Add a Form in Email? It Can Be Done with Dynamic Email
Embed interactive forms directly in emails, enabling course sales, community signups, and real-time polls—all without leaving the inbox. Boost conversions up to 90% with seamless, dynamic subscriber engagement.
Dynamic and interactive email components, like an HTML form, may seem almost magical to newsletter authors and, more generally, content creators, but the underlying tech has been around for several years.
What's more, the idea of creating and sending interactive email messages is garnering a lot of interest in the creator economy —more about that below.
Personalization Versus Dynamic
We need to make a distinction between personalized email messages and dynamic and interactive email messages.
- Email personalization uses information about a subscriber to individualize the email message when it is sent. So email personalization includes things like adding a subscriber's name to the top of the message.
- Dynamic and interactive email techniques update the message content or permit interactivity after the email is sent. This ability to change content when a message is opened allows for all sorts of subscriber interactions.
AMP Email is the Secret Sauce
While cascading style sheets (CSS) can add some level of interactivity to an email message, the AMP Email open-source framework is the secret sauce behind dynamic email content and website-like interactivity.
AMP Email permits the use of select AMPHTML components from the Accelerate Mobile Pages (AMP) project.
These components work in about 30% of email inboxes circa 2024.
Dynamic AMP Email Forms
For this article, let's focus on dynamic forms, and to be clear, these are forms that a subscriber would fill in and submit directly from an email message without any need to visit a website. The form is submitted directly from the email to the server.
Here are a few example use cases for dynamic AMP Email forms that a content creator like a blogger, newsletter author, course creator, or community leader might want to implement.
Selling an Email Course
Course signup and onboarding. Use AMP forms to allow subscribers to buy a course from an email message directly, choose a start date, share preferences (e.g., daily or weekly emails), and improve conversion rates by as much as 50%.
Module feedback and quiz. Embed short quizzes or feedback forms after each course module to keep readers engaged and get real-time insights into their learning experience.
Upsell opportunities. After signing up, use an AMP form to suggest related paid content, such as additional course materials, an ebook, or a workbook, for those interested in more. Remember, the purchase transaction can take place in the email message proper.
Selling Memberships to a Community on Platforms like Circle, Mighty Networks, or Skool
Membership interest form. Let email subscribers indicate interest in joining a community. If the community is paid, you can run the transaction almost completely from the email message.
Easy registration process. Include a signup form for immediate membership registration and payments, lowering the barrier to joining a private community and increasing enrollment rates by, perhaps, 90%.
Exclusive access polls. Conduct polls within the email to gauge interest in upcoming community events or workshops, helping you plan content that will drive signups.
Collecting Subscriber Feedback
Post-content survey. Add a quick feedback form at the end of each newsletter to gauge interest in the content, rate articles, or suggest topics, helping improve future newsletters.
Reader preferences poll. Ask subscribers about content preferences (e.g., video vs. written, topic areas, length) to tailor newsletter content.
Content idea submissions. Make it possible for readers to submit ideas for future posts or questions they want answered, enhancing engagement and giving the creator valuable insights.
Conducting Polls
Quick opinion polls. Embed simple polls on trending topics to increase interaction and let readers see real-time results, encouraging return engagement.
Product or affiliate feedback. Ask subscribers to rate products featured in affiliate links or sponsored content, giving insight into what resonates for future partnerships.
Reader-generated content decisions. Let readers vote on upcoming content or product focuses (e.g., "Which topic should we dive into next week?"), increasing buy-in and connection with the audience.
AMP email forms provide powerful, streamlined interactions for subscribers, ultimately helping creators boost engagement and conversions across various revenue streams. In fact, AMP Email is one of the most important upcoming technologies for the creator economy.