What are best practices for surveying via email?

We recommend only using email surveys if email is already a primary way that you communicate with your clients.

You will likely receive the most responses on the first day you send the survey invite, followed by days on which you send out email reminders. Your survey should have a stated closing date, and you should send at least one reminder before the closing date to encourage people to participate.

Successful email surveys:

• Prepare your clients for the upcoming survey: Studies reviewing a “pre-notification” — letting clients know about an upcoming survey they’ll be asked to take in the near future — suggest that priming clients helps increase response rate.
• Come from an email address that is already known to clients – ideally, one that belongs to a trusted individual at your organization. Survey invitations that come from a generic email address (e.g., ‘surveys@__.org’) or a third-party researcher typically receive fewer responses.
• Include the survey’s purpose AND a call to action in the subject line (e.g., ‘Please take this survey to help us improve’)
• State how much time is required to complete the survey and the total number of questions.
• Place the survey request prominently near the beginning of the invitation (that is, don’t bury it under several paragraphs of introductory text). Be sure to place the survey link near the top of the invitation.
• Keep the invitation short.
• Be strategic when you send the survey invite. Research done by SurveyMonkey showed that among surveys they reviewed, response rates were highest for survey invitations sent out on Monday (10% more responses than the average response rate), and lowest for invitations sent on Friday (13% fewer responses than the average response rate).
• Consider offering an incentive to increase response rates. Already decided to use an incentive? Review guidance on how to offer one.
• Send reminders. According to research from SurveyMonkey, the 48 to 72 hours after your initial survey invite are the best time to send reminders. Be aware, though, that reminders become less effective the more you send out; a review of survey methods suggested that 1-2 reminders resulted in a higher response rate; more reminders helped but had diminishing returns. Consider using SurveyMonkey’s Email Invitation collector as a way to send automated reminders.

What to Include in a Recruitment Message