Build a feedback survey in your newsletter

Here’s a simple way to gather feedback while boosting engagement and your email reputation: emoji links that open a pre-filled reply email. Use it in one-off newsletters or bake it into your default templates for ongoing feedback.

The idea: a mailto: link on each emoji encourages readers to click and send you an email. Clicks and replies both count as positive engagement signals.

The basics

1. Open a new draft in Emails (include your mailing address and unsubscribe link so you can test).
2. Add an emoji in a Paragraph block. Keyboard shortcuts: Windows key + period (PC), Ctrl + Cmd + Space (Mac).
3. Highlight the emoji and link it with a customized mailto: URL:

mailto:[email protected]?subject=Feedback&body=👍

Change these parts:

• [email protected] — the address where you want subscriber replies.
• Feedback — the subject line of the reply email.
• 👍 — the pre-filled body. Regular emojis and UTF-8 hex codes work in most email clients; plain text works too.

Building the survey

1. In your draft or template, add a section with a heading like “How’d we do today?” — making it a Heading block helps it stand out.
2. Below it, enter three emojis with a space between each. A typical pattern is Bad / Meh / Good — but experiment: thumbs up/down, 1–5 scores, or a single heart readers can tap when they enjoyed a section.
3. Link each emoji with your mailto: format, changing the body emoji to match each option.
4. Save and preview. Clicking a link should launch the reader’s default email app with the address, subject, and body preloaded.

Even when readers don’t add their own words, the clicks give you insight into your audience and contribute to overall engagement performance.

Want structured, in-newsletter voting instead? Try Polls.