Hi all,
Looking for best practices on setting up form(s) for a web resource center. Currently, assets are form-gated (will look into changing that later). CMS is Wordpress. I would love to be able to use one form + some sort of variable passed through that indicates what asset to email to the submitter. I would very much not want to build 100 forms if possible.
Any thoughts?
Hey @Debrincatj, great question!
I just went through a huge resource center and nurturing program implementation with a client, so this is fresh in my mind. There are a couple ways to proceed here depending on the level of reporting and follow-up automation that you need. Unfortunately, there will be some heavy manual work at some point in the process, but I have some thoughts on other approaches you can take to the resource center in case they’re helpful!
Option 1: Use a single form and the submission URL to build fulfillment workflows/branches
If you want to use a single form across all assets, you can use the submission URL as your unique identifier (assuming that you have a unique URL for each asset). From there, you would need to either create the 100 workflows or 100 workflow branches that look at every combination of “Has filled out [Form X]” and “URL contains any of [resource-name].” The respective branch can send the respective fulfillment email from there. You’ll need to create separate lists or create a custom property to easily distinguish submissions by resource since everything will flow into one form here.
Option 2: Use a unique form for every resource
I know this isn’t a fun option, but you could create a unique form for every individual resource. This is honestly the way that I would go since it gives you the most control over your submission data and subsequent actions. Instead of relying on the URL of the submission, you can know for certain that someone accessed a specific resource and form reporting becomes much easier since you can easily compare submissions by form. If you’re tracking the running list of resources that a contact has downloaded in a custom property, this is also a great use case to add that value as a hidden form field. This is probably your best option as far as reporting and follow-up are concerned, but definitely be sure that you get the first form 100% right before you clone it so you don’t have to update all of those forms!
If neither of those options sound super appealing, you should evaluate your current approach adn the current performance of the resource center. Have you historically seen a bunch of downloads of these assets? And do those downloads typically come from people who have a higher chance of becoming a customer? If the answer is no, or if you don’t know the answer, consider ungating more of your content and rolling out a lead scoring strategy to track engagement here instead. You can still keep your most valuable and/or premium content gated but then let the user freely expore the other pieces you’re offering. As long as you have clear CTAs to explore other pieces/reach out to you with questions/get started, the lead will come to you when they’re ready.
Honestly, I think it’s frustrating for the user to need to fill out a form for every piece of content they’re accessing (unless it’s an eBook or some other form of long-form content). You could also explore some other gated approaches like:
I know this is in large part a technical decision (i.e., what’s going to be the most streamlined approach), but cling to what you know about your users and their preferences. Think about the experience they would want to have, then try to get as close as you can in HubSpot from there.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions or want to talk through anything!!