How To Capture Email Preferences Using An Action Network Form
Why Would I Need To Capture Email Preferences?
There's no need to capture email preferences, but it can be beneficial in increasing your email engagement rate and reducing the number of Unsubscribes and Spam Complaints your Group gets.
What Sort Of Thing Should I Capture?
This entirely depends on what sort of Emails you plan to send to your members and supporters. Perhaps you send out regular Action Day Emails, or updates from your local Green Councillors. If you define categories for your emails you can more easily capture preferences from those on your list. In this example we'll use the following categories to enable Activists to manage their email subscriptions:
- Green News: Updates From Local Activists & Councillors
- Direct Fundraising Asks: Emails with the sole purpose of fundraising.
- Action Day Emails: Regular volunteering events where we try to get as many people out as possible.
- Other Volunteering Opportunities: Emails that highlight other ways to get involved with the local party.
How Should I Record Responses?
This is a matter of preference, but we're going to recommend using Tags to store email preferences. To save time we'll create some tags in advance. To keep things tidy we're going to create a format for our Tags, which we'll use for the four we're creating now, and which can easily be used in future should we want to add more Tags. The format we're using is Local Party Initials Email: Preference. So, for Manchester Green Party we'll end up with four Tags like this:
- MGP Email: No News
- MGP EMail: No Fundraising
- MGP Email: No Action Days
- MGP Email: No Volunteering
Creating Your Email Preference Form
1. From the top Menu click on ACTIONS, move your mouse over Forms and click on the plus (+) icon that appears.
2. Add an Administrative Title in the first text box on the page. This will only be visible to you and other admins so don't worry about it being public-facing.
3. Add a Title (public-facing), and some text to your Form. You can also upload a banner image if you want to.
4. On the right of the page you'll see the Form itself. Add a Title, something short and snappy and turn off the progress bar by clicking on the toggle switch.
5. Now you're ready to add in your Email preference Question. Click on Edit Form which is just below the bottom form field.
6. To allow respondents to choose multiple options we'll use a Checkbox question. To insert one into our form we just need to click on the checkbox question on the right of the page, hold down and drag it into our form. When we let go of the mouse button the question will snap into place.
7. Move your mouse over the checkbox question you've just added to your Form. You'll see a pale grey highlight appears around it. Click anywhere in this grey box and the settings for the question will appear.
8. As we'll be using Tags to set email preferences the first thing we need to do is click on Or, tag an activist.
9. Then give the checkboxes a label. This is what respondents will see on your form.
10. Now you can add in your options, and corresponding tags. We do this in the format option|tag. For example, for the option to opt out of fundraising emails would be in the format Fundraising Emails|MGP EMail: No Fundraising. Add each option and it's corresponding Tag to a new line. In this example we'll end up with something like this:
If you didn't create your Tags before starting they will be generated automatically when somebody responds with the corresponding option.
11. As we want this Field to always be visible we'll click the Always Show checkbox.
12. Once you're happy with everything click on Save.
13. The Question will now appear in your Form. Check you're happy with it before continuing.
14. Once you're happy with how your form appears click on the SAVE FORM button.
15. We'll be taken back to the previous page, and the last thing we'll do is change the text on the Submit button below the Form. To do this, just click into the button and edit the text.
16. Once you're happy with everything on this page click on the button marked SAVE AND GO TO NEXT STEP.
The Thank You Page
1. After creating your Form you'll be taken to an editable preview of the Thank You page. Edit the text in the two green boxes- your headline, and thank you message. You can do this by simply clicking on the text and editing it as normal.
2. Below this you'll see another text box where you can add in some more information if you choose.
3. On the right hand side of the page you'll see the sharing options for your Form. Due to the nature of the Form it's unlikely you're going to want it to be shared on social media, so simply click on REMOVE SHARING OPTIONS.
4. Once you're happy with the changes you've made to the Thank You page just click on the button marked SAVE & PUBLISH.
Next Steps
Now that your Form is published there are just a few final steps to take. First, make sure you set a Page Wrapper by choosing the Wrapper you want to use and clicking SAVE PAGE WRAPPER.
Next, click on the Responses tab. You can choose to either, turn off email responses by unticking the box labelled Send An Email Response or edit the email that will be sent to form respondents to make it relevant to the Action they've just completed.
Sharing Your Email Preference Form
How you share your Form is up to you. You may wish to send an email inviting Activists to complete the Form and let them know your preferences, or include it in the footer of your saved Email Layouts to ensure it's included in every email sent from your group.
Why not get creative and add options to your email sign up form so you can capture email preferences at the point of sign-up? Activists can always update their preferences in future.
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