Benchmark Polls

Surveys & Polls Updated on November 17, 2022

Polls are used to collect user, site visitor, and client opinions about a specific topic. Our poll feature inserts one single question with multiple-choice answers on your email or website. Answering a poll is fast and accurate; you and the respondent will see the answer ratio immediately after submitting their response.

In this article, you’ll learn how to create and customize Benchmark Polls and use the results to improve your business.

Topics covered in this article:

• How to create a poll
• Reuse a poll
• Sharing a poll
• Delete or deactivate a poll
• Poll Reports
• Create a new list based on the poll respondents

---

How to create a poll

To learn how to create a poll, follow the steps below.

1. Log in to your Benchmark account.
2. In the main dashboard, click on Contacts. Then, select Polls.
3. Click on the Create New Poll button.

4. Add a name for your poll, this name will be only visible to you.
5. Content Details

Add a question

Remember, a poll allows you to add a single question. If you need to add more questions, use a survey instead.

Add the answers

By default, the answers are Yes, and No. You can keep those answers or create new ones. If you need to add more answers, click on the Add link option.

Limit of five possible answers

To delete an answer, click on the trash bin icon next to the answer you want to delete.

Edit the button Text

By default, the button text is Vote. You can change this to match your poll.

6. Design Step.

In the Design step you can customize:

• Questions: You can change text color and font.
• Answers: You can change text color and font.
• Background: You can change the background color and border color. You can use the color bar or add your HEX code.

7. When done, click on the Save & Finish option.

On the next screen, you’ll see that your poll is now live. You can share the URL or copy the HTML. The URL can be used on social media sites, emails, and anywhere a link can be added. Whereas the HTML code is intended to be used on a website.

How to preview your poll

To see how your poll will look, click on the View Your Poll option.

Back to the top ↑

---

Reuse a poll

Instead of creating new polls, you can reuse a previously created poll.

Follow the steps below to reuse a poll.

1. In the main dashboard, click on Contacts and then in Polls.
2. Locate the poll you want to reuse.
3. Click on the More options icon next to the poll you chose.
4. From the dropdown menu, select Duplicate.

5. On the popup, add a new name for the new poll. Then, click on Save.

You will be redirected to the Poll Details, where you can edit the new poll. Notice this poll keeps the details and design from the previous poll. The original poll will remain unchanged.

6. When done, click on the Save & Finish button.

You can also find the Reuse Poll option in the Poll Reports dashboard.

Go to Reports in the main dashboard and click Poll Report. Next, locate the poll you want to reuse, click the More options icon and select Reuse Poll.

Back to the top ↑

---

Sharing a poll

You can share your polls created in Benchmark using the link or HTML code provided.

Before sharing, get the URL or CODE from the following places:

• If you are in the poll creation process: When you click Save & Finish, a new page will appear with the URL and code. Copy the option you need.

• If your poll is live (only URL): In the Reports, section go to Poll Reports, locate the poll, and click on the Poll URL link below the poll question.

• If you are editing the poll: Go to the polls dashboard, locate the poll you want to share, and click on it. Then in the Poll Details section, find the link or if you need the HTML code, click on Get Code, then click on Copy.

Sharing the link

You can share your poll URL on social media accounts, copy the poll URL and paste it on Twitter or Facebook as a post. Make sure to add some text to invite your audience to respond to the poll.

You can even share the link with your audience through other media, landing pages or websites, and encourage them to answer your poll.

Tips to share your poll as a link in your email campaign, landing page, or website:

• Write something catchy to invite the users to answer your poll.
• You can offer something back to the respondents like a gift, an ebook, a discount, or some special offer. Click here to learn how to download the respondent’s list.
• Don’t paste your poll link in a text block. Better link your poll to a button, to a text, ex. Click here, or an image. Click here to learn how to add links in Benchmark.

Embedding your poll on your website

The main advantage of embedding the code is users can click directly to the poll. To embed your poll in your website, use the HTML code and place it on your site or send it to your developer to add it.

The poll should automatically fit the area. However, you change the width.

To resize a poll follow the steps below:

1. Copy the Poll HTML and paste it into your website or in a text editor. Do not publish it yet.
2. Search for the string w=220 and change it to the desired width.

<script type='text/javascript' language='JavaScript' src='https://www.benchmarkemail.com/Poll/Start?g=9999&id=999999&w=220&url='></script>

3. Hit enter or done depending on your website editor. You should see the changes when you refresh the page.

Any changes made to the poll in Benchmark will automatically reflect on your website without having to update the HTML on your site again. We recommend you add the poll on the sidebars of a website instead of the body.

Back to the top ↑

---

Delete or deactivate a poll

If you are no longer using a poll, you can delete or deactivate it.

Deactivating a poll will prevent new users from voting. When a user clicks on the poll link, they will only see the results but not the vote button, and no new answers will be added to the report.

With an inactive poll, you will be able to:

• Activate the poll again, allowing users to vote
• Edit your poll if necessary.
• Vie the poll report

Deleting a poll will remove the poll entirely from the polls list and also its reports. This process can not be reversed. If deleted you will not be able to recover answers from this poll.

To deactivate or delete a poll, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the polls dashboard.
2. Click on the More options icon next to the poll you want to delete or deactivate.
3. Select Deactivate or Delete (To delete, deactivate the poll first, then proceed to delete).

4. In the popup, confirm your action.

Back to the top ↑

---

Poll Reports

To view a poll report, follow the steps below:

From the polls dashboard

1. Locate the poll you want to see the report.
2. Click on the More options, and from the drop-down menu, select View Report.

From the main dashboard

1. In the main dashboard go to Reports then click on Poll Reports.
2. Click on the poll name you want to see the report.

In the report, you’ll see the total number of responses and the number of responses per answer with its ratio.

Back to the top ↑

---

Create a new list based on the poll respondents

Follow the next steps to create a new list based on the contacts who answered a poll.

First, you need to create and send an email campaign with a link to the poll. Then, wait a few days to give time to the readers to answer your poll.

1. When done, go to the main dashboard. Click on Reports and then select Email Reports.
2. Click on the email where you added the poll.

3. From the left menu, choose Link Performance.
4. In the Click Performance by URL section, locate the poll link and click on it. Now you can see who clicked your poll.

5. Click on the Export to File button.

6. On the popup, the Email field is selected by default. Click Download as CSV or Excel.

7. A file will be downloaded to your computer.

Now you can import the file as a new list of contacts.

Back to the top ↑

---

If you have any questions, please contact our support team.