An email capture form turns an anonymous website visitor into a contact you can talk to again. Most of the traffic to an established firm's website leaves without enquiring, and without a capture form it leaves for good. This article explains how to build one on the levelpartner.ai platform, where to place it, what to ask for, and what must happen in the seconds after someone submits it.
What you get once it is set up
A short form on your website collects a name, an email address and marketing consent in exchange for something worth having: a guide, a checklist, a market report. Each submission creates a contact in your CRM, tagged with the form and page it came from, and starts a follow-up workflow immediately.
Over time you build a list of people who have shown real interest in what you do. That list is an asset you own, unlike followers on a social platform.
Before you start
Decide what you are offering in return for an email address. "Subscribe to our newsletter" rarely persuades a busy director. A specific resource, such as a buyer's checklist or a pricing benchmark guide, does far better.
You also need a privacy notice you can link to, wording for your consent checkbox, a verified sending domain for the follow-up email, and a clear idea of which page the form will sit on.
How to set it up
- Go to Sites, then Forms, and click + Create New Form.
- Start blank and add the Name and Email fields.
- Add a consent checkbox, unticked, and a line linking your privacy notice.
- Open Styles & Options and set the button text.
- Choose a confirmation message or redirect for after submission.
- Save the form and preview it.
- Click Integrate and copy the embed code or form link.
- In Automation, add a Form Submitted workflow for this form.
- Add Send Email with the resource link, then Save Action.
- Publish, submit a test entry and check the Submissions tab.
Where to place the form
Put it where intent is highest. The end of a useful article, the side of a service page, the foot of a pricing page. A form on the homepage hero competes with your main call to action and usually loses.
Pop-ups can work if they appear late, such as after someone has scrolled most of an article, and are easy to close. A pop-up that fires on arrival interrupts the reader and harms the experience on mobile.
Suppose the brokerage's website gets 4,000 visits a month and around 40 enquiries. It adds a capture form offering a first-time buyer checklist at the end of its five most-read articles. If 1 in 50 visitors to those pages downloaded the checklist, the firm would gain dozens of new contacts a month who were not ready to enquire but would now be on a follow-up series. The traffic numbers are assumed.
What it is for in a 10 to 250 person firm
When revenue is flat, the instinct is to buy more traffic. A capture form makes the traffic you already have work harder by keeping in touch with visitors who are interested but not ready.
It replaces the single "contact us" form that only catches people ready to buy today. Weekly upkeep is about 20 minutes: check submissions are arriving, and look at which pages produce the most. Agencies, consultants, mortgage brokers and real estate firms can each run one form per main resource.
What happens after the submission matters more than the form. Read our guide to the email autoresponder series that follows a sign-up, and see how to keep the resulting email list automated and tidy. For the first email itself, our lead generation email template gives you a starting point.
Asking for too much. Every extra field, such as phone, company size or job title, reduces completions. Ask for name and email now; collect the rest later through the follow-up.
When not to use it
Do not use a capture form where the visitor has come to enquire. On a contact page or a booking page, a sign-up form is a distraction. Also avoid gating content that should be public, such as basic service information or pricing; hiding it behind a form frustrates buyers and can hurt search visibility.
Troubleshooting
Submissions arrive but no email is sent. The workflow trigger points at a different form. Open the workflow and select the exact form by name.
Contacts are created without the consent flag. The checkbox is not mapped to a contact field. Map it and re-test.
The form looks broken on mobile. The embed sits in a narrow column. Use the form's responsive settings and test on a real phone.
Spam submissions appear. Turn on the form's spam protection in its settings and consider a hidden field check.
Frequently asked questions
What should an email capture form ask for?
First name and email address, plus a consent checkbox. Anything else can wait until the contact has received value from you.
Do I need a consent checkbox?
For marketing email to individuals in the UK, consent is normally required, and it is good practice in the US too. Keep the wording plain and never pre-tick the box. Check your obligations with an adviser.
Can I use one form across several pages?
Yes. Add a hidden field or use the page source to record where each submission came from. That way you can see which pages perform best without managing many forms.
What happens to contacts after they sign up?
They should receive the promised resource immediately and then a short series of useful emails. Contacts who do not engage can move into a slower email nurture campaign.