People love to share their opinions. And marketers know it pays to listen.
But when it comes to email? Things get tricky.
Convincing subscribers to click-through on a survey is anything but easy in the year 2022. Inboxes are overloaded, patience wears thin, and folks just don’t have the time to fill out every form that comes their way these days.
So what if all it took was a click or two instead?
When it comes to gauging and engaging your audience, look no further than interactive email polls.
Powered by AMP for Email, interactive polls are much more effective than their static counterparts. From collecting quick feedback to bringing a little fun back into the inbox, everyone wins with this cutting-edge approach.
Increase response rates and serve up engaging inbox experiences with polls in email. Submit your email below to send yourself a sample AMP email.
Since this technology is new, I thought I’d share some different ways to use interactive polls in your emails. In this article, you’ll learn:
- What interactive email polls are, exactly
- The benefits of using interactive email polls vs. traditional methods
- Nine powerful use cases for interactive email polls
Let’s get to it…
Never worry about Gmail clipping again!
Email Guardrails is an automated checklist that tests your email against best-practices for deliverability and accessibility, that runs behind the scenes for every email you create.
What are interactive email polls?
Interactive email polls give your audience the power to answer live questionnaires, directly from the inbox.
How, you ask? Through AMP for Email technology!
AMP emails are live, dynamic, and interactive. With AMP emails, you can eliminate the extra steps needed to perform any action. In other words, you can include website-like functionality, right within an email itself.
So with an interactive email poll, there’s no need to click-through on a link, open up a new browser tab, wait for a website to load, fill in the form, and so on. Subscribers can simply complete your questionnaire in-email, hit submit, and it’s done.
Cue: That was easy!
What are the benefits of using interactive email polls?
When I say everyone wins with interactive email polls, I mean everyone.
For subscribers, AMP-powered polls offer an über convenient way to weigh in. No extra steps or time-consuming redirects are necessary to make their voices heard.
For senders, this reduced friction and ease-of-action works to drive up response and engagement rates dramatically. Fintech company Razorpay found AMP surveys increased response rates by 257%, and a similar A/B test of AMP polls saw 5.2X the number of form submissions.
That’s 5.2X more valuable insights you can use!
Plus, there’s no need to code up a landing page, or worry about disjointed UIs. It’s all right there, right in email.
And with Dyspatch’s Poll in Email app, you get an extra benefit: Major savings on developer and engineering resources. With our no-code email builder, you can drag-and-drop pre-coded AMP blocks directly into your templates.
That means anyone on your team can add interactivity to emails, regardless of technical know-how. A guaranteed responsive framework and integrated Litmus testing saves you a ton of time on QA too, giving you more freedom to iterate and innovate instead.
Sound good? Then check out these nine different ways to use interactive email polls…
9 powerful use cases for interactive email polls
1. Post-purchase feedback
It’s easy enough to rate a product five stars. But when’s the last time you wrote out a whole review?
We know completion rates decrease as a questionnaire’s complexity increases. So it’s no surprise most people end up leaving things unsaid. That’s why interactive polls are the superior way to glean post-purchase/service feedback from even the most inactive consumers, since there’s low-to-no effort required from their end.
What’s more, this use case works to build rapport between businesses and customers. Though a standard survey emailed apres-purchase might provide more in-depth feedback from the jump, an interactive poll operates on the foot-in-the-door principle — meaning once a customer submits an answer, they’re more likely to agree to a follow-up attempt to connect.
This is especially handy for unsatisfied customers, as you can use this opportunity to nurture your relationship and rebuild brand trust. But even an influx of non-descript positive responses can be leveraged for social proof — a powerful persuasion tool.
2. Product research
Wish you had a crystal ball, so you could see what customers really want?
Polls can help.
Sure, as the marketer, you have to come up with the options yourself. But sending out a poll is the perfect way to do a quick pulse check while making sure the answers collected are workable and readily understood. And if you want to do more meaningful querying later, this low-stakes input opportunity can be a critical first step.
So by limiting scope, not only will you receive more responses — you’ll ensure responses are specific and actionable too.
From new features to recipe preferences (as was the case for the healthcare company below), customers will jump at the chance to tell you what they want. And in turn, you’ll be able to validate any decisions with the popularity metrics to back them up.
3. Personalization and segmentation
Treating subscribers like a person, not an email address, is key to standing out in the inbox — so much so that 71% of consumers say personalization influences whether or not they open up branded emails.
This is where polls come into play!
Poll responses are a great way to segment your subscriber base and offer them more of what they’re after. And by leveraging the valuable consumer data generated by these polls, you can boost conversions for many-a-campaign to come. (Case in point: In one experiment, segmentation increased email revenue by 760%!)
For example, an online retailer could ask about shopping preferences, then send a follow-up email based on those preferences.
Here’s a survey sent out by travel excursion company Ice Lolly. It’s easy to see how they could send relevant offers based on a consumer’s response.
On a broader scale, polls can be used to segment customers based on the kinds of marketing communications they’d like to receive (i.e. product updates, articles, company news, sales info, etc.). You’ll retain more subscribers this way, since you know which of your messages actually matter to them. For more ideas, check out this article on subscription management with interactive AMP emails.
4. Crowdsourced content marketing
Sure, keyword research is important. But the most valuable insights come directly from your audience. And what better sample group than the people you’ve won over thus far?
An interactive AMP poll helps you get insights from your audience — by determining the challenges your customers are facing and the topics that excite them.
Storytime: We sent out an AMP survey asking respondents to share what their biggest email marketing challenge was. The overwhelming majority responded “engagement”, and based on that, we launched our first webinar on the topic: 5 Ways to Skyrocket Email Engagement in 2022. (Interested? Check out a quick recap here.)
The webinar was a huge success, and we generated a ton of amazing leads because we knew what pain points were most pressing.
So take a page from our playbook, and upgrade your content game with real insights supplied by your real audience — your engagement rates will thank you.
5. Interactive sales promotions
Notifying customers about upcoming sales is one way to drive interest in the inbox. But what if subscribers could choose the sale?
Online fashion retailer Boohoo did just that: Ask their audience to pick a preferred deal, with the promise that the winner would go live that night.
Now, apply AMP to this use case. Since AMP emails pull in live data at the moment an email is opened, voters could watch the winning deal change in real-time as the poll is used. I love this example because it shows the versatility of interactive AMP emails, and the creativity you can bring to the table with them.
Oh and of course, you’ll have the added benefit of knowing your deal appeals.
(Bonus idea: Why not help subscribers influence the results by adding a unique newsletter sign-up link they can share with like-minded friends?)
6. Internal use and employee feedback
Since employee feedback keeps workplaces thriving, healthy, and productive, AMP-powered polls offer huge benefits for internal company use.
Think about it: Human Resources rely on employee surveys to gauge morale, diversity and inclusion, onboarding, hiring, and so on — yet these surveys are nearly always optional. So interactive polls can make a huge difference by reducing the time commitment needed to participate, and ultimately, provide more data to make meaningful assessments of any professional environment.
7. Administrative insights
Ever scheduled an event, only to find out the majority can’t make it?
Interactive polls minimize this risk by allowing you to quickly check your audience’s availability.
Of course, you won’t be able to get super specific. But since more people are willing to respond when they don’t have to navigate away from their inbox, you’ll be able to narrow down a time that works for most with a higher degree of certainty.
From B2C companies hosting community events, to B2B businesses contacting new leads, this is a relevant administrative use case for all industries. So why not save yourself a rescheduling headache or two?
8. Just for fun (but really, engagement)
Ever played Would You Rather — the game where you have to choose between two outrageous possibilities? Or maybe you’ve taken a personality quiz because you’re curious which Breakfast Sandwich Suits Your Soul…
(Just me? Okay.)
The moral is: Quizzes and polls are plain ol’ fun to do. So there’s no harm in including one purely for entertainment purposes in your email. Subscribers will welcome the chance to weigh in, and as a result, they’ll engage — paving the way for better inbox placements to come.
This helps explain why Instagram stories featuring ‘This or That’ polls have become a top tactic for brands and influencers, since any participation alerts the algorithm that you care to see their content.
So why not think outside the box, and bring the same engagement-winning tactics directly into the inbox, too?
9. Post email evaluations
A great way to drive engagement and get quick n’ dirty feedback on your email marketing game?
Ask subscribers what they think at the end of each email!
Not only are you encouraging customers to reflect on what they’ve read — and in turn, strengthening their recall of it — you’re also prompting a point-blank assessment. As a result, you can compare how changes affect the subscriber experience and optimize your email marketing accordingly.
Creators behind The Hustle newsletter get it: At the end of every roundup, they include a call-out that straight up asks how much you liked the email. Subscribers can then click on three options, each of which redirects them to a web page asking for more information on why they loved it, or how they can improve.
This is a really effective way to learn what works while still driving engagement across the board. Two birds with one stone — AKA one portion of your email.
(P.S. With Dyspatch’s email builder, you can reuse AMP blocks across different email templates, making it a breeze to implement a post-email evaluation poll in every message sent.)
Interactive AMP email polls: A fun, easy way to win big with subscribers
Knowledge is power. That’s why interactive email polls are key for not just engaging subscribers today, but continuing to engage them on an ongoing basis.
Not only will you reap the benefits of in-email interactivity — you’ll get tons of actionable feedback too.
To recap, here are nine creative ways you can use interactive AMP email polls to elevate your marketing game:
- Post purchase/service feedback
- Product research
- Personalization and segmentation
- Crowdsourced content marketing
- Interactive sales promotions
- Internal use and employee feedback
- Administrative insights
- Just for fun (but really, engagement)
- Post email evaluations
Ready to give interactive email polls a try? Book a free demo to see Dyspatch’s Poll in Email app in action, and start doing more with every message you send.
