How to Use Survey’s That Increase Email Marketing ROI

Inboxes are fatter than ever with offers, pitches, spam (of course), and yes even an occasional personal email from friends and family.  People are simply overwhelmed with email.  In fact, as depicted in the cartoon image to the left, getting and keeping readers attention is where the value is.  Online properties and services are taking notice and responding.  With social circles and engagement time of marketing emails being measured those that were once in the inbox are now arriving in spam, or not at all. Email lists that are not double- opted in are virtually of no value.  Even with double optin subscribers how does a marketer stand out from all the noise, and run profitable campaigns? One word: relevance.  The only way you can provide relevance is to ask subscribers what is relevant to them.  In this post you’ll learn questions you must ask of subscribers in order to offer relevant content, which generates response, and response, sales.

How to Use Survey’s That Increase Email Marketing ROI

Surveys can have an impact on many levels. Simply asking these questions will differentiate you from the competition.  What you do with the information will impact profits. Important tip: making the survey optional is important to the success of the survey.  That said, you certainly should bribe them into completing it. Perhaps bribe is a strong word, consider rewarding them for taking the time and sharing their feedback.

Who Is On Your List?

Here are four categories to help you determine who your audience is.

Sex: Men and women in general have unique interests and buying patterns.  This information will help you provide more relevant and targeted information.
Age: Provide ranges for subscribers to share their birth year.  This is important because as time goes on, you their birth year will not change, but their age will.
Education: Ask if they have graduated high school, or have a given college degree.
Experience Level: Understand how to talk with them, find out how long they have been in the industry or field of interest that you are serving subscribers.

What Do They Expect?

Ask what their #1 struggle is with [industry/topic of interest]:  Provide an open text box for them to put it in their own words. After you have a decent sampling (100 or so responses), you can develop themes and perhaps develop a drop down of choices to choose from instead.

6 Months Question: What will they experience over the next 6 months to know signing up as a subscriber was a smart move from them.
This information is useful as you develop email marketing campaigns to send to subscribers.  You can also follow up in a few months time to ask how you are doing, and build a bank of testimonials in the process.

When to Communicate?

This is tricky as subscribers may not know the answers, but simply asking these questions shows that you care, and will have a positive impact on your email marketing effectiveness.

Timing: Ask when the best day of week and time of day is best to receive emails.
Frequency: How often would they like to hear from you.  Daily, 2x a week? Weekly?  2x a Month? Month? Quarterly?

You might also offer a “no preference” response to each of these questions.  The point here is to let subscribers determine how your content should be unique to them.

You don’t have to implement every survey response in your marketing.  Share that you may or may not be able to honor their timing preference immediately, depending on subscriber demand and functions of your email service provider.

Some Final Words on Using Surveys to Derive Meaningful Content

Be sure to thank subscribers for their time and participation after completing the survey.  use the survey thank you page to deliver any promised bribes for their participation.

Review the feedback, and strategize how to improve your email marketing content going forward.  Share with subscribers how the feedback will be implemented to make the information shared more valuable.

As you implement changes based on survey results, not only will your subscribers appreciate you asking, but they will have a tighter connection to you, resulting in less spam complaints, more responsiveness, and more sales.

Feedback? Have your own experiences to share, or suggestions, engage using the comment boxes below.
Cartoon Image Credit: Geek and Poke

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