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Creating a Contact capture form
Creating a Contact capture form

Capture information from website visitors to create People in Copper

Product at Copper avatar
Written by Product at Copper
Updated over a week ago

Available with the following plans:

All plans

The Copper website form allows you to capture visitors' information so you can nurture those new relationships in Copper.

This article walks you through creating a form that will create People in Copper. If your company is using Leads, you can create a form that will create Leads in Copper.

Sample website with Copper widget

This article will walk you through creating a Contact capture form, including:

When you access the forms builder for the first time, you will see some information about the feature, as well as a primary action to Create Form.

First time user experience creating a form

Once you've selected Create Form, you will be taken to our forms builder.


Choosing contact creation options

Form responses will create People records in Copper and Activities for those People.

Step 1 of the forms builder - Setup

Contact Creation

Contact Type will default to Potential Customer, but you can select any Contact Type.

If you delete the Contact Type you've set here, any future new Contacts created from form responses will be created with Type = Uncategorized

Assign an Owner

You can also assign an Owner for new contacts created from form submissions. Based on the user's notification preferences, they will receive notifications for these form submissions.


Customizing the form and fields

Copper's contact form is pre-configured with the fields you need to start collecting information from website visitors. You can add your own fields, relabel fields, rearrange fields, and customize the text on other form elements.

As you make your changes on the left, they will be reflected in the Preview panel on the right.

Form field customization options

Adding fields to the form

You can add most of your existing Copper fields to the contact form. For a list of fields and field types that cannot be added to forms, please see this help article.

To add or remove fields on the form, click Add Existing Fields as shown below.

Add existing fields

From the Choose fields modal, you can add fields by checking the boxes next to the field(s) and clicking Update Selection. In my examples below, I'm going to remove the Message field and then add and customize the Inquired Services field.

For more information on which fields you can add to the form, how they behave on the web, and how the responses update data in Copper, please see this help article.

A modal to add and remove fields from the form

If you uncheck a box, it will also remove the field from the form.

The Full Name and Work Email fields cannot be removed from the form.

Customizing the fields

Once the field is on your form, hover over it to see additional customization options, as shown below.

Field customization options

From here, you can:

  • Rearrange fields using the grabber on the left

  • Remove a field using the trash can on the right

  • Relabel a field by clicking into the field name

Relabeling a field

This powerful feature allows you to control the display label of a field on your form without changing its name in Copper, ensuring a smooth user experience for both prospects and staff.

In the example below, I've renamed the Inquired Services field to "How can we help?"

A relabeled form field

You're able to see that the field labeled "How can we help?" is mapped to the field named Inquired Services. You're able to see these field mappings for each field on the form.

Relabeling a field on the form is cosmetic only and does not impact the field name in Copper. The activity created from form responses will also display the field name and not the form label. This ensures your prospects and staff each see the right terminology.

If you rename a field in Copper, we will not automatically update the field label on the form. However, we will update the display of the field mapping as well as the field name in the Choose fields modal.


💡 Tip

We recommend you limit the number of fields on your form. Adding too many fields can cause friction and overwhelm your potential customers. The preview panel will update as you add fields, so you'll be able to see how the form will look to your website visitors.


Customizing the header, button, and widget text

The form and widget come pre-configured, but you can customize the text and styling of the elements. In the Build step, you customize the text displayed in these elements.

Customizing other form elements

Hover over these elements to see additional customization options, as shown below.

Customize the form elements

The Form Header text customization is the first field on your form in the form builder. The Form Buttons text customizations are located at the bottom of the form builder, below your fields.

At this time, the "Powered by Copper" line cannot be removed.

Customizing the success message

When the form is submitted, a pre-configured "thank you" message appears. You can customize the text of this message to use your brand voice.

Customizing the success message

In the Build tab, scroll down to the success message and click into the text element you would like to customize. You will see your changes reflected in the preview on the right.


💡 Tip

Strike while the iron is hot and add a call-to-action (CTA) to your success message.


Styling the form and widget

The form comes pre-configured, but you can make several styling changes to the form and widget to match your brand. As you make your changes on the left, they will be reflected in the Preview panel on the right.

Styling the form

  1. Choose from a selection of Google Fonts for the Header, Fields, Submit Button, and Widget Button:

    1. Inter

    2. Merriweather

    3. Montserrat

    4. Open Sans

    5. Oswald

    6. Roboto

    7. Slabo

  2. Set the text colors for the Header, Fields, Submit Button, and Widget Button to align with your brand standards

    1. You can use the eyedropper tool shown below to match your website directly. Simply open your website in another browser window side-by-side with Copper. Then, select the eyedropper tool and click on the website element that you would like to match.

      Color picker hex values
    2. By clicking the arrows on the color picker shown below, you can switch to HEX mode and enter your HEX value.

      Color picker eyedropper
  3. Set the background colors of the Submit Button and Widget Button to align with your brand standards using the same color picker shown above

  4. Change the Widget Button placement with the area of your website you would like to anchor the widget to

    Widget button placement options

The widget will overlay your website – this means it will not push other elements on your website around.


💡 Tip

Based on your website's design and layout, select a placement where you believe visitors are most likely to notice it and where it will not overlap any important elements like Calls-to-Action or menu items.


Adding the form to your website

When you click the Publish tab in the form builder, you will see options to add the form to your website as well as a preview of what the activity will look like in Copper when a response is submitted.

Publish step in the form builder

Be sure you've saved your changes by clicking the purple Save and Publish button at the bottom of the form builder.


💡 Tip

For Squarespace or WordPress sites, check out our step-by-step installation guide.


Working with the responses in Copper

Copper keeps you informed with real-time updates when a form is submitted. There are several ways that form responses appear in Copper, including:

  • Creating People

  • Creating Activities

  • Notifying Owners and Followers

  • Populating Lists (saved filters)

Creating People in Copper

In Copper, People are uniquely identified by their email address.

If someone fills out the form on your website and provides an email address that is not an exact match to the work email of an existing Person, Copper will create a new Person record, create a new Company, associate the Person to the Company, and log an activity for that Person.

If someone fills out the form on your website and provides an email address that is an exact match to the work email of an existing Person in Copper, a duplicate Person record will not be created. Instead, Copper:

  • WILL create an activity record and associate it with the existing Person

  • WILL NOT change the Contact Type of an existing Person

    • For example, if you select "Potential Customers", and a form is submitted by an existing Person with the Type "Current Customers", Copper will not update the existing Person's Type to "Potential Customers".

  • WILL NOT change the Owner of an existing Person

  • WILL NOT change the Name of an existing Person

    • For example, if you receive a form submission from "Maggie Cameron" and the email address entered on the form is an exact match to an existing Person, "Margaret Cameron", Copper will not update the Person's first name to "Maggie." You will be able to see the form as it was submitted in the activity, at which point you and your team can decide if you would like to update "Margaret" to "Maggie".

  • WILL NOT change the Company of an existing Person

If someone fills out the form on your website and provides an email address that is not an exact match to the work email of an existing Person but whose email domain is a match with an existing company, Copper will create a new Person, relate them to the Company, and log an activity for that Person.

Activity creation

Form responses will create activities with type = Form. A form response also:

  • Increases the # of Interactions by 1

  • Sets the Last Contacted date to the date the form submission was received

Form activities display:

  • On the Person's Profile and can be filtered on

  • On the Feed in the Forms filter

You can also filter People by this new activity type to create Lists.

Create a List (saved filter) of form responses

To see all form responses, you can create a List (saved filter) based on the new Activity Type.

You can further refine your List by filtering on Contact Type as well. For example, if you have chosen to have form submissions from new persons created as "Potential Customers" in Copper, then a List that is filtered by Contact Type = Potential Customers and Activity Type = Forms would give you a List of all form submissions from new persons.

Filter People to show form submissions only

For more information on filtering, check out our article on filtering records.


💡 Tip

Professional and Business customers can automatically respond to these new inquiries with an email automation based on a List (saved filter) of form responses.


Have a question? Contact our Customer Success Team using the in-app chat 💬

Have a suggestion? Check out the Ideas board in our Community 👥

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