Imagine how much easier life would be if you knew what your customers and potential customers liked (and didn’t like) about your product. Even better, what changes in your product or service would make it the perfect solution for their challenges?

Unless you have special telepathic powers, there’s an easier way to gather all this intel about your customers: Survey emails.

Survey request emails are a direct and cost-effective way to request customer feedback via email to a target audience.

That said, having enough people respond to your survey emails is essential for its statistical validity. If you conduct regular surveys to collect actionable information from your audience, you know it’s hard to convince them to spare a few minutes from their busy schedule to read and fill out a survey.

The silver lining is that you can completely flip this situation with the right email copy and practices. Survey email templates come in handy, making this process even more customizable and painless.

If Mailchimp is your email marketing tool of choice, its survey features simplify sending questions to the right prospects and turning their responses into powerful marketing strategies.

So, how do you design survey request email templates for Mailchimp that boost survey response rates? Keep reading to find out.

What Are The Must-Have Elements Of A Successful Survey Email Template?

Survey emails are a great way to collect a lot of data quickly and at scale. They’re perfect for learning about customer behaviors, getting opinions on your products, and understanding their expectations.

But to get those actionable survey responses, your survey email needs to do more than just ask questions—it has to guide the reader smoothly and make it easy (and tempting) for them to engage.

Before you dive into creating a Mailchimp survey, let’s break down the key elements of a survey email that get results. You can find a detailed Mailchimp help guide here on how to create a survey in Mailchimp. 

1. Subject Line

What’s the best possible way to craft a compelling enough subject line to entice your audience to click? You also want it to be transparent enough to set proper customer expectations.

As you write the subject line for your survey email templates in Mailchimp, ensure it is specific and short. To clarify what action you want from recipients, use relevant action verbs. If you offer a reward to increase the response rate, highlight that in your subject line. 

As far as the character limit is concerned, 33 characters is the ideal length for maximum visibility on most Apple and Android devices. 

If you need to go longer, try not to exceed 50 characters. Always place your core message within the first 33 characters to ensure it shows up fully.

Here are some survey subject line examples you can use:

• Break the Myth, Take the Survey!
• Your Opinion Matters: Help Us Improve Your Shopping Experience!
• Share Your Thoughts and Enjoy a Free Gift  Just for You!

1. Email Preheader

The text that you see to the right of the subject line is the email preheader. It gives a brief preview of the email and should ideally support the intent of the subject line.

You should give equal attention to preheaders as to subject lines because people read preheaders to decide if the email is worth clicking or not. If they are boring, people might not even open the email to see all your hard work.

What’s the ideal length of an email preheader?

Well, many preheaders are between 80 and 100 characters in length. However, Mailchimp suggests conveying messages properly with short preheaders, between 30 and 80 characters. This ensures that your preheaders fit a wide range of devices. 

Email preheaders examples for the above subject lines: 

Break the Myth, Take the Survey!

Preheader: Help us uncover the truth with a quick survey—it’ll take just a minute!

Your Opinion Matters: Help Us Improve Your Shopping Experience!

Preheader: Tell us your thoughts, and we’ll use your feedback to improve your experience!

Share Your Thoughts and Enjoy a Free Gift Just for You!

Preheader: We appreciate your feedback—complete the survey and claim your special reward!

1. Email Body Copy

While the email body copy may differ slightly depending on the purpose of your email survey, some elements remain consistent for every survey copy. 

These are:

• Purpose of the survey
• Benefits of completing the survey 
• Estimated time for completing the survey

While designing a survey email template in Mailchimp, ensure that the email body expands upon the promise of the subject line. 

First, address your recipients by name to create a more personalized experience. As you move forward, introduce the purpose of the survey and highlight why it is important, not just for you but also for the recipient. This will help you boost engagement.

Brownie points if you can mention the time duration and the types of questions for the survey. If the survey requests sensitive or personal information, assure recipients that their data is secure with you. If applicable, emphasize the rewards or incentives of participating in the survey. 

Lastly, steer your recipients toward the desired action with bold and contrasting CTA buttons. 

One last point: about the time required to fill out the survey. 

A Hubspot survey found the ideal survey time to be between 10 and 14 minutes. This means your email body copy should avoid adding any unnecessary time to the survey experience unless it’s crucial.

1. Visuals 

A relevant image, GIF, or embedded YouTube video makes your survey email template more interesting and interactive. 

1. Survey Link 

Hosted surveys in Mailchimp enable you to create surveys directly inside Mailchimp. After creating the survey, Mailchimp generates a URL for it. You share this URL with your audience; people can access the survey by clicking the link.

Alternatively, you can create the survey on a third-party platform and either embed it in your email or include a link to it. 

Either way, make sure you place the link or embed the survey code prominently in the email. The easier it is for recipients to submit the responses, the better. This will help you increase the number of survey responses and reduce customer frustration. 

1. Survey CTA

Survey CTAs serve dual purposes. First and most commonly, they act as the main link to your survey, usually as a CTA button. Second, a complementary CTA that hyperlinks to another action or promotion you want to highlight.

Whether you use one or more CTAs for your survey emails, there is a good chance your audience will skip the email body and head straight to the CTA. So, your buttons need to grab their attention immediately.

A bright, contrasting button color and ample white space around the button are surefire ways to do that. The text should be super clear and to the point—no more than four words.

A few examples of solid survey email CTAs:

• Take the 3-Minute Survey
• Share Your Thoughts
• Start the Survey Now
• Help Improve My Experience

1. Reemphasize The Incentive

If you are offering rewards to the survey participants, it does not hurt to wrap up the survey email template with a reminder. Reiterate and highlight the reward using a bold font to capture the attention of those who are skimming the email. 

1. Email Closing 

The last section of your survey email template aims to thank the recipient for their time and offer a compelling closing of the email. Include the following elements in your survey email closing section:

• Gratitude for the time and effort of the survey respondents.
• Opt-out option if recipients wish to avoid surveys in the future.
• A formal email sign-off with the sender’s name and company logo. 
• A professional email signature or contact details. 

Survey Request Email Template Example

Subject: (Name), We Need Your Opinion!

Email Body:

Hey [Recipient’s Name],

We’d love to hear your thoughts on our product/services! 

Just fill out this quick <Link to survey> and help us improve your experience. It won’t take more than 10 minutes but will help us in a big way to enhance the quality of our products/services. 

We read and take all responses(constructive criticism, too!) seriously. We will also share the survey results with you when they are ready.

[Take Survey Button]

Rest assured, your responses will be kept confidential. And as a small thank-you, [mention any incentives, if applicable].

[Take Survey Button]

[Brand Name] wouldn’t be the same without you. Thank you for choosing us. Your feedback truly helps us grow!

Best Wishes,

[Your Name]

Key Takeaways

Survey email is one of the most straightforward methods to dig for feedback and actionable insights from your customers. With Mailchimp survey tools, you can better learn about your audience’s preferences and establish trust with them. 

To ensure a higher response rate and actionability, participation must be as simple as possible. Survey email templates in Mailchimp are a convenient way to do that. 

When crafting your survey emails, remember to:

• Create a subject line and preheader that grab attention.
• Keep the email body straightforward, clear, and concise.
• Emphasize the benefits for the survey recipients.
• Make your CTAs easy to find and understand.
• Offer incentives to encourage participation, if possible.
• Respect their preferences by including an Unsubscribe option.
• Send a reminder email for that extra gentle push.