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Web to Lead in essensys Operate

Receive Leads from Your Website into essensys Operate

JEFF essensys AI Bot avatar
Written by JEFF essensys AI Bot
Updated over a week ago

Optimize the potential of your website as a sales tool by creating a custom Web To Lead form to encourage people to enquire online and turn valuable information into an instant lead.

Web to Lead allows you to create a form that you can add to preexisting pages on your company's website. Visitors can contact you using this form, thus automatically generating new leads in Operate.

Follow the steps below to learn how to implement it.

Form Configuration

Step 1

To get started go to Settings > General > Customize > Leads > Web to Lead

Click New if this is your first web to lead record. 

Step 2

Here is where you can set up your new form

  • Give your Web to Lead a Name

  • If the lead is not assigned to an owner with Auto Assignment, the Default Field Creator is the user who will be assigned as the Owner of the new lead

  • Check the Enable box to turn on your Web to Lead

  • Enter the Default Return URL - the web page that you want the enquirer to be sent to once they have submitted their enquiry

  • Select the Record Type: Choose a Record Type that the Lead will be created as

  • Enable Google Captcha if you want to add a spam protection feature to your form. This way, Google will show captcha verification for suspicious form submissions to prevent spam. Once you tick the box to enable the feature, the Google Captcha Key field becomes visible and mandatory - Please see "Setting Up Google Captcha", below, for the steps to follow in order to obtain the key. 

  • Select Fields: Choose the fields that you want to include in the form, using the left and right arrows in-between the lists. You can reorder as required using the up and down arrows on the right. 

Step 3

Click on the Generate HTML button to create the code, it will appear in the HTML Body area below.

NOTE: If you change any field within the form, you will need to re-generate the HTML code and reinsert it on your website.

Save your Web to Lead form when you are ready. 

Step 4

Before you send the HTML to your webmaster, try it out to make sure you are happy with it.

Edit the form you've just created by clicking the pencil icon next to it. 

Click Try it, underneath the HTML code box. 

This opens an un-styled form in a new browser tab. If you have enabled Google Captcha, then the captcha logo should be displayed in the bottom right corner of your screen. 

Fill in the fields and click Submit to send the test lead to Operate.

The browser should then go to the web page you have specified in the Default Return URL. If you are taken to this URL correctly and your test lead has arrived in Operate > Sales > Leads, then your form is correctly created and is ready to be implemented.

Once you are happy with the basic form, send the HTML to your webmaster to add to your website and style. Please see the Web to Lead HTML Help section below, for some helpful tips.

Setting Up Google Captcha

If you choose to enable Google Captcha on your Web to Lead forms, you will need to get your Key first. Here is how to: 

  • Create a Google account if you don't have one yet. If you do, you will just need to log in. 

  • Go to the Google reCaptcha V3 Admin page to register a new site and create your key. 

  • Here, you will first need to add a Label - this can be the name of your website, for example. 

  • Next, select reCaptcha v3 as the reCaptcha type. 

  • Enter your Domain name(s). This will need to be the domain of your company's website, where the lead submission is coming from.

  • Add Owners - the first owner will be the Google Account you are logged in with. You can enter the email addresses of staff you may want to involve in the process.

  • Accept the Terms. If you do not agree with Google's Terms, it will not be possible to use their service.

  • Tick Send alerts to owners if you want to do so. This will email owners about suspicious activity in relation to the form.

  • Click Submit when you are ready.

  • You will now be shown your reCaptcha keys. Please copy the Site Key

  • Paste the site key in Operate, into the Google Captcha Key field on your Web to Lead form. 

Web to Lead HTML Help

Operate will generate a raw HTML for your Web to Lead form to drop into your website. Pass this html to your webmaster.

Your webmaster will need to style the form. (If you need help with elements on your web to lead form we recommend taking a look at: http://www.w3.org)

There are a few field types and actions that you need to be aware of: On your Web to Lead you might want to:

  • pass hidden fields

  • allow multiple options to be selected on HTML select lists

  • automatically assign a location (for example) as default but not show the location field on screen

Solution examples:

  • <input type="hidden" ......

  • <select multiple ........ - The user will need to hold down the <Ctrl> key (Cmd key on a Mac keyboard) while selecting multiple items in the select list so you will need to add this instruction as text

  • <select .... > <option selected value=|"my location">My Location</option></select>

Click here to see an example of HTML.

Date Fields - Dates must be passed to Operate as dd/mm/yyyy. You can choose to put a validator on the web page or make sure you convert the date before sending.

Pre Completing Fields - if you want a web to lead field to be pre completed you can use the HTML code value="xxxx" with xxxx representing the value you would like to populate the field with.

Hiding a field - if you would like to hide a field in the web to lead form your web developer may be able to do this via updating the CSS or alternatively you can hide the section of the form by using a hidden attribute. Simply past <p hidden> at the start of the form and then </p> at the end.

Making fields mandatory - You can make submissions to certain fields mandatory by adding a required tag to the input.
 e.g if you wanted to make the company name mandatory, you could do so by updating the filed as per below -

  • Without "required tag" - 

<label for="LeadName">Company</label><input  id="LeadName"  name="LeadName"  type="text"/>

  • With "required tag" - 

<label for="LeadName">Company</label><input  id="LeadName"  name="LeadName"  type="text" required/>

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