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 all button types: primary, normal, and secondary.
When editing your widget, open the Buttons section on the Design 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 +Add action.
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 area.
When editing your widget, find the Background click section on the Design tab.
By default, there are no actions assigned here. To add a new one, click +Add action.
2. Choose an action
Adding the action will look the same both for button and background clicks.
Once you click +Add action, you’ll see the dropdown list of actions to choose from.
There are five types of actions available for all Getsitecontrol widgets and two actions specific to the .
Submit
This action 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 the URL of the target page and specify if it should open in a new window. Then click Done to save the changes.
Copy to clipboard
This action allows your visitors to copy the discount code just by clicking a button or the widget itself. All you need to do here is put the discount code in the first field and add the confirmation message to the second one.
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 by clicking the button or the widget itself.
Add to cart
Using the Add to cart action will allow you to upsell and cross-sell products easily by adding them to the customer’s cart just by a click. It’s possible either to add a product from the page a customer is currently viewing or choose it beforehand. You can also decide whether you’d want to redirect your customers to cart/checkout pages or not.
In our guide, you’ll find out more details about how to use this action.
Apply discount
The Apply discount action will apply the discount for your customer automatically just by a click.
You only need to add the code generated in your Shopify dashboard to the Discount code field and decide whether you’d want to redirect your customers to cart or checkout pages.
You can either paste this code from your Shopify dashboard or search for it right from the Actions section.
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 through 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 widget. 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 a button click, combine the Open URL action (it will open the necessary page) and the Close widget 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 widget — 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 a click on its button. Then you’ll need to add two actions for that button: Show widget for showing your form and Close widget for hiding the first welcome widget.
Copy to clipboard, open URL, and close the widget
What if you’d want to offer a discount to your customers and redirect them to a specific page where they could apply the code? Just add the Copy to clipboard action with the code, redirect them to the necessary page with the help of Open URL and Сlose the widget itself.
Add a product to the cart, apply discount, and close the widget
Let’s say you’d like to add a specific product to the customer’s cart and apply the discount for them at the same time. Just specify a product in the Add to cart action and place the discount code to the Apply discount one. In one of these actions, choose if you’d want to redirect your customers to cart/checkout pages or not and Close the widget itself.
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.