Whenever you’re looking to send out a survey email, it’s important to get it right. Here are the 10 best tips for creating effective survey emails.
Whenever you’re looking to send out a survey email, it’s important to get it right. Here are the 10 best tips for creating effective survey emails.
Using an email platform to survey is one of the most effective ways we as business owners can gather important data from our audiences.
Recent advances in digital marketing technology have allowed us to do more with less. Utilizing free emailing platforms in conjunction with digital surveys is a cost-effective way business owners can ask their customers the important questions. Questions like:
And so on.
In this article, we’ll touch on the main points as to why we should be using survey emails to research our audiences. Then, we will give you the top 10 tips that will help you develop your emails before you send out that all important survey invitation.
Email surveys are any questions we ask our customers to answer through email. The topics of these surveys are wide and varied; we can use email surveys to tackle many issues that are relevant to our business. Customer satisfaction, net promoter score, post-purchase user experience surveys - these types of questions can be easily integrated into our marketing emails to improve our response rates.
A customer service metric is a way of measuring how our consumers feel about the quality of our products, our services, our business, and our brand. There are many different metrics that we can use as tools to improve the way we do business for the better.
Our Net Promoter Score tells us how likely our customers are to recommend our business. This tool is a great way to evaluate the quality of our CX; it also allows us to determine who our most loyal and enthusiastic customers are.
Detractors (0-6) are unlikely to promote or recommend our business. In the worst cases, they may even seek to drive customers away from our business by sharing negative reviews about us. It can be hard to win these people back over to our side, but not impossible. However, our efforts are often best spent concentrating on the latter two groups.
Passives (7-8) are people who often feel neutral or mildly positive about our product or service. They might claim they will recommend our product, but they are likely lacking in the enthusiasm necessary to do so.
Promoters (9-10) are customers who share overwhelmingly positive sentiment towards our brand. They are our most loyal consumers, and are active in promoting our brand online and through word-of-mouth marketing.
We calculate our NPS score by taking the percentage of customers in the Promoter category, and subtract them by the percentage of customers in the Detractor category.
As business owners, we should be aiming for anywhere between a 80 - 90 NPS score. That being said, this is a lofty goal - something to strive for. Scores ranging from 60 - 70 are respectable, and normal. We can always be working to improve the efficiency of our systems and our ability to meet the needs of our customers.
There is no one perfect template that can be used to serve all of your email surveying needs. It’s vital that you’re designing your email survey with the tastes and values of your consumers in mind.
Avoid using cliche or spam-my subject lines that try to “trick” your audiences into opening. We want to not only draw their attention to our email - we want to do so in a way that treats them with respect, and value their time.
If your surveys do not have a clear and immediate deadline, then your customers will not be motivated to answer your survey. It’s important to find that line between too-much and too-little time; usually 3-7 days max for a post-purchase customer experience or satisfaction email survey. For longer research surveys, plan your deadlines accordingly.
Your subject line is one of the most crucial elements of your email, so you need to get it right. Avoid using emoji, all-caps, or anything else that can be seen as unprofessional or get your email filtered into the spam folder.
Be direct, be confident, and be relevant. If you’re having a sale, tell your customers in the subject line. If you’ve got a new product offer, show your customers how excited you are in your email subject lines - just don’t go too overboard.
Customers love incentives - even if they’re only technically chances at incentives.
If you’re not willing to shell out the money necessary to pay your audiences to answer questions, then consider offering them entry into a raffle if they submit their survey. A chance to win something as small as a $50 gift card could be enough to push a sizable chunk of your email list to respond. Who doesn’t love free money?
In our current digital climate, mobile phones are the dominant platform for the vast majority of customers - especially when it comes to checking their emails. Any additional barriers you put in between your survey and the customer dramatically reduces your chances of getting a response; best practices require that you make sure to invest the time and energy into properly formatting your survey for mobile devices.
Sending your emails at the proper time of day can make or break the effectiveness of your email research campaign.
How do we know what the best time of day there is to send an email invitation?
We can run some tests to determine what periods of the day our audiences are most active by looking at the open rate of our emails. We can even look at the effectiveness of our previous email campaigns to see when our customers are usually online.
Typically, the best time of day to send emails is in the morning hours - when people are at work, at their desks, and on their computers. That being said, it is always best to do the research beforehand.
One of the best ways we can reduce the sample errors in our surveys is by using multiple emails to conduct our surveying, as opposed to just a one-time email invitation.
If we send out notices to our audiences ahead of time informing them of our upcoming survey, then they will be more receptive to answering it when they see the link arrive in their email. We can also use follow-up emails after the initial survey launch to remind our audiences to answer, and to address any of their concerns regarding the test.
Instead of thrusting a link to your survey front and center in your email, consider giving your audience a brief description of what you’re asking them to do. Giving them a briefing on the what/why of your survey (“We want to hear your thoughts” or “We’re taking your ideas”) makes them already feel invested in your research before they even complete the survey.
Your customer’s inbox is likely filled with dozens, if not hundreds of unread emails - many of them from your competitors, or other retailers vying for their valuable attention. Thus, it’s important to be realistic when deciding on the length of your survey.
One question is great, and if possible you should keep your questions to a minimum. A customer might be very willing to answer 5 short questions about their recent digital subscription service; they may be less willing to answer 20 questions about the fast food meal they just purchased.
Perhaps the most vital tip we can share with you - pick the surveying tool that is going to work best with your business.
When you’re looking at existing digital surveying platforms, there are many to choose from - but not all of them are going to be able to give you what you’re looking for. You’re going to want to visit a couple different platforms, and compare how each system stacks up on the merits of:
Doing at least a little bit of research in this regard is going to bring you the best results when it ultimately comes time for you to send out that perfect email survey.
Helpfull is the premiere surveying software for anyone looking to get the most out of their survey emails. With a vast variety of different question types to choose from, Helpfull surveys can be generated and delivered to thousands of panelists in minutes.
These are just some of the features that make Helpfull a must-have tool for those looking for quality customer feedback:
With Helpfull’s open-ended survey design, users can design visually-striking, multi-question surveys for any occasion!
A simple survey could be all that stands between your company and the renewed success of it’s online marketing efforts.
An intuitive user-interface, coupled with the ability to gather hundreds of consumer responses in just minutes, are just a few of the features that make Helpfull the ultimate tool for any artist, designer, marketer, or inquisitive spirit.
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Likert scale surveys are a reliable way to collect valuable customer data. Learn how we can use the scale to generate feedback for our business insights.
To get the most out of your marketing, target your efforts at defined market segments. Online surveys help to identify how to meet your consumer’s needs.
Quick or instant surveys are research tools used to gain immediate feedback on questions or designs. Learn what instant surveying can do for your business.
A sampling error represents a deviation in sampled audience versus the overall population. These errors are common - but there are ways we can avoid them.
Helpfull is the easiest way to get feedback from thousands of people in minutes. Our online focus group platform provides a pool of qualified panelists to give you their real detailed opinions helping you make better, more informed decisions.