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Ask Emma How can I get more people to take my survey? What kinds of things can I do with Emma Surveys & Forms? 5 tips for using email marketing in a down economy How can I make my email campaigns more personalized? A 5-point checklist for every email campaign How can I use the recent audience activity feature? How can I send emails automatically? 10 trends for stylish email design this year 10 things to avoid in email newsletters How can I spice up my monthly newsletter? 5 tips for sending Blackberry-friendly campaigns My campaign results are in. What now? 4 things you might not know about your account How will my campaigns look in Outlook 2007? Can I add video to my campaign? 5 ideas for boosting your response results 5 tips for kick-starting your email marketing Can I easily find a link to my latest campaign? What's the process for requesting new stationery? How can I tell which group new subscribers are in? Can I create a 'trigger' email that sends whenever someone signs up? What's this I hear about AOL charging for email delivery? 5 tips for better-looking campaigns Can I create a quick landing page? (You bet.) I sent myself a test but haven't gotten it yet. What's next? I'm getting security prompts inside my account. Can you help? Someone who opted out of my list wants back in. What do I do? When do my recipients receive the plaintext? How can I print a campaign after I send it? How can I find my most (and least) active audience members? Can the opt-in confirmation feature work for my existing list members? How can I make my plaintext pretty? How can I entice more people to join my list? (5 quick tips...) How can I spruce up my subject line? (5 good ideas) How do I use the search and segment feature? How do I create a menu of newsletters for my readers to choose from? Can I search by company? When I'm comparing campaigns, what should my numbers be? I'm ready to move beyond the Quarterly Newsletter. What now? How can I add new information (like Company) to existing records? How can I 'mark' my campaign tests so that I know they're tests? Can you give me a few tips for building my audience list? If I schedule a mailing, and someone new signs up, will he get it? I want to add more colors, images and formatting. Is that wrong? I'd like to sell sponsorships for my email newsletter. Any tips? What is Emma's permission policy, again? Can I delete old campaigns without affecting their results? How can I tell which 'email us' link someone is replying to? How do 'opens' get tracked? What should I watch for when emailing an old list? What's a good time to send my campaigns? Is Emma affected by viruses and such? I'm just getting started building my email list. Help! Can I let people choose from a menu of email newsletters? How does the new Can-Spam law affect me?

Dear Quiche Lady,

 

We're happy to hear you're making the most of surveys, forms and, evidently, snacks. We posed your question to our friends at Prince Market Research, who made the excellent point that survey participation varies wildly - up to 80%, according to their findings. Of the number of factors that go into that variation, they said, affinity for the brand and interest in the subject matter are the two that make the most difference in your participation numbers.

What does that mean for you, pastry-loving friend? Well, *how* you invite people to participate in your surveys & forms - with an eye toward being relevant, personal, and clear - is as important as the survey itself when it comes to your overall survey results. So without further ado, here are some tips to get you started:

 

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1. Craft a compelling email invitation.

As you add surveys & forms to your ongoing email efforts, there are a few things you can do to make the most of an email campaign that includes a link to your latest survey. Start by keeping that link near the top of your email campaign. That way, folks seeing your survey's invitation in their email program's preview pane (at least 60% of your audience) will only need a quick preview to click through and take it. Consider including another link at the bottom, too, for more thorough readers. And don't forget that different folks have different motivations to take the same survey, so consider segmenting your list and creating more targeted invitations accordingly.

2. Find lots of ways to remind people.

An email campaign is a great start to spreading the word about your survey, but you'll get more – and more varied – responses from your audience if you invite them to take your survey in a variety of places.

Think about all the ways you interact with your subscribers. Are they visiting your website or blog, finding you on Twitter or calling your 800 number? Do they love getting your print invitations in the mail, dropping by your store or coming to your volunteer events? Wherever they are, invite them to take your survey there, too. Because with surveys, as in life, more invitations are always better. Except for invitations that suggest "Unitard casual" as the dress code. It's best to have as few of those invitations as possible, and to decline all of them.

 

3. Set an expectation.
With readers' packed inboxes and short attention spans, it's important to show your subscribers that you care about their time. So, don't just invite people to take your survey or questionnaire. Instead, invite them to take your 90-second survey or your three-minute questionnaire. With a few words of specificity up front, you'll help folks know what to expect after the click.

When we invited the Emma community to take a customer survey earlier this year, we decided to see if setting an expectation in our email might help us boost our own participation. We asked half of our subscribers to take our brief survey and the other half to take our five-minute survey. And we learned, in the most exciting scientific discovery since we found six-month-old hummus at the back of the fridge, that the specific version garnered an 11% increase in survey-completers over the generic one. Read the full story on the blog.

 

4. Offer a reward or incentive of some kind.
For the people who love you, the privilege of offering feedback may be incentive enough to take your survey. The people who like you may need a little more convincing. Offering an incentive for survey takers is a nice way of saying that you value your subscribers' time and input, and it has the added benefit of boosting your participation rates. We turned once again to the folks at Prince Market Research to find out how much, and they estimate that a well-chosen incentive can boost your participation anywhere between 5 and 20 percent.

What kind of incentives might you offer to your subscribers? Popular options include awarding gift cards to some, extending a discount to all, sending your findings as a report or making a charitable donation on their behalf. Less popular incentives include limited edition J. Giles Band posters, VHS cassettes of the Lifetime original movie Casualties of Love: the Long Island Lolita Story (Alyssa Milano at her best, really), and mugs.

5. Tell (and show) 'em why their opinion is important.
Sometimes the best incentive is showing folks how their input will make a difference. Alongside every mention of your survey, tell your would-be respondents how the information they provide will be used to improve an event, product, service or, best of all, their own experience. If you can, follow up with an overview of your findings later, or share what decisions you've made as a result of what you learned. When folks see how much their input matters, they'll be more likely to offer feedback next time, too.

 

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So, there you have it. We hope our handful of tips has inspired you to spread the word about your surveys & forms (or, hey, create some to talk about). As you see the results come in, we'd love to hear what you're learning. Have you been surprised by what your customers are saying about your product? Have you discovered a trend that's changing your product or service in a major way? Or are you just addicted to the results? Whatever the case, compadre, tell us about it.

 

Cheers,

Emma