How to set up actions for widgets

Among other things that you can customize in your Getsitecontrol widgets, there is a setting that is called Action.

Actions determine what happens after your site visitor fills out a form or interacts with a widget of any other type. You can choose to simply close the form after it is submitted — or go further and show a “Thank you” message, take the visitor to another page, or even show them another widget.

Let’s find out how you can set all these actions for your widgets.

1. Choose where to add an action

You can add actions to widget buttons, both primary and secondary. In this case, the action will occur when a visitor clicks the button. It’s also possible to add them to the widget background, so that the action would happen when someone clicks the widget itself.

Add an action to the button

This method will work for primary and secondary buttons.

When editing your widget, open the Buttons section on the Content tab.

When you open it, you’ll see that some actions are already assigned to this button by default in the Action section.

To add a new one, click the +Add action link.

Add an action to the background

Use this method to add an action to the background of your widget: it will occur when someone clicks the widget itself.

When editing your widget, find the Background click section on the Content tab.

By default there are no actions here. To add a new one, click the +Add action link.

2. Choose an action

Adding the action will look the same both for button and background clicks.

Once you click the +Add action link, you’ll see the dropdown list of actions to choose from.

There are four types of actions available for Getsitecontrol widgets.

Next page / Submit

This action actually does two things at once: it submits the widget and switches to its next page. It works best for various forms: the same click sends the data from the form to your Getsitecontrol account and shows the visitor a “Thank you” message.

Open URL

If you’d like to take site visitors to a specific page after they click your widget or a button on it, there’s an action for this: Open URL.

When setting it up, just add an URL of the target page and specify if it should open in a new window. Then click Done to save the changes.

Show widget

This action comes in handy when you need to show a widget by clicking another one. Here’s an example: place a small button on your site and show a full-length form or a fullscreen popup by click on this button. This will allow you to get the necessary data or deliver your message without interrupting visitors’ experience.

When setting this action up, choose the widget that should appear by click and press Done to save the changes. If you choose the widget that is deactivated, don’t forget to activate it once the changes are saved!

Close widget

This action just closes the widget by a click. It comes in handy for simple notifications, when your site visitors are not expected to interact with the widget in any special way. They can just take a look at the information on the widget and close it clicking the button or the widget itself.

3. Combining actions

It’s possible to add more than one action to your button or widget background. Combine them as you like to create the necessary scenario: even if there are some actions already added to the widget, you can add extra ones via the +Add action link, just as described above. To remove an action, just click the ‘x’ icon on it.

Here are some examples of how different combinations of actions may work:

Save the data from the form and close it

If you want to save the data and close the form right after your site visitor fills it out, use this combination of actions: Submit and Close. It is perfect for forms of any type: opt-in, feedback, survey, you name it.

Open the link and close the widget

To take site visitors to another website page by button click, combine the Open URL action (it will open the necessary page) and the Close one (it will close the widget). This will come in handy for various notifications about updates or discounts, when you need your audience to check out the information on a particular page.

Save the data, close the form and open the link

Sometimes you may want to combine two scenarios described above: to save the data from the form, close the widget, and redirect the visitor to another website page. Just add these three actions — Submit, Open URL, and Close — and this will do the trick.

Show another widget and close the first one

Let’s say you have a welcome widget and want to show a feedback form or a survey for new visitors by click on its button. Then you’ll need to add two actions for that button: Show widget for showing your form and Close for hiding the first welcome widget.

Once you finish adding actions, don’t forget to save the changes using the Save & close button.

That’s it! Now you know how to use actions to create a better experience for your site visitors.