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How to Suppress Form Submissions

    In some scenarios, you may want to block certain types of submissions to your forms. Every kind of suppression has specific functionality, purpose, and user experience. After reading this guide, you will be able to use native Form Composer features to block submissions from contacts you do not wish to enter your marketing lists.

    Read the table below for all the different submission blocking options:

    Suppression Type

    Description

    Examples

    User Experience

    Hide the Submit Button

    Hides the submit button when a user filling out the form meets custom form conditions, thus preventing submission.
    • Collect Submissions from within a specific country/region, blocking contacts out of your territory.
    • Block submission from unqualified leads based on their responses, sending only qualified leads to your sales team.
    • Block specific company names, email addresses, keywords, etc.

    The Form Submit button will not show to unqualified users (e.g., they are missing a required field).
    The user is then unable to submit the form.

    Suppressed Domains

    Blocks specific email addresses from submitting based on the email domain.

    To block known direct competitors from entering your marketing lists.

    They are redirected to a different page.

    Capped Sign-ups

    Blocks submissions after a set number of contacts have filled out the form.

    Event registrations with limited space.
    Providing a limited number of special offers or coupons.

    They are redirected to a different page.

    Expiration Date

    Blocks form submissions after a specified date.
    • Event or webinar registrations
    • Coupon offers
    • Monthly specials

    Redirected to a different page.

    Recaptcha

    Employ a reCAPTCHA field for additional form security.

    It helps to block spam form submissions.

    The user must pass a reCAPTCHA test to submit the form.

    When creating or editing a form, most of these settings are available under Content > Forms.

    Suppress_Form_Submissions_1.png

    Note:

    Suppressed Domains, Capped Sign-ups, and Expiration all require redirect URLs. This URL must be different than the URL used for successful submissions.

    As a best practice, you can create a landing page advising the user they could not submit the form. This will track the number of blocked submissions and provide your contacts with a better experience.

     

    Hide the Submit Button

    You can use Form Conditions to create rules that prevent visitors from submitting your form based on data collected in standard or hidden fields. You can set this up with conditional logic. When conditions are met, the “Submit” button is hidden, preventing the visitor from completing the form submission.

    Suppress_Form_Submissions_2.png

    Examples:

    Reason

    IF Conditions

    THEN Conditions

    Specific Email Address
    (hide submit)

    If  = “Email”
    State  = “Is Equal To”
    Value = enter the address you wish to block
    Optional -  to add multiple emails here, click on “+ OR” and enter the above conditions for each email.

    Do = Hide<
    Field = “Submit”

    Outside your Sales Region
    (hide submit)

    If = “Country”
    State = “Is Not Equal To” Value = “your region”
    Optional -  to add multiple regions here, click on “+ OR” and enter the above conditions for each region.

    Do = Hide
    Field = “Submit”

    Inside your Sales Region
    (show submit)

    If = “State”
    State = “Is Equal To”
    Value = “your region”

    Do = Show
    Field = “Submit”

    Instructions

    To set this up, start at the Form Composer and proceed with the following instructions:

    1. First, add your data collection fields to the form
    2. Save the form (but do not close)
    3. In the Design tab, click on Form Conditions on the right-hand side
      Suppress_Form_Submissions_3.png
    4. Click the plus sign to add a new condition
    5. Enter a descriptive Rule Name
    6. Enter conditional logic for blocking submission
    7. Determine whether you wish to Hide or Show the Submit Button
      1. To SHOW the Submit Button when a contact IS qualified:
        1. Use the “IF” conditions to determine criteria for allowing submission
        2. Use the “THEN” result to “Show” the “Submit” button
      2. To HIDE the Submit Button when a contact is NOT qualified:
        1. Use the “IF” conditions to determine criteria for blocking submission
        2. Use the “THEN” result to “Hide” the “Submit” button
      3. Optional: Use an alternative content block that will show when the Submit button is hidden so that users know they are not qualified to submit the form
        1. First, add your alternative content block
          1. Drag & Drop the content block above or below the Submit button
          2. Enter your message text. Click OK
        2. Go to your Form Conditions, and edit the newly created Submit Button conditions
        3. Under “THEN”, click “+AND” to add another condition after your submit button setting
        4. Select Do: “Show” and Field: “Rich Text block message”

    Suppress_Form_Submissions_4.png

    1. Scroll down to click “OK”, then click “Close”
    2. Save the form

    Notes:

    • The drop-down field selection for the submit button will match the Button Label.
    • Selecting “Hide” means that the conditions described will cause the button to disappear when the user makes specific entries on your form.
    • Selecting “Show” will cause the Submit button to hide by default and reveal the button once your user meets the conditional criteria when entering the form.

     

    How to test

    1. Save the Form (but do not close)
    2. Navigate to the Review tab
    3. Success depends on whether you are choosing to show or to hide the button
      • If using “hide”:
        • The submit button will display when the form loads
        • Fill out the form as a contact meeting suppression conditions
        • The Submit button will hide, thus suppression the submission
      • If using “show”:
        • The Submit button will show once conditions are met, thus allowing submission for contacts completing the profile
        • The submit button will not show when you load the page
        • Fill out the form as a contact meeting conditions

    Suppressed Domains

    To block form submission from specific domains, here are the following instructions:

    1. First, add the list of domains to block to your account. This suppresses outbound messages. For instructions, see Suppressing Recipient Email Domains.
    2. Next, create/edit your form and set the domain suppression settings. This suppresses form submissions.
      1. Go to Content > Forms and create or edit a form 
      2. In the Properties tab, click on Suppressed Domains
    3. Enter the page URL for visitors to be sent to when attempting to submit from a suppressed domain
      mceclip0.png

    If you are using Classic Forms, you will see a Suppressed Domains area in Settings (Step 2):

    Suppress_Form_Submissions_5.png

    How to test

    Once you have finished creating and embedding your form to a landing page or your site, you may test the blocked form submission with the following steps:

    1. Visit the form as deployed
    2. Fill out the form using a “test” email address coming from the domain in question
    3. You should be redirected to the URL you set for blocked submissions
      • To confirm, you may also check your Form Submission List to verify the information was not recorded

     

    Capped Sign-Ups

    To block form submission after a defined number of contacts have signed up, proceed with the following instructions within the Form Composer:

    1. In Form Properties, click on “Capped Sign-Ups”

    Suppress_Form_Submissions_6.png

    1. Enter the number of submissions allowed
    2. Enter the URL to redirect users who have completed the form after the maximum number has been hit

     

    How to test

    Once you have finished creating the form, you may test the blocked form submission with the following steps:

    1. Make a copy of the form
    2. Change the Capped Sign-ups setting to 1
    3. Create a landing page for testing purposes and embed the form on that page
    4. Submit the form once, and find success with the following:
      • The redirect URL is correct for a successful submission
      • Confirmation Email received (if you have this set)
      • Form Submission List contains the record of the submission
    5. Submit the form a second time (with a different email), and find success with the following:
      • The redirect URL is correct for a blocked submission
      • Confirmation Email is NOT received (if you have this set)
      • Form Submission List does NOT contain a record of the submission

     

    Expiration

    To block form submission after a specific date:

    1. Go to Content > Forms and create or edit a form
    2. In the Properties section, click on Expiration
    3. Click on the field “Expire on:” to enter the date and time. A calendar tool will pop up.
      1. First, select the date of expiration, and click Next
      2. Select the hour of expiration and AM or PM, click Next
      3. Select the minute of expiration, click Next
        mceclip1.png
    4. Enter the redirect URL to take your users once the time for submission has passed.
    5. Click OK
    6. Save your form

    How to test

    Once you have finished creating the form, you may test the blocked form submission with the following steps:

    1. Create a landing page for testing purposes and connect the form to it
    2. Go to Expiration, change the time and date to yesterday (i.e., a time that has passed)
      1. You will see a warning that you are setting this to a time that has passed - click OK
    3. Save and close
    4. Grab landing page URL and visit the page
      • For success, this should automatically redirect to the page you’ve provided
    5. Edit the form and update the expiration to the correct date and time
    6. Visit the landing page URL and confirm the form is available to submit

     

    Using reCAPTCHA

    You can add a reCAPTCHA field in Act-On forms for an extra security measure and ensure that form responders are actually humans and not bots.


    From the Form Composer, add a Captcha field with the following steps:

    1. In the Design tab, find the Captcha block and drag and drop it to your form

    Suppress_Form_Submissions_7.png

    1. In the Edit Captcha Field section, you may change the alignment of the Captcha field
      Suppress_Form_Submissions_8.png
    2. This is what the Captcha field displays as in the form:

    Suppress_Form_Submissions_9.png

    Notes:

    • Alignment is the only setting for Captcha fields
    • For more information on this function, see Google Support (What is reCAPTCHA?)
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