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1. Stormy
   November 8, 2007 3:26am

   Hmm, have to differ with at least one of your results here I’m afraid, as we have received and submitted forms using Outlook 2003 SP2, and it appeared to function fine.

   That aside, I completely agree on leaving forms out of email. If an email is generating enough interest that someone fills in a form, then it is enough for them to click a link to a webpage before they fill it out.

2. Mark Wyner
   November 8, 2007 7:26am

   

   Thanks for sharing, Stormy. It’s interesting that we experienced different results because we, too, tested Outlook 2003 on XP with SP2. Maybe the types of forms we used differ?

   We probably should have pointed out that we tested the POST which performed very poorly, and then proceeded with a GET form which worked much better. Our chart exhibits results from the latter. Also, our form comprised a single text input with a button. Very simple to see if the most basic form would function.

   All said, even if some forms function in Outlook 2003 they continue to be unreliable in many other clients. But know that your feedback is still valuable and we appreciate it very much.

3. Danny Foo
   November 9, 2007 4:26pm

   I’m curious, by form does it also mean the polls some people include in their newsletters?

   I’ve always been wondering how they achieved this. :S

4. Dave Greiner
   November 9, 2007 7:06pm

   Danny, yes, this refers to any kind of form element in emails, including polls and surveys. Basically, they are very hit and miss and not recommended.

5. Jonathan Sweet
   November 10, 2007 3:22am

   Something that we’ve noticed is that forms work in Outlook (pre 2007), but not in the preview pane (they won’t post to the server).

6. Sully
   November 17, 2007 1:19pm

   The presumption that participation will increase by using a landing page is open to debate.  Users are lazy—make them click, and that’s another commitment.  If it’s possible to present simple survey queries in an e-mail, you’d likely see more responses.  After all, they’ve already opened the e-mail—all they have to do is tick a few boxes, or fill out some info, and click.  But if they have to take another step, they might be more likely to abandon.

7. Mathew Patterson
   November 19, 2007 7:12pm

   

   You are right Sully - it is an extra click, and you would expect to lose some people because of that. Unfortunately though, forms just don’t reliably work in email, and it is worse for someone to fill out a form and then see it fail.

   The raw number of participants may fall by having a landing page, but the number of successful forms lodged would be expected to increase.

8. Justine Jordan
   December 8, 2007 3:27am

   It looks like Gmail is now stripping out forms altogether, in both “old” and “new” versions…

9. Justine Jordan
   December 8, 2007 3:54am

   Oh, same thing with Yahoo! Beta (forms still work in Classic). The form doesn’t display at all in the new Yahoo!

10. GulDam
    March 1, 2008 1:26pm

    Yahoo classic and V2 is working fine for both displaying email and form submittal.

11. Daniel
    May 20, 2008 9:08am

    Stormy,

    I found with Outlook that forms work fine if you open the email in its own window.  However, if the email is displayed in the generic “Outlook” split window, it does not work!

    That qualifies as unreliable in my books.

12. Paul McRae
    May 28, 2008 11:01am

    I have tried to produce a simple survey for my sailing club by using a form in HTML and distributing it as an e-mail, big mistake! Thank you for all the above posts, they all appear to be accurate and refelect my own findings, there is only one way to do it, make all the emails unique so that all the links are unique and as suggested link to a hidden bit of your website to conduct the survey. I also discovered that some webmail clients needed the link to be short(ish) in length so that may further complicate matters if there is no underlying database to reference.

13. B. Todd
    June 3, 2008 5:49am

    I know you’re talking about POST style HTML forms… but is it possible to produce an HTML fill-in form that your client would just reply to and send back to you, filled in?  I’ve tried this on myself, but the fields come back blank.  Am I doing something wrong, or does it still fall under the ‘blocked fill-in form’ category?

14. Boszkowo
    June 18, 2008 4:23am

    Thank you from Poland

15. Richard Giles
    August 12, 2008 12:59am

    Just the information I was looking for, thank you.

16. analysis
    August 20, 2008 3:38am

    Users are lazy—make them click, and that’s another commitment. If it’s possible to present simple survey queries in an e-mail, you’d likely see more responses.

17. James
    August 27, 2008 9:45am

    @Danny Foo - you could do a one-click poll… the item (or checkbox) is a graphic.  As soon as they click, you recognize the vote and display the results.  That would work.

    What are people’s experience with displaying a picture of the form?

    I notice that Hilton still displays forms in their emails.  (I’m viewing in Gmail, but using a private-label domain name that doesn’t identify it as Gmail.)  Have not actually tried the form, though.

    They have a text link underneath which reads “Form not working?  Click here to go to website.”

18. James
    August 27, 2008 9:51am

    @analysis - Users aren’t lazy.  Your email is a conversation, their click is them responding.  If they’re not clicking, you’re not engaging them.

    Subscribers rule!

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