The customer knows best (usually), and what better way to get their feedback than with survey emails? In-email surveys let you collect valuable insights from your recipients without sending them through a loophole of links. Recipients just enter their information into a built-in interactive form, and shazam—you have valuable survey data.
Building a survey email can be tricky, though. How many questions should you ask? Should it be simple and bland or cutesy and on-brand?
Rather than supplying you with our opinions, we decided to let the pros do the talking. Below, we've compiled a collection of our favorite survey email examples. These range from no-frills surveys to custom-made illustrations and color-coded responses.
None of the survey email examples below are necessarily better than another—each just speaks better to a different audience and brand. Use these ideas to help create your survey email templates.
A pop of color can help your email survey stand out in a crowded inbox. Insurify keeps it simple with this survey email example, making its message short and sweet with a click-to-respond, single-question survey.
Insurify also adds a little bit of branding with its background illustrations. Consider doing the same for your brand by adding little touches of color and imagery that correspond with the products or services you provide. If you have a brand mascot, that’s even better.
There’s probably not a lot of actionable data from this survey, but it serves as a great example of using surveys for engagement and entertainment. WYR’s illustrations make it fun and playful, alongside the visual answers.
Plus, WYR follows email survey best practices by sharing results with its participants. If you’re going to ask for feedback from your following, show them that you’re listening. Tell them what you do with the data you collect, and give them insights into the answers you find.
At first glance, this survey might seem like a fun way for Handy to engage its audience. However, survey responses could also help tailor recipients' email preferences so that the company can send more customer-relevant emails in the future. Handy keeps it simple with 1 question and 4 answers, making it straightforward for customers to answer quickly and move on with their day.
It also does a great job here of incentivizing participation, starting with adding a large headline at the top promising participants a chance at a 40% discount. Finally, Handy offers an incentive that can often push on-the-fence customers over the finish line to participate.
This simple email from Amazon helps the brand nail down its sizing recommendations—and it succeeds, keeping things simple with a single question instead of trying to do too much. Amazon also uses a picture of the product as a reminder to customers of what they bought, as opposed to just using text or asking a customer to click a link.
You could use the same format to survey customers about your products. Ask a single question and keep the available answers limited. And while you might want more qualitative data, you’ll get far fewer responses if you ask an open-ended question rather than a straightforward one like the survey email examples did here.
It doesn’t get any simpler than this: yes or no, good or bad, thumbs up or thumbs down. Netflix can learn a lot from this answer, and it won’t take customers more than a second to consider their responses and input their feedback.
Notice how Netflix tells the recipient how it’ll use their response data. It’s not just for learning if viewers watch the video or not: “The more you rate, the more we can suggest programmes and films you might like.” This insight incentivizes respondents to answer, knowing their input will positively influence their experience on Netflix moving forward.
Rather than asking about a specific product feature or experience, Bellroy keeps it simple and asks, “How likely is it that you will recommend Bellroy to a friend?” Customers don’t have to recall their likes or dislikes or even question the performance, but they’ll know immediately (from their gut) whether they’d recommend it to a friend or not.
Bellroy would likely get far fewer responses if it asked, “What’s your favorite part about Bellroy?” or “Is there anything you dislike about your product?” Simple, easy-to-answer questions will improve your response rate and get you the insights needed to make data-backed decisions.
Here, Litmus’ email survey does what no other survey on this list has done by asking multiple questions (4 to be exact). However, it does it in a simple and approachable way with one-word answers that respondents probably know (or can estimate) off the top of their heads.
Litmus also promises to use this data to “tailor content for you in the future” and gives respondents an e-book. Plus, it offers loads of benefits to incentivize respondents to take 30 seconds to complete the survey email before they move on with their day.
Coming up with a form is just one part of designing an email—you also need a responsive template ready to host the survey. We’ve got just the thing.
Check out our library of free templates to find the right design for your needs. Whether you need a template for your survey email or one for your marketing newsletter, we have plenty of options.
