30+ Effective Survey Email Subject Lines [+ Examples & Tips]
Published By Marilia Dimitriou
December 6, 2023
06/12/23
Surveys are an effective way to gain valuable customer feedback. However, even if you create the best survey ever, all that effort is in vain if people ignore your email.
While creating great surveys is essential, it’s equally important to develop compelling subject lines that’ll make respondents want to open your email and fill out your survey.
In this article, you’ll learn how to craft efficient survey email subject lines and see some of the best examples out there.
Let’s start.
30+ Survey Email Subject Lines That Work
Every marketer understands that subject lines are what makes or breaks an email. Their purpose is to entice the reader and leave a good first impression without sounding spammy.
That way, you increase your survey response rate and learn more about your target audience.
To emphasize this point, 35% of recipients open emails solely based on the subject line. So, if you’re looking for catchy subject lines that work, here are some great examples.
General Survey Subject lines
Here are a few general survey subject lines you can use:
- Tell us honestly, what’s on your mind?
- We can only get better with your help.
- What did you think?
- We have some questions for you.
- Help us improve.
- Your expertise is requested.
- Do you feel good about your work?
- Got a minute to spare?
- Did we do something wrong?
- If you weren’t satisfied…
- We’re making some huge changes, and we need your help.
- Don’t say we never asked.
- Your opinion matters — how are we doing?
- Help us help you!
- Help us serve YOU better!
- Be honest; we’re all ears!
- We need your insights.
Personalized Subject lines
Make your emails more personal and boost your email open rates with these personalized subject lines:
- Hi [Recipient First Name], can I ask you a favor?
- [Recipient First Name], people are asking about [Product Name]. Can you help?
- What did you think, [Recipient First Name]?
- Penny for your thoughts, [Recipient First Name]?
- [Recipient First Name], this would really help us out…
- [Recipient First Name], I’ve wanted to ask you this.
- Hey [Recipient First Name], your feedback can shape our future products!
- Attention [Recipient First Name]: Complete our survey and receive a special thank-you gift.
- Share your experience, [Recipient First Name]! Take our survey and unlock exclusive benefits.
- We want to hear from you, [Recipient First Name]! Join our product survey for a chance to win.
- Hey [Recipient First Name], we need your valuable feedback!
Product Surveys
Get valuable client feedback with these compelling product survey subject lines:
- Well, look at you! How is your [product] working for you?
- Was [product] all you hoped for? Let us know!
- How can we make [Product Name] work for you?
- You have [Product Name]. And some thoughts.
- Let us know what you think of [Product Name] in 1 minute.
- Was [Product Name] all you hoped for? Let us know!
- How do you like [Product Name] so far?
- Help us improve our products: Take our quick survey!
- Calling all customers: Take our survey and shape our products.
- Your feedback matters! Join our product survey and make a difference.
- Tell us what you think: Participate in our product survey.
All these different subject lines will get your online survey emails that first click and aid you in increasing customer retention rates.
However, let’s drive this point home by looking at some fantastic examples.
5 Survey Email Subject Line Examples to Inspire You
The best way to get inspired is to look at what others do.
Below, we collected some of the best subject lines and survey email templates to spark your creativity.
1. Scoot
Subject line: We’d love your help!
It might be bold to assume that your email recipients are interested in improving your brand, but it works incredibly well if your readers use and rely on your products.
This is a strategy that tells the customer you want to work with them to meet their needs.
In this survey invitation example by Scoot, the subject line pairs well with the body of the email and motivates the reader to share their opinion about why they stopped using the product.
As a result, the company can develop solutions to engage them and bring them back.
2. Ubisoft
Subject line: The Assassin’s Creed Odyssey team values your opinion!
One of the biggest reasons people avoid quick surveys is that they feel like the company doesn’t care about their responses.
As a result, your subject line needs to make clients feel more secure about investing their time in your customer satisfaction survey—and want their voices to be heard and taken seriously.
That’s what Ubisoft did. With this email subject line, the brand makes its subscribers feel valued and important.
Moreover, it incentivizes them to leave their thoughts and opinions and shows them how much they value the customer’s time.
3. Massdrop
Subject line: How do you like the Massdrop x Tokyo Keyboard Tokyo60 Keyboard Kit?
Suited for after-sales surveys, this subject line helps organizations determine which aspects of their products and services need improvement.
Asking clients about their recent purchases is a good strategy for gathering valuable feedback—a concept Massdrop nails perfectly in this example.
It works well because it makes customers feel like you appreciate them as individuals. Plus, you can use the survey results to enhance the customer experience in the future.
4. Algolia
Subject line: Claim your gift card in time for Black Friday! Review Algolia.
Companies often use strong incentives in their email marketing campaigns to capture readers’ attention.
For this, you can include a benefit or promotion that shows clients you want to create a mutually beneficial relationship by compensating them for their time.
Algolia encourages its customers to write honest reviews about their products while offering a voucher.
In addition, they add a sense of urgency by including a deadline, which makes clients feel inclined to provide feedback more quickly to get their reward.
That’s a great way to improve your click-through rates and collect valuable feedback at the same time.
5. Ritual
Subject line: A couple of questions for you.
This subject line by Ritual might sound like the police interrogating you, but it’s actually different and unique.
Aside from giving your brand a fun vibe, it’s a surefire way to intrigue your readers and let them know you care about their feelings.
Plus, it shows that you value their help in improving your products.
Now that you’ve got an idea of what a good survey subject line looks like, let’s see the practical steps for crafting your own.
Actionable Tips To Write Better Survey Subject Lines
You’ve seen the examples and now feel the urge to experiment.
Below, we’ve compiled a list of actionable steps to apply when crafting your own first-class email survey subject lines.
Here goes!
Write with the end goal in mind
With so many types of surveys to choose from, it’s essential to think about the particular method you want to use.
In a nutshell, your surveys need a goal.
Think about what you hope to get from the survey questions and how you plan to use the results to grow your business and improve your products and services.
Also, ensure your customers understand why you’re engaging them so they can correctly contribute.
Be concise
Subject lines should be short and sweet, meaning they must be to the point.
No one wants to read overly long and indecipherable subject lines; plus, most email clients display only a limited number of characters, so you want to just show the most essential words.
You can save the nitty-gritty details for the email’s body.
Here are some tips to keep your subject lines easy to read and neat:
- Avoid jargon, acronyms, or complicated terms that alienate your audience.
- Keep your subject line under 10 words and no more than 40–50 characters.
- Use simple and familiar words that your recipients can relate to.
Avoid words that trigger spam filters
Imagine spending precious time crafting the perfect survey, only to be blocked by spam filters.
To avoid these situations, email marketers need to refrain from using certain spam words that might trigger filters set by email service providers such as Gmail or Outlook.
People set these filters because they commonly associate specific phrases and keywords with scams, money, or other shady things.
Here’s a short list of spam trigger words you should avoid:
- Buy today
- Urgent
- Best-price
- Act now!
- Final call
- Hurry up!
- Discount
- You have been selected
- Money back
- Cash
- No hidden charges
In general, you need to use words and phrases that will trigger emotions not make the recipient feel that you are trying to scam them. Remember, your subject lines need to provide instant value to achieve great email open rates.
To see the full list of email marketing no-no words, check out our guide.
Leverage personalization
Email personalization is at the heart of any email marketing strategy.
Without it, you miss out on crafting highly captivating subject lines that significantly increase your open and engagement rates.
Customers want to feel like you value them personally, so creating humane and personalized subject lines is essential.
Take a look at the example below:
You can see how the subject line includes the subscriber’s name to make it personal, but you can also use “you” or specific details about their purchase.
By singling out the reader, the company makes it clear they want this individual’s opinion and has a higher chance of getting a response.
So, if you want to craft better, more human emails, we know the secrets!
Our email personalization feature helps you keep up with your customer’s expectations and make a difference in their inbox. You can use it in tandem with email list segmentation to enhance your performance.
Learn more about how you can take control of your email campaigns with our comprehensive tools.
Provide incentives
Who doesn’t love receiving something extra from their favorite brand?
Providing incentives works astonishingly well in emails and subject lines because it makes subscribers feel special.
If you’re giving out a reward for their participation, your recipients are more likely to accept your offers and complete the questionnaire about their recent experience.
You can add the following incentives:
- Freebies
- Discounts
- Coupons
Also, if you want to make your creations a bit more fun, you can always use emojis to stand out in the inbox.
A/B test your subject lines
Let’s say you’ve compiled a list of 15 subject lines that fit your feedback survey best.
However, you’re unsure which one to use or what route to take.
When in doubt, you can use A/B testing to determine the proper subject line for your campaign.
All you need to do is enter two different texts in the Subject A and Subject B fields and send them to a small percentage of your email list, like in the screenshot below.
Through the power of automation, we can let you know which one won so you can send the final option to the rest of your recipients.
Pose questions
Questions in email subject lines are an excellent way to start a survey.
What makes them great is that they can take any form—and you can’t go wrong, no matter how you pose the question.
By asking your readers a question, you make the email stand out from the recipient’s crowded inbox while avoiding all the spam triggers.
It makes the readers wonder about what they’ll find in the email, and before they know it, they’re already reading the message and are invested in it.
At that point, they’re thinking, “I’m already here anyway; why not do it?”
You can pose more intimate questions, such as “[Name], can we have a chat?” or tweak a boring question into something more actionable, human, and honest: “Tell us frankly: how are we doing?”
It’s challenging to find the right subject line for your campaigns; that’s why our free subject line tester, Refine, can save you time and effort by offering suggestions and industry averages.
Now Over to You
With so many subject lines at your disposal, finding the right one is tricky.
After all, there’s a thin line between asking for feedback and sounding like a robot.
We know the difference between them, so we’re qualified to help you design the perfect subject lines to win your customers over and keep up with their expectations.
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