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Understanding action types
Understanding action types
Learn about the 9 action types, how to set them up, and see what gets displayed to users as they take action
Alex Stevens avatar
Written by Alex Stevens
Updated over a week ago

In ActionButton, every button is built upon at least one action — i.e. the method or form of engagement that you want to elicit from your audience.

There are currently nine action types to choose from. Let's dive a bit deeper into how each one works, their respective configuration options, and see what the different button engagement flows will look like from the perspective of your action-takers.

Table of Contents

Poll

A standard poll designed to gain audience sentiment with a set of 2-4 text or numerical options.

Available setup options:

  • Title: Use this for your poll's question

  • Description (optional): Additional details/context/instructions

  • How many answer choices would you like?: Choose whether you want to provide users with 2, 3, or 4 choices to pick from

  • Option 1 - 4: Text that will appear on the select button

Poll start screen

Image of a pull button

Results screen

Quiz

A quiz with 2-4 text or numeric answers, designed to gauge audience understanding of a specific topic or issue area.

Available setup options:

  • Title: Use this for your quiz's question

  • Description (optional): Additional details/context

  • How many answer choices would you like?: Choose whether you want to provide users with 2, 3, or 4 options to pick from

  • Option 1 - 4: Possible answers, one of which you'll select as the "Correct" answer

Quiz start screen

Results screen

Sentiment Poll

An enhanced poll allowing the audience to answer along sliding scale. Designed to gauge sentiment on topics with widely-varying stances.

Available setup options:

  • Title: Use this for your sentiment poll's question

  • Left choice: The option that will appear on the left pole of the sliding scale

  • Right choice: The option that will appear on the right pole of the sliding scale

Sentiment Poll start screen

Results screen

Dial

Typically used for numerical quizzes, the Dial offers audiences a range to estimate the answer. This can also be used as a poll if no answer is provided.

Available setup options:

  • Title: Use this for the question you want to pose to your audience

  • Description: Extra info or instructions

  • Min. Value / Max. Value: This will define the range of numeric values that appear on the Dial. Note: The minimum value must be less than the maximum value. The values cannon be equal, and the max value must be less than 99,999

  • Number of Steps: The number of visible integers between your chosen minimum and maximum values. Note: Must be between 1 and 20.

  • Correct Value (optional): Setting a correct value turns the dial action into a quiz.

  • Feedback Header: Upon completing the Dial action, this text will take the place of your Dial's title (see Results screen)

  • Feedback Subheading: Upon completing the Dial action, this text will take the place of the Dial's description (see Results screen)

  • Feedback Answer: This value appears at the center of the Dial and may use the placeholder 'answer' to dynamically display a user's selected answer. You may add characters, e.g. ‘answer%’ or ‘$answer’ to display answers as percentages or dollar amounts.

Dial start screen

Results screen

Volunteer Carousel

Geo-located volunteering opportunities in set issue areas, powered by VolunteerMatch’s nationwide database.

Available setup options:

  • Title: Use this for you broad volunteer call-to-action

  • Description/Extra info: Extra info about why you want your audience to volunteer

  • Issue: Used to filter the volunteer opportunities presented to button users.

Volunteer Carousel start screen

Opportunities listing

Opportunity details

Sign-up form

Success screen

Donation

Donations targeted toward specific 501(c)(3) organizations in the United States.

Configuration options:

  • Recipient EIN (required): Employee Identification Number for the nonprofit that funds will sent to. Must be 9 digits, hyphen optional.

  • Partner: Name of the nonprofit organization that funds will be directed to. Displayed on the success screen. This field will be auto-populated based off the EIN entered above.

  • Title: Use this for your primary fundraising call-to-action

  • Description: Additional details about why folks should donate to this cause

  • Donation Amount: Select which set of pre-defined donation amounts you want to present to potential donors. An "Other" option will always be included.

  • Include opt-in to collect user information: Check this if you want to collect contact info from anyone who donates through this button

  • Thank You Text (optional): This text will be displayed on the final success screen

Donation start screen

Payment screen

Donation success screen

Petition

A standard form designed to be used as either a petition or pledge to empower collective action behind critical issues.

Available setup options:

  • Title: Use this for your petition's primary call-to-action

  • Description: Short elaboration on your petition's demand, followed by a Learn More link, which reveals long-form text entered into the Details field

  • Include opt-in to collect user information: Check this if you want to be able to export the contact details that petition signers submit through your button

  • Required user information: In addition to full name and email address (always required), you can select which other detail you want to require from petition signers — address, postal code, or phone number

  • Details: Appears when users click "Learn More" link next to the Description. Use this space for long-form content that provides background information, creates a sense of urgency in readers, and makes the case for your petition's demand

  • Issue (optional): Used for internal tracking

  • Thank You Title (optional): Headline on the success page. Defaults to "Thanks for signing the petition"

  • Thank You Text (optional): Appears beneath Thank You Title on the success page. Use this text to tell petition signers why they should share your petition.

Petition start screen

Petition details screen

Slides into view after clicking "Learn More".

Success screen

Revealed after submitting the petition form

Opinion

A free-text form that gathers detailed reader sentiment to provide real insight into the varied viewpoints of an audience.

Available setup options:

  • Title: Use to for your opinion submission call-to-action

  • Description:

  • Capture user's name?: Select whether your Opinion form should include a Full Name input and, if so, whether it should be required prior to submission

  • Capture user's email?: Select whether your Opinion form should include an Email Address input and, if so, whether it should be required

  • Capture Additional Info?: Select whether your Opinion form should include either a Zip Code or Address input and, if so, whether it should be required

  • Include opt-in to collect user information: Check this if you want to be able to export the above contact details submitted by respondents

  • Issue (optional): Used for internal tracking

  • Thank You Title (optional): Headline on the success page. Defaults to "Thank you for adding your voice to this issue"

  • Thank You Text (optional): Appears beneath Thank You Title on the success page. Use this text to ask respondents to share your button with their network.

Opinion start screen

💡 Note: To encourage useful feedback, this text box requires a minimum of 65 characters. If the response is too short, they'll be gently nudged to share more

Results screen

Contact Your Rep(s)

Geo-located outreach for representatives in the United States Congress, as well as MPs in the United Kingdom.

You choose the target elected office(s) that you want your audience to contact via email, phone, or tweet — and your button will automatically identify the appropriate rep for each action-taker, based on their current location.

Configuration options:

  • Recipients: Chose from UK MPs / US Representatives, US Senators, US Senators and US Representatives, State Legislators (US), Governor (US), Canadian MPs and Canadian MPPs.

  • Title:

  • Description:

  • Include opt-in to collect user information: Check this if you want to be able to export the above contact details submitted by respondents

  • Email / Call / Tweet checkbox: What method do you want your audience to use to contact their rep(s)? You can provide one, two or all three options.

    • Email: Clicking this button will reveal the Contact form screen (see below).

    • Call: Clicking this button will reveal the Contact info screen (see below)

    • Tweet: Clicking this button will reveal the Tweet screen (see below)

  • Issue: Because US Senators do not have email addresses for public comment, we instead use website contact forms. This will be the topic attached to Senators’ contact forms (takes the place of Email Subject).

  • Email Subject (optional): This will be the default subject line of emails sent to representatives. Users can personalize this on the Contact form screen.

  • Email Body (optional): Default email body for emails sent to representatives. Users can personalize this on the Contact form screen.

  • Tweet (optional): This will be the default tweet text that will appear when users click "Tweet" on the Tweet screen

Contact Your Rep(s) start screen

This screenshot includes all 3 contact methods, but you can choose to include fewer

Contact form

Revealed when users click the Email button. Here users can remove included recipients (if multiple), and enter or personalize the Email Subject and/or Body text.

📌 Note: If the Reps that were automatically identified via geo-coding are incorrect (e.g. the button user is traveling), they can click the "Not your Rep?" link, and manually input their home address to pull the correct recipients.

Contact info

Revealed when users click the Call button

Tweet screen

Success screen

Revealed after user completes any of the contact actions. This screen's title text auto-adjusts based on the users' chosen contact method

Custom Email Target

Email a decision-maker that has a publicly available email address, regardless of your supporter's geolocation.

Identify a target that has a publicly available email address and simply enter it in the settings of the button, upload their photo, and encourage your audience to send them a message. Create an email template that your supporters will be able to edit before sending.

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