Capture leads with a signup form
"Send me the guide", "tell me when it opens", "keep me posted" - a signup form is the smallest promise a visitor can make you, and every page doing real work should let them make it. Adding one is a sentence.
How it works
- Say where and what for. The page, the kind - waitlist, lead capture, or a general enquiry - and the heading in your own voice ("Hear about the next firing"). The form arrives styled to match your site, not a grey browser default.
- Choose what to ask. An email is always included (it's how repeat signups merge into one person). Add a name, phone, or a question box if you genuinely need them - shorter forms convert better.
- Add consent wording if you'll email them marketing. The checkbox starts unticked, always - see How forms and signups work on my site for why that's non-negotiable - and what they agreed to is stored with their record.
- Try it yourself first, if you like. The preview's form really works: fill it in and press send, and the submission lands in your contacts like any other, so you can check the whole journey before a single visitor sees it.
- Approve the preview, and it's live. Each signup lands in your contacts and in your inbox; a welcome email can follow automatically if you've set one up.
Open anyone in your contacts and you'll see "What they told you" - every answer they gave on the form, in their own words, alongside their tags and notes.
Label your funnels
A form can carry a short label - spring-workshop, glazing-guide - and signups
keep it, so each funnel stays its own audience. When you later write to "everyone who
wanted the glazing guide", that's exactly who gets it, not your whole list.
When the signups should go to your mailing provider instead
If your funnels live in ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp or similar - automations, sequences, tags - wire the form to the provider rather than the site's own list: Connect a form to ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp or my email provider. And if you've inherited a form that looks fine but delivers nowhere (the classic after a WordPress move), start at My signup forms stopped working after the move.
The prompt
“Add a [waitlist / lead capture / enquiry] form to my [page name] page, headed '[your heading, e.g. Get the free guide]'. Ask for [email only / name and email]. Include a consent box saying '[your consent wording]'. Label the signups '[funnel name]' so they stay a separate group.”
Press Copy, then paste it into your AI and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard first - a one-time setup in bernard → your site → Use your own AI.
Questions people ask
- How do I add an email signup form to my website?
- If your site is hosted with bernard, tell the AI you already use - ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini - which page should carry the form, what it's for, and what to ask beyond an email address. It writes a working form styled to match your site; you approve a preview before it goes live.
- Where do the signups end up?
- In your contacts on this site, each with the answers they gave, and you get an email for every submission, so nothing sits unseen. If you'd rather signups feed your mailing provider's automations, that's a different wiring; ask for the form to be connected to your provider instead.
- Can the consent box start ticked to get more signups?
- No - and not as a policy you can override: the machinery has no way to produce a pre-ticked box. Consent on a form needs a real affirmative act, so the visitor ticks it themselves or no consent is recorded. The exact wording they saw is stored with their record.
- Can I try the form before my visitors see it?
- Yes. The form arrives on your draft first, and you can fill it in and press send right there in the preview - it is a real submission, so you will see it land in your contacts and get the notification email, exactly as a visitor's would. Publish only when you are happy; the form is not public until you approve it.
- Can I keep signups from different pages separate?
- Yes - give each form a label ('workshop-waitlist', 'glazing-guide') and its signups stay a distinct group, so a later email about the workshop goes only to workshop people. Everything still waits for your approval before the form itself changes.