Inbound Forms: Concepts

Interaction Inbound Forms

You can associate an inbound form with an outbound message or with a collect or process step in an interaction. An interaction inbound form updates existing audience member records. You can use field tags to personalize the content of the inbound form.

Associating an inbound form with an outbound message enables you to insert a link in the outbound message to the inbound form. After people submit the inbound form, the interaction processes their responses and updates the audience member records. Associating an inbound form with a collect step enables you to set a deadline for completing the form. The deadline enables the interaction to route people based on whether they submitted the inbound form. Not setting a deadline makes it mandatory for people to complete and submit the inbound form before they can proceed to the next interaction step.

You can create a URL Link or enable link tracking in an outbound message to track the number of times people click a link to the inbound form.

Example:
You are planning a sales training event. You want to inform your sales force of the training agenda, and you want your salespeople to confirm their attendance. You create these items:

An HTML email outbound message named Sales Training Message
An inbound form named Sales Training RSVP

In the email message you include a link to the inbound form. You create an interaction to send the outbound message to your sales force. Your salespeople open the email message and click the link to the inbound form. They complete and submit the inbound form to confirm their attendance.

You can associate an inbound form with a process step in an interaction. When you configure the process step you can define a notification that is sent to participants. In the notification, you can include a link to an inbound form or insert form fields from an inbound form.

Paths route people through the steps in an interaction. Paths can use criteria to determine which people to process. You can use the responses from an inbound form to define the criteria for a path.

You can also use inbound forms in a lead process.

Anonymous Inbound Forms

An anonymous inbound form can be on your organization's web site. Or an outbound message that the send email tool in a segmentation sends can include a link to an anonymous inbound form.

An anonymous inbound form can collect information from people who might or might not have records in your database. If no audience member record exists, Aprimo creates a new audience member. Because a person who accesses an anonymous inbound form might not be an audience member, do not insert field tags in the form.

You can create a URL Link to track the number of times people click a link to an inbound form.

Example:
You create an anonymous inbound form that requests contact and demographic information. This inbound form is accessible to anyone who visits your Web site.

Microsite Inbound Forms

A microsite typically supplements a larger Web site by providing detailed information about a product, service, or promotion. A microsite usually contains a small number of Web pages and is removed from the Web server when the promotion ends or when the information is no longer relevant. You can include an inbound form on a microsite page. Microsites can target audience members or leads. When you design an inbound form for a microsite page, be sure that the form's target group matches the microsite's target group.

An inbound form on a microsite page can collect information from people who might or might not have records in your database. If no audience member record exists, Aprimo creates a new audience member.

Do not use field tags in an inbound form for a microsite page unless you are certain that the people who view the page are audience members. For example, if you know that people cannot access an inbound form on a microsite page unless they click a link to the page in an outbound message, you can use field tags. If you know that some people will access the inbound form from a search engine, do not use them.

Note:

You can include only one inbound form on a microsite page.
You cannot configure a set of linked forms for a microsite page, but you can use the HTML designer to create a link from an inbound form to another page.

Caution:

When you design an inbound form for a microsite, make sure the size of the inbound form is equal to or less than the size of the content block. If the size of the inbound form exceeds the content block, the ends of the inbound form will appear truncated.

Email Mapping Inbound Forms

You can create an inbound form to work with an email mapping. These inbound forms process email messages sent to a Post Office Protocol (POP) account from a Web form that is external to Aprimo. Each email message sent to the POP account contains information that someone submitted through the external Web form.. The mappings you define for the inbound form's form fields determine the fields in the database that store this information.

Example:
Your marketing organization is planning a series of workshops for customers. Customers can use a form on your Web site to register for the workshops. When a customer submits the form, an email message that contains the information the customer enters is sent to an email account.

Because the Web form is not associated with Aprimo, you configure these items to import the data into your database:

An email account record in Aprimo to monitor and access the actual email account
An email mapping to identify the information to import
An inbound form that contains form fields that correspond to the fields on the external Web form

Each time an email message from the Web form is delivered to the email account, Aprimo extracts the appropriate data from the message. The mappings of the inbound form's form fields save the data in the correct fields in the database.

The Collected Information

Each time an audience member or participant submits an inbound form, a response history record is created. The response history record contains the information the person entered in the form fields. You can review this information in the Response History module. You can also configure an inbound form to store information in custom contact history records. You can configure an inbound form to create contact history records when these events occur:

An audience member or a lead submits an inbound form
An audience member or a lead submits an inbound form that contains form fields that are mapped to a contact history type

If someone submits the same inbound form twice, the values from the second submission overwrite the initial values.

When the first person submits an inbound form, Aprimo creates a new audience member group for the form. All of the people who submit the form are added to the group. These groups use this naming convention: Form: InboundFormName.

Details

Field	Description
Target Group	Specify the recipient type. After you save an inbound form, you cannot edit this field. The target group you select determines: The field tags available to select in the HTML designer on the Form Definition and Confirmation Message tabs. The target attributes available to select in the Form Fields module. The outbound messages you can associate with the inbound form. The interactions you can associate with the inbound form. An interaction must have the same target group as the inbound form. The email mappings you can associate with the inbound form. An email mapping must have the same target group as the inbound form. The microsites you can associate with the inbound form. A microsite must have the same target group as the inbound form. Whether the inbound form can also be used as a lead form in the Leads Portal.
Language	Select the language in which the buttons appear on the inbound form. You can select any language that is installed for your implementation of Aprimo. If you select a different language, you must use the HTML designer to manually replace each button on the inbound form. Selecting a different language does not translate the text in the inbound form.
Data Cleansers	Select one or more data cleansers to verify or standardize the data people submit. You must code and test each data cleanser separately before you can integrate it with Aprimo.
Data Source	This field appears on the View Inbound Form - Details page if the target group is Audience Members. This field indicates the inbound form's data source. You can click the name of the data source to view and edit it. You might want to edit the data source if the inbound form is an anonymous inbound form or is designed for use with email mappings. Editing the data source can help you refine the matching rules to better match incoming data from an inbound form with records in the database. If the data that someone submits does not match an existing audience member record, an audience member record is created.
Status	Select the status. When people attempt to view an inbound form that has is inactive, they see the inactive message. When you use an inbound form in an interaction, keep in mind that the interaction's status does not affect the inbound form's status. People can continue to access and submit an inbound form after the interaction finishes. To prevent this, change the inbound form's status to Inactive when the interaction finishes.
Contact History	This field appears if the target group is audience members. Select the type of custom contact history record that stores the data audience members submit. You can map form fields on the inbound form to fields in a contact history record.
Microsite Form	This field appears if the target group is audience members or leads. Choose whether you can use the inbound form in microsites. You cannot configure a confirmation message, an inactive message, or a series of linked forms for a microsite inbound form.
Page Title	This field appears if the Microsite Form field is set to No. Type a title for the title bar that people see in the Web browser when they view the inbound form.

Form Definition

The HTML designer appears on the Form Definition tab. Use it to design the layout of an inbound form:

Confirmation Message

The Confirmation Message tab is disabled when you configure an inbound form for a microsite.

The HTML designer appears on the Confirmation Message tab. Use it to design the confirmation message that people see after they submit an inbound form:

Tip:
You can add a JavaScript redirect to the message to send people to another Web page.

Inactive Message

The Inactive Message tab is disabled when you configure an inbound form for a microsite.

The HTML designer appears on the Inactive Message tab. Use it to design the message that people see when they attempt to view an inactive inbound form:

Tip:
You can add a JavaScript redirect to the message to send people to another Web page.