Ever been in a situation where your email open rates are soaring—over 50%—but your click-through rates (CTR) are stuck below 1%? Frustrating, right? That’s exactly where Danny, a fitness coach with a thriving online presence, found himself. His audience was warm, engaged, and clearly opening emails, but the clicks just weren’t happening.

The question was: why?

• Was the content irrelevant?
• Were the CTAs hard to spot?
• Was the email too lengthy or poorly formatted?
• Or, simply, were the emails not delivering what readers wanted?

To fix this, we needed answers—fast. And that’s where our customer feedback strategy came into play.

The Challenge

Danny’s email campaigns were a mixed bag. On one hand, they boasted over 50% open rates, proving his audience was engaged. But on the other hand, click-through rates barely touched 1%. It was puzzling. If people were opening the emails, why weren’t they clicking?

This isn’t an uncommon scenario. Many brands face this exact issue—a warm audience that doesn’t take the desired action. It was time to dig deeper and find out what Danny’s subscribers really wanted.

The Strategy + Plan

We approached the problem with a customer-first mindset. Instead of guessing, we decided to ask. A survey was the best way to gather direct feedback and uncover the roadblocks preventing clicks.

Step 01: Building the Survey

• Focus on the Essentials: We narrowed the survey down to five key questions that would provide actionable insights.
• Mandatory Responses: All questions were mandatory, ensuring we captured complete data. All questions had “others” as a choice in order to understand the audience better.
• Engaging Name: We called the survey “I Want to Help You Better” to make it feel personal and customer-centric.

Email Address Collection: Instead of requiring Google sign-ins, we included an email address field as a short-answer question which was also mandatory. This avoided login barriers for non-Gmail users.

Step 02: Campaign Execution

We sent the survey to Danny’s most engaged subscribers (those with high open rates).

• Catchy Subject Line: The email had a compelling subject line to draw attention.
• Embedded Form: Instead of using a traditional CTA, we embedded the survey into the email. Clicking an option redirected users to the Google Form.
• Incentive: To encourage participation, we offered a $100 cash prize to one lucky respondent.

Results

Once we received the survey responses, we dove into analyzing the data—and let me tell you, some of the feedback caught us completely off guard. Surprisingly, customers were looking for the most basic things, the kind we often overlook.

We organized the survey results into a spreadsheet and grouped respondents into three distinct buckets. Using these buckets, we retargeted each group with highly personalized emails. Some received tailored offers, while others got helpful guidance or a starting point. To build familiarity and recognition, we incorporated the same phrases from the survey into our emails.

Actionable Changes

With these insights, we tweaked our email campaigns. Using the survey findings, we:

• Personalized emails to match audience needs.
• Used customer phrases directly in subject lines and body text for better recall.
• Simplified CTAs and placed them strategically for better visibility.

These adjustments resulted in a noticeable improvement. Click rates increased beyond the 1% mark, proving that understanding your audience is half the battle won.

Key Takeaways

This experience reinforced one crucial lesson: Your audience holds the answers. By understanding their needs and tailoring your approach, you can transform warm leads into active participants. Don’t assume—ask. Sometimes, even the simplest insights can lead to meaningful results.

For Danny, this wasn’t just about higher click rates. It was about building stronger connections with his audience, ensuring they felt heard and valued. It was important to make the audience feel an integral part of the brand. Especially when it comes to fitness, different people have different goals at different stages of their journey. So making this extra effort goes a long way. The result? A campaign that truly clicked.

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