These days, everybody regularly receives a good deal of junk email– email that we can’t be bothered to open, much less read, in other words. So how do you see to it that your survey invitations aren’t automatically labeled as junk and deleted right away? Is there anything you can do to ensure that they’re seen and read by your invited participants, so that they follow your suggested course of action, which is to respond to your survey?

Fortunately, the answer is yes, and following are some tips to help you grab the attention of your invited survey participants.

• Make sure your correspondence appears professional and legitimate. Refrain from using words that are usually associated with spam emails, such as "FREE" (in all caps) or "Act Now", in the subject line.

• Don’t write a general subject line. Think of something that describes the topic of your survey. A good example is "Entertainment Survey Invitation from YourWebsite.com", which is simple and to the point. Plus, it identifies your organization so people won’t think it’s spam.

• Include the who, why, what, where, and how in the body of your email. Tell them who is conducting the survey. Include a brief introduction about your organization if necessary. If it’s an outside party that’s initiating the survey, inform your participants so they won’t think they’re being lied to. Let them know where they can take the survey, how it will be processed, and what you plan to do with the results.

• If you’re offering an incentive for people taking the survey, make sure you mention the prize. This usually makes or breaks the response rate of a survey.

• Provide your contact information so participants will know that you’re the real deal. In addition, they should have a way to get in touch with you should they encounter any problems with the survey. Your contact details should include your name, phone number, and/or email address.

We hope that you found the above suggestions useful. Give them a try and see if there’s an improvement in the response rate of your next survey. Of course, quick polls may be the answer in our time deprived world, too. You can try them both using BooRoo.com