Are you ready to learn how to send effective survey reminders? If so, you’re in the right place!
Surveys are one of the most powerful ways to gather customer insights, improve products, and grow your business. However, low response rates are a common problem for brands across all industries. If you don’t have enough actionable data, it’s hard to figure out what people like and what they don’t, even if your survey is well-made.
One solution to the problem is to send survey reminders through emails. Email is a very effective way to reach your audience. For context, research shows that 88% of the population checks email multiple times a day.
Today, we will explain how to write an effective survey reminder that will help you get more value from your feedback forms. We will also show you how to measure the success of your reminder campaigns and get more responses over time.
On that note, let’s dive in!
Why sending survey reminder emails is important
There are plenty of reasons why survey reminders are crucial for your long-term success.
For one thing, even people with good intentions may neglect to fill out your survey. Maybe they were busy at the time, or had a full inbox, or something else entirely came up.
Either way, recipients can and will forget about your survey unless you send them a reminder. That’s the foundational reason why you need reminders.
They can help you remind people who haven’t participated in a friendly, gentle way, which increases the participation rate without annoying your audience. On a subconscious level, this shows the recipient that you hold their opinion dear and are willing to work with them because you want to hear their thoughts.
The long-term benefits of this are also worthwhile. Gathering feedback and using it to improve the average customer experience can increase your revenue by 80%.
By sending a reminder at the right time, you will ensure much higher completion rates for your survey and will be able to gather the data you need to improve your business and marketing strategy.
Now that you know why they’re so important, let’s check out some strategies that will help you create an effective survey reminder for your customers:
Timing is everything
When sent at the right time, survey reminders will nudge recipients to take action when they’re most likely to respond. Combine the right timing with creative subject lines, copy, and design, and it’s much more likely that your subscribers will complete your survey.
There are other factors to consider as well. For example, if you send out reminders too soon, you could annoy those who didn’t forget but haven’t had time enough to respond, while waiting too long might result in the person simply forgetting what survey you’re talking about.
Here’s a campaign flow that has worked exceptionally well for us:
The first reminder should ideally go out two to three days after your initial email. This is the sweet spot where the survey is still fresh in their minds. Keep the tone friendly and acknowledge their busy schedules. Here’s an example:
“We noticed you haven’t had a chance to complete our survey. It only takes two minutes, and your feedback would mean the world to us!”
If they still haven’t responded in five to seven days, send a follow-up email. This is your chance to rekindle interest and emphasize why their opinion matters. We suggest highlighting how their input directly impacts improvements, such as:
“Help us create a better experience for you. Your insights make all the difference!”
Image via Really Good Emails
For those who still need a nudge, a final reminder should follow after another three to five days. Here, creating a gentle sense of urgency can be effective. Phrases like “last chance” or “closing soon” encourage action without sounding desperate:
“Time is running out to share your thoughts! Take two minutes to help us serve you better.”
Craft subject lines that spark curiosity
Your subject line is the first impression people get of your email. It must grab their attention if you want them to open your reminder.
Our advice is to keep your subject line concise, direct, and intriguing. It’s a great idea to add a touch of personalization if you can.
Here are a few samples you can work from:
“We’d love to hear from you, (First name)!”
“Your feedback shapes the future of (Brand).”
“Time’s running out — share your thoughts today!”
Personalization can increase open rates dramatically. In fact, research shows that 80% of people prefer to engage with personalized offers and messages, so it’s not hard to see why this strategy is effective.
Addressing the recipient by name or referring to a recent touchpoint makes your survey reminder feel personalized, not mass-produced.
Image via Really Good Emails
Write a copy that gets to the point
The body of your email needs to be direct and easy to understand. Start with a friendly demeanor, an acknowledgment of their time, and a clear description of what the survey is about.
For instance: “We know your time is valuable, but your feedback is invaluable to us. This quick survey will help us improve your experience as well as countless others.”
End with a clear call to action. Instead of embedding vague links, use buttons with action words like “Complete the survey” or “Share your feedback now.” These stand out and encourage clicks.
Image via Really Good Emails
Make it visually engaging
Great design follows great content. Make use of a clean, uncluttered layout that is easy to read. This will ensure that readers understand who you are and what you’d like them to do.
Adding visuals like photos and videos can make your email more eye-catching and your request even easier to understand.
Image via Really Good Emails
Regardless of whether you’re adding visuals or not, it’s hard to stress the importance of optimizing for mobile since most people use their phones to check their email.
You’ll also want to use consistent brand colors and fonts to really polish and make it professional-looking.
Lastly, when it comes to design, keep your call to action at the center of everything, both in terms of content and design. A large button with some white space around it will help attract the eyes and clicks. Your message and visual content should directly relate to the survey.
Measuring success and improving
One mistake many new marketers make is they assume sending survey reminder emails is more or less hitting “send” and hoping for the best. The opposite is true. You can fine-tune your performance and improve over time if you’re willing to put in the time and effort.
In our opinion, tracking performance and making data-driven adjustments are essential for long-term success. Here’s how you can fine-tune your strategy over time:
Know what to measure
Analyzing key metrics can help you understand how well your reminder emails are performing. Pay attention to these three metrics, among others:
Open rates: Do people notice your emails? Low open rates might mean your subject lines need work.
Click-through rates: Is the recipient actually clicking on that survey link? This is where you see the effectiveness of your email copy and design.
Completion rates: Are they really completing the survey? This measures how engaging the survey is when they click through.
You’ll be able to see very clearly where you are doing well and where you have to improve in tracking these metrics. For example, if your open rate is dropping, you know it’s time to rework your subject line or change the time you send your email.
Test, tweak, and test again
A/B testing is your best friend when optimizing survey reminders. Put plainly, A/B testing is when you make a change to an existing campaign. You then run both versions of the campaign with the goal of finding out which one works best.
Our best advice here is to test one variable at a time — like subject lines, send times, or CTA buttons — and see which version performs better.
Image via Omnisend
For example, does “We value your feedback!” outperform “Take our quick survey”? Does a button that says “Start now” get more clicks than “Share your feedback”? Small adjustments can lead to big improvements.
However, testing too much at once can cause confusion and actually slow down progress.
But there’s no question that A/B tests are essential for long-term growth.
In fact, a recently conducted study revealed that 71% of companies perform two or more A/B tests per month, which underscores how testing is essential for campaign optimization.
Learn and adapt
What you gather with the help of your survey isn’t just so for that one survey. Analyze for patterns and know what messages will do well in your future campaigns. If a subject line does well, use similar words in your next round of emails.
Also, pay attention to when your audience is most engaged. Are greater open rates associated with morning or evening emails? Use this information to fine-tune your time optimization approach.
As long as you’re sending emails and marketing, there will be new things to learn and new ways to adapt. Be mindful of how people engage with your reminder emails, and you’ll have a better chance of seeing positive results.
Final thoughts
The bottom line is crafting and refining survey reminder emails is an art and a science. If you can master your timing, write compelling subject lines, personalize your messages, and continuously track performance, you’ll be able to get plenty of responses to your next survey.
Don’t be afraid to try new things, test them out, and make changes accordingly. With these strategies, we are confident you can transform your reminder emails into powerful tools for better engagement and actionable customer feedback.
Send survey reminder emails and gather feedback with Omnisend
Syed Balkhi is the founder of WPBeginner, the largest free WordPress resource site. With over 10 years of experience, he’s the leading WordPress expert in the industry. You can learn more about Syed and his portfolio of companies by following him on his social media networks.
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