How to connect a Google Forms survey with EmailOctopus

EmailOctopus connects with dozens of survey form applications via Zapier. Integrating a survey form with EmailOctopus enables you to collect valuable data on your subscribers, such as their preferences and location. You can then push this data into custom fields within your EmailOctopus mailing lists to create audience segments using our segmentation feature. 

For example, you could survey your mailing list to find out which country they are based in. And then set up campaigns to send at different times for each segment. 

Google Forms is a free and simple way to create surveys. With Zapier you can connect a Google Forms survey with an EmailOctopus mailing. Here's how. 

Granting Zapier access to your apps

Before connecting Google Forms, you’ll need to make sure you can access it from Zapier: 

1. Go to your Zapier dashboard and select ‘My Apps’ from the left side menu
2. Type in Google Forms into the ‘Connect a new account’ drop down menu
3. Authenticate your Google Forms account with Zapier 

If you’ve not already granted Zapier access to your EmailOctopus account, repeat the same steps above choosing EmailOctopus as your app.

Preparing your survey data

In order to share information between a Google Forms survey and your EmailOctopus mailing list, you’ll first need to create a Google Sheet to store survey responses. 

You'll then need to set up corresponding custom fields in your EmailOctopus mailing list. For example, if in your Google Forms survey you're asking subscribers where they are located, you'll need a location field set up in EmailOctopus to receive this data. 

Once this is done, you can create a Zap – the workflow that will connect these two apps.

Creating a Zap between Google Forms and EmailOctopus

The Zap between EmailOctopus and Google Forms can be customised and configured in a number of different ways but will follow this sequence of steps:

1. Create a new Zap selecting Google Forms as your app
2. Choose ‘New response in spreadsheet’ as your event
3. Choose your Google Forms account and continue
4. Select your Spreadsheet and Worksheet
5. Select the column that will trigger the inputting of data
6. Continue as necessary through Zapier’s test steps
7. Choose EmailOctopus as the second app in the workflow
8. Choose ‘Add/Update Contact’ as the event
9. Select your EmailOctopus account and the list you want to push this data to
10. In the ‘Customize Contact’ section, insert the Google Forms column that aligns with each EmailOctopus custom field
11. Choose whether previously unsubscribed contacts will be resubscribed to your list
12. Continue as necessary through Zapier’s test steps
13. Turn on your Zap

After saving and turning on your Zap, your Google Forms' responses will synchronize from its associated spreadsheet directly into EmailOctopus. 

It’s a good idea to test everything works as it should. Send yourself a link to the survey that you created in Google Forms. Complete all the fields and check whether your data has been pushed into your EmailOctopus account.