The Art and Science of Email Survey Invitations

Almost all marketers want to increase response rates to their email-based customer experience measurement programs, however shortening the survey is usually an ineffective method. A much more fruitful place to work on increasing response rates is the survey invitation process since most nonresponses are the result of people never entering the survey. Crafting email survey invitations is both an art and a science and there are both nontechnical and technical solutions to accomplish this.

To get customers to notice and open the survey invitation, marketers should configure the preheader information and keep the invitation text to one screen on a smartphone. A graphic should not be used as a link to start the survey and the first question should be embedded in the invitation text. Additionally, explaining how responses are used to improve products or services can help increase response rates.

Data quality should also be taken into consideration when developing survey invitations - they should not appeal more to certain customer groups than others and should not affect how respondents rate. Analyzing and comparing data from various survey invitations can help marketers determine which ones are giving the best results.