Simple tips for increasing your survey e-mail open rates

Looking to increase your survey e-mail open rates? Follow these 6 best practices 

Editor’s note: This is an edited version of an article originally written and published by software development firm InMoment, South Jordan, Utah, under the title, “How to write email survey subject lines that increase your open rates.” 

Customer experience (CX) surveys are foundational to soliciting the customer feedback you need to power your CX program, and many of these surveys are sent via e-mail. However, the first step to receiving that survey feedback can be one of the most difficult: getting your customer to open your e-mail. 

When it comes to open rates, your email’s subject line is more important than you might think it is. Two helpful e-mail stats drive this point home:

• 69% of recipients will look only at the subject line before flagging an e-mail as spam.
• 47% of recipients decide to open an e-mail based only on the subject line.

When narrowing in on all the possible reasons why your survey e-mails aren’t seeing a decent open rates, it makes sense to start with your subject lines.

6 tips for writing engaging e-mail survey subject lines 

Tip No. 1: Establish the right tone.

Effective customer interactions are dependent on speaking your audience’s language. This doesn’t just refer to the words and terms you use in your e-mails (though that is obviously also extremely important).

No, we’re referring to your “voice” here – where you pitch the subject line on the “familiarity” spectrum. On the one side of this spectrum is “ultra-conversational,” and on the other side, “ultra-professional.”

On the conversational side, you’ll use language that makes your recipients feel like they’re being asked a question by a friend or a trusted colleague. These subject lines should have an approachable tone and make the recipient feel comfortable.

Here are two examples of conversational survey e-mail subject lines:

• “A quick question for you.”
• “Leslie, got a sec?”

On the professional side of the spectrum, you’re using language that builds trust on your brand’s ability to take your service seriously. You don’t have to come off pompous or like you’ve swallowed a thesaurus. Stick to the point and treat the recipient like someone who appreciates professionalism in the workplace.

Here are two examples of professional survey e-mail subject lines:

• “We’d genuinely appreciate feedback on our performance.”
• “Leslie, how can we make you more productive?”

There are quite a few things to consider when choosing the tone of your survey e-mail subject lines. Your brand image is arguably the most important, but things like recipient demographics and the industry you’re playing in should also play a role.

Building buyer personas is a standard practice in digital marketing. Many successful businesses go through this process to understand exactly who they’re selling to. This data is invaluable when deciding on the tone of your survey e-mail subject lines.

Tip No. 2: Go beyond basic subject line personalization.

According to Campaign Monitor, recipients are 26% more likely to open an e-mail if the subject line has been personalized.

What you use to customize the subject line will obviously depend on the data you have on the customer. Using their name is an obvious starting point. However, you can also reference their most recent purchase if your CRM has logged it, or even a virtual event they attended. A modern CX platform can grab this information and personalize the subject line. 

If you’re online mattress retailer Zoma and you’re sending out a customer satisfaction (CSAT) survey e-mail to find out how a support query was handled, if the shipping went well or if the customer is satisfied with the quality of a recent purchase, you could take one of the following subject line approaches:

• “How did we do on your support query [#66456]?”
• “James, how was the webinar with DocuSign?”
• “How’s that Zoma mattress working out?”

Showing evidence that the e-mail comes from a reputable origin (i.e., the actual company they interacted with) is critical if you want to maximize that open rate.

By using their name and referencing their purchase, you’re landing a one-two punch of credibility, massively increasing the chances of a response.

Tip No. 3: Talk about benefits.

Let’s be frank here. When you send out a net promoter score (NPS) survey e-mail, you’re basically asking an established customer to take time out of their day to reveal their feelings about your brand despite there being no immediate reward.

But that shouldn’t stop you from letting your recipients know that their feedback will result in long-term benefits for you and them.

Good feedback – both positive and negative – means improved service for everyone. A large number of honest responses will help you get better at designing new product features. Let your recipients know! Make them feel like their voice is important and that it benefits them to be heard.

Let’s look at two examples of showing customers the benefit of reading your e-mail. If you’re an energy services company like Ecopreneurist, and you’re sending out an NPS survey, you may want to try subject lines like:

• “Help us get even better at saving you energy.”
• “Leslie, your feedback helps us save you money.”

Even though the e-mail content will ask them a typical NPS question like, “How likely are you to recommend Ecopreneurist to a friend?” the subject line can illustrate the eventual reward customers will experience by responding.

There’s a genuine correlation between improved service and receiving this type of information from customers. There’s no reason you can’t creatively leverage this relationship to create highly engaging subject lines.

Tip No. 4: Ask your recipients a question in the subject line.

A good subject line engages the e-mail recipient. You’ll want the subject line to make them think and feel something. Trigger their thoughts and their emotions.

A great way to do this is by asking a question. 

The right question can trigger introspection. It can make the recipient think about something they want to share with you.

A SaaS company like ShowMojo might employ a customer effort score (CES) survey to help them spot inefficiencies and/or improve in two areas:

• Onboarding. Good onboarding helps ensure “trial subscribers” see the product’s value and eventually become paying customers, and it’s a critical step in maximizing a subscriber’s lifetime value.
• Product features. A CES survey can gauge how easily customers are adopting a new product feature and help you optimize for improved adoption. 

In both cases, positioning the survey in question form is a great way to maximize open rates. For example:

• “How hard was the migration to ShowMojo?”
• “How easy was it to create a new rental dashboard?”

The subject line examples above don’t even mention the survey. The two questions are directed at the customer and their experience. 

Tip No. 5: Keep the e-mail subject simple and short.

You should keep your survey e-mail subject lines to under 50 characters to be sure everyone sees it. The number of people opening e-mails using their mobile phones is increasing every year. And the limited amount of real estate on a mobile device means that subject lines are often truncated.

Yes, it’s hard to make a compelling case for someone to open an unsolicited e-mail using so few characters, so take your time writing. Try whittling the number of characters and words down to an absolute minimum without compromising your core message.

Let’s look at four concise and effective customer survey subject line examples:

• “Are we doing a good job, Leslie?”
• “Where can we improve?”
• “We’re always looking for honest feedback.”
• “Give it to us straight; we can take it.”

Tip No. 6: A/B test your survey e-mails. 

There’s little point in rethinking your subject line strategy if you’re not backing up your efforts with data on the success or failure of a new approach. Be sure to A/B test your survey e-mails. A simple way to do this is:

• Split your e-mail recipients into two groups (Group A and Group B). 
• Target Group A with subject line A. “Welcome! How was the sign-up process?
• Target Group B with subject line B. “Answer one question and help us improve.”
• Measure each e-mail’s open rate. If Group A gets a higher open, a post-onboarding greeting works well for your new customers.

By A/B testing your e-mail subject lines over time, you gain valuable knowledge about the subject lines that resonate with your customer base. Not only will that information help you with your specific survey, but it can also help other CX-focused teams optimize their customer communications as well.

Understanding open rate benchmarks for survey e-mails

What kind of open rates should you expect from your survey e-mails? Having a sense of benchmarks is critical if you intend to measure how effective your new subject lines are. 

According to our customers’ results, an open rate over 20% is solid, with only a small number of e-mails achieving a 30% open rate. If you see this level of engagement, you’re probably doing multiple things right. If it’s below this figure, realize there’s room for improvement and review your subject line copy against the recommendations above.

Best practices for crafting e-mail subject lines

Regardless of what industry you’re operating in, certain best practices will always be relevant when crafting email subject lines.

Here’s a summary of the most important things to bear in mind:

• Personalize as much as possible.
• Tell recipients about the benefits of completing the survey.
• Ask a question.
• Keep it short and to the point.
• Try to keep your subject lines under 50 characters.
• Avoid spammy words like “opportunity,” “offer,” “cash,” “discount” or “click here.”