10 Survey Emails Best Practice Tips and Examples
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Are your customers enjoying the product they recently purchased from your business? Do your employees want to request extra resources to help them perform their jobs more efficiently? These are all questions that survey emails can help to answer in an effort to improve your business. Designing and sending out survey emails should be as easy as asking these questions.
We’re going to share how you can use a survey invitation email template and craft survey email subject lines that get you the data you desire.
A survey email is sent to a group of people in an effort to receive feedback, opinions, and information from them about any specific topic.
Survey emails can be deployed for product development, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, market research, and more. Recipients can either answer survey questions through embedded surveys or by clicking a link that leads them to a survey online.
The goal of a survey email is to receive responses, so the survey emails have to be designed and written in a way that entices the reader to fulfill their half of the equation.
Survey emails have been a longstanding effective tool for HR professionals, marketers, and managers alike to receive feedback from their respective audiences.
They help to best understand how employees and customers are feeling, what they may be thinking, and anything they may need.
They are so helpful and valuable because they are:
Sending survey emails is a cost-effective solution to gain the answers you seek. With an email builder, you can leverage survey templates to customize and send your survey emails using your preferred email provider of choice.
With an email builder, creating survey emails is easier than ever. All you need to do is choose your template or link out to a third-party survey solution where you pop in your questions. Then, you can send your emails to your desired audience and wait to hear back.
You can trust the information from survey emails because people like to share their opinions, especially when it’s in their best interest.
Survey emails are just another form of employee newsletters and customer communications that you’re probably already used to sending. That being said, they have similar elements as email newsletters.
Here is a look at the key components you’ll want to include in survey emails in an effort to promote getting responses.
Subject lines are the first words that a recipient will see in their inbox that offers them an understanding of what your email is all about. Try to write a well-crafted and catchy email subject line that grabs your readers’ attention and also sparks their curiosity.
Email preview text refers to the words that show up below the subject line while readers are still looking at their email lineup in their inbox. With this snippet of text, readers can quickly grasp your email’s intent.
As with any email, you’ll want to balance text and visuals so as to not overwhelm the reader. Survey emails are naturally based on text because they list out questions, but you can still incorporate visuals, especially in the header of the email.
If you embed your survey into your email, then you can skip the linking. But, if you’re sending recipients outside of your email to access the survey, then be sure that the link to the survey is easy to see and click on.
A call-to-action is the most important tool to convert your readers to follow the link to the survey itself. Be clear and concise with your verbiage and design of the CTA.
Once you have your email set up and ready to go out, you’re ready to craft an email subject line. Keep in mind these recommendations to write a subject line that converts readers into responders:
People are driven by emotion. For survey email subject lines, showcase to your readers that their opinions are valued and important.
Personalization can boost open rates, so you can incorporate names into your subject line or callouts, like the use of the word “You.”
Questions are another way to promote people to give an answer, straight away!
In some cases, people want to get something for what they are giving. A tactic to prompt responses can be to offer incentives.
Incentives depend on your business and its budget, but take a look at these ideas to spark inspiration.
For recipients who complete the survey, you can provide them with a gift card in exchange. This can be for a small nominal amount, but it’s the thought that counts and the incentive of getting something in return that can help improve conversion rates.
If you’d like to offer a higher priced prize, you can set up a giveaway. For example, when recipients complete the survey, they can be entered into a drawing/lottery to win a bigger item (a.k.a. a giveaway).
If you have brand ambassadors, you can speak directly to them in an effort to gain their feedback.
Make sure that they understand that they are a big part of the brand and a key building block to its success. For completing a survey, they can be initiated into the ambassador program and/or receive extra benefits.
There are a few different types of survey emails depending on your business’ needs and its audience.
Survey invitation emails are the primary request for responses. It’s like a “check in” process which can be sent any time. It doesn’t necessarily have to be sent right after a product or service has been purchased. It’s a general invitation to share feedback.
Participation surveys are sent after an event to see how the experience was for the participant. These surveys can help to improve future events.
Customer feedback surveys ask customers how they are liking their recently purchased products or services.
Market and product development research surveys figure out how a product or service fits within the intended market.
Embedded survey emails have the questions within the email body rather than linking to a third-party for the survey itself.
Retail survey emails are sent by retailers to receive feedback from customers.
If you offer a trial for a service to customers, you can send a trial satisfaction survey to see how their experience was. This can help you convert the trial customers to paid customers.
For ecommerce businesses, shoppers may add an item or product to their cart and then abandon it before checking out. It’s in your best interest to know why they didn’t complete the purchase, so you can use a cart abandonment survey email to find out.
Survey reminder emails are nudges to remind recipients of survey emails to complete the survey. Take a look at these survey reminder examples to help craft your own.
For those who complete survey emails, it could be the case that they’re interested in the results! You can send the outcome in a survey results email to those who participated (and even those who didn’t if the responses are favorable to share as a marketing tactic).
No matter what type of survey emails you wish to send, you’ll have to design and create an email that is easy to read and prompts responses.
An email builder takes the heavy lifting out of this process to save time and simplify the process, without the need for designers or coders involved. Choose from hundreds of professional, egnaging templates at your disposal, and make use of drag and drop design using content library and image editor.
Some email builders also integrate with your favorite email providers so you can export your creation and send using Gmail, Outlook, or the like. Plus there is detailed analytics like open rates, click rates and heat maps to really boost engagement and get maximum survey participation.
Survey emails are no different than your typical email newsletters in that they must grab attention, command action, and engage your recipients. These best practices can help you to get the responses you’re looking for:
The copy (text) should be minimal and clear so that readers quickly understand exactly what it is you’re asking them.
If it’s possible, offering an incentive can promote greater response rates.
A call-to-action must stand out from the email, especially when your survey questions are not embedded in the email itself. The CTA is what leads your recipients to the action step. Make call-to-action buttons stand out and use clear text that removes any confusion.
By sharing the reason for the survey itself, people are more inclined to take part. Ensure that recipients know what you’re asking of them and why their survey responses are of value.
If you’re offering any incentives or giveaways, don’t forget to include terms and conditions to cover all the legal bases.
Not sure where to start? With an email builder, many of these best practices are already incorporated because you’re starting off with a template that’s set up for you.
So, you have your email layout, including CTA buttons, ready to go. This gives you more time to focus on the survey content creation. Plus no coders or designers are needed!
Survey emails are a highly useful tool to improve your business and its product/services. Customers and employee feedback is necessary to know so you can make informed business decisions to boost satisfaction levels and maintain loyalty.
With survey emails, built and sent through email builders, the useful benefits are easy to achieve!
