Step-by-Step: Integrating Your Keap Dynamic Tags with a Third-Party Form Builder for Advanced Lead Capture
In the modern digital landscape, harnessing the full power of your CRM is crucial for sophisticated lead capture and nurturing. While Keap offers robust form capabilities, integrating its dynamic tags with a third-party form builder can unlock unparalleled flexibility, design control, and data enrichment opportunities. This guide will walk you through the precise steps to merge the best of both worlds, ensuring your lead capture strategy is both seamless and highly effective, leveraging personalized data from the outset.
Step 1: Identify Your Third-Party Form Builder and Keap Custom Fields
Before diving into the integration, select a third-party form builder that supports custom field mapping and webhook functionality. Popular choices include Typeform, JotForm, Gravity Forms (with add-ons), or even advanced landing page builders like Unbounce. Simultaneously, log into your Keap application and identify or create the custom fields you wish to populate. These custom fields are where your Keap dynamic tags will pull or push data. For instance, if you want to pre-fill a form with a contact’s company name or a unique referral code, ensure these fields exist and are accessible within your Keap contact records. Understanding this data flow is the foundation of a successful dynamic integration.
Step 2: Design Your Third-Party Form with Matching Fields
With your Keap custom fields in mind, design your third-party form. Crucially, the fields on your form must directly correspond to the custom fields in Keap. For example, if you have a Keap custom field named “Referral Code,” create a form field (often a hidden field for pre-population) with a similar or identical label. This consistency is paramount for accurate data mapping later. Decide which fields will be visible to the user, and which will be hidden, used purely for data capture and dynamic tag pre-population. Consider using conditional logic within your form builder to create more engaging and personalized user experiences based on initial inputs.
Step 3: Generate Your Keap Dynamic Tags and Create a “Bridge” Page
Keap dynamic tags are typically used in emails or landing pages to personalize content. To leverage them with a third-party form, you’ll need to create a “bridge” page within Keap or a simple webpage you control. On this page, embed links that contain the Keap dynamic tags as URL parameters, pointing to your third-party form. For example, a link might look like `https://yourform.com?firstName=~Contact.FirstName~&email=~Contact.Email~&customField=~Contact.CustomField~`. When a contact clicks this link from a Keap email, Keap will replace `~Contact.FirstName~` with the actual first name, passing that data directly to your form.
Step 4: Configure Your Third-Party Form to Accept URL Parameters
Now, within your chosen third-party form builder, you need to configure the form fields to accept data passed via URL parameters. Most advanced form builders have a setting for this, often called “pre-populate fields from URL” or “query string mapping.” You’ll map the URL parameter names (e.g., `firstName`, `email`, `customField`) to the corresponding form fields. This step is critical as it allows the dynamically generated Keap data to flow directly into your form, either filling in visible fields or populating hidden ones for internal tracking. Test this mapping thoroughly by manually constructing a URL with sample data and observing how the form reacts.
Step 5: Set Up Webhooks for Data Submission Back to Keap
Once a user submits the third-party form, the data needs to flow back into Keap. This is where webhooks come into play. Configure your third-party form to send a webhook POST request upon submission. The webhook payload should contain all the collected data, including any pre-populated Keap dynamic tag data that was passed through. In Keap, you’ll use an API Goal or a tool like Make.com (formerly Integromat) to catch this incoming webhook. Map the incoming webhook data fields to your existing Keap contact fields, ensuring that new contacts are created or existing contacts are updated with the latest information.
Step 6: Implement Keap Automation to Process Form Submissions
With the webhook successfully sending data back to Keap, the final step is to build out your Keap automation sequence. This might involve a campaign that starts when the API Goal is achieved (from the webhook). Within this campaign, you can apply tags, assign tasks, send follow-up emails, update other custom fields, or trigger internal notifications. The power of this integration lies in immediately acting on the enriched data from your third-party form, creating a seamless and highly personalized lead nurturing experience from the moment a prospect interacts with your advanced lead capture system.
If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Automated Keap Backups: Your Shield Against Data Loss and Dynamic Tag Disasters
