Form Settings & How to Set Up Forms

Forms are a robust and dynamic way to collect information from the visitors on your website.

Forms can be simple - just collecting basic information like Name & Email.

Or, Forms can be more complex, collecting not only basic CRM properties, but collecting information in the form of questions that require a text answer, a choice of answers from a drop-down select list, a choice of answers from a checkbox list or radio buttons, etc.

While the actual fields in your form are very important to collect your Contact's information, the Settings of your Form are equally important to be able to fully utilize the data that you are collecting.

In this article, we'll cover the Form's Settings area. 

Click on the + sign icon on the left side of your Builder screen to open the "Widgets menu".  Click and Drag the Form Widget onto your page, wherever you would like. 

Click once on the Form Widget on the page.

A mini-menu will appear, from which you can click the Settings Icon (the Gear/Wheel Icon ⚙︎)

The Form Settings window that opens will allow you to slide from the top of the form to the bottom of the form with the slider on the right hand side. Please do not miss the fields towards the bottom of the form.

The top of the form looks like this: 

The bottom of the form looks like this: 

FORM NAME:

It is important to update the Form Name to correctly identify each form on your site. You may name the form anything you would like. It is recommended to make it concise and easily identifiable, accurately describing the form, it's use and also it's /page name or location on your site.  ie:  "Freebie Opt-In Form - /3-tips-guide Page"  

You will use the "Form Name" field to view the responses/messages that have come in from each of the different forms on your site. These form responses may be viewed under CONTACTS > Messages. (see below) The drop down menu under "form name" will show the names of any forms with submitted responses. 

NOTIFY ME ON NEW FORM SUBMISSION:

Check this box and enter an email address of your choice (or multiple emails separated by a comma) you would like to get email notifications every time this form is completed/submitted on your site.

You will get a notification and a copy of the response submitted within the inbox of whatever email address you have entered in the "Send Notification To" field.  

BUTTON TEXT:

Enter in the words you would like to appear on the "submit" button at the bottom of your form. "Submit" is obviously a classic choice - but you can also get creative and can choose to display "Yes! Give Me The Guide!", "Register Me!" "Get In Touch" or any "call to action" phrase you would like. 

ACTION ON SUBMIT:

This is an important drop-down choice! You can either choose "Show Thank You Message" (then type the message you would like displayed in the "Thank You Message" field below) 

OR - you can choose "Go To Page". When you select "Go To Page" you are essentially deciding to send your visitor somewhere - to a page, to make a purchase, to a website outside of your site, etc. So, while it says "Go To Page" - you can think of it as "Send them HERE next" instead. :) 

When you click the link icon within the black box "Thank you page" field - you will be presented with the Select A Link Window. This is where you can choose to send them to a page, a store page or a store product, an external link, an anchor point, a pop-up, etc.

See the "Linking 101 article" referenced below in "Related Articles" for further information on how to link to almost anything. :)

NOTE: Any visitor that submits a Form on your site will automatically be considered a "Contact" and will be added to your "Contacts" list. Their Contact record can be found under the Contacts tab in the black bar at the top of your Builder Screen. Note that not all Contacts are Subscribers. Contacts are only considered an email "Subscriber" when they have been "subscribed" manually from their contact record or they have been added to a list via a form (see "Connect To Email Marketing" below)

CONNECT TO EMAIL MARKETING:

If you are using or plan to use the ShinePages Emails & Automations Functionality to send email marketing campaigns or set up automated email sequences and you would like the people coming thru this Form to become not just a "Contact" but also a "Subscriber" (and thus eligible to receive emails) - then click the button to "Select Lists". Choose from existing Lists or Add new List here.

Note - if you are instead using a third-party email marketing platform like Mailchimp, MailerLite, Active Campaign or Aweber and you have already connected that platform to your ShinePages site via Website Settings (cog wheel) > Applications - then you will find your "Select a List" Settings Button at the bottom of the Form Settings Button. This will allow you to choose the list within your third party platform where you'd like to send these Form contacts.  

TAG CONTACTS ON NEW MESSAGE:

Tags are very useful markers to sort, organize and filter your contacts.

In addition, tags can be used as triggers to kick off emails & automations to those Contacts who are also Subscribers, as well as determine which steps they will receive within an automation flow.

Check the box to "Tag Contacts on new Message" and either type in a new Tag or start typing and select from the drop down of choices that will appear.

Read the Related Article referenced below for more information on tags. 

WHERE DOES THE INFORMATION COLLECTED VIA A FORM GO?

You can see the submitted responses collected via Forms in a few places: 1) in your email Inbox, 2) in your "Messages" area under your CONTACTS tab and 3) in the user's account information under "CONTACTS"

Please see this article: Question: When someone fills out a Form on my Site - where does their information go?