Email templates feature allows you to send messages to your respondents based on their selected answers or a quiz/survey score. This is a great way to keep your respondents engaged. Email templates are so useful because each message can be customized according to each respondent's answers or score using editor variables.
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Editor variables refer to survey data, fields or questions, and answers in your survey. By typing in the name of the variable you can personalize your message without having to set up different ones for each respondent.
For example, if you insert the variable *|q1_response|*, this will be replaced with the answer that the respondent entered for the first question. So if question 1 was asking their name, and you write " Dear *|q1_response|* ", the message will now address respondents by name, eg, Dear John.
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The following short video explains how you can create email templates for follow-up messages.
This guide will teach you:
- Create your questionnaire
- Set up the Email template text
- Add Recipients
- Add Variables
- Add rules
- Set up a notification
- Analyze email
1. Create your questionnaire
After creating your questionnaire and adding all your questions, score, outcomes and formulas, you can create the templates that will be sent to your respondents when they complete the questionnaire.
2. Create an Email template
Head over to the Extra Options tab. Scroll down to the section Question Logic and click Email templates.
Now click Create email template and make sure you fill in all the required fields.
You'll need to fill in these fields:
- Name: Fill in the name of your template. Make sure it contains the purpose or meaning of the message so that it will be clear later on which message you want to send in which situation.
- Subject: This is the subject recipients see before they open your message. You can choose to enter the title of the survey by entering the variable *|survey_title|*
- Sender address: Type the email address you want to use to send out the messages. Note that the mail will actually be sent from [email protected]. If you want a custom mail address as Sender Address, some DNS (Domain Name System) settings are required by you. Contact [email protected] for more information. The reply-to address will be the address you used as a sender.
- Sender name: Enter your name to make the message more personal. You can also enter the company name.
- Recipients: Add the mails of your recipients.
- Body: This is the text of your message. You can choose which information you want to include and you can also include links. Make your message look more exciting by formatting your text (read about the rich text editor) and including editor variables. If you have ReportR plan, you can paste the PDF download link in the body of your email to share the PDF with your respondents.
- Add media: Allows you to add media to your message to make it more interesting. Don't forget to add the variable that is related to the image (for example *|image1|*) into the Body.
You can add different variables to your subject line to customise the subject further. For example, you can add the respondent's name, either by using the first name variable if you use contacts, or by adding the response that contains the name, for example *|intro_field5_response|*. To find the correct variable, you can use the {x} button at the body of your email, and then copy and paste it at the subject line.
3. Add Recipients
Enter the email address of the recipient, either manually or by using the Add variable button. Select from the dropdown the variable that indicates where in the survey you've asked their mail address. For example, if you have asked for the email on intro field 3 then the variable should be *|intro_field3_response|*. If you have asked for the email in a form question, then your variable should be *|qX_fieldY_response|* where X is the number of question and Y is the number of the field.
Otherwise, if you used your contact list, you can just select the variable *|contact_email|*
Contact variables can only be used if you have set up contacts in My Contacts. Also, these contact variables are mostly used when setting up email invitations
4. Add variables
Add variables in the body of your message to personalize it according to respondents' answers. You can call them by name, tell them their score, give them advice based on their answers, or show them an overview of what they wrote. You can add variables by clicking the {x} button.
You can add also a custom CSS button at your message, so your respondents can download their personalized PDF report.
5. Add the rules
You have the option to select the time but also under which conditions your message will be sent out. Once you've filled in all the previous fields, you'll find the section where you can schedule the mail and create rules for sending it out.
Rules allow you to create your very own logic behind the survey or quiz. You can create rules based on answers given o the questions or contacts' data.
You can control how many hours after the questionnaire has been taken your message will be sent. If you want it to be sent immediately, then all you have to do it to schedule it to 0 hours at the Schedule email box.
This feature is only available on the Enterprise and ReportR plan.
To add logic rules and control the conditions under which your message will be sent, click on the dropdown arrow to choose the criteria for your rule.
You can now set the rules for a specific answer on question, for certain contacts, or add a few more rules and make your own combination. Let's look at the options in detail:
- Use the drop-down menus to create your rules. As you select an option from each drop-down, a new box will appear so you can choose the next part of the rule.
- Add conditions to the rule by clicking on the + button. If you need to remove a condition, click -.
- Specify whether the condition is in addition to (and) or instead of (or) the first condition you've made.
- Add another rule. You'll see a box appear on the left where you can choose and/or. Specify if this rule is in addition to the first rule (and) or only if the first rule conditions are not met (or).
If you have set up outcomes, you can choose an outcome as the criteria for sending out the template. Choose outcome from the drop-down menu and then select what the outcome should or should not equal so that the template will be sent out. You can set the outcome as the only criteria, or as an additional criteria as shown below. In this example, we clicked the orange + button and added that the message should be sent if both the answer on question criteria AND the outcome criteria is fulfilled.
Make sure to click Save when you've finished creating your email template.
You can make as many templates as you like. For example you can write a different message to those who had a high score on your quiz and another one to those who failed. Also, if you're on the Enterprise plan or ReportR plan, you can send a message based on the value of a formula. More about formulas here.
When you use Save per question feature, every answer is saved as a partial response. If after 15 minutes the respondent has not returned to the survey to continue answering questions, the partial response will trigger the email template.
However, it’s possible to have duplicate records when a respondent takes 15 minutes to answer a question, which is why the same template can be emailed twice.
6. Set up a notification
If you would like your template to appear like a notification to the respondent, you should add the variable *|all_responses|* at the body of your message.
This variable will print the exact same output of an email notification.
7. Analyze email
At the top of the new email box which you're working on, click on the second tab -Analyze email. Click the arrow to choose which template you want to view the details for. You'll be able to see the details of the mails you've sent - if it was received, opened, and whether or not the links were clicked on.
By default our email provider stores the information about clicks, opens and delivery status for one month. This means that you need to sync your results before that, in order to update them at the email analytics.
What's next?
- Save per question feature allows your respondent to return and complete the questionnaire in case he closes his browser. The feature insures the answers to the questionnaire are saved. You can also turn on the Save and continue feature to let your respondents come back to the survey.
Question logic is a highly effective way to improve the flow of your questionnaire and tailor it to make it relevant to respondents. It allows you to specify which question to go to or go to the end of the questionnaire, based on the answer to a preceding question, quiz score, or contact data. Alternatively, you can decide to show or hide certain questions based on the criteria you set.
If you're going to distribute a questionnaire to people who speak different languages, the multiple languages feature is just what you need! Respondents can choose their own language and you'll also be able to view the results altogether. This will save you loads of time, you can easily add multiple languages and send respondents one link.