Tips: Create effective and non-intrusive email surveys!

Your subscribers love it when you ask them for advice! We've been saying it for 15 years, marketing is no longer a one-way street. The consumer is increasingly empowered and appreciates it when you give them more.

Profile qualification: Don't be afraid to go for it!

Would you like to know if your leads are more interested in Citytrips, country breaks, long-haul air travel, ... but don't know exactly how to capture this information in your database? Go for it! Just ask! Well, obviously, this is an exercise that must benefit your subscribers, otherwise there's no reason for them to help you. Here are two approaches you should try out in parallel:

• Play on the community spirit Invite your subscribers to find out what other members of your email program prefer. Here, you simply offer them information. Example subject line: "50% of VoyageXtra customers prefer the mountains! How about you?"
• Try exclusivity and customize Push your subscribers to make a choice to benefit from an exclusive advantage adapted to their desires. Example of object: "Make a choice: Mountain, citytrip, countryside or end of the world, ... and enjoy!"

No need for long forms to capture preferences

Qualification techniques mainly use two techniques. The first is the often long and tedious form-based survey. In this case, campaigns are created with the sole aim of qualifying the subscriber over several stages, with the carrot of winning a prize via a competition. These actions are often not very effective. You run the risk of addressing only a part of your audience who are fond of games/contests. An audience that is often not the most qualitative. In this type of action, it's not uncommon for the answers to be wrong, with the surfer selecting form options at random with the sole aim of getting to the competition as quickly as possible. Not exactly the best solution! Another, more recent and much more interesting technique is the use of behavioral data to qualify the target via scores. The more a visitor clicks on links related to mountain travel (versus other categories), the higher the score in that category. This makes it possible to sense the subscriber's natural interest without the need to deploy specific campaigns. This technique does, however, require good categorization of the links in your newsletter.

And why not qualify with a single click?

The last solution is still rarely used. Why not try qualifying directly via a click in your email? Let's use a simple example to illustrate the concept. Let's take our online travel agency, which has decided to set up a monthly subscriber survey (to try and make it a habit, to see that subscribers look forward to it). As summer approaches, VoyageXtra would like to know which destinations its members prefer:

Email subject: Discover the favorite destinations of VoyageXtra members! Message:

This summer, where will VoyageXtra members?

Before you find out, vote! For me, this summer, it will probably be :

• A country in the Mediterranean
• Asia
• The Caribbean
• A Scandinavian country
• Australia or New Zealand
• A region of France
• Other

As soon as the subscriber clicks on one of the choices, it is recorded in the database of the tour operator who will be able to use it in its communication in the following days. On the landing page, be careful not to overwhelm the subscriber with promotional offers, just show them the results of the survey as promised. It is the feeling of community that should prevail, but do not hesitate, for example, to direct them to a travel guide dedicated to the chosen destination.