HTML embedded forms on Email V/S Individual page for form

Question

I am about to send my customers a feedback form which will have multiple radio buttons in order to choose a star rating from 1 to 5 and a textarea to type a description.

I can do either of the following:

1) Embed the <form> inside HTML and on the email - User is able to submit the form without having to click on a URL.

Pros - User is able to quickly start filling the form, without having to click on a button.

Cons - Email providers will show an alert message warning user that information is being sent to an external site. Many users may not want to click on OK. Outlook and other email clients have no support for this.

2) CTA which leads to the review page - User clicks on a button which takes him to a seperate page.

Pros - Separate page. Lot can be achieved in terms of functionality and effects given that CSS and JS can be used extensively.

Cons - Not many users may click on the CTA.

From a UX point of view, which would be better?

Answer 1

I think the approach adopted by Amazon Support is very clever.

You embed the first question on the email so that when the user clicks one of the button to answer the question, he is in reality clicking a link to open the web form, with the first question pre-selected.

• Engage the user directly on the email, avoiding CTA to complete the form
• Since you cannot rely on embedding real form on email (most of email client will screw up your form), just keep a fake 1 question form directly on the email

Answer 2

I would definitely go with Option 2, for the following reasons:

1. Email client support: ensuring your form displays properly in the myriad of email clients out there is notoriously tricky. Adding a form will likely lead to a nightmare in ensuring compatibility (as the sitepoint article makes clear).

2. Mobile/device support: making the form display properly in mobile email is likely to make things even more difficult.

3. Security: many email clients could refuse to load the form, depending on their security settings.

4. Analytics: having a simple email with a CTA will enable you to more accurately track the clickthrough rate to your form page. If you're using a third party email provider (e.g. Campaign Monitor, Mailchimp) this functionality is included out of the box.