Add a Simple Poll or Survey to Your Email

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Use poll and survey merge tags in your email to help you gauge your audience’s opinions on a topic. The poll merge tag displays a question and answer rating scale, while the survey merge tag displays a single question with answer options you create.

In this article, you'll learn how to add and customize a simple poll or survey in your email, and how to track and use the results with reports and segments.

Before you start

Here are some things to know before you begin this process.

  • This article tells you how to create simple surveys with merge tags in Mailchimp. To learn about other types of surveys, check out Use Surveys in Mailchimp.
  • Polls and simple surveys use merge tags. Check out our Getting Started with Merge Tags in Mailchimp article for more information.
  • Simple surveys won’t display the question in reports, so you should only include one survey question per email. To create a survey with multiple questions and more design options, check out Create a Survey.
  • Responses can’t be submitted from a browser-based page, such as your email campaign archive.
  • Links created with merge tags can't be click tracked, so responses to polls and surveys don't count toward your email's click rate.

Add a poll to an email

Add a poll to an email and gauge your audience’s opinions on a topic based on a 1-10 rating scale. You’ll use the *|POLL:RATING:x|* and *|END:POLL|* merge tags for each question.

To add a poll to an email, follow these steps.

  1. In the Content section of the email builder, click Design Email or Edit Design.
  2. In your email layout, click the text content block you want to work with.
  3. Enter the poll merge tags into the content block, using the following syntax:

*|POLL:RATING:x|* Enter your poll question here. *|END:POLL|* 4. Replace the placeholder text with your poll data.

  • Replace the x in the merge tag with H for a horizontal layout, or V for a vertical layout.
  • Replace the placeholder sentence between the merge tags with your poll question.

  • Add as many poll merge tags in a single email as you want. Be sure to close each *|POLL:RATING:x|* tag with a corresponding *|END:POLL|* tag to keep the responses separate.

  • If you're using the new builder, click Save and exit. If you're using the legacy builder, click Save & Close.

Your poll will display a clickable rating scale for each question. Click Preview in the email builder to verify the poll looks good before you send it. This is especially important if you change the link style of the rating scale.

After a recipient clicks a response, they’ll be taken to your survey landing page with a thank you message, or a message that explains they’ve already voted. If your email contains multiple polls, they’ll need to return to the email to answer the next question.

Note

The lowest and highest labels in the simple poll can't be changed or translated. To have more control over the language, consider using a survey merge tag.

Add a survey to an email

Use the *|SURVEY|* merge tag to ask a single question with a set number of responses to choose from. While survey responses appear in the report, survey questions don't. We recommend limiting the survey to one question. If you want to ask multiple questions, check out Create a Survey.

To add a simple survey to an email, follow these steps.

  1. In the Content section of the email builder, click Design Email or Edit Design.
  2. In your email layout, click the text content block you want to work with.
  3. Enter your survey question in the content block.
  4. Use the *|SURVEY:|* merge tag and enter the response you want after the colon. Use a separate *|SURVEY:|* merge tag for each response. Be sure each survey response is unique. For example:

On average, how many plants do you keep inside your home?

*|SURVEY:None|*

*|SURVEY:1–3|*

*|SURVEY:4–6|*

*|SURVEY:Too many to count|* 5. Survey responses can be as long as you want, but the text will stop at 255 characters when viewed in the reports. 6. If you’re using the new builder, click Save and exit. If you’re using the legacy builder, click Save & Close.

When a contact receives the email with your survey, the merge tags will display clickable responses. Click Preview in the email builder to verify the survey looks good before you send it.

After a contact clicks a response, they’ll be directed to your survey landing page. Contacts can provide only one survey response.

Customize your survey landing page

Like other forms and response emails, the survey landing page is customizable. You can view or edit the survey landing page from your audience's Form Builder.

To customize your survey landing page, follow these steps.

  1. Click Forms, then click Settings.
  2. If you have more than one audience, click the Audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.
  3. In the System forms section, find All system forms and click Edit.
  4. In the Forms and response emails drop-down, select Survey landing page.
  5. Click the Build it, Design it, or Translate it tabs to preview the page and make changes.

The *|SURVEY_VOTE_RESPONSE|* merge tag sends the “Thanks for voting!” message after someone casts their vote. If a recipient tries to vote more than once, this tag sends the “Sorry, you can only vote once per poll!” message. You can edit the content of these messages from the Translate it tab.

Note

Survey landing pages are pages we create for you by default, and are different from landing page campaigns.

View and assess results

When contacts start to answer your poll or survey, we'll display captured responses in the email report.

To view the results of your poll or survey, follow these steps.

  1. Click Campaigns and find the sent campaign that contained your poll or survey.
  2. Click View Report for the email you want to work with.
  3. Click the Survey/Poll tab.

We'll show you how contacts respond to your poll or survey.

  • Votes cast The total number of responses received.
  • Pending votes The number of recipients who haven't yet responded.
  • Last vote cast The day and time of the most recent response.
  • Option Available responses to your poll or survey. Click each response to see which contacts chose it.
  • Votes The number of recipients who chose a response.
  • Percentage The percentage of respondents who chose a response.
  • Last vote The day and time of the most recent response.

Poll and survey results are based on a single response from each recipient. Responses from forwarded emails are recorded for the original recipient. If the original recipient responds to the poll or survey first, then forwarded responses won’t be recorded. Similarly, if a forwarded recipient responds to a poll or survey first, the original recipient’s response won’t be recorded.

Note

Responses to polls and surveys don’t count toward your email’s click rate.

Create a segment based on the results

After your contacts begin to complete your poll or survey, you can use the Poll/Survey Activity condition to create segments based on the results. For example, you might want to segment only the people who answered a certain way, or who haven’t yet responded.

Use Surveys in Mailchimp

Mailchimp offers a few ways to share surveys with your audience. Learn about each option and which type would work best for you.

Integrate SurveyMonkey with Mailchimp

Integrate SurveyMonkey with Mailchimp to send a survey to your Mailchimp email contacts and track results.

Create a Regular Email

Learn how to create a regular email in Mailchimp.