Mini-Guide To Sending Surveys In Emails In 2021

In-mail surveys are going to become a lot more important in 2021 as we see digital transformation accelerate. The pandemic has pushed for broader acceptance of online ecosystems, a phenomenon often quoted by tech leaders like Satya Nadella. Email marketing will also witness a larger role in the upcoming days as even the most not so savvy internet users have an email address.

People check their inbox as frequently as 15 times a day and consider it more personal than any other medium. Thus, you can use it to directly ask your subscribers questions and gain valuable insights that couldn’t be gathered using any amount of personalization. Today, I will discuss how you can send surveys in emails and how you can go beyond the ROI to leverage your mailing list.

What Are Email Surveys And Why Should I Send One

Technically, an email-based survey needs adding a few lines of codes inside your HTML email template. Your email developers can easily do the coding for you, but it requires a strategic outlook before asking your subscribers to answer a few questions. First of all, you should send surveys in emails only when you cannot gather those insights using simple personalization.

You should send in-mail surveys to understand their aspirational sides, what they like in your brand, and what they want to see from your brand and products. You should look for insights that will help you shape your products, organization, and business outlook with the help of your most ‘engaged’ customers.

Step-By-Step Method To Sending Surveys Inside Your Emails

In this section, we will learn how to send surveys in emails from scratch. Even if you are an experienced email marketer, this will help you brush off the basics and rethink your strategy:

#1 Put Down The Data You Are Looking Forward To Collecting

Firstly, have a clear outcome in mind before starting to work on a survey. Right answers come from the right questions asked to the right people. It should be narrowed down to serving one specific goal to help you in the decision-making process as an independent variable.

On the other hand, you can also use it as an opportunity to gather feedback from your existing customers. Surveys are often used for getting user reviews by ecommerce brands as they also help fetch social proof along with feedbacks like in this case:

#2 Identify The Segments That Will Give Real Insights That You Build Up On

Here’s the truth: The open rate for emails lies between 15 to 25%, and the average CTR is almost 2.5%. Thus, you will need segmentation to understand which subscribers are most likely to open and fill out your survey forms.

Go with your most engaged segments that consist of frequent and long-term buyers. When sending surveys inside emails, you should go for quality over quantity. Have a look at Yelp’s example:

#3 Select The Questions That Will Help Fulfill Your Purpose + How It Benefits Readers

Once you have successfully identified the prospective segments and your end goal, you will need a set of questions to describe the required datasets. Build the ideal components of this dataset to convert these required data components into bare minimum questions. Next, wrap them in a UI that doesn’t look bothersome.

You may have to send the email twice or thrice with minor tweaks for getting an optimal response. I recommend assuring the participants of a reward as this boosts their willingness to participate. This is especially needed if you’re going to add a link to the landing page instead of adding questions inside the email like in this example:

#4 Create Compelling Copy And Subject Line For Your In-Mail Survey

Many marketers get so consumed in perfecting their surveys that they forget the email copy and subject lines. Before your surveys get any engagement, your emails need to get attention from your subscribers. Don’t forget to put in efforts for the subject line and email copy.

I would like to share this example from Ubisoft, where they have crafted a catchy subject line (“The Assassin’s Creed Odyssey team values your opinion!”), and their overall copy  is also quite engaging. Focusing on the user experience is a must as it will make subscribers feel like stakeholders.

#5 Share Results Within Due Timeline And Show Gratitude

It is important to share the results with your participating subscribers, even if you send them their promised gifts. Without getting a conclusion to their efforts of filling up the survey form, they aren’t going to participate next time.

Always use beautiful email templates to share the results. You can also use a tone to help your readers understand different points of view, product utilizing methods, and even highlight some rare opinions. The below example strikes all the right chords as you can see:

Summing Up

Sending surveys within emails is undoubtedly an essential part of benefiting from your email subscribers, but it’s slightly different from transactional/promotional emails. Instead of being the right brand emailing subscribers at the right time, you need to find the right subscribers to ask the right questions. If you follow the steps mentioned in this mini-guide, I reckon your email surveys will fetch great responses in 2021.