How to send email survey requests (with templates and examples)

Sabina, Customer Support Shift Lead

Ah, the email survey. Not just another marketing email, but a golden ticket to understanding your audience like never before.

Your subscriber list is a treasure trove of hidden wisdom, and a skillfully designed survey email is the key you need to unlock it.

Sending survey emails allows you to send questions to specific groups of respondents who are already invested in your business and therefore more likely to complete the survey and provide genuine responses.

With inboxes overflowing with generic content, we’re here to help you unpack these 7 actionable tips and best practices for survey emails that even the most click-weary subscribers can't ignore. Plus, we'll share some ready-to-use survey email templates to get you off to a flying start. 🚀

Benefits of sending a survey request email

The customers on your email list have opted in to interact with you on a regular basis. These subscribers are going to have valuable feedback that will benefit your business.

By asking and displaying the right survey questions in your embedded survey, you can get to know what your target audience thinks while increasing your subscriber engagement.

We looked at thousands of newsletters with embedded surveys to find out just how effective they can be for your engagement and discovered some pretty insightful data, along with a few extra benefits:

Infographic displaying survey email stats collected by MailerLite (listed below)

When done right, survey emails can be a powerful tool. Research conducted by PeoplePulse found that response rates can be as high as 85% when the target audience is motivated and the survey is well-executed. So let’s talk about how you can craft different types of surveys that will engage subscribers and deliver results.

Types of email surveys with copy templates you can use

There are several types of email surveys, each of which is designed for specific goals and contexts. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular. And remember—you can take these survey email templates and use them in your own surveys!

1. Post-purchase and delivery email survey

This type of email survey is designed to collect feedback from customers after they have completed a purchase and received it. The goal is to gain actionable insights into the customer’s experience throughout the purchase and delivery process so that businesses can improve their products, services, and customer experience.

Some components that you might include in a post-purchase and delivery survey include:

Post-purchase and delivery survey email template

Subject: We value your feedback—let us know what you think!

Preheader: Share your experience with [Company Name] and help us improve our products and services.

Thank you for your recent purchase from [Company Name]. We hope you’re enjoying your new [Product Name]!

Your satisfaction is our top priority and we would love to hear about your experience with us. We would really appreciate it if you could take a few moments to complete this short survey to let us know how we did.

Any feedback will help us to improve our products and services to better meet your needs.

Start survey

1. How easy was it for you to find the product you were looking for on our website?

2. Were you satisfied with the payment options available?

3. How satisfied are you with the quality of the product you received?

4. Did the product meet your expectations as described on our website?

5. Was your order delivered on time?

6, How would you rate the packaging of your order?

7. How satisfied were you with the delivery service?

8. Have you encountered any issues while using the product?

9. How would you rate your experience with our customer support team (if applicable)?

10. Overall, how satisfied are you with your recent purchase and delivery experience?

11. On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?

12. Do you have any additional comments or suggestions to help us improve?

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback! We appreciate your input!

2. Market research survey email

A market research survey is used to collect data about a target audience to understand their demographics, preferences, behaviors, motivations, opinions, and attitudes toward products, services, brands, or market trends.

Businesses can use these insights to understand the needs of their ideal customer and make informed decisions about the strategies they implement to meet customer needs.

Components of a market research survey include:

Market research survey email template

Subject: Take part in our customer survey and help us improve!

Preheader: Shape the future of [Company Name]—it will only take a few minutes.

We're working on bringing some big improvements to [Company Name]—and it’s all for you, our valued customers!

To make [Company Name] the best that it can be, we need your help. We want to learn more about you so that we can better meet your needs.

We promise it will take just a few minutes to complete, and your answers will be kept completely anonymous.

Start survey

1. What is your age group?

2. What is your gender?

2. How often do you purchase products in the [Product Category]?

3. Where do you usually shop for [Product Category]?

4. What features are most important to you when purchasing [Product Category]?

5. Which brands do you prefer for [Product Category]?

6. How satisfied are you with our current product?

7. How likely are you to recommend our brand to a friend or colleague?

8. What new trends in [Industry] are you most excited about?

9. Do you have any additional comments or suggestions?

Thank you for sharing your valuable feedback! Your participation is very much appreciated.

3. NPS survey email

Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey emails measure loyalty and satisfaction with a company, product, or service.

This type of survey is usually very short and typically only contains one question asking the respondent to rate their level of satisfaction from 0-10. Based on their response, customers can be categorized as Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), or Detractors (0-6), and you may ask a follow-up question to gain further insights.

NPS survey email template

Subject: Let us know what you think with a single click

Preheader: Quick survey inside—we’d love your feedback!

We hope your recent experience with [Product/Brand/Service] has met your expectations. Your feedback is extremely important to us, and we would love to hear how we’re doing!

Would you mind taking a moment to answer this quick question?

On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend [Product/Brand/Service] to a friend or colleague?

For Promoters (9-10):

We’re so happy to hear that! Could you spare a few words about what you like the most? Or any suggestions you have?

For Passives (7-8):

Thank you for your response! Could you spare a few words about what you enjoy and what you think could be improved?

For Demoters (0-6):

Thank you for your response, we appreciate your feedback. Could you spare a few words about what you think could be improved?

Thank you for taking part in our survey. Your feedback is extremely valuable, and we look forward to serving you better.

4. CSAT survey email

CSAT stands for Customer Satisfaction Score and is another tool used by businesses to measure satisfaction in regard to their products, services, or brand. It’s similar to an NPS but instead of focusing on customer loyalty, CSAT surveys measure satisfaction at various points in the customer journey.

It typically consists of a single core question that asks customers to rate their satisfaction on a scale of 1-5 or 1-10, which may be followed up with additional questions to gain more detailed feedback.

Customer satisfaction survey email template

Subject: Let us know how we did in this short survey

Preheader: It’ll only take a moment and will help us improve our service!

Thank you for choosing [Company Name]. We hope you’re satisfied with your recent experience! To help us serve you better, we would really appreciate your feedback—it’s just a few short questions and shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes.

Start survey

1. How satisfied are you with your recent purchase from [Company Name]?

2. What did you like most about your experience?

3. What can we improve?

4. Do you have any other comments or suggestions?

Thank you for your valuable feedback! It will help us to improve our product and services to better suit your needs.

5. Post-event survey email

This type of email survey allows businesses to follow up with attendees after an event to gather feedback about their experiences. These insights then allow for the evaluation of the event’s success in various aspects, including organization, venue, itinerary, content, speakers, and more. Event organizers can then use this feedback to improve future events and evaluate their effectiveness.

Here are some key topics to include in a post-event survey email:

Post-event survey email template

Subject: How did you find [Event Name]?

Preheader: Share your feedback to help us improve our future events.

Thank you for joining us at [Event Name]! We hope you had a great time and found the event valuable.

To help us improve and make our future events even better, we would love to hear your feedback. Please take a few minutes to fill out our post-event survey, it’s quick and painless—we promise!

Start survey

1. How would you rate your overall experience at [Event Name]?

2. How satisfied were you with the content presented at the event?

3. Which sessions did you find the most valuable?

4. How would you rate the quality of the speakers and presenters?

5. Do you have any comments or suggestions about the speakers and presenters?

6. How would you rate the organization of the event (e.g. registration, schedule, information, check-in)?

7. How satisfied were you with the venue and facilities (e.g. location, space, seating, catering, restrooms)?

8. How would you rate the networking opportunities provided at the event?

9. How likely are you to attend our future events?

10. Do you have any additional comments or suggestions?

Thank you for taking the time to submit your feedback. We look forward to seeing you at our next event!

6. Onboarding feedback email survey

When you’ve taken someone through an onboarding process, whether employees, customers, or users, you can send an onboarding feedback email afterward to gather feedback about their experience. This allows businesses to understand what went well and what can be improved so that they can develop their onboarding strategy and boost customer, user or employee satisfaction.

Some of the aspects (depending on the type of onboarding) that onboarding feedback emails cover include:

Onboarding feedback survey email template

Subject: Share your experience with our onboarding process

Preheader: Help us make our onboarding better for other users/customers/employees

Thanks for joining us at [Company Name]! We hope you’ve had a smooth start.

As we strive to make our onboarding process as seamless as possible, feedback from customers/users/employees like you is extremely important.

We would really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete our onboarding feedback survey to tell us about your experience. It won’t take long—promise!

Start survey

1. How would you rate your overall onboarding experience?

2. How easy was it to understand and follow the onboarding steps?

3. Do you feel that the information provided during the onboarding was clear and helpful?

4. How satisfied are you with the support and resources made available during the onboarding?

5. What could we do to improve our onboarding process?

6. Do you have any other additional comments or suggestions?

Thank you for your valuable feedback! If you have any further questions or need assistance, you can always reach out to our support team.

Bonus: Pre-built survey email templates

In a hurry? Use one of our pre-designed survey email templates to build your next survey email fast! Simply create a new campaign, navigate to the template gallery and use the dropdown menu to select “Survey” to find our collection of survey templates.