Collect Feedback and Content Ideas

This workflow is perfect for newsletters. However, even if you don't have one, you can still apply it to other types of content like blog posts or podcast episodes.

Let's get started!

Creating the Best Newsletter in Your Niche

The fastest-growing writers on the internet treat their writing as a startup:

• Consistently testing new ideas on social platforms

• Gathering feedback from the market (in the form of engagement)

• Iterating and doubling down on their best ideas based on the data

While quantitative data is helpful, gathering qualitative insights is also crucial.

If you’re writing a newsletter and you’re optimizing for depth and resonance with your readers, looking at your click-through and open rates might not paint the full picture.

In an ideal world, you'd be able to easily identify your most loyal and engaged readers, have a 10-minute Zoom call with each of them every week, and then they would tell you everything you need to know to write the absolute best newsletter in your niche.

Imagine giving your newsletter readers three options to rate your emails:

• 5 stars = Super helpful!

• 3 stars = It was OK!

• 1 star = Needs some work

Depending on their rating, you'd want to ask them one or two follow-up questions:

• If they give you a 5-star rating (🤩), you’d ask them for a topic they’d like you to cover in an upcoming issue (since they got value from your email).

• If they give a 3- or 1-star rating (😔), you’d ask them for feedback or an improvement idea you could implement next week and for the topic they'd like you to cover in an upcoming issue (since there’s potentially something you could improve).

To do this, you'd create a form with 5 questions:

1. Rating

2. Future email idea

3. Improvement idea

4. Email address

5. Newsletter issue

Next, you'd create a special link for each "rating option." (A template will be provided for your convenience to create the form and teach you how to make your "special links.")

Add these 3 "special links" to the bottom of your next newsletter (or the footer of your newsletter template) with a quick blurb prompting people to rate the email.

When someone clicks on one of your "special links," the Tally will automatically pass the info to ConvertKit:

• Their email

• Their rating

• The name of the subject line of the newsletter they’re rating

Afterward, they'll be redirected to your form, where they'll be prompted to answer the correct follow-up question depending on their rating (the template has this already done for you!).

Once their answers are submitted, they'll go to a database or spreadsheet (you can use Notion, Airtable, Google Sheets, etc.), where all this data is safely and neatly organized.

Every week, you can review the new answers, find potential upgrades you could make to your future issues, and get a better sense of the problems and outcomes your readers wish to solve and unlock (so you can create the most relevant content possible for them).

Check out this example by my pal Dylan from GrowthCurrency after he implemented this into his newsletter.

Ready to Collect Feedback and Content Ideas from Your Superfans—On Autopilot?

Step 1: Duplicate our Tally form template

• Log in or sign up for a Tally Forms account

• Open this link on a separate tab

• Click on the Use this template button on the top right corner to duplicate the template to your own Tally account

Once you're done duplicating the Tally form template, move on to the next step!

Step 2: Personalize your Tally form

This form contains 2 questions. Depending on the "rating link" your reader clicks on, they will be asked just one or both questions (and the ask will have slightly different language). Luckily, you don't have to worry about setting up the form conditional logic because we already baked it into the form template.

We encourage you to review and tweak the language we used for the copy so it sounds like you and fits the specific constraints of your newsletter. Make sure to also change the title of the form!

If you're new to Tally, here's a great compilation of FREE resources on how it works, how to customize and upgrade your forms, etc.

Once you're done editing and personalizing your new newsletter feedback form, move on to the next step!

Step 3: Connect your Tally form to a database/spreadsheet

• Once you're done personalizing your form, click on the Publish button at the top

• Click on Integrations

• Connect your form to your preferred database or spreadsheet tool.

(Before completing this step, you will need to create a table in Notion, Airtable, or Google Sheets that has a field or column for each of the questions in the form: email, rating, campaign, improvement ideas, and topic ideas.)

If you need some help, you can find instructions to connect your form to Airtable here or to connect it to Notion over here.

Once you're done connecting your form to your database/spreadsheet, move on to the next step!

Step 4: Create, test, and add your "rating links" to the footer of your newsletter

We want to give our readers 3 rating options:

• 5 stars

• 3 stars

• 1 star

We need a slightly different link for each of these options. So let's create them.

1. Go back to Tally and click on Share

2. Copy the regular "share link" of your form

3. Open a new browser tab and paste the link there (don't hit enter!)

4. At the end of the link, add the following snippet according to your email marketing tool (ConvertKit, MailChimp, or ActiveCampaign)

   

5. After appending the snippet, copy the full link, and paste it 3 times in any note-taking app

6. Replace the "x" after "rating=" with "5", "3", and "1" (one different number in each link). Your links should look something like this:

https://tally.so/r/n9qodG?rating=5&email={{subscriber.email_address}}

https://tally.so/r/n9qodG?rating=3&email={{subscriber.email_address}}

https://tally.so/r/n9qodG?rating=1&email={{subscriber.email_address}}

7. Now, test each link by clicking on them and checking if the rating pre-fills correctly (5, 3, and 1). If it does, you're good to go! If not, double-check your links and make sure you replaced the variables correctly.

8. Add the 3 links to the footer of your newsletter template (or in the P.S. section of your next email). Make sure to add a short explanation above the links, inviting your readers to rate your email and provide feedback or topic ideas.

And that's it! You've now successfully installed our "Supercharged Newsletter Feedback" automation. From now on, you'll be able to collect feedback and content ideas from your most engaged readers on autopilot, which will help you create better, more relevant content for your audience.