Latest / The Email Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Newsletters, Open Rates, and Subscriber Growth / How Email List Surveys Boost Engagement and Reduce Churn
Transcript
- Lucas: So, Luna, I want to start with a number that stopped me cold. The average email list decays at roughly 22.5 percent per year. That's from a 2025 benchmark study by a firm called Email Smarter — not a household name, but their data is solid because it aggregates across over two thousand commercial senders. Luna: Twenty-two and a half percent — so basically, if you start the year with ten thousand subscribers, by December you've lost more than two thousand of them just to natural churn. That's brutal. Lucas: Exactly. And the standard response is to just keep acquiring new names to fill the bucket. But what if you could patch the leaks? That's what I want to talk about today — using subscriber surveys to actually understand why people stay or leave, and then act on that information. Luna: I love this angle. Because most brands treat surveys like a one-off event — 'Here's a link, tell us what you think' — and then they never look at the data again. But used correctly, surveys can be a continuous feedback loop. Lucas: Right. And there's a specific case I want to anchor on. A mid-size e-commerce brand — they sell outdoor gear, think camping and hiking — they had a list of about fifty thousand subscribers, and their engagement was sliding. Open rates had dropped from 24 percent to 17 percent over six months. So they decided to run a single survey. Luna: A single survey? That seems like a small intervention for a big problem. Lucas: It does. But here's what they did. Instead of a generic 'How are we doing?' survey, they sent a very specific three-question email to a random 20 percent sample of their list. Question one: 'How often would you like to hear from us?' — with options ranging from daily to monthly. Question two: 'Which topics are you most interested in?' — they listed their five main product categories. And question three: 'What's the one thing we could do better?' — open-ended. Luna: Okay, so that's actually smart. They didn't ask for a rating or a Net Promoter Score. They asked about behavior and preferences. That's actionable. Lucas: Actionable is the key word. Based on the responses — they got a 12 percent response rate, which is high for a cold survey — they made two changes. First, they split their send frequency. The people who said 'weekly' got weekly emails; the people who said 'monthly' got monthly. Second, they created topic-based segments. So if you only wanted hiking content, you only got hiking content. Luna: And the results? Lucas: Within three months, their open rate climbed back to 24 percent. But more importantly, their unsubscribe rate dropped by 22 percent. And they actually saw a 9 percent increase in click-through rate on the segmented sends versus their old batch and blast approach. Luna: That's a pretty clean win. And it all started with three questions sent to a subset of the list. No fancy tech, no AI segmentation model — just asking and listening. Lucas: Right. And that's the philosophy I want to drill into today. Surveys are underused in email marketing because they feel like a 'soft' tactic — like it's not as sophisticated as predictive scoring or machine learning. But actually, asking directly can be more accurate than inferring from behavior. Luna: Because behavior can be ambiguous. Someone who never opens your emails might still want them — they might just be busy or scanning subject lines. But if you ask, 'Do you want this frequency?' you get a clear signal. Lucas: Exactly. So let's talk about best practices for designing a survey that actually gets results. I think the first principle is: keep it short. The outdoor gear brand used three questions. HubSpot did a study a couple years ago that showed completion rates drop by 10 percent for every additional question beyond three. So three to five questions max. Luna: And order matters too. Start with the easiest question — something like 'Which topics interest you?' with checkboxes. Then the frequency question. Then leave the open-ended one for last, because it requires the most effort. Lucas: Good point. Second principle: send to a sample, not the whole list. You don't need everyone's opinion to make good decisions. A 10 to 20 percent random sample is statistically sufficient for most lists under a hundred thousand. And by not bothering the whole list, you avoid annoying people who don't want to be surveyed. Luna: And you can always roll the survey out to more segments later if you need more data. But starting small also lets you iterate if the survey doesn't perform well. Lucas: Third principle: time it right. Don't send a survey to someone who just subscribed. They don't know you yet. The outdoor gear brand sent theirs to subscribers who had been on the list for at least sixty days. That gave people enough time to form an opinion about the content. Luna: Also, avoid sending surveys during high-volume periods like holiday seasons or big sale events. People are in buying mode, not feedback mode. A quiet Tuesday morning in the middle of the month is usually best. Lucas: Fourth principle: be transparent about how you'll use the data. The outdoor gear brand included a line that said, 'Your answers will help us send you only the emails you actually want.' That sets an expectation and increases trust. If people think their feedback will vanish into a black hole, they won't bother. Luna: And then the most important part: actually use the data. I've seen brands run surveys, get great insights, and then do nothing. That's worse than not surveying at all, because you've raised expectations and then dashed them. Lucas: Absolutely. So after you get the results, you need to act quickly — within two weeks if possible. Update your segmentation, adjust your frequency, and then send a follow-up email to the survey respondents thanking them and explaining what changed. That closes the loop. Luna: It also encourages future participation. If people see that their feedback led to a change, they're more likely to respond to your next survey. It builds a culture of co-creation with your subscribers. Lucas: Let me give another example, this time from a B2B software company. They had a list of about eight thousand professionals — mostly marketing managers. Their engagement was decent but flat. They sent a two-question survey: 'What's your biggest marketing challenge right now?' and 'What format do you prefer — articles, videos, or podcasts?' Luna: Two questions. Very focused. Lucas: They got a 16 percent response rate. And they discovered that while they had been sending mostly long-form articles, 40 percent of respondents said they preferred short videos under three minutes. So they started producing a weekly video tip — nothing fancy, just a screen recording with voiceover. Within two months, click-through rates on those video emails were 3.5 times higher than their article emails. Luna: That's a massive lift. And it came from just listening to what people said they wanted, not assuming you know best. Lucas: Exactly. And this brings up a broader point: surveys can also reveal negative feedback that's hard to hear but incredibly valuable. The software company also got open-ended responses that said things like 'Your emails are too salesy' or 'I don't need another vendor pitch.' That's tough to read, but it's a gift. It tells you exactly what's driving churn. Luna: So how do you handle that gracefully? I mean, if someone says 'Your content is boring,' you don't want to get defensive. But you also don't want to ignore it. Lucas: You acknowledge it. In the follow-up email, you can say something like, 'We heard that some of you felt our content was too promotional. We're working on balancing educational and promotional content better.' That shows you're listening, even if you can't please everyone. Luna: And then you actually have to follow through. Otherwise, it's just lip service. Lucas: Right. So let's talk about tools. You don need a dedicated survey platform to do this well. Most email service providers have built-in survey or poll features. Mailchimp has a survey block. ConvertKit has a simple form. Even a Google Form linked in the email works fine. The key is to keep the friction low. Luna: And the data doesn't need to be perfect. You're not running a scientific study. You're looking for directional signals. If 30 percent of respondents say they want weekly emails, that's enough to justify a weekly segment. Lucas: Exactly. One more principle: consider offering a small incentive. The outdoor gear brand offered a 10 percent discount code to survey respondents. That boosted their response rate from about 8 percent to 12 percent. But be careful — if you offer a discount, you might attract people who just want the deal, not genuine feedback. So keep the incentive modest. Luna: Or you can make the incentive non-monetary, like early access to new content or a exclusive download. That can attract more engaged respondents. Lucas: Good call. Now, I want to talk about what not to do. Don't ask leading questions. Don't ask 'How much do you love our emails?' because everyone knows the socially desirable answer is 'a lot.' Ask behavioral questions: 'How often do you read our emails?' or 'Which of these topics did you find useful in the last month?' Luna: And don't survey too often. Once every six months is plenty for most lists. If you survey every month, people get survey fatigue and stop responding. Lucas: Right. So to summarize the framework: keep it short, sample your list, time it carefully, be transparent, act on the data, and close the loop. That's the recipe. Luna: I think this is one of those rare tactics that's both low-cost and high-impact. And it respects the subscriber — it treats them as a partner in the email relationship, not just a metric. Lucas: Yeah. And you know, if these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used, it's a nice reminder that listener support is what keeps this show ad-free and independent. If today was worth a coffee to you, that's the link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Totally optional, but appreciated. Luna: Absolutely. It's a small way to say 'this matters to me,' and it helps us keep doing what we do. So thanks to anyone who's ever thrown a coffee our way. Lucas: Alright, back to surveys. I want to give one more example that I think ties it all together. A nonprofit organization — a food bank — had a list of about fifteen thousand donors. Their email engagement was dropping, and they were losing recurring donors. They sent a three-question survey asking about donation preferences, communication frequency, and impact stories they wanted to hear. Luna: And what did they learn? Lucas: They learned that a significant portion of their donors wanted to hear more about the direct impact of their donations — specific stories of families helped — rather than general fundraising appeals. So they shifted their content mix to include more storytelling. Within four months, their donor retention rate increased by 15 percent. And their average donation amount actually went up too, because donors felt more connected. Luna: That's a beautiful example. Surveys aren't just for e-commerce or B2B. Any organization with an email list can benefit from simply asking. Lucas: Exactly. So if you're listening and you've been frustrated with flat engagement or rising churn, I'd challenge you to try a survey this week. Start with three questions, send to 20 percent of your list, and see what happens. The data might surprise you. Luna: I'm going to try this with my own small newsletter. I've been afraid to ask because I don't want to hear that people hate it. But that's exactly the feedback I need. Lucas: That's the right attitude. And remember, even negative feedback is a gift — it tells you what to fix. So go ahead, ask. Thanks for listening, and we'll be back next week with another tactic you can use.