Qualtrics: Distribute a Survey via Email with the Qualtrics Mailer

To create your mailing list for email distribution, follow Qualtrics’ instructions for creating a mailing list. You have the choice to either:

1. manually add contacts to your mailing list, or
2. upload your contacts in bulk to your mailing list via CSV or TSV. 

Email is required information to use the Qualtrics mailer, while other data, like recipient first name, recipient last name, and other embedded data is optional. Reference the available fields for Qualtrics mailing lists for more information. 

Some tips and tricks: 

• Use a Qualtrics user group to share your mailing lists with other University of Minnesota Qualtrics users. Collaborators outside the University of Minnesota are required to have a University of Minnesota login to belong to a Qualtrics user group.
• If you’re not sure how to structure your CSV or TSV file for your contact list upload, you can download a sample template, available in the ‘Upload a File’ menu for a given contact list.
• If you run into issues with your bulk upload, check out Qualtrics’ support site page on CSV and TSV Upload Issues for troubleshooting steps. 

You can create as many unique email messages as you need within your Qualtrics library. Note that email message templates must comply with University Relations’ mass email requirements where applicable.

The email template you create in your library will only serve as the body of your email. You can specify your email title and sender information when you set up your email distributions for your specific survey. 

There are two main ways to create an email message template: 

1. Create Your Own Template: Follow the instructions on creating a message in the Qualtrics library.
   
2. Use a University-Branded Template: Choose from existing UMN templates.

Email Content Requirements 

To send an email via the Qualtrics mailer, the email body must include:

1. a link to the survey
2. an opt out link
   

To include the above links in your email body, use Qualtrics’ email piped text functionality. Piped text allows Qualtrics to customize survey link addresses based on the link settings you provide when composing your email distribution. If you distribute a survey using individual links, you must use piped text to create the survey link.

The piped text address for the survey and opt-out links are as follows: 

1. Survey Link Piped Text:  ${l://SurveyLink?d=Take the survey}
2. Opt Out Link Piped Text: ${l://OptOutLink?d=Click here to opt out}

Example of implementation within the message editor:

                 Follow the link below to take the XYZ survey.
                 ${l://SurveyLink?d=Take the XYZ Survey}

                 Follow the link below to opt out. 
                 ${l://OptOutLink?d=Click here to opt out}

Some additional tips and tricks: 

• You can edit the text after d= in the piped text addresses outlined above to customize your message. For example, you can change ${l://SurveyLink?d=Take the Survey} to ${l://SurveyLink?d=Fill out the brief form}.
  
  
• To help your email invites successfully get through spam filters, be sure to follow quality email content best practices. 
  
  
• When sending a survey invite, it is always best practice to include information about:
  • survey purpose
  • approximately how long the survey is expected to take,
  • who’s administering and sponsoring the survey
  • who will have access to the data, and
  • how the data will be used

To schedule your email invitation: 

1. Navigate to your survey’s Distributions tab.
2. Click within the Emails menu. 

3. Select the Compose Email button. 

   
4. Fill out the settings within the Compose Email menu according to your needs.
   1. Select your contact list within the Select Contacts drop-down menu.
   2. Select your email template within the Load Message drop-down menu.
5. If applicable, click the Show Advanced Options button at the bottom left of the Compose Email menu to specify the Qualtrics email link type that you would like to use and associated link expiration date.
   1. Note: Reminder and thank you emails scheduled via the Qualtrics mailer require use of individual links.
6. Click the Send button to schedule your email invitation.
   1. Note: If you would prefer to test your email beforehand, you may select Send Preview Email rather than Send. Alternatively, you could choose to send a test email to yourself using a test contact list.
7. Once you have scheduled your first email invitation, you may schedule reminder and thank you follow-up emails by following the instructions on this Qualtrics Reminder and Thank You Email support guide. 

Some tips and tricks: 

• It is best practice to update the From Address in your email distribution from [email protected] to the email of whoever is sending the survey (i.e., whoever is on the signature line of the survey invite).
• You can only send one Qualtrics email with the exact same content within a 12 hour period.
• If you are using an individual link, you’ll want to set the link expiration at or slightly past the survey close date in most circumstances.
• After an email distribution is sent, you will be able to see the status of your email invitations, including how many were successfully sent and how many bounced. For an overview of the various email distribution statuses, you may reference Qualtrics’ email distribution management information.
• You can create your email message template directly in the email editor, although you may find it easier to first create your email distribution in your Library and then pull it into the Compose Email menu. Refer to the Create Your Email Template section above for more details.
• Email distribution automation is included in the DesignXM additional features package. You can find instructions for accessing DesignXM features on our DesignXM resource page.

You may create a Qualtrics user group to share your Qualtrics mailing lists with other users at the University of Minnesota. 

Collaborators from outside the University will need a University of Minnesota login to access shared mailing lists and user groups. The platform does not support user groups for accounts outside the University of Minnesota.

You may create a Qualtrics user group to share your Qualtrics library content with other users at the University of Minnesota. If needed, you may copy content from your library to a group library. 

Collaborators from outside the University will need a University of Minnesota login to access shared mailing lists and user groups. The platform does not support user groups for accounts outside the University of Minnesota.

Yes! You can use piped text from a contact list field to add personalized information in your email invitations. For example, you may want to use a contact’s first or last name in the email salutation. Here are the default contact list fields that you can pipe into your email invite: 

• First Name: ${m://FirstName}
• Last Name: ${m://LastName}
• Email: ${m://Email1}
• External Data Reference: ${m://ExternalDataReference}
• Recipient Language: ${m://Language}

You can also include other embedded data from your contact list within your invitation. To do this, use the following piped text format:

${e://Field/Embedded Data Field Name}

Update Embedded Data Field Name with the actual name of your embedded data field in the contact list.

Yes! Please reference our Set Up a University-Branded Email using Qualtrics page for more information. 

After an email distribution is sent, you can review the status of your email invitations in the Emails menu under the Distributions tab of the survey. Click into a given distribution’s menu to see how many emails were successfully sent and how many bounced. You can review more detailed information by downloading the distribution’s history.

Reference Qualtrics’ email distribution management information for more details on the email monitoring information available. 

To check which emails bounced and why, download the distribution’s history. Open the history file via Excel or your preferred CSV editor. Within the exported history file, find the email invitation status of each individual contact under the Status column. 

Here are the possible statuses and troubleshooting steps:

• Email Not Sent: Email is missing in the contact list. Add the individual’s email to the contact list. 
  
• Email Failed: Email did not leave Qualtrics’ servers. Check that the email is formatted correctly. 
  
• Emailed Bounced: Email was sent but did not reach the recipient's inbox. There are two types of bounces: 
  
  • Hard Bounce: Email couldn’t be delivered due to permanent reasons such as the recipient’s email server not existing or not set up to accept emails. To troubleshoot, double check that the email is correctly specified; if the email is correctly specified, it is likely a bad email. Remove the email from your mailing list to ensure it doesn’t affect your email sender score. However, If you believe the email is valid, contact Qualtrics Support to see if the email is on their internal block list. 
    
  • Soft Bounce: Email couldn’t be delivered due to a temporary reason, such as a full inbox or temporary email server problem. To troubleshoot, check that the email is correctly specified. If you believe the email is valid, contact Qualtrics Support to see if they may be able to provide any additional insight. 
    
• Skipped As Duplicate / Email Blocked: The exact same email was sent to this contact within the past 12 hours. Either wait until the 12 hour window is over before sending again, or send the contact an email with different content. 

For additional information, review Qualtrics’ Troubleshooting Email Distributions help page. 

Review Qualtrics’ Avoid Being Marked as Spam help page for an overview of the primary methods you can use to help prevent your emails from being blocked or directed to the spam folder of your contacts. 

Additionally, be sure to use the following CAN-SPAM rules:

• Don’t use false or misleading header information.
• Don’t use deceptive subject lines.
• Tell recipients where you’re located.
• Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you.
• Honor opt-out requests promptly.

Yes. An unsubscribe link is required for email invitations going out via the Qualtrics mailer. This is because opt-out links are best etiquette for sending emails to a large number of recipients. See the CAN-SPAM rules on the University Mass Email Requirements page. 

If someone unsubscribes from your email invitation, they will be unsubscribed from the specific mailing list associated with that invitation, but they will not be unsubscribed from all Qualtrics surveys. 

This means that they will not receive any other messages or invites sent to that mailing list. However, these individuals can still receive invites and messages from other Qualtrics mailing lists. Because of this, we recommend that you use one mailing list with reminder invites or mailing list samples whenever possible to ensure you are honoring your recipients’ opt out requests. 

Check out Qualtrics’ support site page on CSV and TSV Upload Issues for troubleshooting steps.