Sending HTML forms via emails to customers is a solid marketing tactic to build audience lists and create engagement. However, designing these can be tricky without any technical knowledge.
How can I create an HTML form in an email?
Read on to discover what marketers should know about how to craft and utilize HTML forms in an email.
What is an HTML form in email?
HTML forms can be crafted using (at a bare minimum) a text editor, an email client, and a web browser. The purpose of HTML forms is to collect information entered by customers. They can also be used to sign prospects up for newsletters, subscriptions, and other interactions within your business.
64% of respondents prefer HTML-based emails over plain-text.
How to use an HTML form in email
To maximize the efficiency of HTML forms in email, you’ll want to keep things simple. Customers don’t like forms that are verbose, extensive, or otherwise intrusive. Keep customers engaged by making HTML forms that will interest customers and yield essential information.
Once filled out, the completed HTML form will be sent to an email address or audience list of your choosing.
How to build an HTML form in an email
Starting with your text editor such as Notepad++, write out the HTML code for a form followed by a submission button. The code will look similar to:
<body>
<form action=”MAILTO: [email protected]”>
</form>
<p>Subscribe to our newsletter?</p>
<input type=”radio” name “1” value=”Yes”> Yes
<input type=”radio” name “2” value=”No”> No
</body>
This simple base code contains the essential components to build an HTML form. This code will make a form that asks whether you’d like to subscribe to the company newsletter, giving the options of yes or no to the recipient.
You can build on this code and use the same essential components to design complex forms with more questions, as well as other customization techniques.
How to customize an HTML form in an email
HTML forms can be used to make customized experiences that are tailored to the customer’s interests and values.
Customization is becoming more of an expectation, and businesses who recognize this early on benefit from more satisfied customers. Millennials, in particular, crave customization and balk at products and services that don’t offer them enough of it.
As the example below demonstrates, marketing materials like customer invitations can be personalized to pair HTML forms with engaging visuals.
Source: Campaign Monitor
Does it really matter?
HTML forms are specialized code that can yield valuable and actionable information. You can use this framework to offer your customers better experiences and personalized messaging. HTML forms matter because they give you the chance to collect data and improve future marketing campaigns.
Learning more about your customers and their preferences help keep them engaged because services and products can be tweaked to their tastes. HTML forms in email help take the guesswork out of things so you can learn exactly what your customers want.
What now?
Knowing how to build an HTML form for email is just the beginning of the journey. It’s important to learn how to best use these forms to optimize returns and conversions. However, not all email clients work well with forms sent through email. The most problematic email clients for forms are Windows Live Hotmail, AOL Webmail, and some older versions of Outlook.
One of the savviest ways around this is to simply include a link to your form in the email rather than try to include it inside the email. The link can lead to your website, where the form can be completed without incident. Chat with Campaign Monitor today to help you make email marketing with HTML forms more effective.