Ever wish you could read your customers’ minds? While we’re still waiting on that superpower, survey emails are the next best thing. They give you direct insights into what your audience thinks, wants, and expects from you. Whether you’re fine-tuning a product, improving your service, or just checking in, survey emails help you build stronger connections with your customers. Plus, people love sharing their opinions—especially when they know you’re listening!

Today we’re sharing what goes into making the perfect survey email template—that is, the structure that makes up the absolutely perfect survey email. One that people want to open and answer, and that also adds positively to subscriber perception of your brand. And then we’ll examine some stellar survey email examples that you can use to inspire your own.

Why Send Survey Emails?

You probably have an idea as to why survey emails are worth considering. But lest you need convincing, here are the key reasons to get on board with surveys and start building the ideal survey template. 

• Understand Your Audience – Gain valuable insights into customer preferences, pain points, and expectations.
• Improve Products and Services – Use direct feedback to refine offerings and enhance customer satisfaction.
• Increase Engagement – Surveys create a two-way conversation, making customers feel heard and valued.
• Enhance Customer Retention – Survey emails are an important part of the email customer journey—by addressing issues proactively you can retain customers and maintain loyalty. 
• Make Data-Driven Decisions – Rely on real feedback rather than assumptions to guide business strategies.
• Measure Customer Satisfaction – Track Net Promoter Score (NPS) or other key satisfaction metrics to gauge brand perception.
• Personalize Marketing Efforts – Tailor messaging and offers based on customer preferences revealed in survey responses.

By now you’re surely convinced and chomping at the bit to create your first survey. So let’s dive into the elements of a strong survey email template.

Elements of a Successful Survey Email Template

A great survey email template isn’t just about asking questions—it’s about getting people to actually open your message, click, and respond. Indeed, there’s an art to this process so that you can get meaningful results that truly benefit your business, and build trust with your customers—which is all part of a successful email newsletter strategy. 

But first, let’s break down the key elements of a successful survey email template. 

1. Subject Line: Grab Their Attention

If we’ve said it once, we’ll say it again (and again!): your email subject line is your first (and maybe only) shot at getting someone to open your email. As is the case with every email, your survey email subject line needs to be engaging, clear, and, ideally, irresistible. And because survey emails are their own breed of messages, we have a few more tools in our tool box to really tease that email-open. Here are some winning subject line ideas for inspiration:

• Can we ask you a question? 
• Answer a [Number]-minute survey—win a [Prize]!
• Shape our next product
• Your feedback is important to us
• We want to hear from you
• Have a second?
• “Tell us what you think & get [incentive]”

As you can imagine with the above subject lines, sparking curiosity or offering a small incentive can go a long way in increasing survey request email open rates. And the truth is people love sharing their thoughts, so if you keep it quick and focused on the customer and the value of their input, you’re a lot more likely to get a response.

We love how the above email has a tempting and funny subject line. Trade us for what? Feedback for a discount, that is! The email itself follows up with a super playful message that emphasizes the value of getting to know the customer and offers a sweet incentive. Multiple clever and laugh-inducing call-to-action buttons ensure engagement.

2. Body Copy: Keep It Short and Sweet

Speaking of keeping it quick, no one wants to read a long-winded novel just to get to a survey link…only then to be faced with an enormously long and boring questionnaire. Let’s not do that to our customers. Keep your message concise, friendly, and to the point. Here’s a simple structure to follow:

1. Start with appreciation – “We value your opinion!”
2. Explain why you’re reaching out – “We’re working on improving [product/service] and would love your feedback.”
3. Set expectations – “It’ll only take 2 minutes!”
4. Add an incentive if applicable – “As a thank you, you’ll be entered to win [prize].”

Set expectations, and make it feel personal and conversational, like a message from a friend.

The above feedback email from Food52 checks all the survey email boxes with its to-the-point message that expresses gratitude and makes responding easy.

3. Imagery: Make It Eye-Catching

A well-placed image or graphic is an important part of good email design, and it can make your survey request email more visually appealing, friendly, and just generally add to your brand’s overall vibe (which is always important to enforce and reinforce). Consider using:

• A friendly, relevant image (like a smiling person or a fun illustration)
• Simple icons to highlight key points
• A branded design to keep things consistent

Just don’t overdo it—too many visuals can distract from the main goal: getting that survey completed. Short and sweet and good to look at—that’s the goal.

This email does a mouth-watering job of keeping it short and, especially captivating. Chances are customers will answer the survey and then head straight to DQ for a caramel-slathered ice cream sundae, maybe with a side of fries. 

4. Call to Action: Link to Survey!

Your survey email has one purpose: to get people to take your survey. So your survey link is your call to action (CTA), and it needs to be extra noticeable. If people have to hunt for the survey or questionnaire link CTA, they simply won’t bother. So place your link prominently, ideally as a button, and near the beginning and end of your email. Use bold, strategic colors and a large enough button to make clicking irresistible.

The above email wastes no time asking a short and super direct question, followed by an extra-simple and impossible-to-miss CTA button—survey response assured. 

5. The Perfect Survey Template: Put Everything Together

In theory, a survey email template could seem rather simple, but you can tweak it a thousand ways to make it just right for your purpose and audience—and to ensure that you get those responses. 

Pulling together the above elements, we can create this basic, but oh-so-perfect, survey email template.

Survey Email Template Best Practices

We’ve covered the elements of a survey email, but how you put those elements into action is where the real magic happens. To maximize responses, follow up these best practices when crafting your survey email template.

1. Offer Incentives

“You want my opinion, and I get rewarded for it?” Sign us up, because hey, we’re human, we love to share our thoughts, and we love a good dopamin-inducing incentive! So offering a perk, like a discount, giveaway entry, or exclusive access can significantly increase open rates and up survey request participation. 

Even something as simple as “Help us improve, and get 10% off your next purchase!” can give a nice bump to your survey responses. Plus it generates goodwill, and who doesn’t want a little more of that? 

2. Explain the Purpose

By letting your audience know why their feedback matters, you can get them emotionally invested in your survey’s purpose and outcome. After all, they want to know their feedback matters—and why. 

For example, are you looking to enhance customer service? Improve a product? Let your customers know this. If they understand the “why” behind your survey, it will increase the chances that they take the time to respond. And the bonus: they become more loyal to your brand in the process because they see that you care.

Eton makes the goal of their survey extra clear, starting right in the subject line, which they follow up by asking the reader to help them improve. This kind of transparent request helps the customer feel like their opinion is important and has a greater purpose.

Ring’s survey email also does a stellar job of getting the recipient invested in the purpose of gathering feedback. By sharing their mission, they convey to the survey taker that they can directly support this mission—an appeal that is hard to ignore.

3. Set Expectations

It’s important to keep your survey request emails short, and a part of that is making sure the recipient knows that you won’t be monopolizing their time. Keep emails lean and surveys brief, and set expectations accordingly. 

Sightglass does this nicely with their brief email that gets to the heart of the matter—the survey will only take five minutes, and Sightglass conveys their interest in knowing customer thoughts so that they as a business can do better.

4. Share Results

Your subscribers are invested at this point—they’ve given you feedback, and so for them to get to know the outcome of their well-spent time is the cherry on top. Once you’ve gathered responses, share the impact! 

A follow-up email with key findings, or one that shares how you’ll implement changes based on feedback, not only builds trust but also reinforces the benefits of email marketing, keeping your audience engaged and connected to your brand.

Who doesn’t love survey results, especially if you’ve gone to the trouble of providing your own answers? Hers taps into this curiosity with an email packed with survey data, letting customers feel valued for having shared their feedback, and providing them with the satisfaction of knowing the results.

The above email demonstrates a super smart way to benefit even further from your survey emails. Revolution Tea expresses gratitude by not only sharing results, but also a discount. In addition to this, they use the actual survey results and testimonials as social proof to further encourage purchases. 

Survey Email Template Examples in Action

This is where the rubber really meets the road—with clever survey email examples in action. These different design examples capture the many different types of emails you can send, as well as the range of ways you can make the humble survey email template playful, captivating, and compelling. So without further ado, let’s check them out. 

Feedback Survey Email

As a part of your lead nurturing email strategy, sometimes you just want to send a basic feedback survey email. This calls for you to roll out all the survey email best practices: a strong subject line, concise text, and an unavoidable call to action. Set expectations by letting your recipient know exactly what you’re asking for, and why, and make sure they feel valued. Extra points if you can get creative.

Which Notion very much does in the email below. They keep things uncomplicated but with a twist: they appeal to the recipient’s do-gooder side. The idea of growing forests with your feedback is a creative incentive—doing so makes the survey taker feel like they’ve accomplished something and, conversely, not doing so does the opposite (not growing forests—what a shame!). So this is a clever way to get that good old-fashioned feedback.

Survey Email With an Incentive

The best tried and true tactic for getting questionnaire responses is by simply offering an incentive. Giving a discount, cash back, or some other perk, means that people are more likely to share their thoughts.

The below email does this right, offering cold hard (virtual) cash as a benefit. They cleverly and simply point this out in the subject line, and make the email brief and to the point. No fluff. Just an incentive, a splash of text, and a CTA to take the survey.

Survey Email With a Giveaway

Incentives don’t just need to come in the form of discounts or cash back, they can be an even bigger and better reward in the form of a giveaway or contest. The potential of a big prize is a substantial incentive for the survey-taker, but likely a relatively small investment for your business. 

This email from Grind does a great job of valuing the recipient’s feedback while simultaneously teasing a much-desired giveaway.

Product Survey Email

You’ve put time and effort into creating a great product—now it’s time to see what your customers think. A product survey email helps you gather that valuable feedback, improve future versions, and it lets customer’s know that you care. But it doesn’t have to stop there—this type of survey is also a great segue into asking for a product review, turning happy customers into brand advocates.

The email below keeps things simple and direct, making it easy for recipients to give a simple star rating. Once clicking the stars to give a rating, customers can be encouraged to leave a more detailed review that can be shared on the website’s product page.

Service Survey Email

Just as with products, customers like to know that their opinion shapes what your business provides. As usual, keeping it simple, as Bird does in the email below, and setting expectations (just two minutes!), means customers will be more likely to provide their feedback.

Product Feature Survey Email

As a customer, it feels good to feel like you’re a part of the process. And as a business owner, it feels good knowing you’re building products and features that your customer really wants. So these survey emails can be especially helpful. Let the customer know that their input really makes a difference, and watch engagement go up.

This survey email example from Withings gets the job done right, letting customers know that their feedback will play a key role in new features.

Hospitality Survey Email

One of the most common arenas for people to provide feedback is in the world of hospitality. Restaurant, hotels, tour guides: people always seem eager to share feedback on these experiences. But rather than overwhelming previous guests with a laundry list of questions in your survey email, keep it simple. 

VRBO does this right by using a personalized subject line, and then asking an ultra direct question with a very simple yes or no. Once the recipient has interacted with a click, VRBO can engage further and ask more questions. But getting that initial response is a massive hurdle to getting more feedback from the customer.

Event Survey Email

Events are all about creating memorable experiences, and a post-event survey email is your key to making future gatherings even better. In addition to the usual best practices, you may wish to send follow-up resources, or perhaps recaps of takeaways from the event. The added value will inspire an email open—and hopefully a response.

The below event survey email touches on all the key points: useful presentation recordings, gratitude for joining the event, and incentive for providing feedback.

Net Promoter Score Survey Email

A Net Promoter Score (NPS) email is a survey email designed to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction. It typically asks recipients how likely they are to recommend your product or service to others on a scale from 0 to 10. The responses help businesses understand customer sentiment and identify opportunities for improvement.

In the below survey email example, Best Day Brewing gets straight to the point asking readers to rate on a scale from 1 to 10 how likely they are to recommend the brand to a friend or colleague. The ultra-simple question can also serve as a good springboard for further inquiry once the email reader (surely) marks their response.

Survey Reminder Email

Sometimes we forget to respond, and a simple survey follow-up email is all it takes for us to open the message and do the thing—in this case, give that wanted feedback. 

Target keeps its survey reminder email simple, letting guests know that their survey follow-up will only take two minutes, and that the guest’s input is valued.

Re-Engagement Survey Email

People love sharing their opinions so much that sometimes a simple survey can be used as a re-engagement email to an inactive subscriber. 

We love how the below survey email example is super playful, starting with its hard-to-ignore subject line, and finishing with a couple cover clever questions to gauge interest. Chances are, after an email like this, most people will engage and want to continue to engage.

Making the Most Out of Your Survey Email Template

Survey emails don’t have to be complicated, but a little thought goes a long way. A clear, engaging message increases the chances of getting thoughtful responses—and more of them. Keep it short and to the point, let people know why their feedback matters, and make it as easy as possible to respond. And don’t forget to express gratitude—a little appreciation can go a long way in building strong relationships with your audience. 

Want to make survey email sending extra easy? Hop over to SiteGround Email Marketing to start creating and sending surveys in no time. Choose from a variety of templates, leverage the built-in AI writer, and take advantage of powerful features that make email creation effortless. 

Frequently Asked Questions About Survey Emails

When Should You Send a Survey Email?

The best time to send a survey email, or even a survey email automation sequence, depends on your goal.

• After a Purchase or Interaction – Send a survey within 24-48 hours to capture fresh feedback.
• Post-Customer Support – Send a follow-up email after a support ticket is resolved to measure satisfaction.
• At Key Customer Milestones – Send periodic surveys (e.g., quarterly or annually) to gauge overall customer experience.
• Before a Renewal or Upgrade – Gather insights on what customers need before they make a decision.

Can I Embed a Survey in My Email?

While most email clients don’t support fully embedded surveys, you can include a survey question with a clickable response option or a call-to-action (CTA) button that directs recipients to a full questionnaire on a landing page. This ensures a seamless user experience and also increases response rates.