Email Surveys
Create provider-ready HTML email surveys from a published feedback form
Email surveys turn one published question from your feedback form into an HTML block you can paste into an email campaign. Recipients click an answer (or a call-to-action) in the email, open your hosted form when needed, and their response is associated with the correct contact when identity mappings are configured.
Use email surveys for lifecycle campaigns, post-purchase follow-ups, support check-ins, and other outbound email where you already know the recipient through your email service provider (ESP).
Prerequisites
You need a published form, Link & email distribution enabled, and at least one active shareable link. Create a link first in Feedback Links.
Open the email survey builder
- Open your feedback form in the editor.
- Go to Link & email distribution.
- Turn on Link & Email if it is not already enabled.
- Open the Email tab.
- Click New under Email survey, or Edit on a saved template.
The builder opens in two steps:
| Step | Name | What you configure |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Survey setup | Shareable link, question, language, email provider |
| 2 | Customize & preview | Appearance, variables, HTML editor, live preview |
When you finish, use Copy HTML or Download HTML and paste the block into your ESP template.
Step 1 — Survey setup
Shareable link
Choose the active shareable link that should receive responses. Export is blocked if the link is inactive, expired, or no longer available.
Links that require recipient signatures cannot be used for email survey export. Choose an unsigned link instead.
If the link does not allow anonymous submissions, map contact_email or contact_id in Step 2 before exporting.
Question to show
Pick one published question to embed in the email. Only supported question types appear in the list. The selected Language controls the question title and description shown in the email.
How the question behaves in email depends on its type:
| Behavior | Question types | What happens when a recipient clicks |
|---|---|---|
| Direct capture | Rating, NPS, CSAT, opinion scale, yes/no, single choice, picture choice (single-select) | Opens the survey and records the selected answer when partial saving allows it |
| Prefill | Multiple choice (multi-select), ranking, nested selection, picture choice (multi-select), matrix questions | Opens the hosted survey with that selection prefilled; the recipient finishes there |
| Hosted entry | Number, date, email, website, phone, short answer, long text, address | Shows a static preview and an Answer in survey → link |
| Welcome screen | Welcome | Shows Start survey → without recording an answer |
Other options on choice questions are excluded from email choices.
Email provider
Search and select the ESP you send campaigns with. Encatch uses the provider to prefill common contact_email merge tags where a verified URL-safe expression exists.
- Auto-configured providers — Encatch fills the recipient email merge tag for you.
- Manual providers — You supply and test your own URL-safe recipient expression. Provider notes in the builder explain what to verify before sending.
Each provider shows a setup guide link labeled with that provider’s name (for example, Klaviyo setup guide). That link opens the ESP’s official personalization or merge-field documentation when a verified guide is available. Custom / Other and providers without a working official guide open this page. Lifecycle.io shows a message instead of a link.
Step 2 — Customize & preview
Appearance
Email appearance is separate from your hosted survey theme.
| Setting | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Answer color | Accent color for choices, buttons, and markers |
| Show question text | Include the question title in the email block |
| Show question description | Include the question description when one exists for the selected language |
The Powered by Encatch footer follows your form theme branding setting.
Preview the block in Desktop or Mobile (iPhone-style) frames. Preview links are inert — no emails are sent and no responses are recorded.
Variables
Map identity and context values onto the survey URL. Each row has:
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Key | contact_ or context_ parameter name |
| Export value | Provider merge tag or Fixed value appended to exported links |
| Display merge tag (optional) | Unencoded tag for visible question text when the export value is URL-encoded |
| Preview sample | Sample value for preview only — never exported |
Default mappings for new templates:
contact_email— provider merge tag (auto-filled for supported ESPs)contact_display_name— provider merge tag (configure as needed)
Limits
- Up to 50
context_variables - Up to 25 custom
contact_traits (excluding reserved keys likecontact_id,contact_email,contact_signature) - Variable names up to 100 characters; values up to 10,000 characters
For how contact parameters work at runtime, see User Identification. For response prefilling outside email capture, see Advanced Configuration.
HTML editor
The HTML editor shows syntax highlighting for the generated block. Preview updates as you type; Copy HTML and Download HTML export your edits.
Changing generation settings (link, question, language, provider, appearance, or variables) asks you to confirm before discarding custom HTML. Use Reset HTML to restore the generated block.
Keep answer URLs intact
Custom HTML edits must preserve survey answer links. Removing or breaking those URLs prevents answer capture.
Export and send
Before export, Encatch re-checks that:
- The form is still published
- The shareable link is still active and not expired
- Link identity requirements have not changed
- The published form configuration (including partial save) has not changed
- The survey destination has not changed
Copy HTML copies the full block. Download HTML saves email-survey-{provider}-{question}.html.
Merge tags in exported HTML stay literal so your ESP template engine evaluates them at send time. Test with a real campaign send — ordinary preview sends from some ESPs may leave tags unresolved.
Partial saving requirement
If the selected question supports direct capture and your form has more than one non-panel question, enable Partial saving in the form’s Advanced settings. Without it, Encatch cannot record a single email click as a complete response before the rest of the survey is finished.
Prefill-only and hosted-entry question types do not require partial saving for export, but they still open the hosted survey for completion.
Saved email templates
Save reusable configurations under Saved email templates on the Email tab.
Each template stores:
- Template name and slug
- Shareable link, provider, question, language, appearance, and variables
- Generated or custom HTML snapshot
From the list you can Edit, Rename, Duplicate, or Delete templates. Deleting a template does not change the form or shareable link.
If a saved link later expires or is removed, the template shows Link unavailable. Preview still works from the saved HTML, but export requires choosing a new active link.
URL parameters in exported links
Exported answer links use your shareable link as the base and add email-survey parameters:
| Parameter | Purpose |
|---|---|
email_survey_question | Question ID shown in the email |
lang | Selected language code |
email_survey_capture=1 | Present on export for direct-capture question types |
response_{questionId} | Prefilled answer value when applicable |
response_{questionId}[{member}] | Matrix row member for matrix questions |
contact_* | Identity and contact traits from your variable mappings |
context_* | Context variables from your variable mappings |
Provider merge expressions are appended as raw key=expression pairs so ESP syntax (pipes, braces, percent signs) survives export.
Auto-configured email providers
These providers prefill a verified URL-safe contact_email merge tag:
| Provider | URL merge tag (export) |
|---|---|
| Braze | {{${email_address} | url_encode}} |
| Brevo | {{ contact.EMAIL | urlencode }} |
| Customer.io | {{ customer.email | url_encode }} |
| Drip | {{ subscriber.email | url_encode }} |
| HubSpot | {{ contact.email | urlencode }} |
| Iterable | {{#urlEncode}}{{{email}}}{{/urlEncode}} |
| Kit | {{ subscriber.email_address | url_encode }} |
| Klaviyo | {{ person.email | urlencode:'' }} |
| Mailchimp | *|URL:EMAIL|* |
| Mailjet | {{ UrlEncode(mj:contact.email) }} |
| Salesforce Marketing Cloud | %%=URLEncode(emailaddr,true,true)=%% |
| Vero | {{ user.email | encode }} |
| Zendesk | {{ ticket.requester.email | url_encode }} |
All other listed providers are manual. Add your ESP’s URL-safe recipient expression, verify plus-addressed and special-character emails in a test send, and confirm the expanded link before launching a campaign.
Limitations
- Signed shareable links are not supported for email survey export in the current release.
- Preview substitutes sample values and uses inert links; only export includes live merge tags and capture parameters.
- Question media and picture-choice images must use HTTPS URLs reachable by recipients.
- Rating and CSAT icons in exported HTML use absolute URLs from your admin origin — ensure that origin is reachable from email clients.
- Email link scanners and prefetch behavior can affect capture rates; test with your ESP and monitor results.
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