How to create and use beehiiv surveys

Surveys are a powerful tool for gathering insights directly from your subscribers through your newsletter. They offer a quick and efficient way to collect data, which you can then use to refine your content and improve the subscriber experience.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about creating and using surveys in beehiiv. We’ll start with tips and resources for setting up your survey, followed by ways to leverage the data you collect. 

You’ll find a video tutorial that walks you through creating a survey for new subscribers, as well as written instructions for designing surveys for any purpose. We’ll also explore different question types and explain what actions you can take after publishing your survey.

Quick tips to get you started

• Survey forms are not the same as Subscribe Forms, which only collect emails for subscription purposes. Learn more about Subscribe Forms and how to create them here. 
  
  
• Your subscribers will need to be logged in to take your survey so that their responses will be attached to the correct subscriber.
  
  
• Each response that you collect in your survey is connected to a custom field attached to each subscriber’s profile. Learn how to create custom fields in this article. 
  
  
• If you have gathered information about your subscribers outside of beehiiv, please read this article to learn how to manually edit a custom field for each subscriber. 
  
  
• You can use custom fields to segment your audience for insights and personalization. Please refer to this article to learn more about segmentation.
  
  
• Survey responses can be used to create automations. Please refer to this article to learn how to create automations from your survey responses. 
  
  
• Surveys can be added as a part of your Signup Flow. Please refer to this article to learn how to set up your subscriber signup flow. 

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Ways to use surveys 

Surveys offer numerous ways to engage with your subscribers and gather valuable insights. While the video example below demonstrates how to create a survey for new subscribers, there are many other applications you might find useful. Here are some ideas to inspire your survey creation: 

• Unsubscribe Surveys: Gather feedback on why subscribers are opting out.
• Statistical information for advertising purposes:
  • Demographics
  • Income
  • Occupation
• Address and mailing information: Useful for giveaways or shipping products. 
• General surveys relative to your audience and newsletter topics: 
  • How often have you used AI this week?
  • What is your favorite Dad Joke?
  • How did you hear about us?
  • Is a hot dog a sandwich?
• Feedback Surveys: Collect direct feedback from your audience. (For more details on creating feedback surveys, see our beehiiv blog article here.)

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Watch and learn: How to Create a Subscribe Survey + Automation in beehiiv

 

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How to create a survey in beehiiv 

1. From the left panel Dashboard, go to Audience > Surveys.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Your Surveys dashboard will appear on the right, click on the Create Survey button found in the top right corner.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. You’ll be taken to the survey form builder, which looks similar to our automations builder. The Settings tab will be open for you to add the details about your survey.
   
   Start by giving your new survey a Title and entering in a Description for it. Decide on the text you’d like to appear on the call-to-action (CTA) button of your form, and add a Thank You Message for when the form has been submitted.
   
   Review your form details and when satisfied, click the Update Survey button to begin building your survey.
   
   Note: Keep in mind that everything you add to the survey, including the title and description, will be visible to your subscribers.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Go to the Form Builder tab, then click on the Add First Question button.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. A form will appear for you to fill in regarding the question. Start by adding a question to the Title field (required), then select the Question Type (required).
   
   For the type, you can choose from Short response, Multiple choice, Dropdown, or Long response. More details about each response type are provided below.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Select a Custom Field Value (required) to associate with the question. The options are based on the custom fields you've created in your account.
   
   (Optional) If you haven’t created any custom fields for your subscribers or want to add a new one for your survey, click on Create a new one just below the field. A form will appear on the right side of your screen where you can enter the details for the new custom field. Any custom fields you create here will be available throughout the app.
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Once you've completed forming the question, click the Add Question button to see the question appear in the builder. If you want to make the question mandatory on your survey, toggle on the Required on form option, which will save the question to the form.
   
   To add additional questions, click the plus sign and continue adding as desired.
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. After each question has been added, you’ll see them load beneath each other in the survey form builder. You can drag and drop the questions into the order you desire.
   
   In the bottom left corner of the form builder, you’ll find controls for zooming in and out, centering, and locking your form.
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Once you’re done adding questions, be sure to review the look of your form. Click on Preview in the top right corner to see it as your subscribers will see it. A new tab will open with the preview of your survey.
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. When you are satisfied with the look and content of your survey, click the Publish button in the top right corner.
    
    
11. A confirmation message will appear, informing you that you won’t be able to edit the survey details once it is live. Click the Publish button to confirm and make your survey active. 
    
    
    

 

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Managing your published surveys

After you’ve published a survey, you’ll be directed to your Surveys dashboard. Here, you can manage your surveys and perform various actions by clicking the 3-dots menu next to each survey, as detailed in the chart below.

 

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Survey question type options 

When creating a survey, you can choose from the following question types: Short Response, Multiple Choice, Dropdown, or Long Response (step 5 above). Here’s what each type entails:

Short response: A short response question type allows your readers  to enter a brief text answer. It’s ideal for collecting short pieces of information, such as first or last names.

Multiple Choice: With a multiple choice question type, you can provide a list of options from which respondents can choose.



Dropdown: The dropdown question type allows you to create a list of options that your readers can select from using a dropdown menu.



Long response: A long response question type lets your readers input text of up to a specified character limit. You can set the maximum number of characters allowed.