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Surveys, Forms and Pages in Dotdigital

Rachael Norris
Rachael Norris
  • Updated

Surveys, Forms and Pages in Dotdigital can be used to create questionnaires which collect data from your customers. 

Surveys, Forms and Pages can be hosted on your website or shared as a link in your Integrated Email Campaigns. The data that is captured through responses can then be used to trigger a number of other actions within your Dotdigital account.

Before starting, make sure you’re familiar with:

TIP: Dotdigital Forms should not be used to capture customer Contact Preferences on your website. Take a look at our Sign Up Form and API Sign Up Form articles for more information on ways you can collect consent.

 

What are Surveys, Forms and Pages?

Surveys, Forms and Pages are created in the Surveys, Forms and Pages menu in Dotdigital.

  • Surveys or Forms in Dotdigital are designed to collect data from customers. Customers answer questions, which you can then export as data. Surveys and Forms will always have at least one input option and at least one action button. You can host Dotdigital Forms on your website or link to them from your Integrated Email Campaigns.

TIP: If you use WordPress, you can also use the Dotdigital Forms Widget to integrate directly into your website.

  • A Page is a standalone web page that can contain information, images, videos, or any other types of content. You might use a page to create a landing page which displays specific information. Unlike Surveys or Forms, Pages do not contain input options or action buttons.


 

What can you do with Surveys and Forms?

Some examples of how you might use Surveys and Forms include:

  • Send out a Survey in your post-event email.

    TIP: You can use the data you collect to enrol customers in Programs which send out different automated responses based on the feedback you receive.

  • Collect information from Group/Schools enquiries.
     
  • Collect Classes and Courses enquiries or registrations. You can use a Form to collect more complex data from registrants and request documents such as a waiver or a safeguarding form.
     
  • Collect customer competition entries.
     
  • Collect RSVPs from Invitees to Fundraising events.
     
  • Deliver a Membership satisfaction survey.


 

What can you do with Pages?

Some examples of how you might use Pages include:

  • You can create a landing page to direct customers to after completing a Survey or Form.
     
  • Create a holding page for an Event that is not yet on sale.

REMINDER: Dotdigital Forms should not be used to capture customer Contact Preferences on your website. Take a look at our Sign Up Form and API Sign Up Form articles for more information on ways you can collect consent.


 

How do Surveys, Forms or Pages work?

When setting up your  Survey or Form, you’ll use the EasyEditor to choose the elements and design features you want to include. 

TIP: Pages work in the same way as Surveys and Forms but they do not include any input options.

There are a variety of different input options available in the editor:

  • Text
  • Dropdown
  • Multiple choice
  • Checkbox list
  • Opinion scale
  • Date and time

When a customer completes a Survey or Form, this data is stored in your Dotdigital account. You can then choose to view it in Dotdigital or export it as a CSV.

The information collected in your Dotdigital Forms is not visible in Spektrix. However, you can use the data in your Dotdigital account to trigger certain actions, such as enrolling customers in a Program or adding them to a List. You can also choose to export the data from Dotdigital as a CSV and then import it into Spektrix, for example, to apply a Tag to certain customers.

REMINDER: When exporting your Form responses as a CSV, you can export up to five question headers at a time.

You can publish, unpublish and republish Pages and Forms any time, which means that you can update a Survey whilst it is live without having to update the link in your email campaign.

 

Best Practices for Spektrix Users

Before deciding to set up a Page or Form, consider the following questions:

  • What is the purpose of the Page or Form?
  • What do you plan to do with the responses?
  • Will you need to report on or share this information with anyone else?

The purpose of your form will inform what the best way to set it up is and what your process should be for managing the information you collect. For example, if you choose to set up a Form to gather expressions of interest, consider how you plan to communicate with the customers who register.


 

How to set up a Dotdigital Form or Survey

To set up a Dotdigital Form or Survey, you’ll first need to plan out the questions and types of data you want to collect. With this information, you can then start creating your Survey or Form in Dotdigital. 

We’ve broken this process down into three steps:

  1. Create
  2. Design
  3. Publish


 

1. Create

In Dotdigital, go to Surveys, Pages and Forms:

Then click, New Survey, page or form:

You’ll then be prompted to choose a template or start from scratch. 

Under Start from scratch, you can choose from:

  • Blank template (this will create a Page)
  • Blank form
  • Embedded page
  • Embedded form
  • Sign up chat form

To create a Survey or Form, click the SELECT button on the Blank form square: 

Give the Survey or Form a name and then choose the folder where you’d like to store it. Then, click CONTINUE.


 

2. Design

Next, design and configure your Form or Survey using the EasyEditor. 

In the Building Blocks menu, you’ll see a Form blocks section which contains the design elements you can use to create your Form or Survey.

To publish your Survey or Form, you will need at least one input option and one action button (the submit button).

Click the box below to see a table of the different form blocks you can use.

TIP: You can configure each question to be optional or required.

  • Form block Description
    Text

    Within the Text form block, you can collect different types of data including:

    • Text: a free text response.
       
    • Contact email: the customer must enter a valid email address.  This email address is stored against the contact record in Dotdigital and is not written back to Spektrix.
       
    • Contact mobile number: the customer must enter a valid mobile number. When entered, this is stored against the contact record in Dotdigital. It is not written back into Spektrix.
       
    • Numerical: a number field which accepts digits 0-9.
       
    • Other phone number: the customer can enter a phone number (not validated).
       
    • Other email: the customer can enter an email address (not validated).
    Dropdown

    You can choose to edit your own list or choose from a pre-defined list of options.

    The pre-defined list options include:

    • Age groups
    • Cities in the UK
    • Counties in the UK
    • Countries of the World
    • Days
    • Duration
    • Frequency
    • Months
    • Strongly disagree to strongly agree
    • Timezones
    • US states
    Multiple choice

    Create a multiple choice question. This question allows the customer to select a single answer from multiple options.

    You can link multiple choice answers to a single data field.

    You can choose to edit your own list of multiple choice options or choose from the pre-defined list. 

    Checkbox list

    A checkbox question allows the customer to select multiple answers.

    You can link checkbox answers to multiple data fields.

    You can choose to edit your own list of checkboxes or choose from the pre-defined list. 

    Opinion scale

    Choose tiles or a slider and set the scale by entering a number less than or equal to 20.

    TIP: Sliders of up to 20 may not create the most ideal experience for mobile users. Instead, we recommend limiting sliders to 5-10 values.

    Date and time Choose to ask your customer to enter a date and time, just date or just time.
    HiddenValue

    When sharing your form as a URL, you can use the HiddenValue field to collect additional information.

    For example, instead of asking the customer which Event they attended, you can use the HiddenValue field to automatically collect the EVENTNAME Data Field. 

    Consent We don’t recommend using the consent field in your form as this is not integrated with Spektrix and will not write the information back.

    Instead, we recommend taking a look at our articles on Sign Up Form and API Sign Up Form for more information on ways you can collect consent.
    Field group

    You can use this layout block to group related form blocks. For example, in a post Event Survey you might want to separate questions where you collect data from customers in an “About you” section.

    Using field groups to add a hierarchy to your form is best practice for accessibility.

    Sections

    You can use sections to add multiple Pages to your form. Customers can navigate through the Pages using the Next and Back buttons.

    Sections can be included or excluded based on conditional logic. That means that based on the customer’s answer they can be presented with different options.

    You can read more about setting up conditional logic for sections on the Dotdigital Help Center.

    Progress Add the progress block to multi-page Forms to display how much of the form is left to be completed.
    Preferences

    We don’t recommend using the preferences field in your form as this is not integrated with Spektrix and will not write the information back.

    Instead, we recommend taking a look at our articles on Sign Up Form and API Sign Up Form for more information on ways you can collect consent.

    Action buttons

    The action buttons block dynamically adds the Next, Back and Submit buttons to your form.  You can edit the text that appears on each button.

    You will need at least one action button for the customer to be able to submit their response.

    Confirmation

    The confirmation block must be added to show a confirmation message to your customers upon completion of the form. 

    There are three confirmation types:

    • Display content
      Add content to be displayed when the Survey is completed. To do this, you must add the confirmation block outside of the section which contains your questions.
    • Go to a Page
      Direct the customer to another Page you have already created in Dotdigital.
    • Redirect to a URL
      Direct the customer to a thank you page on your website.

Drag and drop the Form blocks you’d like to use onto the form. Then, configure the styling and settings.

To add any other types of content to your form (such as headings, text and images) drag and drop the content from the Building blocks section in the left panel.
 

 

Styles and Settings

For each of the Form blocks you add to your Form, you can configure the style and settings. 

 

  • Styles

Under the Styles tab, you can set colours, background images and padding:

You can use the text editor menu to format your text:

 

  • Settings

The Settings tab will display differently depending on which content block you have selected.

For example, the Settings displayed for the Date Form Block:

On the Date Form Block, you can:

  • Choose whether the answer is required
  • Set the message that will appear if an invalid answer is entered
  • Format settings for the date input

For a Text Box Form Block, you can set a Default value or a Watermark to include an example answer in your Form.

  • The Default value you enter will be pre-filled in the Form for the customer.
     
  • A Watermark can be set to appear in the Text Box answer but will disappear when the customer clicks into the field.
     
  • Autocomplete will only work if you install the Dotdigital Pages and Forms Cookies. This will have wider implications for your Cookie policy. With cookies active, Autocomplete will prepopulate the fields linked to data fields where the customer already has data.

 

Data Fields

When collecting customer data in Forms, you can choose to link the information you collect to Data Fields. 

You can do this by clicking on the Data field dropdown in the Settings tab. You can choose an existing Data Field or create a new one:

REMINDER: The information you collect from customers in Forms cannot be automatically written back to Spektrix.

You can use Data Fields in Programs, Personalisation or Dynamic Content. 

We recommend that you do not choose to link Form responses to a Data Field which is already linked to Spektrix. If you choose a Data Field which is linked to Spektrix, the data from Spektrix will automatically overwrite the data collected in your Form the next time data is synced.

Once you have finished designing your Form, click SAVE.

 

Preview

Preview how your form will appear to customers by clicking the PREVIEW button in the navigation bar.

Before publishing, you should check that the Form works as you expect.

 

TIP: When previewing your form, you may see a This will be displayed when the user submits the form notice alongside your confirmation message. This sentence will not be visible to your customers.

 

3. Publish

When you save your Form for the first time, you’ll be asked to set up your Submit actions.

In this section, we’ll also cover how to:

  • Publish your form
  • Embed your Form on a web page
  • Include your Form in an Email Campaign

 

Submit Actions

In the Submit actions panel you can decide:

  • How many times a customer can submit the Form. You can choose ONCE or MULTIPLE TIMES.
     
  • What happens when the customer submits the Form. You can either add your customers into a List or enrol them into a Program. 

TIP: To be able to add customers to a List or Program your Form must include a text box with type set to "Contact email" or "Contact mobile number". 


 

Publish

Once you are ready to publish your Form, click the PUBLISH button.

You will then be presented with the following options:

  • Create  a Link
  • Launch
  • Generate embed or pop-over code


 

Create a Link

When you click the CREATE A LINK button, you’ll see the options to customise the link for your Form:

  • Publish on: select the subdomain you want to publish your Form on. You should choose the subdomain you have set up for your emails.
  • Friendly part: enter text which will be appended to your URL to make it more recognisable.
  • Preview: a preview of your link is displayed here.

Click APPLY once you have completed the settings.


 

Launch

Once you’re ready to publish the Form, click PUBLISH.

You’ll be asked to confirm that you want this Form to be published. Click SAVE & PUBLISH to continue.

REMINDER: To publish your Survey or Form, you will need to include at least one input option, one action button and a confirmation block. You won’t be able to publish your form if you are missing any of these elements. 

 
 

Generate embed or pop-over code

If you want to publish this  Form on your website, choose whether you want to embed it into a page or create a pop-up.

If you want to embed your Form in an Integrated Email or just share a direct link, you don’t need to generate an embed or pop-up code.

Once you have the embed or pop-up code, you can then go ahead and install this on your website.
 

 

How to include your Form in an Email Campaign

You can choose to deliver your Form to customers using an Integrated Email Campaign.

When designing your email campaign, you can insert a link to the Form using a button or link.

From the link menu, choose Link to a page. 
 

  • Text: This will be the text displayed on your button or link.
     
  • Link title: This is the name which will display when a customer hovers over the link. Screen readers also use this text for accessibility purposes.
  • From the Survey, page, or form dropdown, choose the Form you want to link to.

TIP: If you publish changes to your Form after you have sent your email, using this type of link will mean that the new version is automatically included.

 
 

How to view or export the data you collect

Once customers have completed your Survey or Form, you can view or export the responses from Dotdigital.

  1. Go to Surveys, Forms and Pages in Dotdigital
     
  2. Find the Form or Survey you want to review
     
  3. Click FORM REPORT to view a summary of responses.
     
  4. To view the data outside of Dotdigital, click Export to CSV to download a CSV of responses.

TIP: You can write more information back to Spektrix using the Zapier integration. Contact our Support Team to discuss your ideas. 

 
 

Setting email alerts 

You can choose to set up email alerts when a customer completes a Form.

Email alerts can be set to:

  • Send to yourself or other team members when a customer completes a Form.
  • Send a response to the customer after they have completed a Form (you’ll need to have a Text form block set to collect Contact Email).

The email alerts can also include the customer’s response. To set up email alerts for your Form, follow these steps:

  1. Click the FORM OPTIONS dropdown menu and select Email alerts. 


     

  2. Choose Send to yourself or Send to respondent.

    • Send to yourself: Select YES to set up notifications alerts to yourself and other members of your team.
    • Send to respondent: Select YES to set up email notifications to go to customers who complete your Form.

  3. Under the Send to yourself heading, in the Send to box, enter the email address(es) that you’d like to receive email notifications. Add each address on a new line. 


    Check the Include responses box to include the Form's responses in the alert.

  4. Under the Send to respondent heading, you can choose to send a New message or choose from an existing Triggered Campaign.

    If you select New message, you can then click the EDIT MESSAGE button to add a plain text message to the customer’s email.

    Check the Include response box to include the customer’s response in the alert.

  5. Click  APPLY.

 
 

Using responses collected in Surveys and Forms

You can use the responses you collect in Surveys and Forms to enrol customers into Programs or output them into Lists.

 

Programs

You can use the responses collected in Surveys and Forms to trigger automated journeys in Dotdigital Programs. 

For example:

  • You could enrol customers in a Program to send them a thank you email after they complete a post-event survey with a multi-decision node or a random split to test which is the best way of keeping customers engaged.
  • After completing the Form, you could enrol customers who RSVP “Yes” to automatically receive a confirmation email and event details.
  • If you use a Form to take sign-ups from customers who want to be notified when an event goes on sale, you could use a Program to automatically send an email to everyone who signs up. You could then add another step in the Program which sends a reminder a week later if a customer has not yet booked.
     
  • If you use a Form to collect feedback from your Members through a Membership satisfaction survey, you can enrol customers into a Program which will have different journeys based on their responses.
     

TIP: To use a Form or Survey to enrol customers into a Program, you must include a Contact Email or Mobile field so Dotdigital can match the response to a Customer Record in Spektrix.

 

Lists

Lists in Dotdigital are a way of grouping customers based on their behaviour or responses.

When a customer submits a Survey or Form, you can add customers to a List to:

  • Use it as a Program enrolment rule or retarget the customers using ad automation.
     
  • Collect information about customers’ interests, export the list and then upload this as a Tag in Spektrix.
     
  • Group customers who have registered their interest (and contact details) for a future on-sale or sold-out event. You can then use the List to alert the customers when the event goes on sale in the future. The information about the customers' interests won’t be automatically written back into Spektrix. However, you can contact the customers by email or SMS through Dotdigital. Contact our Support Team to learn more about using SMS in Dotdigital.

REMINDER: The information you collect in Forms won’t be automatically written back to Spektrix.

 

Key Takeaways

When creating a Page or Form, bear these principles in mind.

  • Keep Spektrix as the single source of truth
    Avoid using Data Fields that are already linked to Spektrix. Use separate fields for survey responses.
     
  • Test before going live
    Always preview your Form, submit test responses and confirm that data flows as expected before sending it out to customers.
     
  • Be clear about consent
    Don’t use Surveys or Forms to collect marketing preferences – use the Spektrix Sign-Up Form or API Sign-Up Form instead.

 

To continue learning about collecting data from customers, take a look at the following articles: