Use the web forms builder to create customized and branded opt-in and opt-out and forms, progressive forms and Forward to a Friend forms. Database contacts use these forms to opt into your emails/landing page site. After you access the web form feature in Acoustic Campaign, you can create a web form on a landing page, manage the form properties, and then customize your form.

Note: Opt-out forms are not required for Standard web forms, Opt-out forms, or subscription groups to enable contacts to unsubscribe from one or more contact lists. One can send contacts to the same "standard" web form with a subscription group to either subscribe (check the boxes) or unsubscribe (un-check the boxes). There is no need to build and maintain a separate opt-out form for contacts to unsubscribe.

Create a standard form

Use standard web forms to create opt-in forms and to update profile forms, which are also known as preference centers. Depending on your organization's settings, you can attach a single opt-in database or a double opt-in database. If you do not have a landing pages site that is already created, you can create the form by using these steps, and then a landing pages site is created for you.

1. From the Acoustic Campaign home page, click the Landing page icon .
2. Create a Landing Page site.
3. On the Manage Site tab, click New Web Form and then select the type of web form you want to create from the pull-down menu.
4. Name the form and then click Save.
5. The new Form page will be highlighted in the left column. Click the yellow placeholder in the Content Editor to edit your form. See the Customize Web Forms article for details.

Create a forward to a friend form

The forward to a friend form lets subscribed contacts forward your campaign to their friends and family members. Follow the steps below to create a forward to a friend form.

1. Create a landing pages site.
2. On the Manage Site tab, click New Web Form, and then select Forward to a Friend.
3. Click the yellow placeholder to edit the form.
4. Click Save on the Edit Site page to save your changes.

Create an opt-out form

Create and customize opt-out forms, so contacts who no longer want to subscribe to your emails are opted-out of your emails.

Like standard web forms, opt-out web forms are placed on your landing page's site. When you create an opt-out form, a confirmation page is included. Viewers are directed to the confirmation page upon submission of the opt-out form.

You can also add a subscription group to an opt-out form so your customers can manage the lists that they are subscribed to in Campaign.

Follow the steps below to create an Opt-out form.

1. Go to the Edit Site page and click the Manage Site tab.
2. Click New Web Form and then select Opt Out. The opt-out form displays.
3. A standard opt-out form contains the required email field and a submit button. These fields are needed to remove all instances of an email address that is tied to an organization from the database.

Note: Make sure to clear cache and cookies for Campaign before testing an opt-out form.

Create a double opt-in web form

The double opt-in web form is created for use with the double opt-in database and the double opt-in email. Follow the steps below to create a double opt-in web form. If you want to create a new site, select Create a new site from the site drop-down menu that is within the create web form box.

1. Click the Web Forms tab inside your already created double opt-in database.
2. Click the new Web Form drop-down menu.
3. Select Standard Web Form
4. In the Create Web Form window, give the web form a name by using the Form page name box.
5. The opt-in form is created on a landing page. To add the form to an existing landing page, choose the site from the site drop-down menu.
6. Name the landing page site.
7. Give the site folder a name.
8. Click Create to create the new site. The new site for the Opt-in form, the Pre-confirmation, and the Confirmation page is created.
9. Click the web form to edit it. You can also make edits to your pre-confirmation and confirmation page.
10. Click Save and Close.
11. Test and preview the web form by clicking Preview. To use the form, you must click Publish.
12. To test, copy the link on the Publish Confirmation page. If errors are present, you must fix those errors and republish the page.
13. Click Publish Site.

Test your site by placing the link that you copied in step 12 in a browser and complete the form.

To see whether the form is working correctly, go to the double opt-in database you created this form in. If the contact shows in the pre-opt-in state, then the form is working correctly. From this point, you would create the Autoresponder.

When you create the Autoresponder email, you are going to choose the Double Opt-In Confirmation hyperlink type. Then, you select your web form. The web form must be attached to the same double opt-in database as the email. The web form must be published to show in the email.

Snooze

Snooze allows your contacts to temporarily pause subscriptions for a specific amount of time that is determined by your web form creator. This feature is an alternative to opt-outs, as it gives contacts the option to temporarily stop receiving emails, instead of permanently opting-out which will reduce your opt-out rate.

Note: Snooze is an email status field that is managed at the system level that tracks status by recipient ID, not a contact’s email address. Therefore, contacts that are snoozed are not added to a suppression list. It is important to know this information for non-email keyed and flexible databases.

The snooze status is also available for those customers who use XML API integrations, imported web forms, and search databases.

How It Works

Snooze settings are an option on an opt-out web form under advanced field groups. Click and drag the snooze button onto the form, configure the snooze duration, and then publish the form. If a contact selects snooze and wants to opt into the subscription/emails again before the end of the specified time frame, the contact can submit another web form.

Follow the steps below to add Snooze to your opt-out form.

1. Create or open an opt-out form.
2. Click the placeholder to open the form design editor.
3. Click or drag the snooze in the form object's advanced field groups section to add it to the form.
4. Click the snooze field to display the object properties.
5. Customize the snooze settings, including snooze time, which is configurable by days. The maximum number of days for the snooze setting is 9999. You can configure the snooze time.
6. Save the form.

You can create your own HTML form that includes the snooze feature by using an application outside of Campaign. Then, use the import wizard to import your .HTML document into Campaign. This option adds multiple values so contacts can select a Snooze time from a list of multiple options.

Create a .html file outside of Campaign that includes settings. Include a Submit button and name it SP_SNOOZE_SUBMIT.

Import your web form through the import wizard. Acoustic Campaign adds the Snooze field that is found in your HTML code to your form. The Snooze field does not need to be mapped to your database; the mapping happens automatically. However, you need to map the Snooze button to an action. For more information, refer to the import wizard section in this document.

You can place contacts in snooze for a specified duration or until a specified date from API integrated applications. Refer to the Update a contact (recipient) API documentation for details.

Snooze control option in preference center

The snooze control option in the preference center allows contacts to update their opt-in/anooze status. Add snooze to your forms so you can identify a contact's Snooze status. You can also display options that allow contacts to either temporarily stop emails or to resume their emails (Auto-population needs to be enabled).

If Campaign detects that a contact's email is:

• Not in Snooze status, the form allows the contact to pause emails (place it in Snooze status).
• In Snooze status, contacts can resume emails or continue to temporarily pause emails.

Snooze is not available on imported standard web forms.

If you're an XML API User, API can update a contact's status by using the uUpdate recipient call, but the status cannot be returned in the Add Recipient call.

Identify contacts that snoozed an email in a Campaign database

Take the following steps to check to see which contacts in your database selected to snooze emails on the database summary screen.

1. Click the Search tab.
2. Select the Search Snoozed Contacts option.
3. Click Search.
4. View the type, email, and status fields of a contact's record.

Create a progressive form

Use progressive web forms to successfully collect a large volume of profile information from visitors in small increments over time.

Visitors are presented with a brief form that generally includes 2 or 3 form fields. On return visits to the website, progressive forms ask recipients/visitors for additional information to get data for the fields not already captured. Over time, you can progressively build a comprehensive profile of data with less risk of abandonment or fallout.

Note: Contact lists and subscription groups are not available on progressive web forms.

1. Create a Landing Page site.
2. On the Manage Site tab, click New Web Form, and then select Progressive.
3. Select the number of fields on the progressive web form.
4. Click Save.
5. Click Form.
6. Click the yellow placeholder to edit your form.
7. Add all the fields that are needed to build a complete profile for the contact in order of importance.
8. For each field, select the field and configure the Object Properties for that field.
9. To select the maximum number of fields, open the Progressive web form properties page.
10. In the Form Setting section, select the number of fields you want to show in addition to Always Shown Fields.
11. Click Save.
12. To show a field on the progressive web form, click the field to select it.
13. In the Object Properties pane, select Make field always shown.

Note: The form can have any number of fields added to it, but it shows the fields that do not have a value in the corresponding database.

Create a web forms preference center

Preference centers, also known as the edit preferences form, allows contacts to update their information in your database. Contacts can update profile information, list preferences, or how frequently they get an email from you.

You will use standard web forms and opt-in forms to create preference centers. After you create the form, you will add the subscription group object to the web form and then configure the settings.

When a standard web form is submitted, any data collected will be added to the Campaign database.

Note: Any fields that are required on the associated database or part of the database key will be required on the form. To see submission history, open contact insight for the contact then find the form submission in the Actions column. Click on the form submission to see what was submitted on that form.

Best Practice

While it is possible to create one Standard form that can function as both a preference center and an opt-in form, it is best practice to create two distinct forms. There is value in creating a simple opt-in form with minimal information to get the opt-in and having a separate more in-depth preference form post opt-in that is maybe presented in the welcome series. The abandon rate of a form goes up the more information that you ask for, so keeping it simple for the opt-in is key.

Create a preference center

1. Create a standard web form. Give it a descriptive name.
2. On the Manage Site tab of your landing page, click the web form name to open the Form Properties page.
3. Complete the following options on this page:
   1. Form settings
      1. Select Auto-populate if contact is known.
      2. Select include lookup.
   2. Contact matching
   3. Form code
      1. Form URL
      2. iFrame code: (Optional) Embed the form into your external web pages' source code. Currently Acoustic Campaign does not have an Amazon integration. You can place any external website within an iFrame on a Landing Page as a work-around.
      3. External Form Post: (Optional) Allows you to add this web form to an external page. After publishing the web form, paste this code into an external page.
   4. Contact lists
      1. Subscribe on opt-In: Users are automatically subscribed to your list when they opt in.
      2. Show on form: Users can determine which contact lists they subscribe to or unsubscribe.
      3. Save your changes.
4.  Edit your preference center by clicking the Manage Site tab on your landing page and click Form.
5. Click the yellow form object on the editor screen to see the Edit Form window.
6. Edit the form using form style, database fields, object properties, and form objects.
7. Make sure you add the subscription groups field that is found in form objects under advanced field groups. This object is mapped to your subscription group.

Note: For each contact list, make sure you enable web forms in the contact list settings.

Update contact lists in your preference center

1. Go to the Site Settings tab within your landing page and click Optional Site Settings.
2. Choose the contact source again.
3. In Form Properties, scroll down to the contact lists section and select the contact list options.

Change the value of the field in the preference center

1. Go to Data > View Data.
2. Click the database name to select the database in your shared or private folder.
3. On the Fields tab, click Edit next to the field name.
4. Change the field's values.
5. Click Save.
6. The updates will show on the web form.

Set up a subscription group in web forms

Subscription groups use contact list functions to allow your customers to manage the lists they are subscribed to. This feature is commonly used on preference centers and opt-out forms.

Enable subscription groups for web forms

Go to your contact list settings and select Enable for Web Forms for each list.

Note: It is not possible to have a subscription group as a required field because it would eliminate the user's ability to opt-in/opt-out as they choose.

Set up a subscription group in web forms

1. Open your web form and click the placeholder to edit the form.
2. In Form Objects under the advance field groups, click subscription group to drag the object to the form.
3. Click the object to configure the properties. As with other form objects, you can customize the label (that is, change the label text, customize the label format). You can also include a Select All check box.
4. Save your form.