Adding a sign-up snippet inside of eCard stationery

Esther Pomeleo-Fowler

Issue

I'm trying to put an email sign up box inside of e Card stationary. The snippet below works in a few places, but not when I receive it in Gmail.   When I receive the eCard in Gmail it looks funky and includes "please leave this field empty" in the content.



Here's the code I'm using:

<!-- end cvo snip email only --><form method="POST" action="http://anera.convio.net/site/Survey"><input type="hidden" name="cons_info_component" id="cons_info_component" value="t" /><input type="hidden" name="SURVEY_ID" id="SURVEY_ID" value="1201" /><input type="text" name="cons_email" id="cons_email" value="Email Address" size="14" maxlength="255" onfocus="if(this.value == 'Email Address'){this.value='';}" onblur="if(this.value == ''){this.value='Email Address';}" /><span style="display:none"><input type="text" name="denySubmit" id="denySubmit" value="" alt="This field is used to prevent form submission by scripts." />Please leave this field empty</span><input type="submit" name="ACTION_SUBMIT_SURVEY_RESPONSE" id="ACTION_SUBMIT_SURVEY_RESPONSE" value="Submit" class="Button" /></form><!-- end cvo snip email only -->

Response

Even though there are ways you can send simple forms embedded inside HTML email (eCard is an email), embedding a survey into the email is just not the way to do it.

There are anti-spam and privacy programs that will block users from submitting forms inside of emails.  The experience is worse if you are making a JavaScript-powered form. Every email client has its own display property and there is no standard to follow. My suggestion is to have a link in the eCard which will bring constituents back to your site and you can collect their email address that way.