To build an email mailing list, you need to be able to capture people’s contact details and get their consent to receive communications from you.
In Kartra, people can give you their contact information and confirm their consent through any type of form created in your account:
- Opt-in forms
- Checkout forms
- Surveys and quizzes
- Calendar booking forms
- Webinar registration forms
- Affiliate application forms
- Helpdesk ticket submission (if enabled)
The simplest way to start collecting email addresses to build your list is with an opt-in form. This gives people a way to submit their information with the least amount of effort.
An opt-in form is a simple form that collects people's email addresses or other contact information. If you have ever entered your email address in a form to get a discount code, download a free tool, or join a mailing list, you used an opt-in form.
When your form has been created, create a page to put it on. Then you can publish and share the opt-in page online so people can visit and opt-in to your list.
How to capture leads in Kartra
Example of an opt-in funnel (above). Follow this guide to create a version of the funnel in your account!
A list in Kartra is an organized group that people can be subscribed to or removed from, without affecting their status in the rest of your account.
As a general rule, always subscribe people to a list in your account when they submit their information through a form. This will help you understand where they came from and what they're interested in and it gives your subscribers the option to opt out in the future if they want to.
- In your account, go to Communications > Leads > Lists to create and manage lists
- Learn about Lists
- Learn about subscription management for your leads
You can create and publish fully functional web pages in Kartra, even if you don't have a website yet. Kartra pages each have a unique web address that you can share on social media, in emails, and anywhere you want people to be able to click and access the page.
For your opt-in form, you need two pages: one where people will fill out the form (you'll create this at a later step), and a second where they will go after clicking submit.
- In your account, go to Pages > Pages to create a success page
- Pro tip: Use templates to start quickly! Look at "thank you page" templates for prebuilt designs.
- Publish the page when you're finished customizing it. It must be published to connect it to the form settings in the next step.
Opt-in forms usually contain two or three fields where a visitor can enter their name and email address, followed by a submit button.
This simple type of form can be used for any scenario where someone would sign up to receive something from you, such as information or access to a free resource.
- In your account, go to Forms > Forms to create a new opt-in form
- At the Confirmation step, choose the success page you created in the Page section of this guide.
- At the Form design step, choose "I will use the form in another Kartra asset."
- At the Automations step of the wizard, select the list you created in the List section of this guide. Anyone who submits this form will be added to the list(s) you specify.
- Finish the form wizard to save it.
The opt-in page is where people will fill out the form. This is the page you should share online so people can visit it and decide whether they want to sign up for your list.
- In your account, go to Pages > Pages to create the opt-in page
- Pro tip: Use templates to start quickly! Look at "squeeze pages" to get templates with a form placeholder in the design. The template you choose may have a visible placeholder or it might have a button that is configured to pop up a form.
- Customize the page with your branding and message. This is the page where you will invite people to give you their contact details, so make it as appealing as possible!
- Locate the form placeholder or button in the page design. Hover over it and click the pencil icon in the orange toolbar to edit the settings.
- In the configuration menu, select and save the form you created in the previous step of this guide.
- If your template uses a button to open the form, go to Link > Pop an opt-in form in the settings to select your form.
- Save and publish the page.
Learn more about editing pages
Congratulations, you just created a simple opt-in funnel! Visitors who go to your opt-in page will be prompted to fill out the form. If they do, they will be redirected to the success page.
In the meantime, their contact information is sent back to your Kartra account and added to a list, where you can now begin to send them emails and build a relationship with them.
Here's what you can do next:
- Test the funnel! Go to your opt-in page in your web browser and enter your information in the form to see what the experience is like. Check the records inside Kartra to see how things look in the dashboard when someone opts in.
- Learn about tagging for more organization and automation options in Kartra.
- If you turned the welcome email ON in your form setup, you can customize the sender information for that email and others that are sent from your account.
- Learn about KartraMail (your account's built-in mail service)
- Learn about authenticating your email sender domains
Where are my leads?
Go to Communications > Leads to see all the leads in your account. You can use the advanced filters to find everyone who has filled out a specific form.
When people fill out your forms, their contact information is added to your Kartra account. Each individual person is identified by their unique email address.
The first time an email address is submitted to your account, it creates a new lead profile for your new contact. If the same email address is used to complete other forms in the future (such as during a product purchase), the person's existing profile is updated with information about their new actions.
There can only be one lead per unique email address in your account.