Live polls in email campaigns provide a dynamic and interactive way to engage with recipients, gather feedback, personalize content, build a community, and ultimately improve the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns.
This new feature will allow you to build a custom poll in minutes that can easily be used in any email template and in any email service provider. In this post we will create 3 images that can be used to create the look below:
Getting Started
When you navigate to the Polls section, you will see that we have an option to upload your own image or start with a template that we have built. Using a template will create the different voting options for you, though you may change them in any way you want, adding text, replacing images, and adding dynamic elements that we offer for all Polls.
For a truly custom design, simply drag in the first image you wish to use, such as the one below:
Once you have done this our editor will load allowing you to add Design Options and Current Vote Options. This image was built by our design team, so we can focus on just the Current Vote Options to add dynamic elements to it.
Dynamic Elements
There are 3 types of elements you can add to your image, Vote Values, Radial Gauges and Progress Bars. Each will have options to customize the elements to match your custom design. When a subscriber views your email, each dynamic element will update to reflect the total votes that have been made. We cannot update the image while the subscriber is viewing it, as that is not allowed by the email clients. But if they were to reload the email, all images would update.
Vote Value – This will allow you to show the total votes for this image. So when a subscriber views your email, each image will show the votes that it has received. This can be displayed as a Percentage or as Vote Count (actual number of votes).
Radial Gauge – This will display the number of votes for this image, as a radial gauge. You can customize the colors, start position and size to position this element on your image as you need.
Progress Bar – This will display the number of votes for this image, as a progress bar. You can customize the colors, roundness and include a border to this element, as well as size it on your image as you need.
In our example we have added a Progress Bar layer and a Vote Value layer, showing the percentage of votes that the image has received.
Preview and Add Links
Once you are happy with the design, you can preview the image and manually test the Vote Count and Percentage. Adjusting these will show the changes in any dynamic elements you have added, Vote Count, Radial Gauges or Progress Bars.
Now you can save your image, simply add a name and add the link for anyone that votes on this image. This link will be added as an HREF to the Image URL, which allows us to count the vote and then forward them on to your website. Each voting option can have their own link.
Adding Poll Options
We make it easy to add more poll options by automatically copying the previous design. This will allow you to change the background image and all other elements will remain in place, both Design Options and Current Vote Options. In our example we changed the color of the progress bar to match our designs.
Adding Images to Your Email
Once you have all of your Poll options saved, you will get a snippet of code for each voting option. You can cut and paste these into the HTML of your email template to display each voting option. Keep in mind that you will need to add a NUID, displayed as MERGE_TAG in the HREF, with a merge tag from your email service provider. This should be something such as UserID, SubscriberID, or anything that is unique for each subscriber on your list. This allows us to count only one vote for each subscriber.
So the code will have the exact syntax for the merge tag that your email service provider uses. Examples below:
?ni_option=1&nuid={{SubscriberID}}
?ni_option=1&nuid=[contact.ClientNumber]
?ni_option=1&nuid=*|UserID|*
Testing and Questions
Keep in mind that if the NUID is not changed, your can only vote once while testing. If you put in random characters as the NUID you will be able to put test votes on each voting option. You may also reset the vote totals at anytime under the Edit option for your poll.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please reach out to us!