Polls let you ask your audience a single question and collect instant votes — directly inside emails, on your website, or via a shareable link. This guide walks you through everything from creating your first poll to using poll data in segments and automations.
Before You Start
Polls is an addon in SendX. It's enabled by default for all accounts. If you don't see Polls in your navigation, go to Settings > Addons and make sure the Polls addon is turned on.
Creating a Poll
Step 1: Start a New Poll
Go to Forms > Polls in the navigation bar and click Create Poll.
Step 2: Basic Details
Give your poll a name (this is internal — your audience won't see it).
You'll also see an Allow multiple votes toggle. When this is off (the default), each contact can only vote once per campaign. Turn it on if you want contacts to be able to vote more than once.
Click Next to continue.
Step 3: Choose a Template
Pick from 9 pre-built templates:
Simple Text Buttons — Clean vertical stack of buttons
Horizontal Pills — Options side by side in a row
Gradient Button Stack — Buttons with a gradient color effect
Star Rating (1-5) — Star symbols for rating
NPS Scale (0-10) — Net Promoter Score scale with color zones
Slider Scale 1-7 — Connected numbered cells
Minimal Underline Links — Simple text with underlines
Countdown CTA — Urgency-style vote buttons
Emoji Rating — Emoji cards with labels
Click a template to select it. You'll see a preview of how it looks. Click Next to continue.
Step 4: Customize Your Poll (Content)
This is where you make the poll your own. The screen is split into two sections:
Left side: Live preview that updates as you make changes
Right side: Configuration panel
Theme presets: Choose from 30 one-click themes at the top of the panel. Hit Surprise me to apply a random theme. The default is "Clean Slate" (white background).
What you can customize:
Question text
Option labels (add, remove, or reorder)
Colors: accent, text, background, border — for the container and each individual option
Font family and size
Border radius and spacing
Per-option colors (for gradient and NPS templates)
Once you're happy with how it looks, click Create Poll in the top bar. A confirmation dialog will appear — click Create Poll again to save.
Where to Use Your Poll
Once created, you can distribute your poll in three ways.
1. In Email Campaigns
Polls automatically appear as draggable rows in the BEE email editor when you're building a newsletter, drip email, AB test, autotrigger, or workflow email.
Open any email in the editor
Look for the Polls category in the row library (right sidebar)
Drag your poll row into the email
When the email is sent, each recipient gets a unique vote link. Votes are tracked per contact and per campaign.
2. On Your Website (JS Embed)
Go to your poll's Embed Instructions tab and copy the code snippet. You need two things:
1. The SendX tracking script (add once, works for all polls):
<script type="text/javascript">
var _scq = _scq || [];
var _scs = _scs || {};
_scs.teamId = "<TEAM_ID>";
(function() {
var dc = document.createElement('script');
dc.type = 'text/javascript';
dc.async = true;
dc.src = '//cdn.sendx.io/dev/<TEAM_ID>.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(dc, s);
})();
</script>
2. A div where the poll should appear:
<div id="sendx-poll-YOUR_POLL_ID"></div>
The poll renders automatically when the page loads. Visitors enter their email to vote.
3. Hosted Page Link
Each poll has a shareable hosted page. Find the link in the Embed Instructions tab under "Hosted Page." Share it anywhere — social media, chat, QR codes.
Managing Your Polls
Viewing Poll Details
Click any poll in the table to open its overview page. You'll see:
Status — Active or Inactive (with toggle)
Type — The template category used
Content — Your question text and a live preview of the poll
Opening and Closing a Poll
On the poll overview page, use the status toggle to switch between Active and Inactive.
Active: Votes are accepted normally
Inactive: New votes are rejected. Email voters see "This poll is no longer accepting responses." Website embed voters see an error.
This lets you close voting without deleting the poll. You can reopen it anytime.
Editing a Poll
Click Edit Poll on the overview page. You'll go through the same Basic > Design > Content steps. Changes are saved when you click Update Poll.
Note: If you change the poll after it's been embedded in sent emails, the email links still work — votes still count. But the visual design in already-sent emails won't update (those are baked into the email HTML). Future sends will use the updated design.
Archiving and Restoring
To archive a poll, click the delete action in the poll table. Archived polls:
Disappear from the main poll list
Are removed from the BEE editor row library
Can be found in the Archived tab
Can be restored by clicking Unarchive
Poll Analytics
Click any poll, then go to the Performance tab. You'll see five sub-tabs:
Overview
Total votes, unique voters, and response rate
Vote share per option — Bar chart showing each option's percentage
Overall results — Pie chart of the vote distribution
Campaigns
A table showing every campaign, drip step, workflow email, and standalone source where this poll received votes. Each row shows:
Campaign/entity name and type (Newsletter, AB Test with variant letter, Autotrigger, Drip Step, Workflow, Website)
Vote count and winner option
Options
Per-option breakdown with vote counts and rank.
Audience
Contact-level details: who voted, which option they chose, and when.
Timeline
Vote trend over time showing when votes came in.
Using Poll Data in Segments
Go to Audience > Segments > New Segment. Under the condition categories, you'll find Polls with four conditions:
Voted in poll
Select one or more polls. Filter for contacts who voted (or didn't vote) in those polls.
Use case: Target everyone who voted in your "Q1 Product Preference" poll with a follow-up campaign.
Selected poll option
Select specific options from a poll. A dropdown lets you filter by poll first, then pick options.
Use case: Segment contacts who chose "Option A" in your product preference poll and send them relevant content.
Voted in poll via
Select the source — newsletters, AB test variants, drip steps, or workflow emails. Shows all entity types that have this poll linked.
Use case: Compare engagement between contacts who voted via your newsletter vs. your drip sequence.
Voted in poll in last X days
Time-based filter. Enter a number of days.
Use case: Re-engage contacts who voted recently with a timely follow-up.
You can combine poll conditions with any other segment conditions (lists, tags, contact fields, campaign activity) using AND/OR logic.
Triggering Workflows from Poll Votes
Go to Automate > Workflows and create (or edit) a workflow. When adding an enrollment trigger, select Poll Voted.
Configure:
Poll: Choose which poll (required)
Option: Any option, or a specific one
Source: Any source, or specific campaigns/drip steps/workflow emails
Example workflow: When a contact votes "Dissatisfied" in your feedback poll, automatically add them to a "Needs Attention" tag and send a personal follow-up email from your support team.
Tips and Best Practices
Keep questions short — One clear question gets more votes than a complex one
Use 2-4 options for multiple choice polls — Too many options reduce completion rates
Use NPS (0-10) template when you want a standardized loyalty measurement you can trend over time
Close polls when done — Use the Active/Inactive toggle instead of archiving, so you can easily reopen later
Combine with segments — The real power is in what you do after collecting votes. Segment voters by option and send targeted follow-ups.
Test in preview — The live preview in the Content step shows exactly what your audience will see. Use it.
FAQ
Can I add a poll to a drip email? Yes. Polls work in all email types: newsletters, drip steps, AB tests, autotriggers, and workflow emails.
Can someone vote twice? By default, no — each contact can vote once per campaign. Turn on "Allow multiple votes" in the Basic step if you want to allow repeat voting.
What happens if I edit a poll after sending an email? Votes from already-sent emails still count. The vote links remain valid. However, the visual design in already-sent emails won't change.
Can I see who voted for what? Yes. Go to Performance > Audience to see contact-level voting details.
Can I embed multiple polls on the same page? Yes. Add multiple <div id="sendx-poll-{ID}"></div> elements and each poll renders independently.