Best Practices for Survey Emails

Want to know how to make your readers more loyal and committed? 

Just ask them. 

Email surveys are one of the most cost-effective tools you can use when it comes to making your content and your business even better.

Survey emails are relatively cheap and easy to put together, and readers appreciate the occasional chance to give feedback.

This comprehensive guide will tell you everything you need to know about email surveys.

Table of Contents

• Understanding the Importance of Survey Emails

• Crafting Your Survey Email: The Basics 

• Designing Your Survey: Key Considerations

• Timing and Frequency: When to Send Survey Emails

• Enhancing Response Rates: Tips and Strategies 

• Analyzing and Acting on Survey Results

• The Most Important Email Survey Tool

Understanding the Importance of Survey Emails

If you split test or do any other kind of market research, then you understand the importance of knowing what your subscribers are thinking. 

This customer insight is the only way you can be certain of providing content that gives your readers what they want while creating the outcomes you want.

This makes email surveys an essential tool.

Instead of hoping that you'll get useful data by monitoring open rates and other methods, you can use email surveys to quickly find out what’s important to your readers.  

And people like to feel heard. Asking for feedback is a sign that you care what your subscribers think. Most of them will appreciate this, and your survey will help build loyalty and goodwill.

Finally, when your readers aren’t completely satisfied, they’re more likely to tell you so in the relative anonymity of a survey.

So, how do you put a survey together?

Crafting Your Survey Email: The Basics 

When you’re crafting a survey email, it's helpful to think of it as a marketing or sales email. You’re writing it to get the reader to take a specific action.

Many important email marketing elements will apply to email surveys as well. These include:

• An intriguing subject line

• A crystal clear Call to Action (CTA) 

• Compelling reasons to complete the survey

• A strong offer (usually in the form of incentives)

• Use of AB testing and analytics to improve future survey emails 

We’ll address these elements in detail. But first, it’s important not to take the marketing email comparison too far.

Crafting Compelling Email Introductions

Don't make too much of your introduction. 

In a marketing email, you might follow a formula such as AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) to get your reader’s interest and make a case for your offer.

But in a survey email, it’s more important to get them to click on the survey. You’re not asking for money, you’re asking for a bit of their time. So, don’t waste time.

Make sure the email matches your usual voice and tone, so readers know it’s from you. But get right to the point so readers click the link to your survey right away.

The Role of Subject Lines in Survey Emails

A lot has been said about the importance of subject lines. 

As usual, the goal of your subject line is to get readers to open your email. 

Let subscribers know that this is a survey so they know what to expect. It’ll help you increase open rates and set expectations right from the start.

Beyond that, ensure your subject line fits the overall tone of your typical emails. If you are formal, you might want to use a subject line such as, “Share your experience.”

But for an informal newsletter, your subject line could sound like a friendly check-in, such as, “Mario, are we good?”

Once you’ve decided on your subject line, it’s time to dive into the overall design of your email survey.

Designing Your Survey: Key Considerations

Deliverability of Email Surveys

There's a lot to consider in designing your survey, but your first concern should be to avoid spam triggers.

Issues such as unusual links, improperly embedded photos, or sending to multiple recipients using the BCC function might create the impression of spam. To avoid impairing the deliverability of your survey, follow best practices for email deliverability.

Your Email Address

Your email address is just as important as adding the perfect subject line. 

Many readers skim through their inboxes. When it comes to deciding which emails to open right away, the From line can be just as important as the Subject line.

Simplicity

Most of all, keep your survey email clear and simple. Don't distract your reader with other content. Let them know who you are and what this is about, and then get them to click on the survey.

Optimize for Mobile

Since most readers are likely to read your email on their phone, you should preview your design on a phone to see how it's going to appear. If a feature looks great on a desktop but it’s clunky on the phone, change it or get rid of it. Optimize for mobile.

However, you should know enough about your audience to determine if they’re an exception. If you have an older audience or you deal in highly technical content that your subscribers read when they're at work, you may want to optimize for desktop instead. 

Above all, make your design responsive. Newsletter platforms such as beehiiv automatically create a responsive email that looks good whether the person sees it on a desktop, a tablet, their phone, or any other device.

Tell Readers Why Your Survey Is for Them

Another quick tip to increase response is to tell your reader why you chose them, specifically, for your survey. 

For example, you could say, “You’ve been chosen for this survey because last month you were one of our top customers for cycling accessories. We want to hear how bikers like you are using our gear and how we can make it better.”

Explain who the survey is for, and help the reader identify as a member of this exclusive group. You’ll inspire a sense of belonging and connection that builds loyalty, in addition to making more readers want to take the survey.

Optimizing Survey Length for Completion

There's a trade-off between getting the information you need and making a survey so long that your readers don't complete it.

Drive Research has found a sweet spot for a survey length of around three to five minutes. Anything longer than this is likely to discourage too many readers.

In your survey email, be sure to tell recipients how long it will take to fill out the survey, especially if it’s a short one.

If you can ask your reader to “Take three minutes to answer a few questions, “ or tell them, “We just have four quick questions for you,” the specificity will make it easier for readers to respond.

Creating Engaging Content Within Your Survey

In a survey email, it’s usually best to minimize the content and get straight to the survey.

However, there may be situations where having a little bit of engaging content will increase response.

If there's a story behind your survey, and it fits the overall feel and tone of your brand, then you might try to tell the story in a few lines.

For example: 

“The other day, my 12-year-old daughter asked me why parents tell their children to go to bed early while most adults use a drug (caffeine) to stay awake.

“This got me thinking that good advice for children isn’t always realistic advice for adults. And so I’d like to hear about your thoughts and practices around parenting. Do you have three minutes to answer a 5-question survey?”

Here’s a general template for story content in a survey email:

Another consideration is to have a slightly different survey for each segment of your audience. We’ll look at how to do this below.

Question Design Best Practices

Before you even start writing survey questions, keep in mind the reason you’re doing a survey in the first place. 

Are you looking for feedback on a recent change or innovation? Are you seeking validation for a new product? Are you “fishing” for hidden issues and insights that you may not currently see?

Your survey has a goal, and your questions should help you achieve that goal.

The questions you ask can be as varied as all the other elements of your newsletter. But in addition to eliciting the information you need, your questions need to fit your readers and your brand. 

Here are a few best practices to write better survey questions.

• Be specific. Ask questions about one product/service you offer, or a specific detail or element in your newsletter.

• Make it easy to answer. Yes/No questions are the easiest, followed by multiple-choice questions.

• Use open-ended questions sparingly and put them at the end of your survey, when the reader has been thinking about you for a while.

How to Use Open-Ended Questions in Your Survey

Open-ended questions are more challenging for your reader to answer. However, they often give the most useful insights. 

Get specific with your open-ended questions so the reader doesn’t have to work too hard. 

For example, instead of asking, “What do you think of our delivery service?” try asking, “What are your two biggest frustrations with our delivery service?” or “What are three ways you'd like to see us improve our delivery service?”

If you don’t use open-ended questions in your survey, consider leaving a field for comments at the end of the survey.

Timing and Frequency: When to Send Survey Emails

Readers open their email at different times of the day, depending on the email's nature and schedule.

As per our data, 10 AM is the best time to send emails for the highest open rate. However, that time is subject to industry, season, day of the week and many other factors.

Best Times to Send Survey Emails

If you know your audience, you can find the best day and time to send your survey to get it filled out.

Think about your reader, what they're doing throughout their day, and how your emails typically fit into their schedule.

Is this something work-related, which they're likely to only see if you send it between 9:00 and 5:00?

Or, is this something relaxing and fun that they're going to be more able to focus on during weekends and evenings?

Based on more than 400 million emails sent out through the beehiiv platform, we've found that Sunday gets the highest open rates and click-throughs, with Monday coming in at a close second.

Still, we recommend you do your research. Your results may be different.

Analyzing Open and Response Rates

As with many aspects of email, getting the timing down is a constant game of trial and error. 

If you don't know when you're going to get the best open rates and responses, take your best guess, or split test two different sending times.

Enhancing Response Rates: Tips and Strategies 

Using Embedded Surveys

Our number one top tip for getting a response is to embed a survey in the email.

This tactic works because your reader doesn't have to click through to another link and wait for a page to load. The email is already open in front of them.

MailerLite found that embedded surveys got 135% more clicks than a link to an external survey.

Fortunately, beehiiv makes it very easy to embed forms in your emails. This is invaluable because you can simply write your survey questions into a form.

If you don't want to embed your entire survey, just embed the first question. Survey Monkey found this tactic can increase response rates by 22%.

When you do this, you can have the “Submit” button that links to the rest of the survey. If readers don’t complete the rest of it, at least you have their response to the first question.

If you don’t want to embed any of your survey questions, you can still boost response by putting the link to your survey at the top of the email. 

This lets readers get started without any need to read the introduction and shows readers you respect their time. 

The Importance of Survey Anonymity

Most people tend to be candid when they are sharing their opinions anonymously. 

If you can gather data anonymously, you can count on higher quantity and quality responses.

But there are many reasons you may not want anonymity. 

For example, if you’re planning to use data from the survey to segment your audience, you will need to connect each reader to their response. 

In some cases, you may want to publicly share a reader’s response (with their permission, of course). 

Show How the Reader Will Benefit From the Survey

When a reader sees that you want them to fill out a survey, they're going to ask "What's in it for me?”

If you have a clear answer to this question, be explicit about it.

If you're using the survey to get ideas for a new product or service, state some of the intended benefits of the new development in your email. Let your reader know this is their chance to make the new product outstanding.

If you have a loyal audience that's passionate about your products or your content, then make it clear that you're going to prepare something new and exciting based on their feedback.

Another effective way to show a reader what's in it for them is to offer them an ethical bribe. There are many incentives you can use.

Utilizing Incentives to Encourage Participation

Incentives boost response rates by 10-15% according to PeoplePulse. Gift cards and codes are generally the most popular incentive. However, free information or content will often work better for businesses or specialized newsletters. 

If you’re going to offer incentives, know your audience and give them something they will want. Consider offering a different incentive to different segments. 

Personalization Techniques to Boost Engagement

Personalization works just as well with surveys as it does with marketing content. 

When a reader sees their name, and the content is tailored to their interests, they are more likely to reply to the survey.

Here are a few ways to personalize a survey email:

• Use the reader’s name in the subject line (for example, “Elisa, what do you think about this?”)

• Use segmentation to ask the reader questions related to products they recently used or content recently consumed

• Automate your survey emails so they arrive after a reader buys a product or watches a video

• Use the reader’s name in the survey title itself (for example, “3 Questions for Elisa”)

Reminders to Complete the Survey

You probably wouldn't give up on promoting a special offer without sending a few reminders. Do the same for your survey email.

Every reminder has the chance of getting readers who somehow missed the first email or were too busy when it arrived.

You don’t want to come across as pushy, but if you send 2-3 reminders over 2 weeks, you’re not likely to step on any toes.

As you write your survey reminder emails, use a mix of humor, personalization, and professionalism to make each one unique. 

Here are a few sample subject lines for survey reminder emails:

• Oops, looks like we missed you

• It’s okay to be honest with us

• There’s still time to share your feedback

• Last chance to tell us what you really think

• We’re begging you, please!

The email itself could be simple and to the point:

“We’d like your feedback, but we still haven’t heard from you. If you’ll take a moment to answer 3 questions, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win a $250 gift card.”

Or you could make it more personal if doing so fits your voice:

“I haven’t showered or washed the dishes for three days because my eyes are glued to the screen, waiting for your feedback. I don’t mean to be pushy, but if you don’t fill out this survey soon, my partner/spouse/roommate is going to evict me.”

Personalized Email Segmentation Strategies

Segmentation is just as important in survey emails as it is in marketing. Here's a guide to creating a segmented survey in four steps:

1. Divide your questions into categories

2. Determine which categories are most relevant to each of your segments

3. Create a different survey for each category

4. Send the surveys most appropriate for each segment 

Using a Thank-You Page at the End of the Survey

It doesn’t take much effort to create a thank-you page that opens up when a reader finishes your survey and clicks “Submit.”

Thank-you pages show the reader that you appreciate their effort, and also have the psychological benefit of giving your reader a sense of completion.

A thank-you page at the end of the survey also provides several practical opportunities. For example, it gives you a convenient way to deliver the incentives you promised for the survey. Your thank-you page could include an embedded video, a download link, or a coupon code.

In the same way, your thank-you page can generate more goodwill by including an unannounced bonus for readers who complete the survey. 

If you were the guest on a podcast or you have a video of a talk you gave, you can link or embed this content in your thank-you page to deepen your relationship with your readers.

You can also use your thank-you page as an opportunity to cross-promote. You can include a link to a special offer for a product the reader hasn’t tried yet. 

However, this cross-promotion should be subtle. You don't want to make the survey look like a cheap marketing trick.

Analyzing and Acting on Survey Results

Hopefully, the responses to your survey will help you make important decisions. It’s also possible the results will raise new questions.

What you do after you close the survey may be more important than the creation and delivery of the survey itself.

Following Up: The Key to Closing the Feedback Loop

Share the survey results with your readers. This extra transparency builds trust. More importantly, it shows your readers that you are listening and their opinions matter. 

By sharing your results, you’ll also encourage those who didn't answer the survey to do so in the future.

Maximizing Engagement Through Follow-Up

You can share your survey results as the rationale for any changes you're making that your readers are going to notice right away.

For example, you might say, “An overwhelming number of readers asked for XYZ, and so starting next month, we are doing XYZ. You have spoken, and your words matter to us.”

Analyzing Survey Data for Actionable Insights

The information you gather from your survey is only valuable if it can become the basis for taking action or making important decisions.

Using analytics will help you to get the most insights from your survey. Analyzing the results of your survey will help you answer three types of questions:

• What is happening?

• Why is this happening?

• What can we do about it?

If you’ve asked very specific questions with Yes/No or multiple choice answers, your survey will give you data you can quickly analyze to make changes in your newsletter or business.

However, if you leave space for open questions, you may stumble upon a new insight or idea you hadn't planned on. This could lead to innovations, or at least some thoughtful discussion.

The key is setting up your survey to get the kind of data you want.

Leveraging Data for Survey Improvement

In addition to the responses themselves, other forms of useful data will emerge from your survey.

For example, the usual metrics such as open rates and various indicators of engagement can help you improve surveys in the future.

Consider split-testing the surveys to see if shorter questions or fewer questions hit the sweet spot for getting the desired data and maximizing participation.

Now, let’s talk about the biggest lever for maximizing participation.

The Most Important Email Survey Tool

If you want to run a successful email survey, don’t forget the most important element—an email list of engaged readers.

Even if you only do one survey a year, maximizing the number and quality of your subscribers is a critical part of the process.

The more responses your survey gets, the more accurate the data. This means a large readership is better than a small one. 

So you’ll be glad to hear that beehiiv offers one of the most generous cost-per-reader pricing structures on the internet, with up to 2,500 contacts for free. 

There are many email service platforms, but we recommend beehiiv for several reasons beyond price.

Most importantly, beehiiv comes with a suite of tech tools to help you at every step, from the creation of your email to the analysis of the results. 

While sending hundreds of millions of emails each year, beehiiv has maintained a delivery rate of more than 97%. 

Using beehiiv gives you access to automation and segmentation so you can give your subscribers the exact type of content they want while freeing up more time to work on your business or other pursuits.

Our 3D Analytics™ helps you to quickly evaluate the effectiveness of your emails while uncovering new opportunities and catching minor issues before they become serious.

When it comes to email surveys, beehiiv’s native one-click polls let you embed your survey questions right in the email so you can maximize your reader’s participation. 

If your business would benefit from a large, fast-growing list of subscribers, then start your beehiiv newsletter today.