How to run a live poll in a webinar by text

You're twenty minutes into the webinar and you launch the platform's poll. It covers your slides, a few hundred people click, the results flash up, and you close it to get your slides back. When the session ends, those answers sit in the platform's report, next to a registration list that can't tell you who was actually watching. If you want a live poll in a webinar by text, you move the vote to the phone sitting next to the viewer's laptop, and you keep what it tells you.

With Textiful, viewers scan a QR code on your slide or text a keyword to 33777. They reply with a letter, the results page you're screen-sharing moves, and the next text asks for their email. The vote and the contact arrive in one conversation.

Why webinar platform polls disappear

A built-in poll lives inside the session. It opens over your content, closes when you need the screen back, and the results end up in an export most hosts never open. The answers aren't attached to anyone in your email tool, so the poll can't shape your follow-up.

The chat has the opposite problem. It's open the whole time, but it rewards the three people who type fastest, and anything you post there scrolls away within a minute.

Why the phone beside the laptop helps

A webinar viewer is alone at a desk with every distraction one tab away. Asking them to pick up their phone gives them something to do with their hands, and it takes the vote out of the window they're half watching.

• Scanning works off a screen. A QR code on a shared slide scans from a phone camera like a printed one. Scanning opens the texting app with the message already typed, and they tap send.
• The keyword covers everyone else. Viewers watching on their phone can't scan the screen they're watching, and some have your slides minimized. Say the keyword out loud and paste it in the chat: "Text AGENDA to 33777."
• Nobody installs anything. The vote happens in the texting app, so there's no join code to type and no page to load.

How to set it up in Textiful

1. Start from the "Poll the audience" template. Write the question and two to four lettered answers. People can reply with the letter, the answer text, or a near miss, and one-letter typos are forgiven.
2. Set the triggers. Give the flow a free QR code for the slide, and add a keyword on 33777 or 55444 for people to text. One keyword is included on your plan, and more are $10/month each. A QR code and a keyword can each start a copy of the same flow, and each reports separately. VOTE is reserved, so pick a word tied to your session.
3. Add an email step after the vote. "Thanks for voting! Want the slides? Reply with your email." Across Textiful flows over 90 days in 2026, two-question flows were completed 83.1% of the time.
4. Add actions. Send the slides from Handouts as a tracked download link, then add the contact to Mailchimp, Kit, or ActiveCampaign tagged with the webinar's name. HubSpot, webhooks, and Zapier cover other tools.
5. Decide how the poll closes. Close it by hand when you're ready to discuss, or at a set time. Results freeze when it closes. You can send a closing reminder, text voters the final result, and set a message for late arrivals.

One answer per person is the default. Turn on vote changing if you want people to switch as the discussion moves.

How to show results on screen share

Every poll has a public results page. Open it in a browser tab before the session, then share that tab, or the whole screen, when you ask the question. The bars move as votes arrive, and that movement brings in viewers who were waiting to see if anyone else was taking part.

The page shows counts and percentages only, never names or phone numbers. Pick the dark or light theme to match your slides, and show a countdown, a closing time, or neither. When the poll closes, a banner names the winner or a tie, with optional confetti. The page carries a small "Powered by Textiful" link, worth knowing before you share it in front of a client's audience.

Viewers can watch on their own phone too. The default thank-you reply after a vote links to the same live results page.

What happens when thousands vote at once

Each viewer runs their own conversation, so two thousand voters is the same setup as twenty. Replies are queued and sent in order, so in a very large session some viewers wait a little longer for their text back than they would in a small one. Ask the question, then talk for a minute before you read out the result.

Each person who starts the flow counts as one conversation, whether they only vote or vote and give an email. If a large session goes over your plan, extra conversations are added at $15 per 100, so nobody is cut off halfway through your poll.

Turning the vote into an email

The vote is the easy ask, and it earns the second one. Right after someone votes, ask for their email and say what they get for it: the slides, the checklist from the session, or the replay once it's ready. How many people give an email depends most on what you offer. What to offer for texting in has ideas.

Each vote is saved on the contact in Textiful, so you can see who picked B. A flow can't branch on the answer, so everyone gets the same next text, and the webinar tag tells your email tool who was there. If the email is the main goal, turning a webinar into an email list covers the slide, the chat, and the recording.

Before and after

	Platform poll	Textiful poll by text
Where people vote	A pop-up over your slides	Their phone, from a scan or a keyword
Showing results	A summary that closes	A results page you screen-share, updating live
What you keep	A report in the platform	Each vote, saved with the voter's contact
Where it goes	The platform's export	Mailchimp, Kit, ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, or Zapier
Viewers abroad	Can vote	Can't text the US short codes

Plans start at $19/month, and QR codes are free. See pricing, and for polls in a physical room, see running a live poll without an app.

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