Email surveys are one of the most effective ways to gather feedback from your customers. The data collected from surveys can help you make informed decisions about your product, service, or brand. With email surveys, you can easily analyze the data you receive and get valuable insights from your customers.

In this blog, we will cover everything you need to know about email surveys. From what they are to the types of email surveys and their advantages and disadvantages, we will guide you through it all. We will also show you where different kinds of email surveys can be used and provide step-by-step instructions on how to create an email with a survey link, an HTML email survey, and an AMP email survey. By the end of the blog, you will be well-equipped to create effective email surveys that deliver optimal response rates.

What is an email survey?

Asking for feedback is essential for any business that wants to understand its customers better. Email surveys are one of the popular ways to collect customer feedback or insights via email.

Email surveys are surveys that are sent to customers via email to gather feedback. They can be used for various purposes, including customer satisfaction, product feedback, market research, and more. They are popular because they are easy to create, cost-effective, and can reach a large audience quickly.

Email surveys are a simple and efficient way to collect data and analyze customer responses. The advantage of email surveys is that they can be sent as embedded links, buttons, or hyperlinks to redirect respondents to the survey page or with embedded questions in the email itself.. This means that analysis is easy as data can be tracked, respondents can be reminded to fill the surveys, and different data filters can be applied to analyze the data better.

They can be designed with open-ended questions, close-ended questions, and multiple standard and advanced question types. Embedded surveys are the best choice if there’s only one question as respondents can answer directly in the email body, which reduces the time required to complete a survey. Overall, email surveys can be an effective tool for businesses to collect customer feedback and use it to improve their products and services.

Email surveys are best used when you want to gather feedback from a large group of customers. Integrating email surveys with the CRM, automation can be used to collect feedback. Email surveys are particularly useful for businesses that want to improve their customer experience or product offerings. Email surveys can help you identify areas where you need to improve, and can also help you understand what your customers like and dislike about your business.

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 Survey

There are three types of email surveys: emails with survey links, HTML surveys, and AMP surveys. Let’s understand what each one is and how they can be used for feedback survey

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. They are easy to create and can be sent to a large group of customers quickly. The survey link can be embedded in the email as a button or simply as a link. When the link is clicked, a browser window opens and the survey page opens.

Emails with survey links are the most common type of email surveys. In this case, emails are technically used as a survey invitation rather than the survey itself. This distinction leads to several advantages and disadvantages

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 be crafted carefully to encourage customers to complete your survey. It should have a clear and concise subject line, personalized salutation, brief introduction explaining the survey purpose, a description of the survey with the number of questions and the type of feedback sought, details about incentives (if any), a clear call-to-action, a friendly closing thanking the customer for their time and emphasizing the importance of their feedback, and a professional signature with contact information. Special attention needs to be paid 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 survey 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, when the HTML survey is answered, it 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 link is that the response to the first question is recorded before the webpage loads.

Due to this, HTML Email survey are getting increasingly popular for Net Promoter Score (NPS) and customer satisfaction (CSAT) surveys where the first question tends to be most important (one that ask for NPS or CSAT score) while rest of the questions (reasons for the score, component/ feature level scores etc) are good to have but not as critical.

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

Disadvantages

• 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 are surveys that 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. This allows businesses to provide a more engaging experience for their customers while increasing the likelihood that their email messages will be opened, read, and engaged with.

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. Unlike with the other email surveys, the AMP survey email is answered completely from within the inbox. 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 survey 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

Disadvantages

• AMP embedded survey an 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.

HTML surveys are more visually appealing than emails with survey links, but they can be more difficult to create. If you don’t have experience with HTML and CSS, consider hiring a designer or using pre-designed templates.

How to Create AMP Email Survey

AMP email survey 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 survey 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.

By optimizing your email surveys, you can increase your response rates and get more valuable feedback from your customers. Remember to keep your surveys short, personalize your emails, and use a clear call-to-action to encourage customers to complete your survey.

Conclusion

In conclusion, 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 subscribers’ inboxes. This helps ensure a higher response rate and more accurate data. A well-crafted email survey can provide easy-to-analyze results, helping you make better business decisions. Are you ready to start embedding survey questions in your emails? Check out our comprehensive guide on the different types of email surveys and their advantages and disadvantages, along with step-by-step instructions for creating effective surveys that increase response rates.

Using Merren to Create AMP/HTML Email Surveys

Merren is a customer feedback tool that allows businesses to create AMP and HTML email surveys with ease. Here’s how to use Merren to create AMP/HTML email surveys:

• Sign up for Merren: Go to the Merren website and sign up for an account.
• Create a survey: Choose the type of survey you want to create (AMP or HTML) and use the Merren drag-and-drop editor to design your survey.
• Add branding: Add your branding to your survey by including your logo, brand colors, and font.
• Add interactive elements: Add interactive elements like sliders, drop-down menus, and buttons to make your survey more engaging.
• Customize your email: Use Merren’s email editor to customize your email, including the subject line, body text, and call-to-action.
• Choose your audience: Select the audience you want to send your survey to. You can choose to send your survey to a specific segment of your customer base or to your entire email list.
• Send your survey: Once you’re satisfied with your survey and email design, send your survey to your customers via email.

Merren makes it easy to create and send engaging AMP/HTML email surveys that are optimized for high response rates. The platform offers a range of customization options and supports multiple channels, including email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, chatbots, and in-app surveys, among others. With Merren, businesses can get real-time feedback from their customers and gain valuable insights to improve their products and services.