An opt-in form is the way you collect email subscribers from your website, blog, online store, Instagram—or wherever your ideal customers are hanging out.
We created a couple of different types of forms you can choose from depending on where you’d like your form to show up on your website. (And if you don’t have a website yet, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.)
The three form types are:
Pop-up form: These are the kinds of forms you see when you visit a website. It appears over your website content, grabbing your visitor’s attention so you can offer them a freebie download, a discount or newsletter resources in exchange for their email.
Inline form: This type of form embeds directly into your website and can be placed wherever you want it to show up. These are great to add all over your website and blog to encourage visitors to subscribe as they browse your website.
Full page form: The full page form is exclusive to Flodesk and is perfect for you if you:
Don’t have a website
Don’t want to worry about embedding form code into your website’s HTML
Want to create a quick landing page without spending a ton of time
The full-page form publishes directly to the web without needing to paste in any code. Just copy and paste the link and share it wherever you want.
Now that you’re all caught up on the different types of forms you can choose from, we’ll walk you through how to create your first one.
Please note: Your form can only collect subscriber data and move this data into a segment you specify in Flodesk.
In order to trigger a freebie email send or a welcome sequence once your subscribers are moved into the segment connected to your form, you'll need to create a workflow. Read about creating a workflow here.
To create an opt-in form:
Step 1. Go to Forms on the top menu in your Flodesk account
Step 2. Click on + New form to start a new form
Step 3. Select between a Pop Up (appears over your website content when visitors land on your website), an Inline form (appears inside a blog post, page, or article) or a Full Page form.
Step 4. Hover over the form template you want to start working with, then click on Customize it to start making it your own.
Step 5. THIS IS SUPER IMPORTANT. Select an existing segment(s) or create a new segment(s) for your form.
Why is this super-duper important?
Your new subscribers will be automatically added to this segment when they opt in.
You will need this information to automate workflows in the future. (Learn more about how this works for sending automated emails here.)
You can later pull reports and insights on this segment's behavior to determine the success of your opt-in form.
This is how you keep your subscribers organized—we strongly recommend one segment per form you create.
Step 6. Click anywhere on your form to start editing.
Step 7. To add a photo to the form, click on the image placeholder and then you can:
upload a photo from your computer via the Upload image box
pull in a photo from Unsplash via the Add a photo from Unsplash button, or
Add a GIF from Giphy
Step 8. To add additional fields to your form, click into a form field on the main screen to access the 'Fields' tab on the right sidebar.
Next, click on the + Add button and add any of the default fields—like First name and Last name—or choose the Custom field option.
To learn more about how to use Custom fields, read our article on Can I add a custom field to a form?
You can customize your form fields design under the Style tab, and select from various options including no border and underline.
Step 9. If you want the form image to show up on mobile devices, turn on the Image on mobile option.
Step 10. To let your subscribers opt-in to additional segments, turn on the Preferences on your form.
To learn more about Preferences, read our detailed guide on How to use Preferences on forms.
Also, you can spice up your form design by selecting a circle or even heart shaped checkbox.
Step 11. Don't forget to customize your success message. This is the text displayed after someone subscribes to your form.
To learn more about customizing the success message, read our detailed guide on How to change the success message font color in your opt-in form.
Step 12. Click Next on the top right side of your screen to continue to the form customization options. Here you'll be able to choose when this form is displayed, who gets it, and whether you get notified every time a subscriber opts in.
Step 13. Grab the HTML codes to embed on your website. After you paste these into the appropriate places on your website, your form will be ready to go!
For a step-by-step guide on how to embed your HTML code snippets in the most common website builders, check out:
Let’s sum it up:
An opt-in form is exactly what it sounds like: a form that allows people to opt into your email list so you can grow your subscribers.
Based on how you want the form to appear, you can choose from three form types:
A Pop-Up form that appears over your content when someone lands on your website
An Inline form that shows up inside your webpage or blog post
A Full page form that acts as a landing page with its own URL (no website required)
Customizing your form’s look and feel is a snap, including uploading an image, changing fonts and colors, setting when the form is displayed and more.
After you’ve created your Popup or Inline form, grab the HTML code snippets and paste them into the appropriate places on your website to embed the form wherever you want it to show up.
Or creating a Full page form? Simply copy the URL generated for you and share it wherever you want!
More to learn:
We'd love to hear about your recent experience when searching for solutions to issues in the Flodesk Help Center (Knowledge Base). With your feedback, we can improve our knowledge base with new and better ways to help you succeed!
Please do not submit support tickets and feature requests via this feedback form.
If you need technical assistance, please submit a support ticket via email at support[at]flodesk.com mentioning your Flodesk account login email with a detailed description of your problem.
Do you have an idea for a feature that will help improve Flodesk for you and other members? Our Product team would love to hear from you.