Automation After an Order Form is Submitted

Automating Order Form Actions

Applies to: ONTRAPORT Plus and above.

What happens after your prospect fills out the order form and clicks Submit? With ONTRAPORT you can automate order fulfillment for sucessful transactions, follow up for failed transaction, and continuing contact nurturing after the sale.

Navigate to Form Settings

Click on the Order Form Block from the Palette or by clicking Edit in the Order Form block from the Canvas.
If the block has multiple elements (e.g. text, form), you may need to click once more on the Form element.
Click on Form Settings.

Set your Opt-in Settings

Opt-in settings determine whether a user must confirm that they want to be added to your database.

Single Opt-in is when a visitor fills out the form and clicks the submit button, they're added to your database and receive your emails with no further action required. This is the most common opt-in option for Order Forms.

Form settings are defaulted to this option. Once selected, choose the page that the visitor will see after filling out the ONTRAform in the Send contacts here section by selecting one of the following:

Default thank you page
Landing Page (ONTRApage)
Pop ONTRAform Lightbox
Custom URL (e.g.

Double Opt-inrequired is when a visitor needs to confirm their sign up. They are sent a confirmation email where they must click a link to confirm their desire to receive emails from you. This is typically not recommended for Order Forms.

Select your Confirmation Email: Use the pulldown menu to select the desired confirmation email. If you'd like to create a custom confirmation email, click here for instructions.
Set the page visitors see after filling out the form: This page advises the visitor that they need to check their inbox and click the confirmation link to receive further communication from you.
Under the "On submit, send visitors to the following page" section, select the confirmation page visitors will see once they fill out the form while waiting for the email with the confirmation link. Choose from the following options:
- Default Confirmation Page
- Landing Page
- Custom URL
Send contacts who already opted-in to a different page: Mark this checkbox to create a smoother experience for those who have already opted-in to your database instead of misleading them into thinking they need to check their inbox again for a confirmation email.
Send Contacts here: New contacts are directed to this page after clicking the link in the confirmation email or if the "Send contact who are already opted-in to a different page" checkbox is marked. Choose from the following options:
- Default Confirmation Page
- Landing Page
- Pop ONTRAform Lightbox
- Custom URL

Double Opt-inOptional is when a visitor fills out the form and clicks the submit button, they're added to your database and receive your emails. The contact is also sent a second email to click the link in the confirmation email. Follow the setup instructions above for Double Opt-in required.

Set your Manage Form Fills and Successful Payment or Failed Payment Rules

These optional settings are not needed if you use Campaigns. We strongly recommend you use Campaign elements instead to centralize all automation on the Campaign map and speed up form processing.

Manage Form Fills (optional, not recommended)

These legacy sections allow you to add the contact submitting the form to Campaigns and Sequences and add Tags to the contact. To use, select the appropriate Campaign, Sequence or Tag from the drop down list. Instead of using these sections we recommend the following:

Add to Campaign: Use a Campaign Trigger for "Contact Submits a Form" instead. This will speed up form processing for your new Contact and provide an easier way to view the number of submissions and update the action later.

Add to Tag: Use a Change Tags element on the Campaign to add or remove Tags from the Contact.

Add to Sequence: If you are using Sequences, we recommend you use an Add to Sequence element on your Campaign instead.

These legacy sections are not as transparent as the equivalent element on a Campaign, and can serve to slow down form processing.

Rules: Successful Payment

These Rules will be run for the contact submitting the form if the payment gateway returns a successful transaction code. You can choose any number of Rules to run on the new contact. We recommend adding the contact to a Campaign and running rules on the contact in the campaign instead.

Rules: Failed Payment

These Rules will be run for the contact submitting the form if the payment gateway returns a failed transaction code. You can choose any number of Rules to run on the new contact. We recommend adding the contact to a Campaign and running rules on the contact in the campaign instead.

Set your Notifications Settings (optional)

Notification and Routing

Send Notification: Enter an email to be sent a notification that the form was filled out. This is a pre-formatted, standardized notification as shown below:

the standard notification email includes the fields from the form

Make Contact Owner: Use the drop down to select one of the ONTRAPORT Users as the Contact Owner. If left blank the Admin User will be the contact owner.

Advanced Settings on Order Forms

ONTRAPORT Order Forms have six options in the Advanced settings section. The default setting for all of these options is unchecked.

Override email address and merge with cookie data - This setting overrides the default setting to merge all data based on the email address and instead use the cookie data stored in their browser. This is commonly used on regular opt in forms to allow the Contact to update their email address.

Pass CGI variables to Landing/Thank you page - Usually used in third party applications or by developers, this setting sends the values in the form in a format that can be read by programming languages or applications.

Redirect after immediate campaign and sequence steps run - delays the Thank You page after first running any immediate steps or Campaign elements in Sequences or Campaigns listed in the Manage Form Fills section. This option would be used only if those immediate steps or elements are required for populating merge fields that are not present on the ONTRAform itself (such as a username or password field for a WordPress website). Checking this option will make the form processing to appear slower, as the redirect to the Thank You page is delayed.

Send Google Ecommerce Tracking Parameters to the Landing/Thank you page - allows the Google ecommerce tracking pixel to gather order information

If charge is successful, then use this card for all transactions in collections - When a credit card payment fails the order is sent to the Collections and Recharge Settings process. Your customer can update the credit card to be used in the Customer Center of an integrated WordPress website or by using an order form. Check this box if you are using an order form to update the credit card details for orders in collections.

If charge is successful, also update all open orders with this card - This option will force a mass update of all open orders - subscriptions and payment plans - to use the card entered instead of the card originally used for the order. This can be handy when a customer needs to change the credit card for all of their orders.

order forms advanced settings

Adding Purchasers to a Fulfillment Campaign

Ensure you have automation setup in your Campaign in either of these two ways:

Recommended: Add a Goal for the Purchase of the Product

Navigate to Contacts > Campaigns
Create a new Campaign or open an existing one related to your Order Form
Add a new Goal element or modify an existing one.
Click the Goal Element to create a new Goal.
In the Goal, select "Purchases Product". Use the dropdown to select the product being sold.
Adjust the Settings including:
- Which Contacts can achieve this goal (choose any Contact)
- If a goal is activated and the contact is already on this campaign map (choose Move the contact here and remove them from elsewhere on the map.)
- If the goal can only be activated once per Contact (normally you would leave this unchecked so that each time a purchase is made the customer receives the fulfillment steps you will be adding under this Goal).
- Click Done in the Goal Settings panel.
- Add other elements by clicking "what happens next" below the goal to create a fulfillment list, send an email with a link to the digital content, create a task for your staff to follow up, etc.

Add a Trigger for the Form Fill Out

Create a new Campaign or open an existing one related to your ONTRAform.
Add a new Trigger or modify the one related to your ONTRAform.
In the Trigger, select "Fills Out Form" and select the form from the drop down.
Adjust Settings
Which Contact can activate this trigger
If trigger is activated and the Contact is already on this campaign map
Trigger can only be activated once per Contact
Add elements by clicking "what happens next" to your campaign map to deliver your product such as send an email, granting access to a membership site, or a task to call and welcome the new customer.
Failed Card Management (optional): You may also wish to add another Trigger and select "fails" and add actions to your campaign map to communicate with customers who have transactions that do not go through successfully.

Not recommended:Add to a Campaign under the Manage Form Fills section under Form Settings.

Click on the Order Form Block from the Palette or by clicking Edit in the Order Form block from the Canvas. If the block has multiple elements (e.g. text, form), you may need to click once more on the Form element.

Click on Form Settings. Under the manage form fills area, select the Campaign to add Contacts to upon form fillout.

Note: If you are using an order form to allow Contacts to update their credit cards, please see the proper way to do this in Collections / Recharge Settings.

Other Resources

ONTRAforms Basics

Selling Products and Leveraging Upsell Opportunities

Publishing Your ONTRAforms

Add an ONTRAform to a Website

Rochelle Yoshida

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