Capturing contacts: forms, leads and integrations
Most visitors aren't ready to buy
Out of 100 people who visit your site, a handful buy or book right away. The others are interested but not ready: they compare, hesitate, postpone. If they leave without a trace, they're lost — you paid to bring them in and you let them slip away. The countermeasure: capture their contact so you can reach them again. That's the role of forms, and it's the bridge between your site and your customer relationship.
The contact magnet: give to receive
Nobody leaves their email "to get the newsletter." You have to offer something useful in exchange — a lead magnet: a PDF guide, a checklist, a template, a mini email course, a free diagnosis, a discount code. The rule: it must be immediately useful and precisely targeted at your customer's problem. A good magnet turns an anonymous visitor into a contact you can nurture until purchase.
Form tools
- Tally: now a reference, free and very generous, elegant forms in minutes, conditional logic, payment, native connection to hundreds of tools. An excellent default.
- Typeform: conversational forms, one question at a time, very polished; limited free plan, paid ~€25/month for volume. Ideal when the experience matters.
- Your builder's / email tool's native form: Framer, Webflow, Systeme.io, and the email tools below include their own forms — often enough to start, without another tool.
- Google Forms: free, raw, perfect for a survey or an internal signup, less so for a polished marketing capture.
Where the contact goes: the email tool
Capturing an email is useless if it sleeps in a spreadsheet. The contact must land in an email tool that stores the list, automatically sends the promised magnet, and lets you reach out later. The accessible references:
- Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): French, free plan up to a good send volume, emailing + simple automations. Very suited to start in Europe.
- MailerLite: very clear interface, free plan up to 1,000 contacts, automations included. A favorite of solos and creators.
- Mailchimp / Kit (formerly ConvertKit): historic standards, Kit being especially loved by content creators.
The essential: one email tool, to which all your forms point. It holds your most precious asset — your list — the one you truly own, unlike your followers on social networks.
Connecting everything: Zapier, Make, n8n and native
The secret of a stack that "works on its own" is the connection between tools. Three cases:
- Native integrations first. Tally → Brevo, Cal.com → your CRM, Stripe → your emailing: many tools plug directly into each other, with no middleman. Always look for this option first; it's free and robust.
- Zapier / Make when there's no native connection. These platforms link thousands of tools through "if this, then that": new contact in Tally → add to Brevo → send me an alert → create a record. Make is more visual and often cheaper; Zapier simpler and better documented.
- n8n for those who want to self-host their automations and control costs at high volume (the subject of the dedicated no-code program).
A typical, fully automated journey: a visitor downloads your guide via a Tally form → they receive the PDF and enter an email sequence in MailerLite → if they click your offer, they land on your Cal.com booking page → the appointment paid via Stripe creates a record in your CRM. You touched nothing.
GDPR: capturing cleanly
Capturing a contact in Europe requires consent: an unchecked box, a clear statement of what you'll do with the email, and a link to your privacy policy. Never buy lists and never add anyone without agreement: beyond the law, a consented list is a list that opens your emails. We detail compliance in the next chapter.
Key takeaways
Turn your hesitant visitors into contacts with a useful magnet and a simple form (Tally by default), send them to a single email tool (Brevo, MailerLite) that holds your list, and connect everything — natively first, otherwise with Make or Zapier. It's this mesh that turns a passive site into a re-engagement machine, while respecting consent.