Build a form or survey

A form collects enquiries: a quote request, a call-back, a contact form. A survey asks its questions over several pages, with a progress bar. Both are built the same way, get their own address on one of your sites, and can be embedded on another website. Each reply creates or updates a contact.

Before you start

• A site to put it on. The site decides the form's address and the look it inherits.
• An idea of what you want to ask. The Wick & Ember candle studio uses a form for wedding-favour quotes: name, email, date, number of guests, scent.

Steps: create a form

1. Open Sites and choose Forms (or Surveys for a survey).
2. Press New form (or New survey).
3. Type a Name and choose On which site.
4. Optionally, fill in What is it for?, for example "Quoting for a bathroom refit". The questions are then written for your business; your trade and what you sell are already known. Leave it empty to use a template as it is.
5. Under Start from, pick the template closest to what you need.
6. Press Create form (or Create survey). It shows "Writing the questions…" when they are being written for you. The builder opens.

Steps: set the questions

1. Under Questions, change each question's wording and its type: Short text, Long answer, Pick one (shown), Pick one (dropdown), Pick any number, Rating 1–5, Email, Phone, Number, Date or Website.
2. For a choice question, type its choices.
3. Tick Required on the questions that must be answered.
4. Move questions with the up and down arrows, or remove one with its remove button. Suggested questions are offered below the list.
5. Set the Intro (one line under the heading), the Button wording and After they send it (the thank-you message).
6. To ask over several pages, tick Ask this over several pages, then choose each question's Page, or press Spread it over pages.
7. Tick Show your site's picture beside the fields if you want it.
8. Press Save. The preview shows exactly what a visitor sees.

Steps: publish and share it

1. Press Publish. The status changes from Not published to Live.
2. Under Where it lives, copy the form's address to link to it.
3. To put it on another website, copy the embed code under "Or embed it". It adds ?embed=1 so the form shows without your menu or footer.

What happens next

• Each reply appears under Replies (in the forms list, or on the form), with when it was received and what they sent.
• A reply with an email or phone number creates or updates a contact.
• The person gets an Enquiry received email and you get a New enquiry email, unless those are switched off under Marketing › Email › System emails.
• The forms list shows each form's site, how many fields it asks for, its reply count and the latest reply.

For agencies

Build forms inside a client with Sub-accounts › Open.

Troubleshooting

"Every question is on page 1, so this is still asked on one screen." The survey has not been split. Choose a Page for each question, or press Spread it over pages.

Replies arrive but no contact is created. The form has no email or phone question, so there is nothing to make a contact from. Add one.

The embedded form is cut off. Change the height in the embed code; the form cannot resize the frame by itself.

"Publish the form to give it an address you can link to or embed." The form is not published. Press Publish.

"You need a site first — a form lives on one." Create a website or store first, then make the form.

I deleted a form by mistake. Deleting takes the form's page and address with it and cannot be undone. Build it again, and put the new address wherever you linked the old one.

Related

• Edit a page in the editor
• See how your sites are doing
• The contact record and timeline