Welcome surveys let you collect valuable data about your new subscribers the moment they sign up, right inside your Signup Flow widget.
With just a few clicks, you can ask new subscribers for things like their name, age, job role, or anything custom you'd like to know. The data is yours to export, and for supported ESPs, it syncs straight into your custom fields.
What is a Welcome survey?
A Welcome survey is a quick survey step shown inside your Signup Flow widget, right after a new subscriber signs up. It's a great way to learn more about your audience without the friction of a separate form or a follow-up email.
You can use Welcome surveys to:
Collect basic info like first name, last name, or phone number
Understand your audience's demographics (age, gender, job role)
Ask custom questions tailored to your newsletter
Question types
There are two kinds of questions you can add to a Welcome survey: system questions and custom questions.
System questions
System questions are predefined questions for common data points, like name, age, job role, company size, and gender. When you use a system question, SparkLoop creates an input field that browsers can pre-fill automatically. This reduces friction for the subscriber and leads to higher completion rates.
Use a system question whenever one fits what you're trying to ask. You'll get better completion rates than with a custom equivalent.
Custom questions
If none of the system questions fit, you can create a custom question in one of four formats:
Short answer: a free-text input
Single choice: pick one option from a list
Multiple choice: pick more than one option from a list. Optionally set a Maximum number of selections if you want to cap how many options someone can choose (for example, "pick up to 2"). Leave it blank to let people select any number of options.
Checkbox: a single checkbox for a yes/no style question, like opting in to something extra
How many questions should you ask?
You can add up to 15 questions to a Welcome survey, but we strongly recommend keeping it to 5 or fewer. Shorter surveys get higher completion rates, and every extra question is a chance for a subscriber to drop off.
How to set up your Welcome survey
Click the Survey icon (person) in the left sidebar
Toggle Show survey on
Click + Add Question to start adding questions
Choose a question type. It can be a system question or one of the custom types
Enter your question text and, for choice questions, the answer options
For multiple choice questions, optionally set a Maximum number of selections to limit how many options subscribers can pick. Leave blank for no limit.
Toggle Required on if subscribers must answer the question to continue
(Optional) Choose an ESP custom field to sync responses to
Click Save
You can drag and drop questions to reorder them, edit them with the pencil icon, or remove them with the bin icon.
Show questions conditionally
Sometimes you only want to ask a follow-up question depending on how someone answered an earlier one. For example, you might want to ask why someone picked "Podcasts", but only show that question to people who actually picked "Podcasts". Conditional questions let you do exactly that.
Setting up a conditional question
Add a new question as usual (system or custom)
In the question editor, toggle Show conditionally on
Choose the earlier question, and the specific answer that should make this question appear
Click Save. This question will now be grouped underneath the question it depends on, and it will only show up in the survey when that specific answer is selected
Tip: Use the live preview on the right to test this. Select different answers and watch which follow-up questions appear or disappear.
How deep can conditions go?
You can go two levels deep with conditional questions. That means a follow-up question can have its own follow-up question, but no further than that. For example:
"How big is your newsletter?" (the original question)
"What's your biggest challenge right now?": shown only if a subscriber size is selected
"What monetization methods have you tried?": shown only if someone selects monetizing. This one is grouped under "What's your biggest challenge right now?", which makes it the second level
A question that already depends on another one can't be used to trigger a third level. Two levels is as deep as it goes. You can add as many conditional questions as you like under the same original question, so one question can branch out into several different follow-ups depending on how it's answered.
Reordering conditional questions
You can drag and drop conditional questions to reorder them among the other follow-up questions grouped under the same original question. You can't drag a conditional question out from under the question it depends on. It always stays grouped with that question.
Customizing the survey step copy
The headline, sub-header, and button text for the survey step are also editable from the same Survey panel in the editor. Change the copy to match your newsletter's voice and brand.
Exporting and syncing responses
Survey responses are available to you in two ways:
CSV export: export all survey responses at any time from the Survey panel. This works for everyone, regardless of which ESP you use.
Direct ESP sync: for supported ESPs, responses can sync directly into custom fields you choose. No export needed.
Direct sync is available for Kit, Beehiiv, Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, and ActiveCampaign.
When editing a question, choose the custom field from the Sync to ESP custom field dropdown. Responses will flow into that field automatically.
⚠️ Important: SparkLoop won't create new custom fields in your ESP. Make sure the field you want to sync to already exists on your ESP side before mapping it.
If a sync breaks
If you rename or remove a custom field in your ESP, the sync for that question will fail. When that happens:
A badge appears on the affected question in your dashboard
You'll receive an email letting you know the mapping needs fixing
You'll have 7 days to fix it, either by restoring the field in your ESP or mapping to a different field
If not fixed within 7 days, the sync for that question will be disabled automatically. Your other questions and the survey itself will keep working as normal.
Tips for getting the most out of Welcome surveys
Keep it short. 3 to 5 questions is the sweet spot. The longer the survey, the more subscribers will skip it.
Use system questions where you can. Browser pre-fill is a real conversion advantage.
Only ask for data you'll actually use. If you won't segment on it or personalise with it, don't ask.
Sync to your ESP if you can. It's much easier to act on survey data when it's already on the subscriber's record in your ESP.
Use conditional questions to keep things relevant. Instead of asking every subscriber the same follow-up, show it only to the people it actually applies to.