Latest / The Email Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Newsletters, Open Rates, and Subscriber Growth / Why Email List Surveys Boost Subscriber Loyalty
Transcript
- Lucas: There's this small DTC skincare brand I've been following — they're called Routine Lab, about five thousand subscribers on their email list. Not huge, but they've been growing steadily for about eighteen months. Luna: What are they doing that's working? Lucas: They sent a single three-question survey to their entire list. No incentive, no discount. Just a genuine ask: 'Help us make better content for you.' The response rate was forty-two percent. And within sixty days, they saw a seventeen percent increase in repeat purchases from people who answered. Luna: That's a big lift from something that cost basically nothing to send. What were the questions? Lucas: First one: 'What skin concern do you want to solve most?' Second: 'How often do you want to hear from us?' Third: 'What's one thing you wish we'd talk about more?' That's it. No multiple choice — open text fields. They got paragraphs back. Luna: I love that they asked about frequency. Most brands just assume subscribers want weekly or daily, but people's tolerance varies a lot. Lucas: Exactly. They actually moved a chunk of respondents to a biweekly cadence based on the answers, and open rates for that segment went up by twelve percentage points. The survey itself became a segmentation tool. But the real magic was psychological. Luna: You're talking about the IKEA effect — the more you invest in something, the more you value it. Lucas: Right. When a subscriber takes three minutes to tell you what they care about, they've made a cognitive investment. They're now co-creating the relationship. That's way stickier than a standard welcome discount. Luna: And it gives you permission to follow up personally. You can reply to individual answers — which most brands don't do, but it's a huge trust builder. Lucas: Routine Lab had one team member respond to every single survey response. Not automated — real human replies. That's probably the biggest driver of the repeat purchase lift. People felt heard. Luna: That's the kind of thing that makes me think about our own listeners. If these episodes have sparked something you've actually used in your own email strategy, it might be worth a small gesture to keep this podcast ad-free and independent. Lucas: Yeah, seriously. If today's episode was worth a coffee to you, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure at all, but listener support is what lets us keep digging into these real-world tactics. Luna: Absolutely. And to bring it back to surveys — there's a common fear that sending a survey will trigger unsubscribes. But the data says the opposite. Lucas: Yeah, I was going to say — the fear is real. 'Don't ask too much of your list, you'll fatigue them.' But what Routine Lab found was that unsubscribes actually dropped by eight percent in the month after the survey. Luna: Because the survey acts as a relevance filter. People who were already disengaged either took the survey and got re-engaged, or they self-selected out. Either outcome is better than having dead weight on your list. Lucas: And for the ones who stay, you now have data to personalize every single email after that. You know their primary concern, their preferred frequency, and what content gaps exist. That's gold. Luna: What about timing? When should a brand send its first survey? Lucas: Day fourteen of the subscriber lifecycle seems to be the sweet spot. Early enough that the relationship is fresh, but late enough that they've received a few emails and can form an opinion. Routine Lab ran theirs on day fourteen, and their open rate for the survey itself was fifty-eight percent. Luna: That's huge. Most marketing emails hover in the twenties. So the subject line must have been good. Lucas: It was dead simple: 'Help us improve for you.' No clickbait, no curiosity gap. Just a direct ask. And the preheader said 'We'll read every response.' That honesty paid off. Luna: I think a lot of brands overthink survey design. They want to ask ten questions and get quantitative data. But three open-ended questions can give you richer insights than a ten-question Likert scale. Lucas: Totally. And you can always follow up with a quantitative poll later if you need numbers. But the first survey should be about building empathy, not gathering statistics. Luna: What about the risk of getting hundreds of replies and not having the bandwidth to respond? That seems like a real barrier for smaller teams. Lucas: It's a valid concern. But you don't have to respond to every single one manually. You can use email templates that reference the specific answer — like 'Thanks for telling us about your acne concerns. Here's a routine we recommend.' That still feels personal without being fully bespoke. Luna: Smart. And you can also use survey data to trigger automated sequences. If someone says their concern is aging, they get the anti-aging series. If they say acne, they get the breakout management series. Lucas: Exactly. Routine Lab built six different follow-up sequences based on the first question alone. That seventeen percent lift in repeat purchases? Probably came from sending the right content to the right person at the right time. Luna: So the framework is: one question that serves the subscriber, one that serves your content strategy, and one that reveals unmet needs. Lucas: That's a great way to put it. The first question in their survey — 'What skin concern do you want to solve most?' — that's serving the subscriber. The second — 'How often do you want to hear from us?' — that's serving your content strategy. And the third — 'What's one thing you wish we'd talk about more?' — that reveals unmet needs. Luna: I'd add one more thing: close the loop publicly. Share a few survey insights in a future newsletter. Say 'Seventy percent of you told us you want more ingredient deep dives, so here's our first one.' That makes respondents feel like their voice mattered. Lucas: Yeah, that reinforces the whole loop. Subscribers see that their input led to real changes, and the next time you send a survey, response rates will be even higher. Luna: And it builds a culture of listening. That's rare in email marketing, where most brands just broadcast. Lucas: So if you're looking for one low-effort, high-impact tactic to try this quarter, send a three-question survey to your list on day fourteen. Respond to as many as you can. Use the answers to segment and personalize. See what happens. Luna: I'd love to hear from listeners who try this. What changes do you see in open rates, click rates, or unsubscribes? We might do a follow-up episode with your results. Lucas: That's a great idea. For now, the takeaway is simple: a genuine ask beats a generic offer every time. Surveys aren't a burden on your list — they're an invitation to co-create. Luna: And if you haven't had a conversation with your subscribers lately, maybe it's time to start one. Lucas: Alright, that's all for today. Talk to your list — don't just email them.