{"id":510,"date":"2024-06-14T22:05:57","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T22:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cloudamp.com\/news\/?p=510"},"modified":"2024-10-29T22:43:08","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T22:43:08","slug":"the-ultimate-guide-to-salesforce-web-to-lead-forms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cloudamp.com\/news\/the-ultimate-guide-to-salesforce-web-to-lead-forms\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ultimate Guide to Salesforce Web-to-Lead Forms"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Want more leads? Of course you do! Everybody needs to receive inquiries from prospects and customers, whether you are a large business or a small nonprofit.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you are first implementing Salesforce, one of the decisions you\u2019ll need to make is how to efficiently get inquiries from your website into Salesforce, so communications can quickly be managed in your CRM. Same for when you are redesigning your website, or trying to figure out how to make your Contact Us page or advertising landing page more compelling to prospective customers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Salesforce uses <\/span>Leads<\/b> as the record to separate prospects interested in your product or service from your customers. In the Salesforce data model, once Leads are qualified, you convert them to an Account with a Contact, and optionally an Opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the easiest ways to get these inquiries into your Salesforce account is a feature called <\/span>Web-to-Lead<\/b> (sometimes abbreviated W2L). And the good news is that this technology is already included in your Salesforce Sales Cloud or Service Cloud subscription.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In this ultimate guide to Salesforce web-to-lead forms, we will cover the following:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What is Salesforce Web-to-Lead?<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Advantages of Salesforce Web-to-Lead Forms<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Disadvantages of Salesforce Web-to-Lead Forms<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Preparing Your Web to Lead Configuration<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  5. How to Set Up Salesforce Web-to-Lead<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Understanding Web-to-Lead Form Code<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Implementing Web-to-Lead Forms on Your Website<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  8. Working with Salesforce Leads<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Adding Data to Your Salesforce Leads<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  10. Next Steps for Managing Salesforce Leads<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/a><\/p>\n

    What is Salesforce Web-to-Lead?<\/b><\/h2>\n

    Salesforce web-to-lead is an included feature in Salesforce Sales Cloud. By turning it on and going through the steps below, you can quickly generate a form to place on your website, where customers or prospects who fill out the form instantly appear in Salesforce as leads.<\/span><\/p>\n

    By having leads automatically created in Salesforce, instead of sent via email or stored elsewhere, you can get better data on your prospects — who they are, where they came from, and more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Web-to-Lead ensures no data is lost, you get better reporting on lead flow, and no manual data entry is required of your sales people. It also enables you to easily kick off automations in Salesforce, such as email autoresponders, automated lead assignment to Salesforce users or queues, and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Web-to-Lead is one of the first steps to generating leads, and managing them in Salesforce!<\/span>
    \n    <\/a><\/p>\n

    Advantages of Salesforce Web-to-Lead Forms<\/b><\/h2>\n

    There are many advantages to using Salesforce Web-to-Lead Forms, as it is the included technology that has been provided as part of Salesforce for more than 20 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Native Integration:<\/b> Salesforce web-to-lead forms are directly integrated into Salesforce, so you don\u2019t need third-party form apps or connectors. This often simplifies your go live process, and reduces potential points of failure.<\/span><\/li>\n
    2. Data Consistency:<\/b> Since Salesforce web-to-lead forms are part of the Salesforce product, data captured through these forms is immediately available within Salesforce. This can eliminate the need for manual data entry or syncing, and any new fields or other changes to your Salesforce config are immediately available.<\/span><\/li>\n
    3. Security:<\/b> With Salesforce web-to-lead forms, data is transmitted securely from your website to your Salesforce environment, reducing the risk of data breaches or security vulnerabilities that could be associated with third-party integrations.<\/span><\/li>\n
    4. Built for Salesforce:<\/b> Since Salesforce web-to-lead forms are a longstanding feature of the Salesforce environment, you know they will work with other Salesforce tools and customization options, such as Auto-Responders and Lead Assignment. You can also count on many third-party apps on the Salesforce AppExchange being designed to support Web-to-Lead forms.<\/span><\/li>\n
    5. Cost:<\/b> Salesforce web-to-lead forms are included as a feature with all Salesforce subscription levels, so there is no additional cost. This can be helpful for small businesses or organizations with limited budgets.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      <\/a><\/p>\n

      Disadvantages of Salesforce Web-to-Lead Forms<\/b><\/h2>\n

      We\u2019ve seen some of the advantages of Salesforce web-to-lead above. So why are there so many dozens of form applications out there, offering alternatives to a feature that is included with Salesforce? Here are some of the disadvantages of Web-to-Lead, and why customers might turn to third-party forms like Formstack or FormAssembly.<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

        \n
      1. Fewer Advanced Features:<\/b> Third-party form solutions often offer a wider range of features and customization options compared to Salesforce web-to-lead forms. This can include advanced form validation, conditional logic, multi-page forms, file or attachment uploads, and integration with other third-party services.<\/span><\/li>\n
      2. Ease of Use:<\/b> Some third-party form solutions are more user-friendly and easier to set up compared to Salesforce web-to-lead forms, especially for organizations who may not have a web developer to add formatting and validation code to the raw HTML forms that Salesforce provides.<\/span><\/li>\n
      3. Customization and Branding:<\/b> Third-party forms usually provide more options for customizing the look and feel of your forms to match your brand identity. This can include custom CSS styling, branded URLs, and customizable form templates, as well as the ability to publish an updated version to your website without involving your web developer.<\/span><\/li>\n
      4. Deduplication.<\/b> Salesforce web-to-lead forms cannot match submissions to existing Salesforce records to prevent duplicates, unlike some forms (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement forms, for example, use cookies to match submissions to existing prospects). Leads can be deduped using Salesforce\u2019s duplicate rules or a wide variety of other apps however.<\/span><\/li>\n
      5. Limits.<\/b> With Salesforce web-to-lead forms, you can capture up to 500 leads in a 24-hour period, before additional requests get queued. While this is not an issue for most organizations, it could make web-to-lead ill suited for large companies. And though Salesforce provides support for web-to-lead functionality, they do not support customizations to the code unique to your implementation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        <\/a><\/p>\n

        Preparing Your Web to Lead Configuration<\/b><\/h2>\n

        There are a few things to consider, when preparing to set up Salesforce web-to-lead. These items can always be updated after implementation, but thinking them through ahead of time will make your go live process smoother.<\/span><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Lead Ownership and Assignment<\/b><\/h3>\n

        Who will own new leads, and how will they be assigned? <\/span>
        \n<\/span>
        \n<\/span>This may be simple if you only have a single person responding to inquiries, but for larger sales organizations there are a number of Salesforce features that can make lead follow up more efficient and organized.<\/span><\/p>\n

        Leads can be automatically assigned to Salesforce users based on various rules and the data submitted via the form, or assigned to a Queue for distribution.<\/span><\/p>\n

        In addition, there is a \u201cDefault Lead Creator\u201d setting in Salesforce, where all leads that come in via Web-to-Lead forms will show up as having been created by that person. There is also a default Lead Owner setting, so if you do not set up lead assignment rules, all web-created leads will be assigned to the default owner.<\/span><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        \"Salesforce<\/a><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Lead Form Custom Fields<\/b><\/h3>\n

        Most lead forms are kept simple and short, using existing fields already provided by Salesforce. First Name, Last Name, Company, Email, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

        But if you would like to track information specific to your business, it is easy to create custom fields in Salesforce. Perhaps you would like to add a picklist field for your leads to select which of your products or services a lead is inquiring about, or add fields for a lead to request a quote.<\/span><\/p>\n

        Creating custom fields ahead of time will make them available when you create your web-to-lead form, as well as improve the data you receive in Salesforce. You can also use information specific to your business to help drive lead assignment or auto-responses, based on product interest or different sales teams.<\/span>
        \n        <\/a><\/p>\n

        How to Set Up Salesforce Web-to-Lead<\/b><\/h2>\n

        You can create Salesforce web-to-lead forms in just a few simple steps. First you will enable the basic feature and choose its default settings, and second you will create a form.<\/span><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

        Enabling Salesforce Web-to-Lead<\/b><\/h3>\n
          \n
        1. Click the <\/span>Setup<\/b> gear menu, and search for <\/span>web-to-lead<\/b>, then select it.<\/span><\/li>\n
        2. To enable the feature or update settings, click <\/span>Edit<\/b><\/li>\n
        3. Optional settings:<\/span>\n
            \n
          1. Select <\/span>Require reCAPTCHA Verification<\/b> to reduce spam leads<\/span><\/li>\n
          2. Specify a <\/span>Default Lead Creator<\/b>. This user is shown as the Creator for all leads submitted through your website,, and should ideally have Administrative permissions to Salesforce.<\/span><\/li>\n
          3. Select a <\/span>Default Response Template<\/b> if you want to automate email responses to your leads. You will need an active Email Template. Additional replies based on the information a lead enters in the form can drive different responses using auto-response rules, but this sets the default.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
          4. Click <\/span>Save<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

             <\/p>\n

            \"Salesforce<\/a><\/p>\n

             <\/p>\n

            Creating a Salesforce Web-to-Lead Form<\/b><\/h3>\n
              \n
            1. To create a new form, click <\/span>Create Web-to-Lead Form<\/b><\/li>\n
            2. Choose the fields you wish to include in your form.<\/span>\n
                \n
              1. Use the arrows to move fields from <\/span>Available Fields<\/b> to <\/span>Selected Fields<\/b> lists<\/span><\/li>\n
              2. Use the up down arrows to select the order of the fields on your form<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
              3. Enter the URL to direct prospects to after they submit your form (commonly a thank you page).<\/span><\/li>\n
              4. Click <\/span>Generate<\/b><\/li>\n
              5. Copy the code created and save to a document and\/or email to your web developer<\/span><\/li>\n
              6. Click <\/span>Finished<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                 <\/p>\n

                \"Salesforce<\/a><\/p>\n

                 <\/p>\n

                Salesforce Documentation Links<\/span><\/h4>\n

                Guidelines for Setting Up Web-to-Lead<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

                Generate Leads from Your Website for Your Sales Teams<\/span><\/a>
                \n                <\/a><\/p>\n

                Understanding Web-to-Lead Form Code<\/b><\/h2>\n

                There are a few parts of the web-to-lead code you might wish to understand as a marketer, but certainly should as a web developer.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

                Feel free to skip this section<\/b> if the underlying code is not of interest!<\/span><\/p>\n

                 <\/p>\n

                To create additional web-to-lead forms, you can generate them using the same process above, or simply copy and edit the code as needed to remove or add fields. If you are going to do the latter, you should understand the following pieces of code:<\/span><\/p>\n

                  \n
                1. Form Action<\/span><\/li>\n
                2. Salesforce Org ID (Oid)<\/span><\/li>\n
                3. Thank you page<\/span><\/li>\n
                4. Submit<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  \"Salesforce<\/a><\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  Form Action<\/span><\/h4>\n

                  The first line in your Salesforce web-to-lead form tells Salesforce to post the data to a Salesforce endpoint.<\/span><\/p>\n

                   <\/p>\n

                  <form action=\"https:\/\/webto.salesforce.com\/servlet\/servlet.WebToLead?encoding=UTF-8\" method=\"POST\"><\/span><\/pre>\n
                   <\/p>\n
                  This should always be the same (unless you are using Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (fka Pardot), in which case you might update it with a Pardot Form handler URL in cases where you wanted Leads to first go into Pardot).<\/span><\/p>\n
                   <\/p>\n
                  Salesforce Org ID (oid)<\/span><\/h4>\n
                  The second line in your form is the oid, or Salesforce Organization ID. This defines the target Salesforce account where leads should be posted to, so it is very important.<\/span><\/p>\n
                   <\/p>\n
                  <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"oid\" value=\"00Dd0000000fbft\"><\/span><\/pre>\n
                   <\/p>\n
                  This value should not be changed, unless you wanted to create a test form that posted to a different Salesforce org, such as a Developer org or Sandbox org for testing. In that case, you could change the value to the 15 character org ID of the new target Salesforce account.<\/span><\/p>\n
                   <\/p>\n
                  Thank you page (retURL)<\/span><\/h4>\n
                  The retURL is where you want website visitors to end up after submitting the form. Simply update the value to direct people to a different page.<\/span><\/p>\n
                   <\/p>\n
                  <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"retURL\" value=\"<\/span>http:\/\/www.cloudamp.com\/contact\/thanks.html<\/span><\/a>\"><\/span><\/pre>\n
                   <\/p>\n
                  While some companies redirect to their home page after form submission, using a dedicated thank you page is a best practice. That allows you to have a thank you message indicating next steps, as well as hidden conversion tracking codes for Google Ads or other online advertising, since visitors should only be arriving at this thank you page after a conversion (submitting the form).<\/span><\/p>\n
                   <\/p>\n
                  \"Salesforce<\/a><\/p>\n
                   <\/p>\n
                  Submit<\/span><\/h4>\n
                  The final input is a submit button, which is what website visitors click on to submit the form. You can change the value here as well to a more compelling message, such as \u201cGet Started\u201d or \u201cDownload Now\u201d etc.<\/span><\/p>\n
                   <\/p>\n
                  <input type=\"submit\" name=\"submit\" value=\"Get Started\"><\/span><\/pre>\n
                   <\/p>\n
                  This input will almost certainly be styled by your web developer to match your site, which is what we cover in the next section!<\/span><\/p>\n
                   <\/p>\n\n\n\n
                  \ud83d\udc4d Protip:<\/b><\/p>\n
                  Want to automatically assign new leads to a Campaign? Our guide to identifying \u201c<\/span>Which Form or Web Page did a Salesforce lead come from?<\/span><\/a>\u201d provides a how to on hard-coding Campaign values in a hidden field in your web-to-lead forms, so new leads <\/span>automatically get assigned to those Salesforce Campaigns<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
                  <\/a><\/p>\n
                  Implementing Web-to-Lead Forms on Your Website<\/b><\/h2>\n
                  Once you have generated the Salesforce web-to-lead code, there are two basic steps to implementing them on your website:<\/span><\/p>\n