You can embed FormCrafts' forms directly into emails. This is ideal for survey forms, but also works for complex forms and multi-page forms, and right out-of-box.

If you don't have an account already you can signup here and start building email forms.

Get the embed code

We are assuming that you already have a FormCrafts form you wish to embed. When editing the form go to the Share / Embed tab on the top-left corner of the screen, and then Embed (in emails).

Email form embed code
Email form embed code

Here you will find two types of email embeds.

Embed one field allows you to pick one field that you wish to embed in emails. When the user opens their email they can click on an option and this will redirect them to complete rest of the form.

Embed entire form allows you to embed all the fields right into emails (with the exception of certain fields like datepicker). Entire-form embeds have a submit button, and allow users to actually submit forms instead of simply redirecting them to the main form.

Note: if your form has validation errors, or if you are embedding a multi-page form the user would still be redirected to the main form where they can finish the rest of the form.

You can choose one of these two options. If you choose Embed one field you will also have to pick the field to embed.

Lastly, you can copy the embed code using the Copy code or Copy form buttons.

Copy code allows you to paste the embed code in an email marketing software, like HubSpot, or when using with other web email editors such as in Zendesk.

Copy form allows you to paste the form directly in the email compose window of Apple Mail or Gmail.

Personalization / hidden fields

If you have a person on your email list then surely you must know their email address and maybe some other contact information. You can pass this information via hidden fields in your form. Most email marketing providers allow you to use personalization via tokens or merge variables. Example: our email provider allows us to use {{name}} for the contact name. How do we add this information to our form?

Go to Add Field -> Other -> Hidden. Now edit this field and set the value as {{name}}

Custom variables (personalization) in email forms
Custom variables (personalization) in email forms

Use the embed code in emails

The next step depends on your email provider. Most email marketing providers will allow you to add custom HTML to your email. You would paste the embed code (obtained above) and paste it into this HTML block.

Example: here is what it looks like to use the embed code with HubSpot's email designer

Embedding a form in a HubSpot marketing email
Embedding a form in a HubSpot marketing email

Email provider support

Even though your users can view the form (or its fallback) in their inbox not all email providers allow you to send entire forms in emails, which can be strange. Here is our experience with different email providers:

MailChimp

Supports Embed one field via HTML blocks. Does not support Embed entire form.

HubSpot

Supports Embed one field via HTML blocks. Also supports Embed entire form.

Front App

Supports Embed one field via Front Signature. Does not support Embed entire form.

Zendesk

Supports Embed one field via Triggers. Also supports Embed entire form.

Note that Zendesk has a limit of 8192 characters for emails, so Embed entire form would usually work for email forms with under 5 fields. You can see the character count of your email form next to 'Embed Code'.

Apple Mail

Supports Embed one field in the email compose window (but not under signatures). Also supports Embed entire form.

Gmail (web app)

Supports Embed one field in the email compose window. Also supports Embed entire form.

Caveats

Maximum number of fields

For best performance we recommend email forms with less than 20 fields. If your form has over 20 fields you can skip embedding certain fields.

Fields that don't work in emails

Certain fields don't work in email forms. If your form has any of these fields we will skip showing this field in the email form. If one of these fields is marked as required the user can fill out that field in the browser (after having filled out the basic fields in their email).

For a seamless experience we recommend avoiding these fields in emails:

  • Datepicker
  • Fileupload
  • Stripe
  • Choice matrix
  • Tabular
  • Captcha
  • Timepicker