
QUESTION: How can I make the simplest, cheapest “contact us” web form that will generate a new lead record in Salesforce and that people would actually want to use?
BACKGROUND RESEARCH: I’ve tested Salesforce’s web-to-lead many times in free Google Sites, but research indicates most nonprofits are using WordPress.
HYPOTHESIS: A WordPress site and Salesforce’s ancient web-to-lead form will get the job done.
WEBINAR PLUG: Tomorrow Get Started with Engagement: Build Web Forms. Tue, Apr 14, 2020 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM PDT
EXPERIMENTS:
- WordPress: Once you paste the code and post, it no longer shows the fields where you can enter the information.
- Tested other website building tools to see who would take Web-to-Lead HTML. See results below.
CONCLUSIONS:
- WordPress
- You can’t just paste the Web-to-Lead HTML into WordPress.
- You can install the free plug-in Brilliant Web-to-Lead configuration (see form below).
- Here’s the catch: you need to have a Business Plan with WordPress to install plugins (which I do on this site).
- There are many other plugins that have more bells and whistles, or simple stuff like let you create Contacts.
- Wix
- I paid zero dollars to get my website and form set up.
- I quickly made a free website and was able to paste in my HTML. Lead generation in under an hour.
- Squarespace
- I’ve heard advertised all the time so I thought I’d give that a shot.
- I bought a one month plan and was able to paste in my HTML.
- Bonus: it updates the font and looks better than in Wix.
- Why would anyone want to use Web-to-Lead?
- You have 0 budget, time or skills, and you want to share your amazing something-or-other with the world right now.
- Your web developer is a single mother in quarantine with four children (one with ADHD) and two older parents (neither of whom can find their show on Netflix), and you need a new sign up form right away for your virtual drum circle. You got this.
- You have the capacity to hire web designers, but you still only need the form to create leads for you. Thank you MVP Barbara Christensen for sharing these gorgeous examples.
- https://transportationchoices.org/ Click on “sign me up” without putting in your email.
- https://www.youngfarmers.org/email-signup/
- What if I need something more fancy than this simple lead form?
- There are so many options! Check out this very thorough comparison guide from the Power of Us Hub.
Example Forms
These example forms are for signing up to become a dog foster parent with the non-existent Ugly Dog Adoption Agency.
Brilliant Web-to-Lead for Salesforce Plugin
This version uses the plugin of this name to generate leads in Salesforce.
* These fields are required.
Form Assembly Contact Form
This version is HTML pasted directly from Form Assembly and creates a contact record AND campaign member record.
Contact Us Form
Check out my web-to-lead form on Wix and the gorgeous template ready to go for animal shelters!
Web-to-Lead HTML Pasted into Squarespace
Check this out here before May when my subscription expires. Otherwise, here’s an image: