcome page. Here, edit the button text to be shown and the color of the button. Optionally, select the 'Use Brand Color' checkbox.
Scroll up if needed to select 'Preview' in the top right corner at any time to preview the Participant experience. Select between 'Preview Unpublished Edits' or 'Preview Published Landing Page'.
Screener
If you've enabled the Screener component during setup, follow these steps.
Select 'Screener' from the left sidepanel.
Survey Tool: Select which survey tool to use for your screener. Rally's native survey tool is recommended for seamless integration with Properties and automated follow-ups, but you can also choose from our Survey integrations with Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, Typeform, or UserTesting if they've been setup in your workspace.
Note: After publishing your signup page, it will no longer be possible to change the selected survey tool. To do this while retaining all other setup you've configured for a signup page, you can duplicate the signup page and then select a different survey tool while it is still in a draft state before publishing it.
Qualification: Choose how you want to qualify participants and enable faster workflows for those that qualify.
Someone qualifies if they...: Select an option from the dropdown: 'Have a qualifying answer to specific questions' or 'Complete the screener without being disqualified'.
Immediate Approval: This option is required and enabled by default. Qualified signups are immediately approved and added to your Panel without waiting for you to approve them, additionally saving you time. To avoid using immediate approval, you can avoid using Conditional Logic on your screener questions.
Next, begin building your screener by selecting 'Add Question'.
Choose 'Create New Question' or 'Add From Question Templates'.
Rally recommends setting up Question Templates in advance to use consistent, clear, approved communication and recruit the best possible participants for your research with quality questions. This also saves your team time when building any screener or survey.
Create New Question: Learn the complete steps and all important information on how to create a new question in our full article.
Add From Question Template: Quickly, easily, and accurately build a screener by selecting from existing Question Templates.
Select the '+ Add Question' button and select 'Add From Question Template'.
Select the question template(s) you'd like to add to your screener. Make sure to review your selections before selecting 'Add # questions'.
The newly added questions will appear on your screener to allow any edits, updates, or additions, such as adding Conditional Logic.
Whether adding question templates or creating new questions, you'll next want to set up Conditional Logic on each relevant question. Conditional Logic allows you to determine which answers will auto-qualify or -disqualify participants. Learn the complete steps and all important information on how to create a new question in our full article.
If you've created new questions for this screener which you'd like to reuse, optionally select the three dots ... in the top right corner of a question and select 'Save As Question Template'.
We suggest using Property Mapping for questions saved as templates to associate question responses to specific Properties. This enriches Participant Profiles continuously as any time a Participant takes a Screener or Survey and answers questions with Property mapping enabled, their responses automatically update the values in their Properties with any new or updated information, providing you with more data to better tailor your recruitment outreach.
To remove a question from your screener, select the three dots ... in the top right corner of a question and select 'Remove From Screener'.
After adding all questions, update the Screener Completed messages to be shown to Participants after completing the screener. Rally prefills standard messaging, but encourages you to edit this as needed to better reflect your company voice. If you have set up Conditional Logic on any questions, you'll see 3 editable options rather than just 1.
Body: This message is shown to anyone completing the screener. Add content to the page that Participants see after they submit the screener.
Body for Qualified Participants: Add content to the page that Participants see after they submit the screener with auto-qualifying answers.
Body for Disqualified Participants: Add content to the page that Participants see after they submit the screener with auto-disqualifying answers.
Each field includes customization options to edit your font style and formatting, add a photo, or add links as a link or customizable button.
Scroll up if needed to select 'Preview' in the top right corner at any time to preview the Participant experience. Select between 'Preview Unpublished Edits' or 'Preview Published Landing Page'.
Consent Form
If you've enabled the Consent Form component during setup, follow these steps.
Select 'Consent Form' from the left sidepanel.
In the Consent Form dropdown, select from your existing Consent Forms.
Create, view or edit your workspace's Consent Forms in Settings.
In the When To Capture Consent dropdown, select between 'After Survey' or 'Before Starting Survey'. This determines when participants will be required to sign the Consent Form. Selecting 'After Survey' may improve your signup success rate and the Participant experience by only requiring those who complete the survey to sign consent.
Scroll up if needed to select 'Preview' in the top right corner at any time to preview the Participant experience. Select between 'Preview Unpublished Edits' or 'Preview Published Landing Page'.
Welcome Email
If you've enabled the Welcome Email component during setup, follow these steps.
Select 'Welcome Email' from the left sidepanel.
This automatically sends a welcome email to people who sign up.
Send From Address: Select the email to be used to send automated emails.
Email Template: Select from your 'Signup Confirmation' email templates.
This option is disabled if you haven't set up 'Signup Confirmation' email templates yet.
Email Layout: Select from 'Plain Text' or 'Branded'.
Use a branded layout for more professional outreach, and plain-text for a more personal approach.
Subject: Enter the desired subject line for this email.
Where relevant, we suggest including Personalization Tokens, such as including the Participant's First Name to enhance engagement.
Body: Enter the desired body of the email.
Where relevant, we suggest using Personalization Tokens, such as including the Participant's First Name to enhance engagement.
At the bottom of the text box, use the customization options to edit your font style and formatting, add a photo, or add links as a link or customizable button.
Include Unsubscribe Link: This setting is enabled by default and is required for Branded emails. We recommend always keeping this option enabled allowing recipients to stay unsubscribed. It will help you stay compliant with local spam laws and improve deliverability.
Learn more about our best practices to improve spam rate and email deliverability and how Rally protects your email-sending reputation and ensures deliverability with Email Health Thresholds. Set up Custom Domains in Rally to further improve emailing.
After completing setup, select the 'Preview Email' or 'Send Test Email To Myself' buttons to confirm everything looks correct.
Select '+ Save As New Template' if you'd like to be able to easily use this email template throughout Rally to save time in the future.
Scroll up if needed to select 'Preview' in the top right corner at any time to preview the Participant experience. Select between 'Preview Unpublished Edits' or 'Preview Published Landing Page'.
Publish Page
After completing all setup, select the 'Publish Page' button in the top right corner.
You'll see a clickable warning in the top right corner if there are any incomplete fields. Select the '# incomplete fields' button for a list of fields requiring updates.
Once your Signup Page is published, you can start sharing the link externally and invite Participants to sign up for your Panel.
Video: How to Create a Panel Signup Page
Invite Participants to a Panel
After creating your Panel and signup pages, begin inviting Participants to sign up.
Select 'Panels' from the top nav bar and select the name of a Panel to open it.
Select the 'Signup Pages' tab.
Locate the desired signup page and select the 'Copy Link' button or select the three dots ... and select 'Copy Link' from the actions menu to copy the shareable link to your clipboard. Anyone with this link can sign up for your panel.
Shareable invite links are only available for Published signup pages that are marked "Open To Signups".
If your signup page is marked as "Closed To Signups", select the three dots ... and select 'Start Accepting Signups' from the actions menu.
Share your signup page link to begin recruiting.
You may choose to test recruitment success through various channels by creating multiple signup pages to share in different places, such as a signup page linked directly on your website or mobile app, another shared using LinkedIn ads or other marketing channels, and more.
Each signup page you create will show the total # of views and the total # of signups as you begin accruing Panelists.
Add Participants to a Panel
In addition to signup pages, Rally allows the flexibility to add Participants from Rally directly into a Panel. Learn about the various methods in the sections below.
Add Participants from within a Panel
Use your existing Participant database from your Rally CRM to add Participants directly from within the Panel.
Select 'Panels' from the top nav bar and select the name of a Panel to open it.
Select the 'Add Panelists' button from the top right corner, or in the center of the page if you have not yet added any.
In the popup, add Participants to a Panel individually or in bulk. We suggest using filters to narrow your search by selecting the most relevant Participants for the research you'll be running.
Select the Participants to add to a Panel by selecting the checkboxes next to each name.
Select the 'Add Selected (#)' button.
In the top right corner, select the '+ New Person' button to manually add a new person, or select the 'Import People' button to import a CSV file list of people.
Select the 'X' in the top right corner once you've finished adding Participants.
Add Study Participants to a Panel
Add Participants from a Study directly into a Panel from any Study Overview page.
Navigate to the 'Studies' page in the top navigation bar of Rally.
Select a Study name to open the Study Overview.
Select 'Participants' from the sidepanel.
Add Participants to a Panel individually or in bulk. We suggest using filters to narrow your search by selecting the most relevant Participants for the research you'll be running. Optionally, use the 'Select' button to select a random sample of Participants.
Individually:
Hover over a person's name, select the three dots ..., and select '+ Add To Panel'.
Select the desired Panel from the dropdown and select 'Add People To Panel'.
In bulk:
Select the Participants to add to a Panel by selecting the checkboxes next to each name.
Select the three dots ... at the top of the table and select '+ Add To Panel'.
Select the desired Panel from the dropdown and select 'Add People To Panel'.
Add Participants from the People Page
Add Participants from the People page into a Panel. This can be completed from the default Everyone page, or by selecting a specific Panel or Segment from the sidepanel.
Navigate to the 'People' page in the top navigation bar of Rally.
Use the Everyone page, or select the arrows in the top left corner to open the sidepanel. Here, you can select a specific Panel or Segment to add Panelists from.
From your selected page, add Participants to a Panel individually or in bulk. We suggest using filters to narrow your search by selecting the most relevant Participants for the research you'll be running. Optionally, use the 'Select' button to select a random sample of Participants.
Individually:
Hover over a person's name, select the three dots ..., and select '+ Add To Panel'.
Select the desired Panel from the dropdown and select 'Add People To Panel'.
In bulk:
Select the Participants to add to a Panel by selecting the checkboxes next to each name.
Select the three dots ... at the top of the table and select '+ Add To Panel'.
Select the desired Panel from the dropdown and select 'Add People To Panel'.
💡 Next, learn how to manage Panels and Panel signup pages, including approving or removing Panelists and recruiting Panelists into Studies.