title	description	labels	material_icon	create_time	update_time
Send follow-up emails automatically	Send users in an online community follow up content based on their interests.	Apps Script, Gmail, Forms, Docs	autorenew	2019-07-15	2019-09-17

Contributed by Tech and Eco, follow me on Twitter

By using a Google Form, let users select topics from a predefined list of content that you offer, and store the submissions in a Google Sheet. The content is then automatically sent to their email using a Google Doc as the email's template. The template inserts the user's name and the online content they selected which can be a video, whitepaper, blog, PDF summary, or other resources referenced via a URL.

The Google Form can be accessed on your website, email signature, instant message, or wherever you share the form's link.

Technology highlights

• Using the onFormSubmit installable trigger, you can send a customized email as soon as a user clicks the Submit button on the Google Form. To see more of the onFormSubmit event, see the Event Objects page.

Try it

1. Make a copy of this Google Sheet by clicking this link in your browser. It automatically includes a Google Form and the code you need.

2. From your spreadsheet click on Extensions > Apps Script. This brings you to the Apps Script editor.

3. Now run the script by clicking the Select function drop down > choose "installTrigger." Then click the Run button (►). This installs a trigger in your project that runs the code everytime a new form entry is submitted.

   Caution: If you run this script more than once, it generates multiple triggers which would duplicate emails. Ensure you only run the script once and that there aren't multiple triggers on the triggers page. You can optionally visit the triggers page by clicking on the trigger icon (which looks like a clock) to confirm there is only one.

4. When prompted, click Review permissions and Allow so the script can send email on your behalf.

   Important: If you get a warning that This app isn't verified continue with the verification process by clicking Advanced and then scroll down and click the grey text at the bottom that says Go to (Copy this) Script to send content

5. After granting permissions, return to your spreadsheet and locate Form > Go to live form. This brings you to the Google form that people see when you share its link. Fill out all the fields and ensure to use an email address you have access to, and click Submit.

   Note: if no topics are selected in the Google Form, the code will not send an email.

6. Return to your spreadsheet, you should have a row of values entered based on your form submission. One of the columns called Confirmation say Sent, confirming that the topics you selected in the form were emailed.

   Note: if you do not see the form responses in your sheet, you need to unlink and relink your form to it. From your sheet click Form > Unlink Form then visit your form in edit mode and in the responses section click Select response destination > Select existing spreadsheet , and choose your spreadsheet as the source. This creates a new sheet called Form Responses 2. You can delete the tab Form Responses 1 so you only have one active sheet.

7. Finally, login to the email account you provided in your form entry and see if you received an email with the subject line: "Howdy" along with links to the topics you selected.

Customize your script

1. [optional] The email sent out comes from a Google Doc template already setup. However, if you wish to customize that template, you can make your own copy by clicking this link and set permissions to viewable by anyone unless your audience are people within your organization, set to anyone in your organization. Then copy its URL address from the browser and replace the URL in the EMAIL_TEMPLATE_DOC_URL variable in the script's code.

   Note: {{NAME}} and {{TOPICS}} in the Google Doc are placeholders that insert the name and the content links from the topics selected by the user upon them submitting the form.

2. [optional] If you wish to change the subject line of your email, replace the text in the EMAIL_SUBJECT variable in the script's code.

3. [optional] If you wish to rename the topics in the form, upon changing them, also paste the new topic names into the topicUrls variable in the script's code.

   Caution: When renaming the topics in the form, ensure you paste the exact topic names in the code as well. Ensure the word is contained in the form's choices. Ex: if you rename “(NUTRITION) Raw vegan recipes” to “(MINDFULNESS) Learning how to meditate in a busy world” in the form, make sure to go back the topicUrls variable and replace “Nutrition” with “Mindfulness” + the link you want people to receive

Next steps

To get started with Google Apps Script, try out the codelab which guides you through the creation of your first script.

You can also view the full source code of this solution on GitHub to learn more about how it was built.