Invitation letters to web surveys often contain information on how long it will take to complete a web survey. When the stated length in an invitation of a survey is short, it could help to convince respondents to participate in the survey. When it is long respondents may choose not to participate, and when the actual length is longer than the stated length there may be a risk of dropout. This paper reports on an Randomised Control Trial (RCT) conducted in a cross-sectional survey conducted in the Netherlands. The RCT included different version of the stated length of a survey …

We argue for renewed efforts to improve the external survey environment for official statistics. We introduce the concept of social marketing as one novel way of achieving this. We also propose measuring the survey-taking climate and the related changes on the societal level using a ‘survey climate barometer’. Finally, by presenting current and potential initiatives planned by Statistics Canada, we illustrate activities that national statistical institutes could implement with the goal of positively influencing their external survey environment.