How to Make an Email Poll for Newsletters and Campaigns

At Litmus, we personalize our emails with objective: to create tailor-made inbox experiences that go the additional mile—the type that surprises and delights our subscribers (and goes past “Hey %%first_name%%”). It’s our method of constructing a more human connection with our subscribers, and is one thing we expect is very vital throughout a time dominated by artificial intelligence (AI).

It’s a brand new period of e mail, and we’re here for it! Right now, we’re sharing one among our favourite methods so as to add a human-touch to our e mail advertising and marketing campaigns—and that’s with Litmus Personalize Live Polls. 

On this publish, we’ll cowl:

The facility of polls: What you’ll be able to obtain with in-email polls

Electronic mail polls give you a method to seize distinctive zero-party buyer information with out having to run an extended survey, buy an costly consulting report, or pour over hundreds of micro-engagements to have a look at developments. You may ask a query like, “Do you favor X product or Y product?” and get a right away reply you’ll be able to then use for retargeting in e mail or social media. 

However e mail polls additionally give subscribers one thing thrilling, too. As a substitute of simply studying, subscribers can interact immediately with the content material with out having to depart their e mail. This makes emails not only a message, however an entire expertise by itself.

What’s an e mail ballot?

An e mail ballot is a query embedded immediately into the physique of an e mail marketing campaign. Subscribers click on on their option to reply the query. Every alternative is linked to a touchdown web page that kicks off an interactive journey for the subscriber, when you accumulate the information.

At Litmus, we name these Dwell Polls as a result of Litmus Personalize means that you can add a dynamic ingredient to them. Our Dwell Polls show the outcomes so each time a subscriber opens the e-mail, they’ll see what different folks have chosen within the ballot. 

Each are helpful for gathering buyer information, however serve completely different functions in your total e mail advertising and marketing technique.

How does stay polling in e mail work?

You may run an e mail ballot with out making it dynamic, however it gained’t replace ballot ends in the e-mail. That’s the magic of Dwell Polls, which enhance engagement by showcasing what different folks have stated to this point—making it irresistible for subscribers to click on.

Dwell Polls begin with a query you wish to ask. Subscribers then click on on which choice they like, with as much as 4 choices

“Polls give the client an avenue to specific their opinion in a simple method, however additionally they give the e-mail marketer an avenue to gather information,” says Litmus buyer success supervisor Ceegan Flood. “Folks like to share their opinion, after which you’ll be able to seize information that helps you additional section these folks and provides them a greater e mail expertise.”

Electronic mail polls vs. e mail surveys

The most important distinction between e mail polls and e mail surveys is that subscribers fill out an e mail ballot immediately inside the physique of the e-mail, whereas they might go to a different web page to fill out an e mail survey. Electronic mail polls are designed for easy, one-question campaigns—so simple as, “What’s your favourite shade?”—whereas surveys supply room for a number of alternative questions, fill-in-the-blanks, and open-ended questions that present extra nuanced qualitative information.

Each are helpful for gathering buyer information, however serve completely different functions in your total e mail advertising and marketing technique.

How does stay polling in e mail work?

You may run an e mail ballot with out making it dynamic, however it gained’t replace ballot ends in the e-mail. That’s the magic of Dwell Polls, which enhance engagement by showcasing what different folks have stated to this point—making it irresistible for subscribers to click on.

Dwell Polls begin with a query you wish to ask. Subscribers then click on on which choice they like, with as much as 4 choices.

Clicking on their alternative works the identical as every other CTA, taking subscribers to a devoted touchdown web page you present. Within the background, that information refreshes the outcomes displayed subsequent to every choice in order that future subscribers who open the e-mail will see the up to date outcomes. 

It’s not fairly real-time—you gained’t be capable of see the ends in your e mail until you refresh your browser. As a substitute, it’s mirrored for the subsequent one that sees that e mail. What issues in your subscribers isn’t that the information is ideal, however that they’ll share their voice (and click on.)

Electronic mail consumer help for stay polls is fairly constant. 

After all, there’s a catch. Apple’s Mail Privateness Safety (MPP) signifies that the caching of photos makes it so clicks from earlier subscribers gained’t replace. Bear in mind, although, that doesn’t affect your information assortment. You will have two choices for this:

• You may embody a fallback with random information factors within the photos to encourage subscribers to click on, although that’s not important.
• Or, stagger your sends when utilizing a Dwell Ballot, which permits a click on rely to be gathered earlier than the pictures are cached for segments of your subscribers.

As a result of a ballot is displayed as a picture, any person with photos turned off for no matter cause gained’t see the ballot. A great fallback is to incorporate a hyperlink to a touchdown web page with the identical questions or you’ll be able to merely write the copy in order that customers who don’t see the ballot don’t know what they’re lacking.

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The way to create and embed polls in your emails

As a substitute of utilizing a web-based ballot maker, Litmus Personalize makes it straightforward to create a ballot you’ll be able to embed into your subsequent e mail advertising and marketing marketing campaign. Right here’s how:

1. Create a Dwell Ballot: Within the Customized content material tab, select “Dwell Polls.” Choose the inexperienced Create ballot button within the higher pane, choose a template, or select the clean + block beneath “Your stay polls.”

2. Customise your Ballot: Select your structure and magnificence choices like variety of choices, background shade, font, dimension, and shade under within the “Customise” panel. Make sure that to call your template so you will discover it later within the high left. Ceegan recommends skipping the “immediate” and utilizing stay textual content to code the query in your e mail physique so it’s extra accessible on cell and in Darkish Mode.

3. Preview and take a look at: To check your stay ballot, enter numbers within the “Clicks” discipline for every choice to preview the way it will look as subscribers vote. These are placeholder values and gained’t have an effect on your ballot’s last outcomes.

4. Embed the ballot in your e mail: So as to add the stay ballot to your e mail, copy the code generated and add it to your e mail’s HTML. You may copy the tag utilizing the Copy HTML button under the code field. Drag and drop the code to your e mail in Litmus Builder or anyplace you develop your emails! 

5. View your ballot outcomes: When you’ve despatched your e mail marketing campaign, hover over a thumbnail within the Your stay polls part of the Customized content material tab and choose the View report button to examine the outcomes and click on information for any ballot.

Finest practices for utilizing an e mail ballot in your publication

You need to use easy e mail polls in a wide range of campaigns, however one great spot for these inquiries to go is in your common publication. 

We make good use of dynamic stay polls in our Product Pulse publication. They’re a key characteristic that we use usually as a pre-designed module, making it straightforward to incorporate each time the inspiration hits us to ask our subscribers a query. We consider it as a temperature examine: we ask a query, subscribers reply (with a click on to vote), and in return, we get the insights. Listed below are a number of finest practices we all the time comply with after we’re together with an e mail ballot in a publication:

1. Maintain your questions easy and mobile-optimized

With an e mail publication, your subscribers are in search of data. Don’t overwhelm your publication with a sophisticated query or with too many solutions. Maintain it easy. In Litmus Personalize, for instance, you’ll be able to have solely as much as 4 choices in your response. That is particularly vital as you optimize for cell, as a result of the reply choices will stack.

If in case you have a couple of query you wish to ask, maintain your second query for an additional day.

Right here, we used Dwell Polls as a pulse examine to get a really feel for what our subscribers are prioritizing this yr:

Made with Litmus Personalize Essentials →

And on this concern, we needed to know what our subscribers’ listing hygiene habits had been like:

Made with Litmus Personalize Pro →

2. Electronic mail placement depends upon context

A query it’s best to ask your self earlier than each ship: “Why am I sending this e mail?”

In case you’re trying to get a solution to a particular query with a Dwell Ballot, keep in mind your why. This doesn’t simply enable you to perceive a marketing campaign’s objective, however it will probably inform your execution. 

Do you wish to get a fast pulse-check on publication sections? Ask a couple of favourite shade to find out your design efforts? Or perceive which merchandise or classes subscribers are drawn to? All three of those would have completely different placement in your e mail.

“The content material of the query you’re asking impacts the location. In case you’re asking one thing like, ‘How did you want this e mail?’ then you definitely’ll in fact need it on the backside. Nevertheless it may also be a enjoyable ingredient that engages your subscriber inside a extra informational publication, so you’ll be able to put it anyplace. I’d take a look at your objective. If you actually need the suggestions, ensure the ballot is on the high.” says Ceegan. 

3. Type your polls to mix in to your newsletters

Consider Dwell Polls as their very own module inside your bigger publication. Whether or not you place the ballot proper on the high of the e-mail because the headliner or embed it additional down within the e mail physique, ensure to customise the ballot so it matches your model.

The Ikon go added a ballot to their publication speaking in regards to the upcoming ski season, asking recipients their favourite time to shred. The ballot appears to be like seamless within the e mail design:

Litmus Personalize means that you can change the type, font, and shade of your ballot in order that it matches any model. You too can add customized fonts so, despite the fact that you’re dragging and dropping a personalised ingredient in your emails, it is going to feel and look cohesive.

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Maximize your subsequent e mail marketing campaign with a dynamic ballot

However e mail newsletters are just one instance of how you should utilize dynamic polls in your e mail campaigns. Promotional emails, re-engagement emails, suggestions emails, and triggered emails are all varieties of e mail campaigns you can create with a stay ballot.

Dwell polls are actually helpful due to the information you accumulate. Right here’s learn how to take advantage of it:

1. Use stay polls to extend engagement

Dwell Polls are a terrific e mail advertising and marketing tactic, however they’ll’t magically rework an underperforming e mail into one among your high campaigns. If you’re desirous about which e mail campaigns so as to add a stay ballot to, take a look at alternatives to extend engagement, relatively than conversions or click-through price. In case you’re undecided, then create a brand new e mail relatively than replace an previous one.

“I as soon as had somebody say, ‘Our stay ballot didn’t generate any further clicks,” says Ceegan. “However we dug extra into that e mail and noticed that it was underperforming in a number of methods. In case you’re going so as to add a stay ballot to your e mail, play up that ingredient in your topic line to extend your open price, and incorporate the ballot into the physique of your e mail early on in order that your subscribers see it.”

Deal with your Dwell Ballot like several ingredient designed to extend engagement—use it sparingly and make it front-and-center as a part of your marketing campaign, until you’re including it to a publication as a particular module.

2. Flip ballot information into actionable follow-ups

What makes polls so helpful isn’t simply the subscriber expertise however the information you’re in a position to accumulate. When somebody makes a alternative for the ballot, tag them for future campaigns associated to their alternative. For instance, ByLaurenJean used Litmus Personalize to create a dynamic ballot round completely different diamond cuts for a jewellery retailer. Subscribers might upvote the minimize they preferred essentially the most.

Supply: ByLaurenJean

Profit from this information by segmenting upcoming campaigns primarily based on these clicks—so on this instance, you might ship an upcoming marketing campaign that includes merchandise utilizing a radiant minimize diamond for many who voted for it as their favourite.

“Any ESP means that you can section primarily based on what a person clicks on, which might kick off an e mail journey in your subscribers,” says Ceegan. “You may export that information to Microsoft Excel or have these clicks to pipe into Google Analytics or no matter information warehouse you’re utilizing so you’ll be able to take that information and put it into new audiences and even automate an e mail nurture marketing campaign primarily based on what they clicked.”

3. Mix ballot responses with different information to create personalised campaigns

The holy grail of e mail advertising and marketing is sending the fitting message to the fitting particular person on the proper time. Combining Dwell Polls with different types of personalization can assist you do this—and construct an enticing marketing campaign that delights your subscribers.

Take this instance from grocery chain The Co-op, which up to date the climate for every participant, which they used to vary the header picture to an out of doors BBQ or indoor enjoyable. Under, they included a ballot on dietary preferences to maintain the digital social gathering going:

In case you’re gathering polling information, use it to tell different elements of your marketing campaign. Litmus Personalize makes it straightforward to create interactive, customized e mail designs in your subscribers, together with personalised photos, countdown timers, progress bars, sentiment trackers, and extra.

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Examples of stay polls to make use of as inspiration

Able to strive stay polls in your personal emails? Listed below are a number of industry-specific examples that you should utilize as inspiration in your subsequent e mail marketing campaign:

Retail and e-commerce

Retail and e-commerce manufacturers can use stay polls to collect buy intent information. If that somebody prefers one sweater over one other, for instance, you’ll be able to extra simply retarget them sooner or later via social adverts or an on-site popup. It’s additionally an effective way to get insights into total client developments, like which colours, kinds, or shapes your clients choose.

This instance from Topshop is a trendy method to ballot your clients and work out what sorts of appears to be like they’re extra eager about purchasing for.

Journey and hospitality

Most shoppers solely make journey plans a number of instances a yr, so journey and hospitality manufacturers should make their emails rely. Use stay polls to find out the place clients want to journey or what sorts of actions they wish to do on trip to raised goal them with lodge, restaurant, and tour offers.

You too can use polls for extra common engagement, although. This e mail collection gives up a trivia query every week. Beautiful photos like this one gasoline wanderlust simply in addition to extra focused campaigns. (Are you aware the reply? 🕵️)

Businesses

B2B manufacturers usually get a foul rap for being boring, however stay polls are an effective way to encourage extra engagement. Ask your clients questions on what they’re most enthusiastic about. Is it button form and shade for UX design? Coding languages? Their favourite productiveness software? No matter lights up your group.

This MailChimp instance makes use of a hyperlink to a Google Kind survey as a substitute of a stay ballot, which might have been excellent to collect fast suggestions from their subscribers about what sorts of emails they wish to obtain sooner or later. 

Healthcare

Healthcare suppliers can use stay polls to assist ship a greater affected person expertise. That is perhaps engaged on communication preferences, operating academic campaigns about eating regimen or train, or providing decisions for further workplace hours.

This instance is technically from a retailer, however is an efficient instance of how wellness manufacturers or healthcare suppliers can characteristic completely different services or products (on this case, with a giveaway hooked up.)

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How does Litmus use stay polls?

We loooove utilizing stay polls in our e mail newsletters. In addition to together with polls in our Product Pulse publication, we’ve additionally used it for Litmus Weekly subscribers.

We’ll be the primary to say it’s vital to have a objective with any personalization efforts. However typically, it’s okay for the objective to be stunning and delighting your subscribers. That’s what we did on this concern of Litmus Weekly.

And it labored! The Dwell Ballot accounted for 17.3% of distinctive clicks.

FAQs for utilizing stay polls

Have questions on learn how to use stay polls in e mail? Listed below are a number of solutions:

How ought to I construction my ballot query for max engagement?

Your ballot query needs to be structured as a this-or-that, yes-or-no type query. As a result of your subscribers will select just one out of two, three, or 4 choices of their stay ballot, you wish to ensure your query is as clear as doable. Assume questions like, “Do you favor an island getaway or a ski trip?” or “Would you relatively get 50% off a pair of footwear or a pair of denims?”

How can I A/B take a look at e mail polls?

A/B testing can assist you isolate particular components of your e mail campaigns to find out what impacts efficiency—so you’ll be able to deliver that tactic to a different kind of marketing campaign. An effective way to A/B take a look at e mail polls is to run campaigns with and with out the ballot in them to see if it drives extra engagement or not. You too can A/B take a look at particular components of a stay ballot, like shade, alternative order, or different particulars to see what will increase engagement. 

How usually ought to I exploit polls in my e mail campaigns?

Like all e mail advertising and marketing tactic, don’t overuse your e mail polls. In case you add them to too many emails, you’ll lose that particular magic personalization can create. Begin by operating an e mail marketing campaign that’s simply in regards to the ballot after which you’ll be able to take a look at extra common campaigns so as to add inquiries to, like your e mail publication.

How can I incentivize customers to take part within the ballot?

Manufacturers usually embody carrots like reward playing cards or particular reductions for survey respondents, and you are able to do the identical in your stay polls. However the easiest way to incentivize customers to take part is to make your query compelling. Take into consideration what sorts of debates your viewers is already having—whether or not it’s a light-hearted query about whether or not or not sizzling canines rely as a sandwich or which coding method is the fitting one to take for a software program growth drawback.

How do I observe ballot outcomes inside my e mail advertising and marketing platform?

Your e mail service supplier (ESP) will present total engagement outcomes, together with what number of clicks every choice acquired. However when you’re utilizing a Dwell Ballot from Litmus Personalize, you’ll be able to simply see your outcomes by going to the Your stay polls part of the Customized content material tab and choosing the View report button. 

The report will show the full variety of clicks your ballot has recorded and a breakdown of what number of instances every choice was chosen.

Have interaction your subscribers with stay polls

How will you employ them in your email marketing campaigns? Possibly you’ll host a voting sales space or bring gamification to the inbox. Whether or not you goal to collect insights, enhance engagement, or just entertain, Dwell Polls supply a inventive and dynamic method to join along with your subscribers on a deeper stage. We will’t wait to see what you create! 💌