How-to: Survey Distribution – anonymous and personalized survey

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You have created your first survey in EFS, and now you want to deliver it to you participants? Nothing simpler than that!

EFS offers convenient features for a quick and easy survey delivery to your participants – appropriate for your special use case. In the following, we will introduce you to the most important steps and features for the distribution of your anonymous and personalized survey and for participant management.

Anonymous Survey

In the case of anonymous surveys, you don’t know the participants beforehand. In the survey menu under project information you can find several options in the Distribution section for delivering your anonymous survey to potential participants:

Publishing the survey link on a website, in a newsletter or in an email
Publishing a QR code
Posting the survey link on social media
Integrating a pop-up window into a website

Publishing the Survey Link

If you would like to share the link to your survey on a website, in an email or at any other place, just copy the URL displayed under Distribution in the line URL. Afterwards, you can insert it at the desired place. In case you want to change the URL, for example in order to adapt it to your company name, please proceed as follows:

Click on the Pen symbol on the right hand side of the URL.

In the free text field in the line New URL, enter the desired text – e.g. the name of your company.
The checkbox for Replace URL in questions? is activated by default. Just keep this setting; it ensures that the new URL is used throughout the whole survey.

Only the part after /uc/ can be defined according to your preferences. The rest of the URL is determined by the system and cannot be changed.

Publishing a QR Code

If you would like to publish your survey by means of print media, you can obtain a scannable QR code for your survey in EFS.

In the line QR code of the Distribution section, click on Display.
A pop-up window will be displayed. Click on Save image. The QR code will be immediately downloaded and saved in the Downloads folder of your local system. To access the image, just click on the Download symbol in the upper right corner of the pop-up window; you can then directly open the picture or display the folder, in which the image has been saved.

Posting the Survey Link on Social Media

With social media you can reach a lot of potential participants.

In the line Social networks of the Distribution section, select one of the available social media pages. You will be forwarded to log in to your given account.
After logging in, the link to your survey will be automatically embedded into a post. You may add a comment or make any changes, before you share your link in your chosen network.

Depending on the social network you choose, there are different options available for sharing your link. The above example image shows the link in the business network Linkedin.

Integrating a Pop-up Window into a Website

If you would like your survey to appear in a pop-up window on your website, you can create such a pop-up in EFS with ease. However, for embedding the pop-up into your website a certain amount of HTML expertise is necessary.

In the line Pop-up generator of the Distribution section, click on Get pup-up code.

The boxes Width and Height allow adjusting the size of the window and the box Position enables you to set the position of the pop-up window on the screen.

One-time or Repeat Participation

Now you know, how to deliver your anonymous survey to your participants. But how can you determine, whether participants can only take the survey once or several times? In EFS, you can set this by activating or deactivating cookies for your survey.

If cookies are used,…

…participants can only take your survey once. If they click on the survey link again, after they have already fully answered all questions, the following message will be displayed: “Sorry, but you have already completed this survey. Thank you for participating”. However, by using cookies and saving session data through it, you can enable participants to suspend the survey and resume it at the same page afterwards.

If cookies are NOT used,…

…participants can take your surveys several times. Session data is not stored, so each click on the survey link creates a new session or data set. Because of that, participants cannot suspend the survey and resume it at a later point, as they are not recognized by the system due to the messing session data.

Please note that activating cookies cannot completely ensure that participants can only take your survey once and resume it, after they have suspended it, as cookies can be rejected by the browser or deleted manually.

You can decide at your own discretion, whether you want to explicitly enable participants to take part several times or whether a one-time participation better fits your use case. By default, cookies are activated in surveys. If you would like to deactivate them, proceed as follows:

Go to the Survey Menu, and select the Project properties menu item. Then, click on the Login options tab.
Deactivate the checkbox for Cookies are used.
Click on Save.

Personalized Survey

When you create a personalized survey, you know your survey participants in advance. Usually, the link to your survey is sent to participants via email. But before you can send email invites to your survey, you first have to add participants in the participant administration. The sum of all survey participants represents the so called sample. During the field phase of your survey – i.e. the time, in which you carry out your survey – you can add additional participants to your sample at any given time.

Initial Preparation

Before you start importing participants into the participant administration, you need to make sure, that it contains all participant variables you need for your project. The participant variables translate into the different fields you fill out, when adding participants, e.g. surname, name, email address etc. Detailed information on participant variables can be found in our online documentation in section Overview of the standard variables of participant administration.

From the Survey menu, click on the Participant administration menu item on the left, and select the Participant variables menu item.
A list of all available participant variables for personalized surveys is displayed:

If you don’t need any additional participant variables for your project, there is no need to make any changes. You can just proceed with the next step: Importing a Participant List. In case you want to add a variable, for example the variable u_children for storing information on the number of children a participant has, proceed as follows:

Click on the Create variable button above the list of variables.
In the field Internal label, enter a label starting with “u_”, for example u_children.
For Label, enter the name of the field, for example “No. of children”.
For Display type, select the the type of field you want to create. For our example, Radio buttons is a suitable option.
Activate the checkboxes for Allow editing of the content of this variable and Show the content of this variable. When activating the checkboxes, the newly created variable will be present in the mask for adding new participants and you will be able to select a radio button.
Click on Save.

Expand the menu Answer categories for variable u_children. Here you can define the number and the text of the radio buttons.
Click on the free text field below Answer categories, and enter the text “1 child”. The field to the left will be populated automatically with a running number.
Click on the plus symbol below New to the very left. A new answer category will be created. Enter the text “2 children”.
Click on the plus symbol again, and enter “3 or more children” as answer category.
Click on Save.

Below, you can see, that your new variable appears as a field with 3 answer options in the mask for creating a new participant.

Importing a Participant List

As you probably want to invite a larger number of participants to your survey, it’s best practice to import all participants into the participant administration at once. To do so, proceed as follows:

You are in the Participant administration area. On the left side, click on the Participant list menu item. Then, click on the split button + New participant and select the Import participants option.

Click on the button Download import template.

The import template is downloaded in the Downloads folder of your local system.
Open the import template, and enter your participant data. The variable u_children you have created in the previous step is present in the file as well. You don’t have to fill out all template fields, only the field „u_email“ (participant’s email address) is a mandatory field. However, we recommend entering at least the participant’s first name under “u_firstname” and their last name under “u_name”. The table below is an example for how the beginning of your file could look like.

Save your file.
On the page, from which you have downloaded the import file, click on the button Choose file. Choose the filled-out template, and click on Open. The import template will be added.
Keep all default settings, and click on the button Send file.

On the next page, the columns of the import file are matched with the respective fields of the database. As you have used the recommended template, you don’t need to make any changes. Just click on Proceed to preview.

The preview is displayed and contains all data, which will be imported into the participant administration. The green traffic light symbol on the left-hand side indicates, that all data sets have been imported completely and are logical. Click on Import, to complete the import process.

In case the traffic light symbol on the left-hand side is yellow or red, an error might have occurred. Click on the pen symbol on the right-hand side.
An edit view is displayed and the traffic light symbol indicates, in which row an error has occurred. In the example below, the value for the time zone is not permitted. Select the correct value for Universal time from the drop-down menu on the right-hand side, and click on Save. The traffic light symbol turns to green. Click on Back in the upper left corner.

You will be returned to the preview. Click on Import, to complete the import process.
An import overview is displayed. Click on the breadcrumb Participant administration, to display the participant list. There, you will find all imported participants.

If you would like to add single participants at a later point, go to the Participant administration area, and click on the button + New participant. Enter the data needed, and click on Save. More information on the Participant Administration area can be found here.

Inviting Participants

Your sample is ready – you can now get started and personally invite participants to your survey via email. To do so, you will first set the mail sender and create a mail template for your survey invitation in the next two steps.

Setting the email sender

In the upper right corner of of the screen, hover over the button System and click on Libraries.

From the menu on the left-hand side, select Mail templates.

From the menu on the left-hand side, select Mail senders, and click the button Add e-mail address.

Enter the email address and name of the mail sender in the respective fields. You can add your name and business email address, for example, if you would like to add yourself as the mail sender.
Select the appropriate team from the drop-down menu.
Click on Save.

Creating the Mail Template

Change to the Mail templates menu. You can find it on the left-hand side just above the Mail senders menu.
Click on the split button + New draft, and select + New draft for projects.

A mask for creating a new mail template is opened in a new tab.
For Type, select the option Invitation mail from the drop-down menu.
For Description, enter a short description suitable for your use case into the free text field.
For Delivery, select the option E-mail from the drop-down menu.
For Mail sender, select the email address you have added in the previous step from the drop-down menu.
For Mail format, select the option HTML only from the drop-down menu, and click on Apply format.
For Subject, enter a subject for your email.
Draft the text for your invitation email in the Visual editor. You want content like the participant’s name or the link to the survey for each participant to be dynamically replaced in the actual invite you send out. In order to archive that, you need to use placeholders. A list of all available placeholders can be displayed by clicking the question mark symbol below the field Subject. In the example below, the placeholder #u_firstname# will be replaced by the participant’s first name, the placeholder #u_name# will be replaced by the last name, and #code_complete# will be replaced by the link to your survey.
Click on Save.

Optionally, you can add an image to your invitation email – for example your company logo. Before you can add it, you first have to add it to the Media library. If you do not wish to add an image to your template, just proceed with the next step – Sending out the Invitation Mail. In case you want to add an image, please follow the steps below:

In the upper right corner of the screen, hover over the System option and select Libraries. In the menu on the left-hand side, select Media library.
Click on the upload symbol.

A mask for uploading an image file is displayed. Click on Choose file, and select the desired image. Click on Upload.

Your image is uploaded.
Search for your image in the list, and under Actions in the same line, click the information symbol.

Copy the URL displayed under Absolute path.

Return to your mail template.
In the Visual editor, click in the space, where you want to add your image.
Click on the Insert/edit image symbol.

A mask for adding/editing an image is displayed. In the field Source, paste the URL you have previously copied. The Dimensions fields are populated automatically.

Click on OK.
Your image will be inserted. If necessary, you can adjust the size and position afterwards.
Click on Save.

Sending out the Invitation Mail

You have now completed all necessary preparations and can now send out the invitation to your survey to participants.

Go to the Survey menu.
In the Distribution section, click on the button Contact participant groups.

Several options for contacting participants with different disposition codes, or statuses (e.g. “invited”, “not invited yet” etc.), are displayed. More information on the topic of disposition codes can be found here. Click on the link Send invitation mails. With this option your invitation is sent to all participants in your sample.

A mask for configuring the invitation mail is opened.
Under Common settings, select the mail template you have created in the previous step from the drop-down menu. All the fields will be automatically populated with the settings from the mail template.
In case you don’t want to send out the invitation right away, you can adjust the date and time under When to send in the Delivery options on the lower part of the screen.
Next, click on Preview mail in the lower right corner.

A preview of your invitation mail is displayed. Check, whether the placeholders for first name, name and the link to the survey have been replaced with the data you have set up for the participant in the participant administration. Only one mail for one participant will be displayed at a time. If you would like to check the mails for your other participants, click on the arrow symbol right over the mail content to display them.
Finally, click on Send.