Turning Website Visitors Into Leads: Salesforce.com Web-to-Lead
If you use Salesforce.com to manage your customer relationships, and one of the goals of your website is to capture lead information (contact info for prospective clients or buyer), then you should definitely consider using Salesforce’s Web-to-Lead form. It’s a standard feature included with all versions* of Salesforce.com, but it’s surprising how many of their customers still don’t use it.
The Web-to-Lead form creates a seamless integration between your website’s contact form and Salesforce Lead records. You replace your website’s existing contact form (if you already have one) with the Salesforce Web-to-Lead form, and when a prospective client enters their information into your contact form, a new Lead is automatically created in Salesforce. No more manual data entry on your part!
Once the new lead is created, you can set up “auto-response” rules so the prospect receives a personalized message from you and/or you can receive a notification e-mail informing you that a new Lead has been created. That way you can follow up with leads more quickly – while they’re still hot.
The Web-to-Lead form is extremely customizable – it can be formatted to look like any other part of your website.
This feature has saved our clients a tremendous amount of time, and has been an important step forward for all of them in streamlining their web lead sales processes. With web-to-lead, you no longer have to gather the prospect’s information entered in your contact form or input it manually into Salesforce. Not only does it eliminate that initial data entry on your part, it also reduces the likelihood of error (ie: you typing the wrong email address) when doing so.
Your initial response can be handled for you automatically as well – with the automated response e-mail feature. When a new lead is created, the Salesforce system can automatically email them back with whatever message you want. With this automated process, the chance of a lead falling through the cracks is decreased significantly. It’s just on you or your assigned agent to follow up appropriately.
* Most editions of Salesforce are able to utilize the Web-to-Lead form, and depending on the amount of customization needed, it can be up and running within a few hours. If you are unsure of where to start, or if the thought of working with HTML code makes your brain hurt, we can help you out.
