Overview

zenSurveys email embed code includes a CRM provider selector. This helps you adapt placeholder syntax for the email or CRM platform that will send the survey, such as Emarsys, Mailchimp, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, HubSpot, or Braze.

Use this when you need the email embed links to include recipient identity or metadata from your CRM, such as email address, first name, customer ID, company fields, or a survey link variable.

How It Works

1. Open the survey in zenSurveys.
2. Go to the email embed area.
3. Generate or open the HTML embed code.
4. Select the matching CRM Provider.
5. Copy the available placeholders into the HTML where needed.
6. Save the embed code.
7. Paste the final HTML into your CRM or email platform and send a test from that platform.

When the embed HTML already contains known placeholders from the previous provider, changing the provider converts those placeholders to the selected provider's syntax and saves the selected provider with the survey. It does not send emails or connect zenSurveys directly to the CRM.

Supported Providers

The CRM provider selector includes:

• Emarsys - ${field_name} syntax
• Mailchimp - *|TAG|* merge tag syntax
• Salesforce Marketing Cloud - %%Field%% AMPscript personalization syntax
• HubSpot - {{contact.property}} personalization token syntax
• Braze - {{${attribute}}} Liquid personalization syntax
• Custom - generic placeholders you can replace with your own platform syntax

Available placeholder types include first name, last name, email, customer ID, survey name, survey link, company name, company address, company website, and logo URL.

Passing Identity and Properties

To identify respondents, add identity parameters to the survey link in the embed HTML.

Example shape:

identity[type]=email&identity[value]=<email-placeholder>

You can also pass metadata as response properties:

properties[customer_id]=<customer-id-placeholder>&properties[country]=<country-placeholder>

Identity is used to identify the respondent. Response properties are stored as metadata and can be used in response views, exports, filters, and supported workflow paths.

Testing

Always test the final email from the CRM or email platform, not only from the zenSurveys preview. The CRM must resolve its own merge tags before the respondent opens the survey link.

Check that:

• the email renders correctly in the target email client
• the survey link opens
• the placeholder values resolve into real values
• the response is saved
• identity and properties appear as expected in zenSurveys

Known Limitations

• The CRM provider selector does not validate whether a field exists in your CRM.
• Placeholder syntax must match the exact field names available in your email platform.
• Changing the CRM provider only converts known placeholder tokens. Custom manual HTML edits should still be reviewed before launch.
• Regenerating the embed code can replace manual HTML edits, so recheck placeholders after regeneration.
• Email clients can render HTML differently, especially Outlook. Test in the real client before launch.
• If placeholders resolve to empty values, zenSurveys can only store the empty or missing value it receives.