6 Powerful Form Builders for Creating a Lead Capture System

Recently we published an article titled Conversion is Key for This Open House Expert, which detailed a story from San Francisco-based agent Nicole Nicolay. Nicole uses open houses as an opportunity to convert market watchers, tire kickers, and fence sitters into clients. In that article, she shared her proven technique for collecting contact information at open houses. Explaining that she quickly learned that many people write like doctors when you ask them to write their email addresses. Her fix was to digitally capture contact information by way of a landing page off her website.

In response, we had a number of agents ask for a follow up post showing how they could create a similar system. Here’s how:

It starts with the landing page

A landing page is a single page located on your website that highlights a single topic. Many of the most successful landing pages lead with a bold, eye-catching image, laser-focused headline and clear call-to-action. To enhance your credibility, consider including social proof or testimonials confirming the value of your offer.

Form Creation Tools

Your landing page will need a form to capture the prospect’s request and contact information. There are a variety of form creation tools available on the market, and many have free, low volume options. Here are a few of our favorites:

1 – Gravity Forms
The leading WordPress plugin for creating forms, and the system utilized by Nicole Nicolay, Gravity Forms builds your lead capture system by by simply dragging fields into place. Use the conditional logic to show or hide fields, sections, pages or even the submit button based on user selections. Gravity Forms comes with a onetime cost of $39.00.

2 – Ninja Forms
If the Gravity Forms price tag of $39 is too much for you, try Ninja Forms. This popular WordPress plugin comes with a simple drag and drop interface and is yet another easy way to build a form for your WordPress site.

3 – Google Forms
A free forms solution offered by Google that makes creating and analyzing form results easy directly from your web browser—no additional software is required. Simply drag and drop your fields into place.

4 – Wufoo

Another simple solution for creating embeddable forms, Wufoo, offers both a free and paid version. The free version allows users to create up to three forms with fewer than 100 monthly entries. The tool includes an easy to use form designer. Paid plans, which start at $14.94 a month, include more sophisticated features and allow for more entries.

5 – Form Tools
For the techy agents out there, Form Tools could be a great option for creating single or multi-page forms. This form system is free and open source …running on PHP.

6 – Unbounce

A powerful drag and drop landing page builder that will help you create mobile responsive pages without any help from a technical team. Unbounce comes with hundreds of templates to make getting started quick and easy. Unbounce does not offer a free option; their base package starts at $49.00 a month.

Creating your lead capture form

Now that we have reviewed a variety of forms options for your site, what information should you collect? It’s important to keep the form as simple as possible; asking only for the information needed to complete the request. For example, if your goal is to have Open House visitors sign up before they leave, you may want to ask for first and last name, email address and phone number. Consider also asking for which RPR reports they would like you to send them. For example, the Property Report, Market Activity Report or Neighborhood Report. Also include a simple checkbox asking prospects if they would like to opt-in to your emails communications. If you have a system for sending new homes by email, consider adding that as an option too.