Already have contacts in your database but want to learn more about them? Linking to a form from your email campaigns is the easiest way to enrich the profiles you already have — capturing things like favourite team, dietary requirement, or birthday so you can send more personalised offers later.

This guide walks you through the full flow: setting up the custom contact fields you want to capture, building the form, linking it from a campaign, and segmenting from there. Because submissions match to existing contacts via email, your database stays clean — no duplicates, just richer profiles.

If you haven't built a form before, start with How to build a form in Connect.

Before you start

• Forms can't be embedded directly inside an email. You'll add a button or link in your campaign that points to a hosted form URL.
• If you want submissions to update existing contacts (rather than create duplicates), the form must include an Email field — Connect uses email to match submissions to existing contact records.
• Any custom data you want to capture (e.g. favourite football team, dietary requirement) needs to be set up as a custom field in Contact Fields first.

Topics

• Set up the custom fields you want to capture
• Build the form with an email field
• Add the form to your campaign
• Tips for richer responses
• Troubleshooting

Set up the custom fields you want to capture

Custom fields let you store extra information against each contact — like favourite team, dietary preference, or birthday. These need to exist as fields on your contact database before you can add them to a form.

1. In Connect, go to Settings
2. Click Contact Fields
3. Click the + symbol to add a new field
4. Choose a field type (e.g. text, single select)
5. Enter the field name
6. Click Save

Repeat for every custom field you want to capture. For more detail on custom contact fields, including field types and segmentation, see How to add a custom contact field.

💡 Tip — Use Single Select for fields with a fixed list of options (e.g. a list of football codes) so your data stays consistent and segmentable later.

Build the form with an email field

Once your custom fields are set up, build the form.

1. In Connect, go to Forms
2. Click the + symbol to add a new form
3. From Available Fields, drag in an Email field and set it as required — this is what Connect uses to match submissions to existing contacts
4. Drag in any other standard fields you want (e.g. First Name, Date of Birth)
5. To add your custom fields, click v More v in the Available Fields pane to reveal them, then drag them into the form
6. Click each field to set whether it's required and to update the label
7. Set up notifications, your on-screen confirmation message, and publish the form using a Hosted Theme or Custom Hosted Theme — you'll need a hosted URL to link to from the campaign

For the full step-by-step on each stage, see How to build a form in Connect.

⚠️ Warning — If your form doesn't include an email field, every submission will create a brand-new contact record — even if the same contact submits twice. Always include an email field for preference-capture forms.

Add the form to your campaign

Once your form is published and you have a URL, drop it into your campaign as a link or button.

1. In Connect, go to Campaigns
2. Open the campaign you want to add the form to, or create a new one
3. Add a button or text link in the body of your email
4. Set the URL to your hosted form URL (the one you got from the publish step)
5. Send a test to yourself to confirm the link opens the form correctly
6. Schedule or send the campaign as normal

For more details see How to create and send an email campaign

💡 Tip — Use clear CTA copy like "Tell us about yourself" or "Update your preferences" so contacts know what to expect when they click.

Tips for richer responses

A few small things can dramatically improve the data you collect:

• Add hint text in field labels. For example, "What football team do you support? (AFL, NRL, Rugby, Soccer, etc.)" so contacts know the format you're expecting. This is especially useful for free-text fields.
• Keep the form short. Three to six fields is the sweet spot. Longer forms see fewer completions.
• Pre-fill what you already know. Use mail merge in the campaign to personalise the CTA (e.g. "Hi Sarah, tell us about yourself") so the form feels personal when contacts land.
• Use single-select dropdowns over free text. This keeps your data clean and segmentable later.
• Segment your follow-ups. Once submissions are flowing in, use the new data to build segmented campaigns — for example, send a tailored offer to everyone who said they support a particular team.

Troubleshooting

Submissions are creating duplicate contacts instead of updating existing ones

• Cause: Your form doesn't include an email field, or contacts are entering a different email address than the one on file
• Fix: Add an Email field to the form and set it as required

A custom field doesn't show up in the form editor

• Cause: The field hasn't been created in Contact Fields, or you haven't expanded the v More v section in the editor
• Fix: Set up the field under Settings > Contact Fields, then click v More v in the form editor to reveal it

The campaign link doesn't open the form

• Cause: The URL was entered incorrectly, or the form is unpublished
• Fix: Double-check the URL by opening it in a new tab — if it doesn't load, regenerate the URL from the form's publish step

Related articles

• How to build a form in Connect
• Manage your forms
• How to capture new contacts with a website signup form
• Getting started with forms in Connect
• How to add a custom contact field

Your campaign should now be ready to send, with a form your contacts can use to share their preferences.

Any questions? Reach out to us via email at support@meandu.com