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Creating a Lead capture form
Creating a Lead capture form

Capture information from website visitors to create Leads in Copper

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

Available with the following plans:

Professional and Business

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 Leads in Copper. If your company is not using Leads, you can create a form that will create People 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

If your company is using Leads, you can choose to have form responses create new Leads in Copper and Activities for those Leads.

Step 1 of the forms builder - Setup

Contact Creation

  1. Set the Lead Status for Leads created from form submissions
    We've pre-populated the default Lead Status set in Settings > Leads > Lead Statuses, but you can change it if you would like form Leads to be created with a different Status.
    ​

  2. Set the Lead Source you would like to attribute to Leads created from form submissions
    We recommend you create a custom Lead Source for form submissions. This will enable Copper to manage potential duplicate submissions, as detailed below in the section on working with the responses in Copper. You can create a new Lead Source in Settings > Customize > Sources

Assign an Owner

You can also assign an Owner for new Leads 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 Budget and Inquired Services fields.

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.


πŸ’‘ 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.


πŸ’‘ 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.


πŸ’‘ 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.


πŸ’‘ 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 Leads

  • Creating Activities

  • Notifying Owners and Followers

  • Populating Lists (saved filters)

Creating Leads in Copper

In Copper, People are uniquely identified by their email addresses, and you cannot create two People records with the same email address. However, Leads do not have a unique identifier.

We recommend you create a custom Lead Source for form submissions. Copper can manage duplicate form submissions for an exact match of email address + Lead Source.

If the Contact form is submitted with the exact same email address + Lead Source, Copper:

  • WILL create a single Lead for the first submission; subsequent submissions will log additional activities under that Lead.

If the Contact Form is submitted with an email address that is an exact match to an existing Lead with a different Lead Source, Copper:

  • WILL create a separate Lead from the form submission and log an activity.

  • WILL NOT log an activity on any existing (non-Form) Leads that have the exact same email address.

If the Contact Form is submitted with an email address that is an exact match to an existing Person, Copper:

  • WILL create a Lead from the form submission and log an activity.

  • WILL NOT log an activity on the existing Person record.

In all scenarios, the user designated as the Owner of Leads created from form submissions will receive a notification (based on their preferences) when the form is submitted. This gives them an opportunity to review the Lead and decide if it should be worked, merged, or deleted.

Activity creation

As part of this feature, we have released a new Activity Type called Form. Form responses will create activities with this new Type. 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 Leads's Profile and can be filtered on

  • On the Feed in the Forms filter

You can also filter Leads 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 Lead Source as well.

Filter leads for form submissions

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


πŸ’‘ 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 πŸ’¬

Have a suggestion? Check out the Ideas board in our Community πŸ‘₯

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