Registration Form

Revision as of 00:57, 7 November 2008

Registration Form Instructions

In this section you will be introduced to the Registration Form. Once you have completed this section you will be able to:

• Collect information on customers of purchasing age that have browsed your site but have not purchased anything as of yet
• Collect information on customers that are not yet of purchasing age but still have interest in your store
• Utilize this information in order to capture both of these customers in the future as well as forging a lasting relationship with potential customers allowing you to offer the spectacular service that specialty stores such as yours are known for

First we’ll discuss the technical aspects then, following that, delve deeper into the practical applications

1. Click the link at the top of your page that says Registration Form. It is the last link when reading from left to right.
2. This will take you to the Manage Registration Form page. The first thing to catch your eye should be the series of boxes with the headings: Form Field Label, Field Options, Field Type, and Required'? The first of these headers we will deal with is the one titled Form Field Label
3. In the ten boxes under Form Field Label you will type in the information you are asking from your potential customer. Enter one request or question per box (up to a maximum of ten). Suggestions include:
   • Name
   • Address
   • Date of Birth
   • What is your wear date?
   • What were you shopping for today?
   • Would you like to be entered in a giveaway?
   • Would you like to join our mailing list
   • Email Address
   • Phone Number
   • Comments or Questions?
   • Etc.
4. Once you have your Questions/Requests laid out, you can determine the format you would like your customers to respond. Now we will be dealing with the third heading which is Field Type. Under Field Type there are a series of drop-down menus containing the choices Text Field, Drop Down, and Text Area.
5. The first of these Text Field is useful for questions such as Name and Address. It is a single bar text box that allows your customer to enter their information. This text bar is used in any case in which your customer’s response is expected to be less than a sentence of text. EX. Address -> 123 Sesame St.
6. The third which is Text Area is useful for questions such as Questions or Comments. This selection gives the customer a large paragraph sized text box in which to complete their answer. Use this option when the customer’s answer to your question will be of an indeterminate length. EX. Comments -> I loved your site. I could tell that you had a very well written training manual that you learned from!
7. The second option is Drop Down. Use a drop-down menu for questions that have multiple choice answers such as What were you shopping for today? or What is your favorite color? Using this option will allow the customer to select from a list of predetermined responses to answer your question. When selecting drop down, you will have to utilize the boxes under the second main head which is Field Options. First select Drop Down from the list under Field Type then type in the options you wish to appear in your drop-down menu in the box under Field Options. Separate these options with the key that appears as the shift function above the “\” key (if we are looking at your keyboard you will notice the letter keys with the numbers above them. The numbers follow sequential order and after the numbers is where you will find the key you are looking for. As such there is 6,7,8,9,0,then the – and _ key, then the = and + key followed by the \ and | key, the symbol you are looking for is “|” so for example if you were asking a customer’s favorite color in Field Options you would type red|green|blue|purple|yellow.
8. After choosing the format for each response you need to choose whether or not that question is mandatory for the submission of the registration form. For example a question like Email Address you would make required for submission while a question like Comments you would not make required. Using the series of drop-down menus under Required? choose to make a question either required or not required by selecting either yes (for required) or no (for not required) from the corresponding drop-down menu.
9. Once you have entered the questions you wish to ask your customers under Form Field Label, have determined what format you wish your response to be given under Field Type, if you have selected Drop Down under Field Type, have entered the list of responses under Field Options, and selected whether or not you wish that particular question to be Required?, click the Save button in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.
10. In green text the words Info Saved will appear at the top of your screen meaning that your information was saved.
11. You can put a link to your Registration Page in different places on your efashioncentral website. You will notice at the top of the Manage Registration Page the following text:
    
    Use this HTML to make a link to use this form on your site:
    <a href="sub.php?Page=Text&form=1">Registration Form</a>
    Use this to open in a new window:
    <a target=new href="sub.php?Page=Text&form=1">Registration Form</a>
    If you wish to have a direct link to your registration page select and copy the first line of HTML code:
    <a href="sub.php?Page=Text&form=1">Registration Form</a>
    
    If you wish to have your registration page pop-up in a new window select and copy the second line of HTML code:
    <a target=new href="sub.php?Page=Text&form=1">Registration Form</a>
    You will notice that the words “Registration Form” are in the line of HTML code. If you would like the link to your registration form to say something else, i.e. “click here” then simply delete the words Registration Form and replace them with whatever you want to appear.
    DO NOT COPY THE CODE FROM THIS MANUAL! Instead copy it directly from the top of Manage Registration Form website. Make sure that there are no spaces before or after the code before you click copy.
    
    When you paste that text on your website a link to your registration page will appear. Good choices for places to paste this code are the Home Page Text box under Manage Home Page or in the Full Description in your product details page. NOTE: if you are pasting this to one of your pages in the Page Manager, you first have to toggle to the HTML mode. If you have an “eCommerce off” message in your general settings you should put a link to your registration form here as well. The message can say, “If you are interested in ordering this style please click here to submit an inquiry on this style.” This would appear in the text box as: “If you are interested in ordering this style please<a target=new href="sub.php?Page=Text&form=1">click here</a>to submit an inquiry on this style.” Note that all you did was edit out the words “Registration Form” and replaced them with the words “click here”. Whatever you type in place of Registration Form is what will appear as a link to the form you create.
12. The last step is to go to your page manager and click on the Edit button next to registration form. This is where you create the page where you Registration Form will appear. You can give the title any name you like. You can then add text to come out above the registration form. For example, you may want to direct customers to put in certain information.
13. The information in this registration form will be sent to the email address that you have registered in your General Settings. When you receive this email you cannot reply. Remember this email is coming from your website, not from the customers email account. If you want to reply you need to click forward and then copy and paste the customer’s email address into the to: box. You should copy the information in these emails to an Excel spreadsheet so you can start building a database of this information.
14. Congratulations! Your customers now have a place where they can register their information for a mailing list, newsletter or a possible give away or other store event. When a customer submits this form you will receive an email that includes the question and answers that the visitor your site entered. This email will be sent to the email address you have entered in your General Settings. In the email there will also be a url of the last page the visitor to your site was on before the form was accessed. If the form is being used to submit an inquiry about a particular style you will be able to copy and paste the url to your browser so you can see the style they are inquiring about.
15. IMORTANT! You cannot click “reply” to these emails. If you want to reply to the consumer you need to copy and paste their email address to send to.