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

Abstract

This is an author-produced, peer-reviewed version of this article. AbstractIndividual 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.

Finding a tenure‐track position in academia in North America: Development of an employability model for new assistant professors

“…In total, 185 assistant professors (82 female) with an average age of 36.42 (SD = 8.24) years and organisational tenure of 3.14 (SD = 2.70) years completed the survey and were primarily from the fields of Organisational Behaviour (21%) and Human Resources (17%). The response rate was 12 per cent, which is consistent with studies that use similar email-based methodologies (Trespalacios & Perkins, 2016). In addition, no gender differences were observed when we compared respondents and non-respondents.…”

Assessing food insecurity prevalence and associated factors among college students enrolled in a university in the Southeast USA

“…The following two emails, sent one and two weeks after the first email, reminded students to take the survey and contained the web link ( 24 ) . The survey remained open for data collection for a total of four weeks ( 26 ) . Participation was incentivized by offering respondents an optional opportunity to take part in a draw for one of eight $US 100 gift cards by entering their email in a separate form that was not linked to the survey.…”

Effects of personalized invitation letters on research participation among general practitioners: a randomized trial

“…Outside the health domain, the impact of personalization has been, e.g., supported by a web-based survey study among students [ 12 ]. However, a more recent study on online-surveys from 2016 was not able to find a positive effect of personalized invitation letters on response rate [ 13 ]. Similar results were found in Italy for study invitations via text message – the authors observed a higher response rate in the intervention group receiving a personalized message, but the difference was not significant compared to the control group [ 14 ].…”