Is there a good, fast, cheap solution for web forms?

transportationchoices
Transportation Choices used a web designer to make their Salesforce Web-to-Lead form all fancy.

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.
  • What if I need something more fancy than this simple lead form?

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.

CAPTCHA image

* 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

Web-to-Lead HTML Pasted into Wix

Check out my web-to-lead form on Wix and the gorgeous template ready to go for animal shelters!

wixwebtolead

Web-to-Lead HTML Pasted into Squarespace

Check this out here before May when my subscription expires. Otherwise, here’s an image:

Image of web-to-lead form on a Square Space webpage. The font of the form matches that of the rest of the page which looks slick.

Published by

JessieRymph

Jessie joined Salesforce.org in 2018 to give introductory webinars to nonprofit customers. She now is a Senior Solution Developer supporting nonprofits and education customers at Salesforce. All opinions expressed on this blog are her own or those of the contributors. She's spent 17 years more or less in CRMs and databases, but didn't meet Salesforce until 2011. Jessie co-led the Seattle Salesforce Nonprofit User Group in 2015-2016. She wrote a sh*tty first draft of a novel and hopes to turn it into a screenplay!

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