As a business, you need new clients or customers. That’s Business 101 (we think). But before you get to the “new client” stage… you need leads.
For many businesses, leads require some sort of lead generation system: An opt-in, gated content, etc. But for many businesses, leads come from the Contact Form on their website.
HoneyBook Contact Forms are a great way to embed a lead-capturing tool right on your site — you can request name, information relevant to your projects/services, and even ask about budget, timelines, etc.
But HoneyBook users have also requested something easier (and less involved) than a Contact Form for some time. While we were at HoneyBook HQ back in June 2023, we saw a lot of the progress they’re making on user-requested updates like this one, and they launched Lead Forms in August 2023!
According to their website, HoneyBook Lead Forms “enable you to provide a fully branded, customizable experience for clients that you want to book immediately. This includes turning new inquiries into business right away by streamlining the process for capturing, qualifying, and accepting payment. You can also book repeat clients faster, all from a custom Lead Form.”
Lead Forms are essentially a “landing page,” where you can capture someone’s name and email and let them take the next step in working with you. We’ve seen HoneyBook users leverage Lead Forms to:
Rather than requiring interested parties to fill out your Contact Form, wait for the next steps, and run through your HoneyBook automations, Lead Forms shortcuts all of that — and makes it easy to take action NOW!
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Contact Forms are dead in the water. They’ll still very valuable for your business. But when should you use them, and when should you use Lead Forms instead?
We love Contact Forms because these are branded, coded forms you can actually embed on your website. You can use them to collect really pertinent info for your services or offers, like:
You can also questions that are specific to your brand and how you help/serve clients, like:
Contact Forms are great as a static feature on your website, and we actually recommend them for most sites! They are especially useful for service-based or SaaS businesses when a discovery call, fit call, lead review, or demo is necessary for selling your services.
Need help embedding a Contact Form on your site? HoneyBook has a tutorial here.
Pro tip: Have more questions to get started on a project? Don’t put all of them in your Contact Form. Use HoneyBook’s questionnaire feature to send onboarding questionnaires (or to help with offboarding, testimonials, etc.).
Here’s a hypothetical: A potential lead says they want to see a brochure of your packages, or to get a pricing guide on your services.
With just Contact Forms, they’d have to inquire and go through the whole process — when they really just want to know your pricing! This is where Lead Forms can come in handy.
Here’s another hypothetical: A lead finds you, they’re ready to book a paid session for your services… but your Contact Form makes them go through so much rigamarole, they lose excitement. What a bummer.
In situations like those, it’s really helpful to use HoneyBook Lead Forms. This way, you can give them a direct way to show their interest, without making them go through a singular process that they are ready to shortcut.
Lead Forms are essentially public Smart Files you can share with anyone. Use these forms to share assets, calendars, and paid schedulers with just a link!
This is a GREAT tool if you’re a photographer, coach, or service-based business that wants to get clients a chance to book ASAP (or get info they need to decide if they want to book with you).
It’s also an easy way to create a new form for a sale or “secret” offer, because you can just change the price on your form, share the link, and see bookings come in!
You can also add your Lead Forms in your workflows just like you would add Contact Forms too.
Just like with Contact Forms, you add Lead Forms into your HoneyBook workflows. This means that you can trigger an automation if someone fills out your Lead Form — and automatically place them in your prospect pipeline or fulfill next steps.
Let’s say someone books a session with you, directly from the Lead Form. Your Lead Form can automate an email that sends any materials they need to prep for the session. Once the session ends, it can also trigger a thank you email with your scheduler link to book another session. You can automate confirmation emails, welcome packets, links to your digital products, and more.
To add a Lead Form to your Automations, build the Lead Form in Tools first, then go to your Automations. From there, you can set up triggers that let HoneyBook know what to do once someone submits their action.
Need help creating a Lead Form? HoneyBook has you covered with this tutorial.
HoneyBook is such a robust tool that can put time back in your calendar — and in your life. But to get your time back, you need to know how to set HoneyBook up properly.
With new features like Lead Forms coming out all the time (and some amazing stuff coming soon!), it helps to have a resource that can show you how to optimize your business with HoneyBook’s best features.
We’ve created that resource, inside our Systems School HoneyBook course. Inside our course, you learn how to set up your account, create workflow automations, build client assets, and so much more.
Inside our 50+ video training course, you’ll learn how to set up HoneyBook to do the heavy lifting for you. We’ll even help you troubleshoot any snafus or mistakes you’ve made along the way.
Best of all, our Systems School course members get three months FREE access to our private community, where you can come to ask questions, find other tutorials, and get support from the DL Team!
If you want to use features like Lead Forms, Contact Forms, automations, and more, our HoneyBook course is the place to go. Check it out today!
