Database link wizard: Online email invitations

Invitations are an important way of letting participants know how to complete your questionnaire. The emails include a link that make it easy for a participant to give their responses.

Here are some helpful tips to avoid spam filters when creating your email invitations and sending online surveys.

This page is available if you have chosen to send email invitations for an online survey, using the database link wizard. This happens when you have

• selected the send email invitations option

• selected the login participants with email invitations options

Email invitations and reminders

You can find tips and examples to help write your email invitations, as well as ideas to create subject lines that attract your participants’ attention.

Email address field	The database field that stores the participants’ email addresses.
Font formatting	Choose the font type, size, format and colour for the selected text in the Invitation or Reminder.
Email subject and text	Enter your email subject in the top pane and the message in the lower field.
Insert	Enter an HTML field, the survey location, a field from the database containing information specific to the participant or a survey opt out link. The survey location link is mandatory.
Invitation	Enter the email invitation text and insert any fields required, including the survey location, which is mandatory.
Reminder	Enter the email reminder text. By default, this is the same as the Invitation text. The survey location link is mandatory.
Automatically log into survey	The link to the survey location automatically logs in the participant, and they do not need to enter their login details.
Show a login page	The participant must enter their login details before they can start the questionnaire. The Participant paradata variable identifies the participant when they click the link.
Use HTML emails	Select this option if you want to use HTML in your emails. Clear this option to send plain text emails.