Emails & Forms

Capturing data is a key piece of any marketing strategy. It’s imperative that you capture the right data so you can continue improving your marketing efforts. Pardot is the vehicle we see many companies use to capture form submission data, but what if that data needs to be shared?

As marketing grows, it’s become more of a common place for two companies to work together on a campaign or an event. The tricky thing is sharing data. Traditionally, marketing teams use the spreadsheets – oh, the dreaded spreadsheets – to pass over data to their co-marketing partner.

Is it possible to automate the distribution of data when a user submits a form? With Pardot, it’s surprisingly easy to do away with spreadsheets and move to a completely automated system.

There are two ways to trigger this kind of automation. We’ll go into detail on both of these options, but first here’s a 10,000 ft view of each. 

1. The initial submission is captured via a Pardot Form then data is passed directly to a Pardot Form Handler.
   Two fictitious companies, Utica Paper and Printers Rock are co-marketing an event. Utica Paper is the main host of the event and they leverage a Pardot form for registrations. In the Pardot form’s completion actions, they have added JavaScript code to forward submission data to a form handler. This Pardot form handler is tied to Printers Rock Pardot org. To simplify, this process is a Pardot Form (Utica Paper) > Pardot Form Handler (Printers Rock).
   
   
2. A Pardot Form Handler captures the initial submission and the data is forwarded to a second Pardot Form Handler.
   In this scenario, The Halpert Company, uses their website to host a registration page for an upcoming event. After a form is submitted, they capture data in Pardot via a form handler. The Halpert Company has partnered with Utica Paper on this campaign. They leverage the data forwarding option on Pardot form handlers to send submission data over to Utica Paper immediately after a form is submitted. To simplify, this solution is Pardot form handler (Halpert Industries) to Pardot form handler (Utica Paper).

Let’s dive into the details…

Scenario: Pardot Form to Pardot Form Handler

1. Create Pardot Form in the Primary Pardot Org
   Utica Paper created their Pardot form to capture form submissions.
   
   
   
   
2. Create a Pardot Form Handler in the secondary Pardot Org
   This is where Printers Rock created a form handler inside Pardot. They include fields for all the data points they’d like to capture. All fields should be left as optional except the email address field. As a final step, Printers Rock sent over the form handler endpoint url and a list of field names (see red box in screenshot) to Utica Paper, so they would know where to map the data to.
   
   
3. Connect the Pardot Form to the Form Handler
   Utica Paper incorporates the field names from Printer Rock into a JavaScript post. This gets tricky so let’s take it step-by-step:
   
   a. Copy / Paste the following JavaScript code into the Thank You code section on the Pardot Form.

<script type=”text/javascript”>
var email = encodeURIComponent(‘%%email{js}%%’)
//Update the src URL below to match the destination form handler endpointdocument.write(‘<iframe src=”URL_HERE?email=’ + email + ‘” height=”1px” width=”1px” />’);

//Update the location URL below to point to the Thank You pagewindow.location = “http://pardot.com/”;
</script>

b. Within the JavaScript code, replace the URL_HERE (highlighted below) with the form handler URL. In our example, Utica Paper would paste the endpoint url that they received from Printers Rock. 

Important: make sure you use the secure HTTPS link. 

c. Within the JavaScript, update the final destination URL. Replace the highlighted text with your thank you page link. This is the page users will be directed to after the form is submitted.

d. Save and test! Submit a test through the Pardot form. The expected behavior is that the submission will be captured in the Pardot form and the Pardot form handler will display a submission too (email only). Your browser should redirect to the link you updated in the previous step. If anything does not fire correctly, review the above steps again to make sure your configuration matches.

Now you have a fully configured script that will pass the email address to a form handler url. Optionally you can add in additional fields to capture in this submission. To do so, navigate back to the Pardot thank you code section. You’ll want to add in additional variables, one for each additional field you’d like to send to the form handler. First add in the variable tags and then update the encoded url framework.

Variable Tags

var email = encodeURICompenent (‘%%email{js}%%’)

1. Copy the line you see above, hit return, and paste it as a new row.

2. Replace email (1) with the field name that’s defined on the form handler. In our example, this is the data sent over from Printers Rock in Step 2.

3. Replace email (2) with the Pardot field name. This is the field name in the Pardot instance that’s tied to the Pardot form. You’ll want to navigate to the field itself in Pardot to find the field ID (see screenshot below).

Update the Encoded URL

Right before the circled plug button, add the following:

+ ‘&formHandlerFieldName=’ + variableName

• The Pardot form handler field name is the external field name listed on the form handler. Make sure you create one without spaces. Replace ONLY the highlighted part with the field name, leave the quotes, ampersand, and equal sign.
  
• The variableName is the name you created in the Variable Tags section. If you followed the suggestion, this will match your Pardot Field Name. 

Note: Replicate the Variable Tag and Update Encoded URL section for each field you want to sync to the Form Handler.

Final step: TEST EVERYTHING! Don’t skip this step – trust me, your future self will thank you. Testing will ensure that data is being captured and passed between the two Pardot instances. The last thing you want is to launch a shiny new campaign to find out a week later your data was not captured properly.

Ready for more? Check out the second post on how to pass data between two Pardot Form Handlers. OR check out our post on how to use the format above to pass conditional completion actions through a Pardot form.

In this post, I’ll show you how to create a page that asks for feedback as to why the prospect is unsubscribing. The goal is to use the standard Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) unsubscribe page and ask them why they have unsubscribed on the confirmation page. This gives the prospect the option to complete this information, but it’s not required for them to be unsubscribed from emails.

Unsubscribe Reason Page Preview

Here’s what the completed page looks like.

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Create the custom field(s)

First, create a field in Pardot that will be used to capture the unsubscribe reason.

Optionally, you can create an additional field to capture the reason if “other” is selected in the form.

Step 2: Create the unsubscribe reason form

Create a new form and add your new fields.

Step 3: Style the unsubscribe reason form

Add some CSS to the unsubscribe form in the Above Form section.

Since the only way to get to the unsubscribe reason page will be from an email, I highly recommend hiding the email address field from the form by adding this CSS:

#pardot-form .email {
  display:none;
}

Here’s what my full CSS looks like for my form:

<style type="text/css">
/* hide the email field */
#pardot-form .email {
  display:none;
}
/* the text input */
#pardot-form input.text {
  width: 100%;
  border: solid 1px #E0E0E0;
  background-color: #FFF;
  padding: 10px !important;
  font-size: 15px;
  box-sizing:border-box;
}
/* the dropdown field */
#pardot-form select {
  width: 100%;
  border: solid 1px #E0E0E0;
  background-color: #FFF;
  padding: 10px !important;
  font-size: 15px;
  border-radius: 0;
  -moz-border-radius: 0;
  -webkit-border-radius: 0;
  -moz-appearance: none;
  -webkit-appearance: none;
  appearance: none;
  background-position: right center;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-size: 1ex;
  background-origin: content-box;
  color: #868686;
  outline:none;
  background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;base64,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");
}
/* the field labels */
#pardot-form label {
  font-size: 14px;
  color: #868686;
  font-weight:normal;
  padding-bottom:5px;
}
/* the submit button container */
body form.form p.submit {
  margin-left:0;
  text-align:center;
}
/* the submit button */
body form.form p.submit input {
  background:#56CFD2;
  color:#FFF;
  border:0;
  padding:10px 35px;
  font-style: normal;
  font-weight: 800;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  line-height: 1.6923em;
  letter-spacing: 2px;
  cursor:pointer;
}
body form.form p.submit input:hover {
background: #4ebfc2;
}
/* the form */
body form.form {
  line-height: 1.6923em;
  font-size:14px;
  color:#868686;
}
</style>

Step 4: Edit or create a layout template

If your unsubscribe page does not have a dedicated layout template, create a new layout template to use for the unsubscribe page. You can find the layout template name on the settings page for your unsubscribe page.

Navigate to your layout template and click on the Form tab. Find the %%form-before-form-content%% tag within the HTML and replace it with the iFramed version of your unsubscribe reason form. Also, add any text you want to include before or after the embedded form.

Here’s the HTML I replaced the %%form-before-form-content%% tag with:

<!-- START the custom unsubscribe content -->
<h3>Please take a moment and let us know why you unsubscribed.</h3>

<p><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="250" src="https://go.pardot.com/l/xxx/xxxx-xx-xx/6vr8db" style="border: 0" type="text/html" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<div class="resubscribe">
<h3>Unsubscribed by mistake?</h3>
<p>Click the re-subscribe button below to opt back in.</p>
</div>
<!-- END the custom unsubscribe content-->

And here’s what the full HTML looks like in the Form tab of the layout template:

<form accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" action="%%form-action-url%%" class="form" id="pardot-form">
%%form-opening-general-content%%

%%form-if-thank-you%%
  %%form-javascript-focus%%
  %%form-thank-you-content%%
  %%form-thank-you-code%%
%%form-end-if-thank-you%%

%%form-if-display-form%%

<!-- START the custom unsubscribe content -->
<h3>Please take a moment and let us know why you unsubscribed.</h3>

<p><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="250" src="https://go.pardot.com/l/xxx/xxxx-xx-xx/6vr8db" style="border: 0" type="text/html" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<div class="resubscribe">
<h3>Unsubscribed by mistake?</h3>
<p>Click the re-subscribe button below to opt back in.</p>
</div>
<!-- END the custom unsubscribe content-->

    %%form-if-error%%
      <p class="errors">Please correct the errors below:</p>
    %%form-end-if-error%%

    %%form-start-loop-fields%%
      <p class="form-field %%form-field-css-classes%% %%form-field-class-type%% %%form-field-class-required%% %%form-field-class-hidden%% %%form-field-class-no-label%% %%form-field-class-error%% %%form-field-dependency-css%%">
        %%form-if-field-label%%
          <label class="field-label" for="%%form-field-id%%">%%form-field-label%%</label>
        %%form-end-if-field-label%%

        %%form-field-input%%
        %%form-if-field-description%%
          <span class="description">%%form-field-description%%</span>
        %%form-end-if-field-description%%
      </p>
      <div id="error_for_%%form-field-id%%" style="display:none"></div>
      %%form-field-if-error%%
        <p class="error no-label">%%form-field-error-message%%</p>
      %%form-field-end-if-error%%
    %%form-end-loop-fields%%

    %%form-spam-trap-field%%

    <!-- forces IE5-8 to correctly submit UTF8 content  -->
    <input name="_utf8" type="hidden" value="&#9731;" />

    <p class="submit">
      <input type="submit" accesskey="s" value="%%form-submit-button-text%%" %%form-submit-disabled%%/>
    </p>
  %%form-after-form-content%%

%%form-end-if-display-form%%

%%form-javascript-link-target-top%%
</form>

Lastly, here’s my HTML for the entire Layout tab of my layout template.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <base href="http://go.pardot.com" >
    <meta charset="utf-8"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <meta name="description" content="%%description%%"/>
    <title>%%title%%</title>
    <link href="https://stackpath.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/4.1.1/css/bootstrap.min.css" rel="stylesheet" integrity="sha384-WskhaSGFgHYWDcbwN70/dfYBj47jz9qbsMId/iRN3ewGhXQFZCSftd1LZCfmhktB" crossorigin="anonymous">
    <style type="text/css">

        /* the resubscribe button */
        body form.form p.submit {
            margin-left:0;
        }
        body form.form p.submit input {
            background:#56CFD2;
            color:#FFF;
            border:0;
            padding:10px 35px;
            font-style: normal;
            font-weight: 800;
            text-transform: uppercase;
            line-height: 1.6923em;
            letter-spacing: 2px;
            cursor:pointer;
        }
        body form.form p.submit input:hover {
            background: #4ebfc2;
        }
        /* the resubscribe form */
        body form.form {
            line-height: 1.6923em;
            font-size:14px;
            color:#868686;
        }
        /* the page header */
        h3 {
            font-size:20px;
            color:#666;
        }
        /* the iframed unsubscribed reason form */
        iframe {
            width:420px;
        }
        /* the resubscribe container */
        .resubscribe {
            border-top:solid 1px #ececec;
            padding-top:35px;
        }

    </style>
  </head>
  <body class="bg-light">
 
    <div class="container">
      <div class="py-3 text-center">
        <img class="d-block mx-auto mb-4" src="https://via.placeholder.com/225x70.png?text=LOGO" alt="" width="250">
        <div class="unsubscribe-container">
          %%Content%%
        </div>
      </div>
 
      <footer class="my-5 pt-5 text-muted text-center text-small">
        <p class="mb-1">&copy; 2017-2021 Company Name</p>
        <ul class="list-inline">
          <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="#">Privacy</a></li>
          <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="#">Terms</a></li>
          <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="#">Support</a></li>
        </ul>
      </footer>
    </div>
 
  </body>
</html>

Issues with Email Address Populating

There have been some reported issues with the email address not populating in the unsubscribe reason form. This is because the form depends on cookies in order to populate the email address. The prospect might have a browser setting enabled or they are in Incognito Mode. There are two workarounds to solve this:

Workaround #1: Show the email address field if it’s not populated automatically.

The first workaround is to show the email address field if the email field is not populated automatically. To do this, navigate to your unsubscribe reason form, go to the Look and Feel tab and paste this jQuery code in the Below Form section.

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script>
    $(document).ready(function() { 
    if($('.email input').val() == ''){
    	//show the email field if it's not automatically populated
    	$('#pardot-form .email').show();
   }  
});
</script>

Workaround #2: Hide the unsubscribe reason form if the email address is not populated automatically.

The second workaround is to hide the form altogether if the email address is not populated automatically. To do this, navigate to your unsubscribe reason form, go to the Look and Feel tab and paste this jQuery code in the Below Form section. Update the jQuery with your own messages.

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.11.2/jquery.min.js"></script><script>
    $(document).ready(function() { 
    // Add the header to the unsubscribe reason form instead
    $('#pardot-form').before('<h3>Please take a moment and let us know why you unsubscribed.</h3>');
    // check to see if the email field is empty
    if($('.email input').val() == ''){
    // hide the form and the header if the email field is empty
      $('#pardot-form, h3').hide();
    // display an unsubscribe message instead
      $('#pardot-form').before('You have been unsubscribed');
   }  
});
</script>

Lastly, remove the header from your unsubscribe layout template since the header is placed within the form instead.

Testing 

To test the unsubscribe reason page, you must send yourself a REAL email. The page will not show up if you are using one of the email test features.

Questions?

Send me a tweet @jennamolby or leave a comment below.