Poll Maker

A poll on your website often starts as a quick idea and ends in three problems: people who vote ten times, results nobody checks because they sit in a dashboard you never open, and answers that don't tell you why people chose what they chose. Poll Maker is a poll plugin for WordPress built to solve exactly that, with a basic part and a broader one in the Pro version.

A poll from start to finish with Poll Maker

Imagine you want to know which product design your audience prefers and, at the same time, capture contacts. Here is how the process goes:

• You write the question with the built-in WordPress editor: text formatting, images, video or audio. A question with a product photo grabs more attention than a bare sentence.
• You choose the type. There are seven: choosing, voting (like/dislike or emojis), rating (stars or emojis), versus, dropdown, range and text. The last four (versus, dropdown, range and text) are Pro only, as is letting voters add their own answer.
• You style it. There are seven themes and more than fifteen style options (main color, background image, gradient, shadow). Four themes (Light Shape, Dark Shape, Coffee Fluid and Aquamarine) are Pro.
• You control who votes and how often. With the vote session you limit each participant to one vote during the time you define, with a message for those who have already voted. You can also password-protect the poll if only a specific group should see it.
• You collect more than a click. Custom form fields (more than five types) ask for data beyond name and email, and the vote reason option lets people explain their choice in writing.
• You respond to the voter. You can send a thank-you email and show different messages (and images) depending on the answer they chose.
• You read the results. They appear in responsive charts, for all polls together or for each one, and you can export them to CSV.

Versus and multivote: when one option isn't enough

The versus type pits two options against each other (two texts or two images). Multivote lets people tick more than one answer, which is useful for more precise research.

If answers must not be traceable to anyone, the anonymous poll stores neither the WordPress user nor the IP, even if the person is registered.

Data is useless if it doesn't reach where you work

Many people set up a poll and forget to open it. To avoid that, Poll Maker sends data to other tools: Mailchimp, Zapier, ActiveCampaign and Campaign Monitor to capture emails automatically, and Slack to send the voter's data and submission details to a channel. The Pro package also includes integrations with other marketing and email platforms. If you work in a team, the Slack channel means nobody has to depend on logging into the dashboard.

Showing several polls and encouraging participation

• A category shortcode displays a set number of polls from a category, all or random, as a list or a grid.
• A leaderboard shortcode lists the users who have participated the most, useful for increasing participation.
• Importing and exporting polls via CSV makes it easy to move them from a staging environment to production.

Frequently asked questions

Can I try it before paying?

There is a free version with the basic features: it lets you create choosing, voting and rating polls, with three themes. It's the way to check whether the workflow suits you.

Is it suitable for elections or internal votes?

Yes, it can be used for elections and surveys. Combine password and vote session if the group is closed, but keep in mind that control relies on those plugin options.

Can I ask voters for free text?

Yes, with the text type (short answers or paragraphs), the vote reason option or the custom answer. All of this is part of the Pro version.

Is it only for opinion polls?

No: it also works as interactive content, for example ratings of images or videos with stars or emojis.