How much can you achieve with just one click? Well, when it comes to email, that one click can provide hugely valuable data on which to build your email strategy! In this week’s blog, I’m extolling the virtues of the one-click survey, explaining how you can use this effective technique to gather vital data points about your customers, get to know them better, identify their needs, and, importantly, understand where they are in their buying journey with your business! Plus – you can grab a handy list of one-click surveys to try yourself!
Email can be much more than just a super-powerful communication tool! It can also be a valuable way to mine data and key information from your customers. For consumer-facing companies like those in the eCommerce world we inhabit, this can be a real saving grace, because we’re often faced with not knowing nearly enough about our customers!
Sure, we know lots about our most loyal customers, with data on their purchase history, preferences, email activity and tracking cookies too; but when it comes to the less active members of our email database, we’re often left unclear on whom we’re actually talking to and, as the Meredith Hill quote goes:
“When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.”
If we want to ensure our communication is targeted, relevant and personalized (and, if you’re wondering, we sure do!), we must figure out a way to learn more about the people subscribed to our emails.
Even just one or two data points could help us segment these ‘uncertain’ customers, and ensure that they’re receiving only the information they’re going to be interested in.
So, how do we go about that?
One fantastic option is to use One-Click Surveys!
These are simple surveys designed to gather just one piece of information from the reader and can either be integrated into the body of the email or even included in your email signature. They’re a great way of asking for feedback or information, without demanding a huge time commitment from your customers, because, let’s face it, no one wants to be filling in lengthy surveys just to help you better sell them stuff.
However, these One-Click Surveys usually benefit from being a question about the reader, and people are much more inclined to answer questions about themselves than your product or service. It’s not that people are selfish – they’re just busy!
Plus, whilst typical survey emails have a pesky tendency of ending up in people’s Junk Folder, One-Click Surveys can be integrated into your email in a less obvious way, which may improve your email’s chances of ending up in front of your customer!
Aside from the obvious benefits in terms of helping you with segmentation and data analysis, One-Click Survey emails are also one of the most effective emails you can send in terms of generating engagement, with average click-through rates of between 15-25%, compared to a global average of just 2.5% (industry, of course, plays a big part).
We could put this down to people enjoying questions about themselves, but it’s also likely that people enjoy being engaged in this sort of non-transactional manner! People get plenty of sales emails every day, so adding this level of engagement helps diversify your email portfolio, ensuring your customers feel valued and heard.
In short, One-Click Surveys are an invaluable part of your email toolkit, and if you’re not already utilizing them in your email strategy, here are a few simple suggestions for how you might get started:
- “Are you enjoying our emails?” Get feedback on your email content: with various answers, a number range, or even a set of different emojis to choose from.
- “How often would you like to hear from us?” Collect communication preferences with a range of options, for example, only emails about specific ranges, weekly or monthly summaries, or special offers only.
- “Which of these products do you like best?” Collect information about your customer’s style or product preferences by presenting a few items you stock that is popular with different demographics.
- “What’s your budget?” Find out how much your customers like to spend on products like yours by providing a number of price brackets and showing them items within that range more frequently.
- “Which best describes you…?” People love quizzes and self-identifying, so why not ask them to pick from a selection of statements that highlight certain shopping habits, so you can decide what products they’re most likely to be tempted by?
We helped a National Sports team grow their click rates by 8X using One-Click Surveys! Feel free to reach out if you’d like to learn more.