Have you ever wanted to know what your clients think of you or your products? The easiest way to get a definitive answer is to ask them. The email marketing survey is just the right tool for this task. Not only can you use it to get feedback, but you can also shape it to collect opinions and other types of crucial data from your target market. We show you how to harness the power of this tool in this step-by-step guide.
What to Know About Email Marketing Surveys
You can use an email marketing survey to collect feedback from your clients, conduct research on your target market, review the effectiveness of your previous marketing campaigns, or engage your audience through casual conversations about topics that interest them. For example, if you want to know if people like the checkout experience, you can send them a survey about it.
On the upside, surveys are cost-effective, help you reach more people at the tap of a button, allow your target audience to respond to the questions at their convenience, and offer measurable data that you can use to make calculated marketing decisions. However, they present some unique challenges that you need to consider before sending out any links. For one, it's not always easy to get people to click on surveys, especially when there is no incentive, e.g., a raffle. Secondly, too many surveys or too many questions on a survey can result in low engagement. And thirdly, respondents often have concerns about their data privacy, which is something you must factor in if you are to encourage them to offer their input.
Crafting an Effective Survey
A good email marketing survey has a high response rate, offers you actionable insights, is flexible in terms of response time, has specific questions, and is highly engaging. So, how can you hit all these points?
Know Your Goal
Your target audience probably receives a large number of survey requests in a day. So, the last thing they want is a long survey or one whose questions seem to jump from one topic to the other. You can keep things simple by being clear about your goal from the start. For example, if you are measuring feedback regarding overall satisfaction with your business, you can focus on the core areas and leave out the minute aspects.
Select a Reliable Survey Tool
Many organizations offer survey tools designed to meet various needs. What you choose will depend on several factors, including the size of your target population, what kind of data you are collecting, if you wish to customize the overall survey appearance, how much data analysis you need, and your marketing budget. Given that surveys are continuous marketing activities, it's best to choose a tool that you can use in the long term.
Come Up With Questions
While you do not want to overwhelm your target audience, you also do not want to collect such little data that you cannot analyze it well enough to use the results for predictions and projections. So, how do you find the sweet spot?
- Vary the questions. Instead of using only multiple-choice questions, work in variations such as open-ended sections and Likert scales. This variation increases engagement.
- Be clear and simple. Unless you are catering to a niche audience that is well-versed in technical matters, use general terms that people can easily understand.
- Cap your questions. The type of survey will influence the number of questions you need. For example, a customer feedback survey should have anywhere from 5 to 10 questions, while a market research survey should average 10 to 20 questions.
Craft the Email
Your survey may have easy questions that people can answer in just five minutes. But how do you get the email recipients to pay attention to it?
- Use a convincing subject line. People decide whether to open an email based on the first few words they see. Make them count.
- Refer to people by name. Recipients respond better when they receive emails addressed to them by name. Where such data is available, use it.
- Follow through with an engaging email body. State your case by explaining why you are carrying out a survey and how the feedback helps your cause.
- Attach the survey. Some survey tools allow you to embed the survey, while others require you to share the link as they use a redirect approach. Whatever the case, include a call to action that points out the survey or its link.
Note: People respond better when they have something to gain, e.g., a shopping voucher.
Finally, test the survey by sending the email to yourself and other people in the team to check if it's working as expected. If all is good, you can share it with the target audience, sit back, and start collecting the data that will help you shape your marketing in the long run.