Many companies ask their customers for feedback with email surveys, often after they've received a product or provided a service. Ideally, your customers will see your request, open the email survey, and provide their feedback.
Although the process sounds simple, in practice there are many different approaches you can try to get your customer to open the email in the first place. The most important thing is the subject line of the email survey. Below are 7 proven strategies for designing email survey subject lines that can help you increase open rates and the number of completed surveys.
Importance of the subject line of an email survey
Email subject line is the second most important influencer of email open rates. With email surveys, it's arguably the most important factor that you refine over time.
The average response rate for all channels (in person, via app, via SMS text, etc.) is estimated to be 33%. Delighted's benchmark response rate for email surveys is around 15%.
When it comes to email survey response rates (calculated as the percentage of people who answer your survey), a second factor plays a role: whether people open the email at all.
Several factors can influence whether someone opens your email survey: Emojis in the subject line, the length of the subject line, the use of Unicode special characters, and more.
Below are some recommendations on how to write a perfect survey email subject line to increase response rates.
7 tips to improve email survey subject lines
1. Keep your email survey subject line under 60 characters
Most people scan their email inboxes. So the clearer and more concise your subject line is, the better it is for your open rate.
Also keep in mind that about 60% of emails are opened on cell phones. That is, the shorter the text, the more likely it is to be fully displayed on the smartphone screen.
A perfect subject line usually consists of up to 60 characters. The ideal number of words for an email subject line is up to 6. A longer subject line decreases the open rate.
Most important point: make your subject line as short as possible.
2. Convey emotion with tone of voice so your subject line stands out
Usefulness, generosity, friendliness – your email survey should be in the same tone as the rest of your marketing communications. If you want to be friendly to your customers, the subject line is the best place to convey that feeling.
Like? Use appropriate vocabulary. Let the subject line shine, or embrace it with warmth. In some cases, don't be afraid to make your subject lines a little more informal or funny.
Words like "Premium" or "Exclusive" Can be overused and exaggerated abstractions. Delete it without regret.
Instead of completing the survey and winning a reward offer , try to help us get better&&
Most important point: be creative and lively – your customers need to feel a human touch in your emails.
3. Use the subject line to offer an incentive
Unlike the previous point, this is more about presenting a benefit to your audience. If people know exactly what they'll get when they interact with your email, they'll be more willing to comply with your request.
Letting your customers know they'll receive a promo code for completing the survey or be entered into a drawing can help you get the feedback you need to improve retention, satisfaction, and other factors that are important to your customer service strategy.
A subject line that includes an incentive can be compelling on its own, but it's even more compelling when combined with the other strategies mentioned in this post.
Remember that your survey completion message should inform your customers how to redeem the promised offer. If you e.g. An email survey with the subject line "Anna, 10% off for your contribution" send the customers a discount code as soon as they complete the survey.
Most important point: If you need valuable feedback from customers, at least thank them for their input. However, it is even more effective if you give them something in return.
4. Personalize the subject line of the email
There are many ways to personalize an email, and it definitely goes beyond using the subscriber's name in the subject line. For example, the proper use of geospatial data can help you create a location-based message that improves open rates. Segment the email list by country, or even better, by city, so you can create geographically sensitive emails.
Hobbies and preferences can also be helpful. If you gather additional information about your customers and segment them, you can significantly improve personalization.
- No personalization: we need your feedback
- Traditional personalization: John, please share your opinion with us
- Enhanced personalization: John, did you like our business in London?
In truth, it is not an easy task to compose hyperpersonalized messages and subject lines. You need to collect all the necessary details about your customers and keep them updated. Learn more about email personalization tactics and see examples here.
Most important point: add a personal touch to subject lines to intrigue your customers.
5. Add a deadline to emphasize a sense of urgency
Consider how much your time is worth to you and how often you prioritize tasks by deadline and value. The same is true for your customers, and you can use this in your favor. Even when customers open your survey email, they may only look through it briefly and file it away as something they need to do later.
It's a good idea to include a deadline for survey participation and combine it with an offer: One more day to participate in a survey and receive a promo code.
Use urgency sparingly in subject lines and only when it is constructive: e.g. When a survey reward is valuable enough for the recipient to act immediately. If you use this tactic too often, it will become trivial to your users.
Most important point: experiment with emphasizing urgency in your subject lines.
6. Avoid spam words
Each email service has a built-in spam filter that measures the reliability of each message. This filter analyzes technical factors (authentication records, URL filtering, etc.).) if you are sending personal messages or mass emails. Spam filters analyze the triggering words in the subject lines.
Carefully choosing the subject line is a must to reach customers. Every time you write a survey email, check the subject line for spam marker words.
Some common spam triggers are "free, $, urgent, act now". For more spam words, click here.
Most important point: remove clicky spam words from the subject lines of your survey emails.
7. Ask a question in the subject line
Engage your customers right at the beginning by asking them a question about their last interaction with you.
At Delighted, our preferred subject lines get right to the point by making the survey's initial question the subject line:
- How likely are you to use.
- How satisfied were you with.
This way, email recipients will know in advance exactly what the email is about.
You can also try changing the question to see how your customers respond: A small survey? or How do you like our service?
These questions are easy to answer and implicitly let customers know that your survey is short. Even better, Delighted captures the score even if customers only answer the first question in the email, even if they don't complete the rest of the survey.
Most important point: use a quick and simple question to tease your customers and motivate them to answer your survey.
How you should test subject lines
Your email testing checklist should include tools that allow you to A/B test your subject lines.
For split testing, set up two variations of subject lines. You send option A to half of the test group, and option B to the second. Then monitor your email marketing statistics, especially open rates, and use the subject line that performs best.
Some quick tips for A/B test emails:
- Send the A/B test to only a subset of your email audience. If you have a statistically significant result or a clear frontrunner, send the winning subject line to the rest of your audience.
- When determining a winner, also consider the email's click-through rate. Finally, your goal is to get customers to take an action based on your email, not just have them open it.
Split tests can include more than two segments. This approach is very helpful in figuring out which of the above enhancement tactics (or combination of them) will work best for you. Plus, it's not a resource-intensive approach.
The subject line is the first thing a user sees when they receive an email from you. We hope the approaches mentioned in this post will help you increase your email open rates and get the feedback you need.