Learn how to write a survey email subject line to open your email and respond to your survey.
You may have previously received a survey email with the following subject line:
- “Customer Satisfaction Survey.”
- “Your opinion matters!”
- “Let us know what you think.”
- “Feedback on your recent purchase.”
…but how much do you actually open?
You already know that subject lines can make or break any email campaign you send — especially survey emails, which require a customer response to succeed.
according to a recent reports, and only 22% of marketers believe customer loyalty to a brand has increased over the past two years. However, 38% of customers consider themselves loyal to their favorite brands. This shows a very frustrating disconnect between marketers and the people they want to reach.
So why is this happening and what can you do to bridge the gap? Those generic “let us know what you think” survey email subject lines might just get the attention of angry or frustrated customers.
Remember, the purpose of email surveys is to gather real data about a broad range of customers — happy, unhappy, and everything in between — and understand your customer experience from start to finish.
10 Tips for Creating a Survey Email Subject Line Your Subscribers Will Open
If you send a survey email with a bland subject line, your data will be trivial (and completely inaccurate). But don’t worry. Here are 10 tried-and-true tips for sending survey emails with open rates (plus 15 sample subject lines)!
1. Trigger Emotions
Imagine all the survey email subject lines in your inbox right now. What emotions come to mind?
Are you having a hard time coming up with answers? That’s probably because most of these subject lines don’t elicit any kind of emotion. They are easy to forget.
Just like your other email campaigns, you want to inspire a certain emotion in your subscribers when they see Gmail notifications. Emotions always trump reason. “Let us know what you think” doesn’t generate emotion unless the customer has had an extreme experience with your company.
While very positive reviews are great, it can take a lot of time to counteract extremely bad reviews, so you want to target customers who have an enjoyable experience but may need additional reinforcement or incentives to write reviews.
The most easily triggered emotion in your survey subject line is empathy. People tend to see other customers as “us” and brands as “them.” This is why word-of-mouth marketing is so important.
Let subscribers know that they can help their colleagues make informed decisions about your company or organization by responding to surveys.
2. Make sure it’s personal
A “Quick Customer Feedback Survey” may not necessarily meet your needs. Not only is this email subject line boring, it’s also very mechanical and impersonal. Your subscribers are not inboxes – they are people. So in your subject line, talk to them like a person.
According to research from Accenture, 75% of customers are more likely to spend their hard-earned money on brands that recognize them and remember information about them. add, Personalized Survey Emails Are Crucial Learn about customer satisfaction (this = retention).
We may sound like a broken record, but using a personalized subject line is very important.
You can also go a step further by sending personalized automated emails. If you’re requesting feedback on a recent purchase, be sure to include the date, location, order number, and any other unique information you have to help customers recall their experience.
Uber does a great job of personalizing their automated feedback emails with a friendly tone and specific information about the purchase.
3. Ask questions
Even if you go the “OK, how are we doing?” route. You’re still engaging with your subscribers rather than simply reacting to their most recent purchases. One problem is the initiation of a conversation with a real person – it’s not just a robot reaction.
Questions are a great survey email subject line choice for past purchases and general surveys about your brand as a whole. Timely automated surveys of products after subscribers have had a chance to experience them.
4. Mention the word “investigation”
Specifically asking your customers to survey in the subject line is a good and clear CTA.
However, you should still word your subject line in a fun way. “Take our survey today” may not provide the results you want.
Instead, use personalization or some kind of incentive and the word “survey” to boost the potential of the subject line.
5. …or not mentioning it at all
This is not a carte blanche to completely deceive your subscribers. However, you can even avoid mentioning the survey in the subject line altogether.
Get creative. Think about how to start a conversation with a trusted friend you are seeking advice from, and write your copy from there.
Focus on building one-to-one relationships with subscribers in the subject line of survey emails.
6. Focus on interests
Following up on the previous point, you can avoid mentioning the survey in the subject line by mentioning the benefits. However, to do this, you need to provide some kind of incentive for taking the survey.
For longer surveys, offer bigger incentives—like a 50% discount on a one-time purchase. This may seem like a big donation, but remember the value of customer time and feedback.
Even a quick product review on your website can guarantee a smooth 10% or 15% discount.
7. Make sure your copy matches the survey email subject line
If you make a promise in the subject line of your survey email, make sure to follow through in the body.
This is critical for the following reasons:
- To avoid spam filters (spam copy = wrong copy, always
- Maintain your brand’s (and email service provider’s) reputation
- get the results you want. Boring copy won’t make people want to take your survey!
8. Keep it short
In 2021, over 41% of emails will be opened on a mobile device, and your subject line needs to take this into account.Search Ideal subject line length It’s tricky, but when it comes to survey email subject lines, we recommend keeping them short so they’re suitable for app notifications.
how short? It should be safe to use 50 characters.
You should also keep it short so that your subject line copy is concise, to the point, and easy to understand.
9. Encourage a sense of urgency.
If you don’t discuss anything about time limits, your subscribers may not respond. They will consider a response. They will do their best to respond. But they won’t actually respond.
Expressing a sense of urgency can be as simple as using the word “now” in the subject line. You can also let subscribers know that coupons for taking surveys will expire at a specific time.
10. Use emoji.
A sort of Experian report revealed that 56% of brands use Emojis in email subject lines Have higher unique email open rates.
Emojis may be overused in email marketing these days, but they add flirtation and friendliness to almost any send. In a world where corporate surveys are bland and rarely inspirational, emoji in the subject line can add a little spark. ✨
Remember – not all emojis are rendered correctly based on email clients. Check that most of the people on your list use a supported email provider before going all out with emoji.
15 Sample Survey Email Subject Lines Worth Copying
Most survey email subject lines follow a simple set of formulas: they personalize, motivate, and/or create a sense of urgency to get people to click through and fill out the survey.
Here are some examples to inspire your next survey topic:
Example of using personalization
- “[NAME]people are right [insert product]. Can you help me? “
- “Hello [NAME]. can we talk? “
- “Hello [NAME]your new [brand] Do the sneakers fit? “
- “Hey [NAME]. Time is running out for 50% off. “
Example using second person POV
- “Your Saturday afternoon Uber ride”
- “So what do you think?”
- “Your feedback makes us better”
Examples of using incentives
- “Take a quick survey and get 25% off”
- “Looking for 40% off?”
- “A penny (or more) of your thoughts?”
Examples of urgency
- “Last Day to Win a $200 Visa Gift Card”
- “Last chance! Investigation ends at midnight”
Emoji example
- “Answer our survey to get 🎁”
- “Do you have time? ⏰”
- “This Valentine’s Day, we ❤️ your feedback.”
Start sending these survey emails
Investigating email subject lines is hard because, by its very nature, surveys aren’t the most interesting content. Marketers really need to use their creativity to come up with something unique that sparks interest.
We could write an entire blog post on the survey email copy, but you actually need to get subscribers to open the email first. Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time creating something amazing that no one will ever read.
Focusing on your subscribers’ needs, wants, and state of mind can help you develop your subject line. Just don’t forget to A/B test a few different subject lines!
Need help creating rock-solid subject lines or embedding beautiful surveys directly into your emails? Campaign Monitor can help customizable templates.
