Postcard teaser campaign
Using a postcard teaser campaign aimed at recruiters makes little or no difference to recruitment of them.
0%
The absolute increase is 0% (95% CI = -4% to 5%)1

MODERATE CERTAINTY in the evidence (but see 'What we don't know' below)
The practical impact of a postcard teaser campaign
Imagine a trial that needs to recruit 30 clinical sites or recruiters (e.g. family doctors) and initial recruitment is 30% of those approached. This means you'd need to approach 100 people to recruit 30 of them (see chart below).

Now imagine using a postcard teaser campaign. The chart below shows the impact of an absolute increase of 0% (95% CI = -4% to 5%)1. Recruitment is still 30%, which means our best estimate is that 100 people would still need to be approached to recruit 30.

Where have postcard teaser campaigns been tested?
Intervention:
Comparison:
Scale:
Study 1: Lee 2017
Participants?
Staff at primary care clinics (general practice and physiotherapy clinics) in the Sydney metropolitan area. Recruiting clinics for a trial of an intervention to reduce low back pain.
Trial intervention?
Pain education.
Study location?
Primary care, Australia.
What difference?
8.6% of those involved in the postcard teaser campaign were recruited; 8.9% of those not involved in the campaign were recruited.
What we still don’t know about postcard teaser campaigns
- The information we have is based on a single trial. Ideally we need to test this intervention in more trials.
- The content of the postcard teaser remains unclear and work to establish the most appropriate content to put on the card (perhaps using behavioural change theories) would be welcome.
- Please get in touch (email info@trialforge.org) if you would like to do an evaluation because we can help with text for ethics etc.