Building Your Business

You missed it for Valentine's Day but it isn't too late to plan a romantic getaway in Napa Valley at the Relevant Tool's customer Napa Cottages. While you are dreaming about relaxing in the Wine Country you can learn about how Napa Cottages uses custom response pages for their contact form and how you can personalize the response pages for your own Relevant Tools web forms.



Use Relevant Tools to set up your web forms, selecting the fields that you want. VIP customers have the option to enter a web page on your website to be used for the response page and the missing fields and error page (usually the same page). If you don't enter your own web pages here the standard Relevant Tools pages will be used with a link back to your site.



Relevant Tools will generate the form code for you to install on your website. You can customize the look and feel of the form to match your website.



Your website visitor fills out the form. If any required fields are missing the missing fields page is displayed with the list of missing fields.



The user can go back and make any corrections required.



Now when your website visitor completes the form they receive a customized response page.



It is easy to set up and if you have any questions or need technical help, Relevant Tools is here to help you with the details.

Labels: web forms

Keep your email subscribers happy with offering an automatic unsubscribe option for those that no longer want to receive your email. With Relevant Tools an unsubscribe link is posted in the footer of every email that is sent out. One click and the recipient is unsubscribed. The record is still in your database in case you need other information but Relevant Tools will automatically bypass all the unsubscribed email addresses when you send mailings.



In the case above the words remove are the link to the unsubscribe link but this can be customized as desired. Once the user clicks on the unsubscribe link their email address is immediately placed on the unsubscribe or do-not-send list. If you have specified a custom unsubscribe confirmation page then your own page will be displayed.



This process works well for anyone who wants to get off your list directly from the mailing but sometimes people want to unsubscribe directly from your own website. You can use Relevant Tools to generate the unsubscribe code to put on your own webpage.



When the unsubscribe form code is installed on your page you offer your readers another option to remove themselves from your list if they do longer want to receive your email.



Keeping your readers happy, perhaps especially when they no longer want to receive your email, is vital to maintaining a well performing list.

Labels: email campaign, unsubscribe, web forms

It is easy to set up online registration using Relevant Tools. We have implemented online registration for many sports, such as swimming, water polo, soccer, lacrosse, and Little League baseball. Rugby is the latest sport that is using Relevant Tools for online registration. As with many sports teams that only collect payments once a year, Highlanders Rugby is using PayPal to collect online payments.

To get started a registration page lists all the steps for a parent to do:



The registration information form is a standard Relevant Tools web form where all the information collected is stored in a Relevant Tools database.



Each player completing the registration form is automatically assigned a unique confirmation number using Relevant's auto increment fields. This confirmation number is used to track the payment. Payments can be made online using PayPal or by check.



The confirmation number and player name are passed into PayPal. Online payment is completed using PayPal's standard interface with a return to the rugby website when payment is complete.



The PayPal payment notification is automatically processed by Relevant Tools and a record is created in a Relevant Tools PayPal database. The player registration information is updated with the payment details. The volunteers running registration for Highlanders Rugby can easily generate reports.



Full details of the PayPal transactions are available in the Relevant Tools PayPal database. The credit card information itself is not stored online for added security and it is not needed in Relevant Tools as PayPal is handling the actual credit card transaction. You can create custom views of your PayPal and registration databases to show the information you need to see.



Let us know if you need help with your sports league registrations. We can customize the registration forms and payment processing for your particular sport and have you up and running right away.

Labels: online payment, registration, web forms

After someone completes your Relevant Tools web form you can send them an immediate email response. You can also automatically continue your connection to your new contact with scheduled auto responders. Also known as drip marketing, a scheduled auto responder is a series a messages that are sent at intervals after the initial signup. Here is how to set up scheduled auto responders using Relevant Tool's web forms.

First you must define each of your messages in the Messages area. Then click on Forms and select the form that you to use for the series of messages. When you click on scheduled responders you will have an option to define a new scheduled responder. Select the message you want to send and the interval that you want to send it, such as 2 weeks after form signup.



You can review and change the series of messages at any time.



Every night Relevant Tools will automatically check your databases to determine if any signup records qualify for the next message in the series. You can see the results of your scheduled auto responder message series by clicking on Results and clicking on auto responders.



To see the details of a particular day click on the name field. A detailed list of each email address that qualified for that particular day is shown with the message that was sent and the trigger that qualified that particular address. If a user decided that they did not want to continue with the series of messages they can always unsubscribe and they will not receive additional emails.



With scheduled auto responders you can automatically keep in touch with your customers and prospects with a series of scheduled emails that deliver your message for you. Put Relevant Tools to work.

Labels: auto responder, drip marketing, send email, web forms

With the flexibility of Relevant Tools it is easy to setup an online registration system for programs, conferences or events. Ross Recreation is using Relevant Tools to handle all program registrations for their enrichment and sports programs for children and adults.



The first step is to set up an account so that you can login using User Login, a custom option available from Relevant Tools.



The account registration uses standard Relevant Tools web forms to collect the information needed. For Ross Recreation there are two registration forms depending on if you are interested in programs for the entire family or if you only want to register for adult programs. The account setup form can be easily customized to collect the information needed for your particular organization.



Browse through the list of program offerings to determine what you want to register for. All of the programs are in a Relevant Tools program database that you can easily edit at any time, adding new programs or changing existing offerings. Relevant Tools Custom Reports is used to display the program options. You can specify what information that you want displayed for each program and how you would like it to be presented.



When you find a program that you would like to register for you start the registration process by clicking on the registration link. All the information from your account is automatically entered into the registration form. You review the registration form and enter any additional information that may be needed for this particular program. The registrations are all stored in a Relevant Tools Registration database. In addition to managing the registration process it is easy to email everyone in your Registration databases with reminders about the program.



You can continue to register for other programs. In the case of a family with multiple children you can change the child that you are registering and register your other children for their programs. When you are finished registering for programs you can easily check out and pay for all the programs at once.



Once the payment process has been completed the class inventory is updated. Relevant Tools will automatically close off registrations when the maximum number has been received for a particular program. When a program is full an option to join a wait list is presented instead of the registration link.

Online payments can be handled through an online gateway such as Authorize.net. Relevant Tools will set up the shopping cart and interface to your online credit card processing. No credit card information will be stored in your Relevant Tools database. Relevant Tools does not charge a per transaction fee and does not collect or retain the payments for your programs. The revenue collected is yours and Relevant Tools only charges for the one time setup and monthly flat service fee that is bundled into your Relevant Tools VIP account.

Please contact us if you would like to learn more about how to get started using Relevant Tools Online Registration. We can take care of everything for you so you can focus on running your programs, conferences or events.

Labels: databases, registration, web forms

You can display information from your Relevant Tools database on your web site. This can be information that you enter and update yourself or it can be information that is entered by anyone on your website using a standard Relevant Tools web form.

In the interests of local organic food I started a garden this spring. It has been very successful and satisfying. It is so relaxing to water the garden at the end of the day and pick green beans, peas, tomatoes and zucchini for dinner. Since I can't ship everyone a tomato I am happy to share the results of my garden through a web page that I set up:

Jean's Garden

I hope you enjoy the pictures. You can use Relevant Tools databases to update your own web site using Relevant Tools Custom Reports feature. There is a one time setup charge starting at $150 but once set up you can use it on as many databases and websites as you would like (some restrictions apply - don't try launching a new social networking site just yet).

Standard Relevant Tools web forms are used to update your information:



You can edit the information in your database. You can customize the database to use the fields that you need.



Enjoy the tomatoes!

Labels: custom report, databases, dynamic content, web forms

There are spambots roaming the internet that target helpless forms and submit repeatedly to these forms with garbage information. One defense against spambots is to use CAPTCHA which are randomly generated fuzzy characters. The person completing the form must type in the matching characters to prove that they are human and not a computer. Each time the form is displayed the fuzzy characters are different.



It is easy to setup CAPTCHA with Relevant Tools web forms. In the forms setup area all you need to do is click the CAPTCHA option and the form code will automatically be generated for your form.



By default the CAPTCHA will be placed as the last item in the form just before the submit button. You can move the code to a different location in your form if so desired. Let us know if you need help doing this.

You can also control the number of characters used and the size of the box used for the characters. To do this you need to add some parameters to the generated code. By default there are 6 CAPTCHA characters with each character being 35 pixels wide and 40 pixels high. If for example you want to use 8 characters that are 20 pixels wide and 30 pixels high you would add c=8&w=20&h=30 so that the code looked like this:

<img src="http://form.relevanttools.com/eis-cgi-bin/tch?c=8&w=20&h=30">

Using the default setup will enable you to use CAPTCH to protect your forms without worrying about any of the technical details. If you need to change how it looks and need help, just let us know.

Labels: tutorial, web forms

With Relevant Tools web forms you can easily setup fields that can be used as counters so that each time the form is filled out the field will automatically be increased from the last signup. For example if you are registering players for a youth sports league you can have a unique registration number that is automatically assigned to each player.



To set this up for you need to first define a field in your database to be used for the auto increment counter. The field type should be integer. You can name the field anything that you would like. If you are registering customers for a conference you could name the field Customer Number. Then in the forms area select the form you want to add the auto increment field to and click on forms setup. Next click on the link "auto increment field".



If you do not see the auto increment field link for your account on the forms setup page all you need to do is go to our contact page and request that the auto increment feature be turned on for your account. There is no additional cost for turning on or using the auto increment fields.

Select the field that you want to use for the auto increment field. You can enter the starting number. If you do not enter a starting number it will start at one.



You also have the option to enter a limit number. If you do not need to limit your form signups simply leave the limit number blank. A limit number is useful if you are registering customers for a conference or event and need to limit the number of registrations. Once the limit is reached anyone signing up will receive an error message that the event is full. On your error page you can have yet another Relevant Tools form to signup for the waiting list!

Labels: tutorial, web forms

Your Relevant Tools account comes with a contact database that you can customize or you can define your own databases. There are many different choices for the field types - text, text area, pulldown menu, checkboxes, radio buttons, integer, floating point, email, url, image url, and date.

Text is the most common field type. On a web form the user can enter a line of text. So for example if you have text fields first name and last name you can sort your database by last name by clicking on the last name column heading. Text area allows multiple lines of text to be entered. When a text area field is displayed as a result of a database search you will only see the first part of the text and you can click on the little 'v' to the left of the record to view the entire record.



Email, URL and image URL enables those fields to be displayed as proper links in the database display. If you have a field called website that is type URL you can click on the field and be taken to the website. Image URL generates the code for an image source so you can include images from other websites in your database. The email field will generate the html code to bring up a window so you can type in an email message. Fields that are type email also get some extra checking when the user enters them into a web form to make sure that the email address entered is a properly formated address.



Pull down menus allow you to enter a choice of items. In a web form the user will be able to select one. One of that standard fields Relevant Tools includes in the contact database is state. But perhaps you or many of your customers are in Canada and you want to include Canadian provinces. Click on Database and then click on 'create/edit/delete' fields in the database functions selection. Click on the state field. You can change the field name to call it State or Province.



Then click on Edit Field. Next you will see the list of states and you can select to replace them with a list of states and provinces or you can enter your own list of choices for your pull down menu.



Check boxes and radio buttons are defined in the same way where you enter the list of choices. The html code that is generated for your Relevant Tools form will display the check boxes and radio buttons with the options that you have specified.



Integer fields are for whole numbers and can be totaled when you display your database. Floating point fields are for decimal numbers, such as currency, and can also be totaled. When you specify a field as a date and then sort your database by the date field it will be sorted in chronological order instead of alphabetic or numeric order.



In addition to the common field types Relevant Tools databases can contain complex fields. Complex fields can be used to link to other databases or dynamically generate links using data from the current record. If you have special requirements ask us for more information as complex fields may be able to implement your solution.

Labels: databases, fields, tutorial, web forms

Collecting information from your web site visitors is an effective way to grow your database. This is a short preview that shows how to create forms for your website using Relevant Tools.

Start by clicking on the Forms icon. To create a new form type in a name for the form, such as signup, and click the "create form" button.



If you have more than one database you will be prompted to select the database that you want to use with your new form. If you have just signed up with Relevant Tools you will have a contact database that you can use to get started. Next you can select the fields that you want to have on your form. For each field you can specify if it is a required field or not.



Next you can select an email message that you want people to receive when they have filled out the form. You can use personalized messages that use the data from the web form to deliver a custom confirmation message, messages with attachments, formated html messages or plain text messages. You can also specify if you would like to receive an administrative notification with the form data each time someone completes the form on your website. The data from the form will be automatically stored in your Relevant Tools database so you can take further action on it depending on your requirements.



After you have created your form you can test it and make sure it is working as desired. Fill out the form and check the data stored in the Relevant Tools contact database. Make sure the auto responder email message looks the way you want it to.



When you are satisfied with your form the last step is to install the form on your website. Relevant Tools generates the form code so that you don't need to be technical to create a working form. If you do know html you can update the html to change the formating of the form to present the desired look.



If you need help with any of these steps we are here to help you. Fill our our /contact.html form and we will be able to assist you in getting your custom web form installed quickly and easily on your web site.

Labels: tutorial, web forms

Web forms on your website can help make your site more effective. The most common example of a web form is the contact form that almost every site has. Many contact forms collect the basic contact information along with the customer question and then email it on to the person responsible for customer support. But depending on your organization size it may take a few hours to a few days for the customer to get a response. By using an auto responder associated with the form that sends an immediate email message you can get a rapid response to the customer. While the auto responder message may not answer all of their questions it can offer answers to frequently asked questions and give them something to get started on.

The primary job of a web form is to collect information. The question is what do you do with the information after you have collected it. If the information arrives via email and you respond that may solve the immediate problem but it makes it difficult to go back and use the information later. If you store the information collected by the web form in a database you can easily find out how many people asked about a particular product and then send them an email when you are offering a special on the product that they are interested in.

You don't have to be technical to install a form on your website. Using Relevant Tools you can select that information you would like to collect. You can define custom fields to collect information that is specific to your business. Fields can be plain text or a text area such as used for entering a question or comment. You can also have radio buttons, check boxes and pull down menus so users can point and click and you will get the answers you need. Relevant Tools will generate the html to install on your website. We are available to help you if you have questions about how to install it or if you need help customizing the code to your exact requirements.

Labels: auto responder, web forms

Regular maintenance is required to get the most out of your email database. Databases need nutrients, grooming and a little loving attention.

For example, say you run a weight loss website and send out regular email newsletters to people who are interested in losing weight. New people can join through a signup web form on your site. When they signup you have an opportunity to collect information from them that can help you to serve them better. Ask what their weight loss goal is and how many pounds a week they are trying to lose.

You can use an auto responder that is setup to send out a sequence of emails at a specified period after they signup. The email after they receive immediately after they fill out the signup form is usually a thank you for joining type of email with information about your service. Then the next day you have the scheduled auto responder send them an inspirational email that will help remind them to come back to your website and take advantage of the services that you offer. And then every week after the signup date a personalized message can automatically be sent to them to see how they are doing achieving their goals and entice them to visit your website.

Your weekly email newsletter will typically go out to your entire database. This is where you need to groom your database. When you send email and the message can not be delivered it is considered a bounce. To maintain a good relationship with the different ISPs and keep the quality of your list high the bounces need to be removed. It doesn't do any good to try over and over to send to an invalid or suspended email address. Of course anyone receiving your email that does not want to receive it any longer must have a method of unsubscribing but that should be handled automatically by the service sending the email.

You need to also look at the behavior of the people receiving the email. Say one of your subscribers told you when they signed up that their goal was to lose 10 pounds at a half a pound a week. So if they have been successful they will have lost the 10 pounds in 20 weeks. So do you keep sending them weekly emails for a year or two until they get annoyed and forget that they signed up on your site in the first place and report the email as spam?

It would be better to find out how they are doing with their goals. You can have web form on your site where people enter how much they have lost each week and then you can display a graph of their weight loss to inspire them. Then you will know if you should send them a congratulatory email for achieving their weight loss goal and switch them over to the weight maintenance newsletter. If they have completely failed with the weight loss program and are not returning to your website after a lengthy period you should consider purging them or moving them to an less active mailing list as they are letting you know by their inaction that they are not interested any longer and it is a waste of your resources to continue to email to them.

Labels: auto responder, databases, web forms