Page last modified 12:56, 2 Mar 2010 by Admin

Surveys

1. What Is a Survey
1. 1. 1.1.1. Survey Requirements
  2. 1.1.2. Survey Landing Pages
    1. 1.1.2.1. Types of Survey Landing Pages
2. Why Use a Survey
3. Scenario
4. How To Create a Survey
1. 1. 4.1.1. How To Create Questions and Answers
5. How To Create a Copy of a Survey
6. How To Modify a Stored Survey

This topic presents conceptual, scenario, and procedural information about surveys within the ExactTarget application.

What Is a Survey

A survey is a method of collecting information from your subscribers.

The primary use of the surveys feature is to create a dialog with your subscribers and capture additional information about them.

As an application user, you can:

create and store a survey
modify a survey
view survey tracking data and export results
import a survey into an email

Note: A survey must be created and stored before you can use it in an email campaign.

You can include surveys in emails that you send to subscriber lists, groups, or data extensions.

Survey Requirements

Surveys do not appear correctly in certain email clients such as Outlook 2007 and Hotmail. You can encourage such users to view the email as a web page in order to complete the survey. You can use the Send Preview feature to see what your emails will look like in different email clients. Also see the Design Center on 3sixty for best practices.
Surveys that are received as text-only versions must be viewed as a web page to function.
Be cautious when creating surveys with multiple text (free-form response) boxes and questions with numerous check box responses because the survey may not work properly. Be sure to test your survey before you send it.
Due to character-length restrictions in Internet Explorer, a survey should be limited to 15 questions (about 2100 characters). Any excess characters aren't posted in tracking.
Once you've embedded the survey into an email, the only way to modify the content of the survey is to remove the survey from the email, edit the stored survey, and re-embed the survey into the email.

Survey Landing Pages

A survey landing page is what a subscriber sees upon submitting a survey. You can choose default landing page designs or to create your own with HTML code. You define the landing pages when you create the survey.

Landing pages are defined individually for each survey. You can use the default landing pages for one survey and custom landing pages for another.

Note: If you create custom landing pages, remember that they apply to that single survey only. If you want to use the same custom landing pages for multiple surveys, you need to paste the HTML code into the landing page creation boxes for each survey individually.

Types of Survey Landing Pages

A landing page exists for each of the following circumstances:

Successful Submission: The subscriber successfully submitted his or her survey responses.
Duplicate Submission: The subscriber has already successfully submitted a survey and has attempted to submit the same survey again.
Unauthorizied Submission: The individual who submitted the survey was unauthorized to do so (this could occur in a forwarded email).
Errored Submission: A technical error has occurred, preventing the transmittal of the subscriber's responses. The subscriber receives a message indicating that an error has occurred.

Note: The Security error on submittal page is no longer used.

Why Use a Survey

Use a survey to collect information from your subscribers. You can track the information that subscribers submit through the tracking feature.

Scenario

Northern Trail Outfitters wants to create a survey to send to their subscribers. They want the survey to ask each subscriber in which color they'd like to see Northern Trail Outfitters' next winter jacket.

Before they can insert the survey into their email, they first have to create it. They do this by clicking the Content tab followed by my surveys.

The my surveys workspace opens. They click the Create button to begin creating the survey. The Add New Survey page appears, and Northern Trail Outfitters fills in the fields appropriately.

File:Surveys/AddNewSurvey.png

They click Save, and the survey appears in the list of surveys. They click the survey they created, and the Survey Questions page appears. They click Create to add a question.

In the page that appears, they enter the question, select the Answer Type, and define the answers.

File:Surveys/SurveyQuestions.png

They click Save.

File:Surveys/SurveySave.png

The question and set of answers is saved in the survey. They click the Preview button to see the survey in its final state.

File:Surveys/SurveyPreview.png

They can now import the survey into an email.

How To Create a Survey

You can create a survey from scratch by following these steps. (Another way to create a survey is to start from a copy of an existing survey.)

Click the Content tab.
Click my surveys.
Click the Create button.
Complete the Create New Survey page as follows:

Name	Enter a name for the survey. A descriptive name helps users building emails to select the appropriate survey. Subscribers can't see the name of the survey.
Description	Enter a brief description of the survey. The description is displayed in the survey workspace. Subscribers can't see the description.
Tag	(You may not have access to this field. Contact your ExactTarget representative if you have questions.) Enter words that describe the survey you're creating. For example, you might tag a survey with the month you create it in so you can later view all the surveys for a given month.
Folder	The folder in which the survey will be saved. If you want to store the survey in a different folder, click the drop down menu.
Security Submittal	If the data you ask for in the survey is sensitive (for example, passwords), check the Security Submittal checkbox. The subscriber's responses are encrypted and transmitted safely using 128-bit SSL encryption.
Survey Landing Pages	Select either the Use Default Pages or Use Custom Pages radio button. Use Default Pages: ExactTarget has provided a set of default landing pages that the subscriber will see when they use the survey. Click each thumbnail for full-sized previews. Use Custom Pages: You can create your own HTML-based landing pages. Click the Edit button below each page to insert your HTML.

Click the Save button.

The survey appears in the my surveys folder. See How To Create Questions and Answers for step-by-step instructions on adding questions and answers to your survey.

How To Create Questions and Answers

When you create or modify a question in a survey, you use the Survey Questions page. In order to create a question, you must first create a survey.

Follow these steps to add questions and answers to your survey.

Click on the survey you want to add questions to in the my surveys folder.
Click the Create button.
Fill out the following fields.

Question	Type the survey question as you want it to appear to subscribers.
Display Order	If multiple questions exist for this survey, you can define the order in which they appear in the survey by means of this drop-down list. Whatever number is listed in this field is the order in which it will appear in the question list.
Answer Type	Choose the format that controls how subscribers respond to this question. Select each option from the drop-down list to see an example of how the answers are formatted, displayed below the Example field. Radio button: You define a set of possible answers that appears with radio buttons beside them, and the subscriber is able to select only one of those answers. The results are displayed to you with a number (count) and percentage of subscribers who chose each answer. Radio buttons are useful when you're providing a small set of predefined answers. Use the drop-down menu option for questions with a large number of predefined answers. Checkbox: You define a set of possible answers, and the subscriber can select as many of the answers as desired. The results are displayed for you with a number (count) and percentage of subscribers who chose each answer. When reviewing the results, remember that each subscriber is able to select multiple responses to the question with the check box format. Text box: The subscriber types in a brief freeform response to the question. Multiline text box: This option provides the subscriber with a larger text box in which to enter a longer response. Dropdown menu: You define a set of possible answers that appears in a drop-down menu, and the subscriber can select only one of those answers. The results are displayed to you with a number (count) and percentage of subscribers who chose each answer. The drop-down menu option is useful when you're providing a long list of predefined answers (i.e., a list of states). Hidden field: Neither the question nor the answer appears to the subscriber but is transmitted to you in the survey results. The purpose of a hidden field is to include data that provides context for the survey results. Hidden fields are commonly used to attach subscriber attribute data to a survey so that you have a better idea of the demographics associated with the survey response. Credit card: This answer type is used for any sensitive data that is stored in an encrypted format in your database but isn't displayed in the survey results, to allow you to collect necessary information but protect the subscriber's privacy.

Question

Type the survey question as you want it to appear to subscribers.

Display Order

If multiple questions exist for this survey, you can define the order in which they appear in the survey by means of this drop-down list. Whatever number is listed in this field is the order in which it will appear in the question list.

Answer Type

Choose the format that controls how subscribers respond to this question. Select each option from the drop-down list to see an example of how the answers are formatted, displayed below the Example field.

Radio button: You define a set of possible answers that appears with radio buttons beside them, and the subscriber is able to select only one of those answers. The results are displayed to you with a number (count) and percentage of subscribers who chose each answer. Radio buttons are useful when you're providing a small set of predefined answers. Use the drop-down menu option for questions with a large number of predefined answers.
Checkbox: You define a set of possible answers, and the subscriber can select as many of the answers as desired. The results are displayed for you with a number (count) and percentage of subscribers who chose each answer. When reviewing the results, remember that each subscriber is able to select multiple responses to the question with the check box format.
Text box: The subscriber types in a brief freeform response to the question.
Multiline text box: This option provides the subscriber with a larger text box in which to enter a longer response.
Dropdown menu: You define a set of possible answers that appears in a drop-down menu, and the subscriber can select only one of those answers. The results are displayed to you with a number (count) and percentage of subscribers who chose each answer. The drop-down menu option is useful when you're providing a long list of predefined answers (i.e., a list of states).
Hidden field: Neither the question nor the answer appears to the subscriber but is transmitted to you in the survey results. The purpose of a hidden field is to include data that provides context for the survey results. Hidden fields are commonly used to attach subscriber attribute data to a survey so that you have a better idea of the demographics associated with the survey response.
Credit card: This answer type is used for any sensitive data that is stored in an encrypted format in your database but isn't displayed in the survey results, to allow you to collect necessary information but protect the subscriber's privacy.

The next step depends on the answer type you chose:

Radio button, checkbox, or dropdown menu: Enter an answer in the Answer Text field and click the Add Answer button. Continue that step until you have included all the possible answers you desire. You can use the up and down arrow icons to rearrange the order of the answers.

Text box, multiline text box, hidden field, or credit card: You can define a default response in the Default Value field. A default response is something that the subscriber will see, b

If you're done with this question and want to create another question or exit the survey, click the Save button. The question is saved in the survey. To add a new question to the same survey, return to your my surveys folder and follow the procedure again.

How To Create a Copy of a Survey

If you want to make a copy of an existing survey rather than start from scratch, follow these steps:

Click the Content tab.
Click my surveys.
Select the checkbox next to the survey you wish to copy and click the Save Copy button.

The Save Copy page appears.

Complete the fields that request the Name, Description, Tag, and Folder for the copied survey.
Click Save.

The copied survey opens. You can modify it as desired.

How To Modify a Stored Survey

You can modify the basic information about a survey - survey name, description, and folder location, as well as whether the survey is submitted with encryption - by following these steps.

Click the Content tab.
Click my surveys.
Select the checkbox next to the survey you wish to modify, and click the Properties button.

The Properties page appears.

Modify the survey information as desired, and click Save.

Your changes are saved immediately.

To modify the content of a survey, follow these steps:

Click the Content tab.
Click my surveys.
Click the survey you wish to modify. The survey opens, displaying its list of question.
Click the question you wish to modify.

Change the question by editing the text in the content box. Change an answer by editing the text in the content box or delete it by clicking the red "x".

To delete a survey, follow these steps: