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Paul J Lavrakas, Benjamin Skalland, Christopher Ward, Can Geng, Vincent Welch, Jenny Jeyarajah, Cynthia Knighton, Testing the Effects of Envelope Features on Survey Response in a Telephone Survey Advance Letter Mailing Experiment, Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, Volume 6, Issue 2, June 2018, Pages 262–283, https://doi.org/10.1093/jssam/smx023
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Abstract
There has been considerable research in the past three decades about the value of sending an advance letter to respondents prior to making the formal request for cooperation in a survey. This literature has shown that advance letters have a positive effect on survey response rates, but the literature has almost entirely focused on what is enclosed inside the envelope. In contrast, little attention has been given to the importance of the envelope/mailer that is used. However, whatever is enclosed inside the envelope can have no impact on the recipient unless the envelope is opened. We report on a large national experiment that tested the effects of two aspects of the advance envelope of a survey that sampled telephone numbers and gathered data via telephone: (1) envelope color and (2) the first line of the addressee. Our study was conducted as part of the CDC’s 2014 National Immunization Survey (NIS). In the landline RDD sample, all the advance letters were randomly assigned to one of nine conditions using a 3 × 3 factorial design. This experiment tested the effects on the telephone survey response of whether the envelope was white, tan, or light blue and whether the envelope was addressed to the name of the person matched to the address, to “Resident,” or to “Parent/Guardian.” It was found that a tan envelope addressed to “Parent/Guardian” had a highly significant impact, achieving an approximately 35% higher eligibility rate compared to the control condition (white envelope addressed with the name that was matched to the address). Making envelope features more responsive to the potential participants did not raise the cost of the mailings, but it did have meaningful cost-beneficial effects for the NIS.
