Effects of Personalization and Invitation Email Length on Web-Based Survey Response Rates

Individual strategies to increase response rate and survey completion have been extensively researched. Recently, efforts have been made to investigate a combination of interventions to yield better response rates for web-based surveys. This study examined the effects of four different survey invitation conditions on response rate. From a large metropolitan university in the West, a group of 1,598 selected students were randomly assigned to four groups, each of which received a different version of the invitation email to participate in a survey of campus technology needs. Findings show that neither the degree of personalization nor the length of the invitation email impacted survey response or completion. Additionally, the outcomes demonstrated the impact of research-based “best practices” and their impact on overall response rate.