Emails have a remarkable ROI. Statistics mention that marketers send 2-3 emails per day. The ROI counts at $36 for every 1 email. In this day and age, email surveys still remain a lucrative platform to communicate with your customers. In this blog, we will discuss how to create an email survey that generates engagement among respondents.
What Is An Email Survey?
An email survey is a method of collecting feedback from customers through email. It involves sending a survey directly to a customer’s inbox. These surveys are shared after a specific interaction, such as after a purchase, a customer service call, or a product trial. The goal is to gather insights into the customer’s experience, satisfaction, and preferences with the products or services.
The benchmark response rate for email surveys is around 10-15%. However, this can vary depending on several factors, including the quality of the survey questions, the length of the survey, and the email subject line.
Types of Email Surveys
There are three types of email surveys: emails with survey links, HTML surveys, and AMP surveys.
Emails with survey links
Emails with survey links are the most common type of email survey. These are simple emails sent with a URL to a survey page. The survey link can be embedded in the email as a button or simply as a link. When you click the link, a browser window directs the link to the survey page.
Advantages
- Easy to create.
- Can be sent to a large group of customers quickly.
- Can be embedded in the email as a separate link.
Disadvantages
- Limited design options.
- Low survey response rates as it forces the respondent to leave their inbox and go to a webpage to answer a survey.
- Emails with survey links tend to have low engagement rates and consequently leads to low survey response rates.
A survey invitation email should encourage customers to complete your survey. It should have a clear and concise subject line, personalized salutation and a brief introduction explaining the survey purpose. Include the type of feedback required, details about incentives (if any), a clear call-to-action and a friendly closing line thanking the customer for their time. Emphasize the importance of customer feedback, and a professional signature with contact information. Pay special attention to the email subject lines as they have a direct bearing on the email open rate. The email should be engaging, easy to understand, and encourage more customers to complete the survey.
HTML email survey
HTML email surveys are surveys that are embedded in the email using HTML code. They are more visually appealing than emails with survey links, and can include images and branding.
Like with the email with survey link, the HTML survey takes the respondent to a webpage. This webpage can have a thank you message or more questions to answer. The key difference from a normal survey email with a link is that the response to the first question is recorded before the webpage loads.
Due to this, HTML email surveys are getting increasingly popular for Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys.
Advantages:
- More visually appealing than emails with survey links which leads to higher engagement.
- Can include images and branding.
- Captures response to the critical metrics from within the inbox.
- Can be more difficult to create.
- Risk of low response rates due to survey fatigue.
- Forces the respondent to leave their inbox and go to a webpage.
- Many email clients block HTML elements by default which leads to incomplete rendering of the email.
AMP email survey
AMP surveys use the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) framework developed by Google. AMP email allows for interactive and dynamic content to be delivered directly to a user’s inbox. The email contents are highly interactive and people can respond within the email body. It does not get directed to an external web page.
AMP Emails can have complete surveys embedded in them and can include features like conditional logic, real-time validation, and interactive elements like sliders and buttons. AMP email surveys work best for a variety of objectives including NPS survey and customer satisfaction survey.
Advantages
- Can include interactive elements such as sliders and dropdowns.
- Presence of interactive and dynamic content makes surveys more conversational, engaging and add personalization thereby increasing survey responses.
- Designed to load quickly on mobile devices.
- Customers can answer the entire survey without leaving the inbox.
- AMP emails enjoy the best response rate amongst the three kinds of email surveys, especially for a short survey leading to better data collection
- AMP embedded surveys can be more difficult to create.
- Not supported by all email clients. However, in cases where the recipient of the email uses a client that does not support AMP emails, a fall back of HTML is used (i.e. the recipient sees an HTML email survey instead of AMP).
How to Create Email with Survey Links?
Creating an email survey is easy. Here are the steps to follow:
- Choose a survey tool: There are many survey tools available, including Merren. Choose one that fits your needs and budget.
- Write your survey questions: Write clear and concise questions that are easy for your customers to understand.
- Design your survey: Choose a design that matches your branding and appeals to your customers.
- Test your survey: Test your survey to make sure it works correctly and is easy to complete.
- Send your survey: Send your survey to your customers via email.
How to Create HTML Surveys?
HTML surveys are a great way to make your survey visually appealing and on-brand. Here are the steps to create an HTML survey:
- Choose an email survey tool: Choose an email survey tool that supports HTML surveys like Merren.
- Write your survey questions: Write clear and concise questions that are easy for your customers to understand. You can create it from scratch or use an email template. Merren also allows users to leverage the power of artificial intelligence to create a survey.
- Design your survey: Use a drag-and-drop editor to design your survey. Some email survey tools offer pre-designed templates that you can customize to match your branding.
- Add branding: Add your branding to your survey by including your logo, brand colors, and font.
- Test your survey: Test your survey to make sure it works correctly and is easy to complete.
- Send your survey: Send your survey to your customers via email.
How to Create an AMP Email Survey?
AMP email surveys offer an interactive experience for customers within their email client. Here’s how to create an AMP email survey:
- Choose an email survey tool: Choose an email survey tool that supports AMP email survey like Merren.
- Write your survey questions: Write clear and concise questions that are easy for your customers to understand. You can create it from scratch or use an email template. Merren also allows users to leverage the power of artificial intelligence to create a survey.
- Design your survey: Use a drag-and-drop editor to design your survey. AMP email surveys are built using HTML and AMP components. If needed, add your company name and logo
- Add interactive elements: Add interactive elements like sliders, drop-down menus, and buttons to make your survey more engaging.
- Test your survey: Test your survey to make sure it works correctly and is easy to complete.
- Send your survey: Send your survey to your customers via email.
AMP email surveys provide a more interactive and engaging experience for customers, but they can be more complex to create than HTML surveys. If you don’t have experience with AMP and HTML, consider hiring a developer or using a tool that offers pre-designed templates.
Best Practices to Optimize Your Email Surveys For High Survey Response
Creating an email survey is only half the battle. The other half is getting your customers to actually complete the survey. Here are some tips to optimize your email surveys and increase your response rates:
- Keep it short: Shorter surveys tend to have higher completion rates. Stick to the most important questions and keep your survey to 5-10 questions if possible.
- Keep it engaging and relevant: Keep your target audience in mind when creating a survey especially when choosing languages, question types, channels of distribution and survey completion. Personalization goes a long way in making respondents feel valued
- Offer an incentive: Offering an incentive like a discount, gift card, or a free trial can motivate customers to complete your survey.
- Personalize your emails: Personalize your emails with your customers’ names and use a friendly and conversational tone.
- Optimize for mobile: Ensure your email survey is optimized for mobile devices. Most people check their email on their mobile devices, so your survey should be easy to complete on a small screen.
- Use a clear call-to-action: Use a clear and compelling call-to-action in your email to encourage customers to complete your survey.
- Send reminders: Send a follow-up email to customers who haven’t completed your survey. Be polite and thank them for their time.
- Analyze your results: Use a tool like Merren to analyze your survey results and identify areas where you can improve your products and services.
Conclusion
Embedded email surveys are an effective tool for collecting valuable feedback from your audience. They enable you to create targeted surveys that are sent directly to your survey respondents. This brings a higher response rate and more accurate data. Are you ready to start embedding survey questions in your emails? Sign up for a 14 day free trial with Merren today.
