Inserting Forms in Your Email

There is a lot of value in the use of forms – especially in emails (technically you cannot insert forms into an email, however you can insert a button that will take you to a web version of the email).

So what exactly are forms?  Basically any type of interactive tool that allows you to collect information from a user.  Think “contact us” pages where you fill in your email address to sign up for an eNewsletter (like ours).  You can also set up forms to collect all kinds of data such as payment options, donations, sign up for contests, volunteer registration, and job application forms.

Both ComF5 and Constant Contact provide form options.  ComF5’s forms are offered as part of their entire marketing solution.  Their forms application can help you build complete and custom designed landing pages to gather any information you need.  Warning here though is you need a bit of tech savvy to design these forms successfully.

For simplicity and ease of use (read – point and click savvy is all you need) you can go with Constant Contact, who has a partnership with Formstack that offers up to 3 forms for free through their app marketplace.  Formstack also offers integration with PayPal to allow users to collect donations and payments.  The downside is you cannot create custom forms without upgrading the Formstack interface (which runs about $14 bucks a month for basic starter plans).

The bottom line here though is the advantage of using forms.  When you offer your clients/users/consumers the option to contact you on their schedule (i.e. form pages are available 24/7/365 in any time zone) and then set up autoresponders to send out replies when someone does fill out your form, you have a much better chance of engaging with those clients/users/consumers.  And better yet, when you use forms, both of these programs can automatically place the requested information directly into your customer databases so you can continue the conversation long term.

As always, we’re here to help with any questions you may have regarding using forms – or let us do all the work and create them for you.