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Create a subscription form
Subscription forms are very useful tools. They allow your website visitors to easily subscribe to your mailing list without ever leaving your page (and without having to turn on their e-mail program). All they have to do is fill in a simple form with the information you request from them and click a button. They'll never leave your site!
Let's go over the process of creating a subscription form for your mailing lists. On the Automation Station menu, place your mouse over "Follow-up" and click on the "Create Form" sub-menu. You'll be taken to a new page with a box just like the one you see below. Let's go over the steps in creating a subscription form:
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1) The very first step in creating a form will be to create a custom fieldset. I know this sounds a bit complex... but trust me, it is a very easy process. To start out, click the "Click here to create a new custom fieldset" link.
You'll be taken to a new page where you'll be able to create your first fieldset:
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2) In the first field enter the name of your new fieldset. Enter only letters or numbers without any spaces and without any special characters like ":,.(#$,etc.
3) Once you're done, click the "Add" button and your fieldset will be created and added to the list. Go ahead, create a fieldset right now so you can follow along.
4) These are the options you have for every fieldset you create. Click on the "Add/Modify Fields" link next to the fieldset you created in step 3.
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You'll notice that by default, the fieldsets you create are pre-populated with 3 fields: firstname, lastname and email. This is probably the minimum information you'll want to collect from each subscriber; but just as an example, let's add another field to this new fieldset we've just created.
5) Field identifier: Enter a single word (letters and numbers only, no spaces or any special characters). The word you enter here will help you identity the type of information you are collecting from your subscriber and mail-merge it later.
6) Field description: Enter a small description that matches the identifier above. This description will appear in your web form.
7) Include field: Do you want to include this field in the form you're creating?
8) Require field: Do you want to make this field "required"?
9) Add the new field by clicking the "Add" button.
As soon as you click the "Add" button, the new field will be added to the list. Repeat this process as many times as you want... you can gather as much information as you need from your prospects using this system.
Ok, now let's create the subscription form
Now that you have created a fieldset and added fields to it, you can continue with the process of creating your web form. Click on the "Create form" link or mouse-over the "Followup" menu and select "Create form" from the drop-down menu.
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10) Select a list: Use this drop down menu to select the list that you want to create the subscription form for. This field will display blank if you don't have any lists.
11) Select a tracker (if exists): Use this drop-down box to select the subscription tracker that you want to use on this web form.
12) Form results: Select wether or not you want Automation Station to e-mail you a copy of the results each time the subscription form is filled-in on your website.
In order to help you manage all these subscription notifications, we have included a "filter word" in themso that you can filter out these e-mail messages as soon as they reach your inbox (this is done with your e-mail client's filtering mechanism).
There are two different filter words. One of them is for subscription notifications from people who have not yet confirmed their subscription and the second one is for people who have confirmed their subscription to your list (double opt-in lists only) :
The "confirmed subscription" filter word is:
zzthiisthefilterwordtoaddzz
The "non-confirmed subscription" filter word is:
zzthiisthefilterwordtoaddnonconfirmedzz
13) URL of the confirmation page: Enter the URL of the "thank you" page on your website. This page should thank the user for subscribing to your mailing list.
14) Custom fieldsets: Select the fieldset that you want to work with.
15) Generate code: Click this button to generate the HTML code of the form.
Note: Every subscription form will automatically ask the users for their e-mail address.
Getting the HTML for your new form
After you click the "Generate code" button, you'll see a new screen with a box like the one shown here:
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This box contains the necessary HTML code for your subscription form. All you need to do is click "Select" and copy the code, then paste it on any web page's source code in the location where you want your subscription form to appear.
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