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Step-by-Step Guide: How to Create/Add a Contact Form in GoHighLevel And How To Add Email Automations (Part 2)

When someone submits a form on your site, do you want your website to work for you by contacting that person via automations?

If so, you are in the right place. In part 2 of this article, we’re going to cover:

how to use a contact form that you created in GoHIghLevel
how to add a set of email automations that contacts that prospect for you with helpful info about your company.

If you missed part 1 where we created a new form in GoHighLevel and added it to our website, go check it out here:

Now that the form is created and on your website, it’s time to put some email automations behind it. You’ll be using these automated emails to tell the prospect about you and your company, ultimately leading them to choose you in their buying decision.

Let’s get started!

Step 1 – Create Your Automation in GoHighLevel

To create an automation, you will want to select “Automation” on the main left-hand menu and click on “Create Workflow”.

A workflow in GoHighLevel is essentially a set of instructions that are to be followed whenever a specific action happens. That action is called a “trigger” by GoHighLevel.

After you select “Create Workflow”, GoHighLevel will give you multiple options for pre-built workflows that they call “Recipes”. Because this is just a simple example where I want to walk you through all of the steps, we are going to select “Start from scratch”.

This pulls up a blank workflow form that is pre-named with some numbers.

The first thing that you will want to do is give your workflow a descriptive name. To do this, just click on the current name to make it editable, then re-name it and click save.

So, as I mentioned before, a trigger is how you start a workflow in GoHighLevel.

Some examples of triggers:

Form submit
Contact tagged
Notes added
Tasks completed in GHL
Email
Chat submission
And more…

In this case, the trigger that we are selecting is “Form Submitted”.

So, click on the “Add New Trigger” and select the “Form Submitted” choice.

Once you select that option, you will need to specify which form and any other filters that you would like to apply to the workflow.

In the “Filters” section, select “Form Is” and then choose the form that you created in the dropdown. Click “Save Trigger” to finalize your first workflow action.

Now, when someone submits that form, they get entered into the workflow sequence.

Step 2 – How to Tag the New Contact in a GoHighLevel Automation

Typically, in any CRM, you want to know where lead comes from.

Some normal lead sources include:

Facebook
Google Search Ads
Website Contact Form
Display Ads
Chamber of Commerce Website
Etc.

In this case, the website is coming from the website contact form. We will want to add a “tag” to the prospect record so that we know how he or she first contacted us.

You can think of a tag as a label or a category. Tags are very helpful when it comes to sending out marketing materials or looking at what marketing methods are working. This is because you can actually search your GoHighLevel contacts by tag type. So, it you have 5 tagged as from Facebook and 20 tagged as from Google Ads, you will know that your Google Ads are probably working better than your Facebook marketing methods.

To tag someone using your workflow, you will click on the “+” to add an action, then select the “Add Contact Tag” action option.

If this is the first time adding a tag, you will need to type one in and click on “Add New Tag”. When I create tags, I typically do Name-of-form-submit as the tag, like you can see in the illustration:

Then, click on “Save Action” to add that step to your workflow.

We now have the workflow setup to start when someone submits the form and to tag them to let us know that they came from the Contact Form on the website.

Next, we need to send them some emails.

Step 3 – How To Create An Email Sequence in GoHighLevel to Send To Prospects From a Form

The first email that they receive should be an email that lets them know that their submission went through and that we will be contacting them shortly.

To do this, we need to click on the “+” button at the bottom of the workflow and then select the “Send Email” action.

This brings up the default “Send Email” fields on the right-hand side.

We will want to change 5 things:

Action Name: Name this action so you don’t get it confused with other emails within the workflow
From Name: this is the name that will show in the prospect’s email inbox, we typically will do “Full Name – Company” for this
From Email: this is the email that will show in the prospect’s email inbox, make sure to use your work email and not one from Gmail or Yahoo
Subject: this is the subject line that they will see
Message: this is the actual text of the message

Here is an example of the set of fields completely filled out:

You can see in the subject and in the message that we personalize them with the person’s name.

To add in the name or any other available field from GoHighLevel, click on the “tag” icon in that section and it brings up a dropdown of available fields for you. Select the Contact > Full Name to get the name in the text section.

Then, click on “Save Action” and save the workflow.

So, we now have the workflow set to:

Start when the form is submitted
The prospect is tagged
An email goes out to the prospect to let them know that you received the submission

When a contact submits via your site, most companies like to send them 3 – 5 emails. This allows your website to become your best salesperson that works 24/7/365.

However, you don’t want to send those emails right away.

This is where the very important “Wait” action will come in.

After the first email goes out, we recommend waiting about one hour to send the second one. This is because you are already top of mind with the prospect and (in a perfect world), you will have already contacted them about their submission.

So, click on the “+” button and select the “Wait” action

The “Wait” options are very simple.

How long do you want the program to wait before doing the next action in the sequence?

As I mentioned before, one hour is a good option in this case.

So, select “one hour” and save your action and your workflow.

One nice feature of GoHighLevel is that you can copy an action (or a set of actions) within a workflow. This really cuts down on the work needed to create an email sequence because you really only need to change the action name, the subject line and the body of the message.

To make a copy of the email step and the wait step, click on the 3 dots next to the email step. Then select “Copy” and “Copy All Actions From Here”.

Then, you will be asked where you want those copied steps to go. It’s kind of like copy and paste.

Select the “Copy Here” text at the bottom of the workflow.

This then “pastes” the copied actions to the end of the workflow.

To make changes to these “pasted” actions, you’ll need to click on them to bring up that right-hand menu.

In this example, these are the changes that we made to the second email:

In email 2, we talked about our company and what we specialized in so the prospect would get to know us a little bit.

Once you have made the changes to that email, save the action and save the workflow.

We also will want to change the “Wait” action.

Normally, for the next wait, we recommend one day.

So, go into the “Wait” action and change it from one hour to one day.

Don’t forget to save the action and save the workflow.

For email 3, you will want to repeat the steps above.

Copy the Email 2 action and the Wait action and paste them at the bottom of the workflow.

You’ll want to make changes to the name, subject and text of the third email.

This is where you may want to talk about what problems you can solve.

Again, to make changes, click on the email block to bring up the right-hand menu.

Here are the changes that we made in our example:

Save the action and workflow.

Then, you’ll need to change the “Wait” action. Here is where I would change it to two days.

Save the action and workflow.

To create email 4, you’ll copy email 3 and the wait action just as before.

For email 4, you may want to send a few testimonials from Google or Facebook. This lets them know what it is like to work with you and your company. If you have any video testimonials, this is where to use them. Show your prospect smiling, happy people that love you!

For the “wait” action after email 4, I would change it to 3 days.

A commonly recommended sequence for the “wait” actions in an email is derived from the Fibonacci sequence.

Wait 0 (Thank you for your submission email)

Wait 1 (hour)

Wait 1 (day)

Wait 2 (days)

Wait 3 (days)

Wait 5 (days)

Etc.

This sequence is a tried-and-true tested time sequence for sending emails.

Finally, to create email 5, you will copy email 4 this time just like above.

In most sequences, Email 5 should just contain a quick call-to-action (CTA) that is short, sweet and to the point.

Example text for that email could look like this:

Hi [prospect name],

Just wanted to contact you to see if you had any questions or concerns? Let us know!

If not, let’s get started! Give us a call at [number] and you can start in the next 24 hours

[Signature]

Then, save the action and the workflow and you are done implementing the customer email sequence.

Step 4 – Settings to Check in GoHighLevel And How To Publish

There are a few settings that you will want to check in GHL to make sure that everything is going to work the way that you want.

The first thing is that you want people to be able to go through this sequence multiple times. This way, if someone contacts you now and six months from now, they will be re-entered into the workflow.

To turn this on, go to “Settings” in the workflow and make sure that “Allow re-entry” is toggled on.

To officially turn on the workflow, toggle on “Publish” from “Draft” (in the upper-right corner) and click on “Save” to finalize that.

You are now LIVE with your workflow in GoHighLevel!

The money is in the follow up. This is why you want your website in your CRM to be your best salesperson. By having these emails sent out automatically, you are on your way to client success.

Step 5 – Run Through A Quick Test of A GoHighLevel Automation

The best way to test the GHL automation is to step through it with a test user.

So, bring up the form and fill it in, then submit.

Make sure that the form shows the “Submit Success” message.

If it doesn’t, you will want to check out part 1 of this blog post here.

Now what happens on the other side in the CRM?

In GoHighLevel, go to the contacts menu and make sure that the person that you entered into the form shows up. In this case, we should see “Jane Smith” in the contacts list.

You can see her name, phone number and email that was entered. In addition, you can see that she was tagged correctly, with the “contact-form-website-submit” tag.

To get a little deeper, click on her name to open her record. Then, go down to “Additional Info” to make sure that we see that custom field that we created in Part 1 and that it is filled in.

Final check – look at where she is in the automation workflow.

So, go to “Automation” and open your workflow that you created.

You should see one person enrolled and active, which is the test person that you entered in the form. In this case, it will be “Jane Smith”.

Click into the workflow and you can also see the person that is enrolled sitting at the first “Wait” state.

To check into it more, you can click on “Enrollment History”.

In this tab, you can see everyone who has gone through the workflow in the last 30 days. You’ll see the date that people entered the workflow, the current state that they are in, the current status and the next time they are scheduled to move to a new step in the workflow.

So, any time you want to quickly see where anyone is in your workflow, you can also look at the enrollment history.

The final spot to check is the “Execution Logs”. This is where you can see the tiny details about every action that the automation has taken.

These logs will show you each step that a contact has taken through the automation, when it was taken and if it was successful.

BONUS Step 6 – Send An Internal Notification In GoHighLevel When Someone Enters The Workflow

If you don’t want to monitor your contact list closely all day, every day, you will need to know when someone submits the form.

This is where GoHighLevel’s “Internal Notifications” come in.

When someone triggers the workflow, the first thing that you will want to do is notify yourself.

So, go back to your workflow and click on the “+” to add a step directly below the trigger and select the “Send Internal Notification” action from the list.

“Internal Notifications” are different than “Send Email” steps in one very important way. The internal notifications go to you or members of your team. The “Send Email” recipients are always outside of your organization.

You have 3 choices for internal notifications in GoHighLevel:

Email: This will send an email
Notification: This will send a notification in the GHL system, so your team needs to be watching for notifications
SMS: This will send a text message

In this example, we are going to choose the easiest one, which is the email.

So, once you choose email, you will need to fill out the following fields:

From Name
From Email
To User Type and the Users
Subject
Message

Let’s review each of these.

The “From Name” and “From Email” are similar to what they were in the “Send Email” step. This is the sender information that will show up in the email. Most people like to either make this their own email address or a “no-reply” email address.

“To User Type” has 3 options:

Assigned User: This will send the email to the person in the GoHighLevel system that is assigned to the contact.
Particular User: This will send the email to the person of your choice that you choose in the “Select Users” field. Your choices will be the team members that you have in GoHighLevel
Custom Email: This option will allow you to enter an email address

In this example, we are selecting “Particular User”, then we are going to choose our name.

The “Subject” field is the subject that will show up in your email inbox. Typically, I like to add the prospect’s name in the subject line using the custom field ability.

The “Message” field is the body of the email that will be sent to you. You will want to include all of the fields in the form in the text so you have all of a prospect’s information in front of you when you contact that person.

To include the custom text, you will add it just like you did in the “Send Email” section. You will click on the tag, go to Contact and select the field that you want in the text.

Here is the final example of the subject and the message fields filled out:

Click on save action and then save the workflow.

You now will be notified as soon as someone submits the form on your website – the automation is complete!

Contact those submissions right away and start getting a ton more clients!

Here’s why implementing all of that automation is so important:

If you contact a new lead within five minutes, you are much more likely to turn them into a client. Studies show that reaching out within this time frame makes you 100 times more likely to talk to the lead and 21 times more likely to qualify them compared to waiting 30 minutes. Plus, 78% of customers buy from the company that contacts them first. So, quickly responding to new leads can greatly boost your chances of making a sale.

Cupid’s Key to Crafting Valentine’s Day Cards for Your Customers and Clients Using Canva

Valentine’s Day is a special occasion that businesses can leverage to connect with their clients or customers on a personal level. Sending a heartfelt Valentine’s Day card not only shows appreciation for their patronage, but it can also help forge stronger relationships and foster a sense of community. In this guide, you’ll learn how to use Canva, a user-friendly graphic design tool, to create a creative and professional Valentine’s Day card that will leave a lasting impression on your clients or customers.

Choose a Template or Start from Scratch

Canva offers a wide range of Valentine’s Day card templates that can save you time and effort. To access these templates, simply visit Canva’s website and search for “Valentine’s Day card” or a related keyword. Browse through the available templates and select one that best suits your company’s branding and the message you want to convey. If you prefer to start from scratch, click on the “Create a design” button and choose a custom size for your card. A popular choice for Valentine’s Day cards is a 5×7-inch (horizontal or vertical) format, but you can also opt for a standard 4×6-inch card size.

Add your Brand’s Style

Once you’ve chosen a template or started a new design, it’s time to customize it to reflect your company’s branding and the message you want to convey. Here are some tips to help you create a unique and eye-catching Valentine’s Day card:

Use your brand colors: Add your company’s colors to the card to make it instantly recognizable and reinforce your brand identity. You can do this by selecting the “Color” tool in Canva’s sidebar and choosing your brand’s primary and secondary colors.
Add your company’s logo: Incorporate your company’s logo to make the card more professional and memorable. You can upload your logo to Canva by clicking on the “Uploads” tab on the left-hand sidebar and selecting your logo file. Once uploaded, drag and drop it onto your card design.
Choose an appropriate font: Select a font that complements your brand and the message you want to convey. Canva offers a wide range of fonts, from classic and elegant to modern and playful. Experiment with different fonts and sizes to find the perfect combination for your card.
Add a personalized message: Write a heartfelt and personalized message that expresses your appreciation for your clients or customers. Keep the message concise and focused on the value they bring to your company. You can add text to your card by clicking on the “Text” tab on the left-hand sidebar and selecting a text box.

Customize with Team Photos and Selfies

To add a touch of camaraderie and a personal connection to your Valentine’s Day cards, consider incorporating team selfies into the design. This not only humanizes your brand but also showcases the people behind the business, fostering a sense of familiarity with your clients. To enhance the visual appeal of these selfies, utilize Canva’s background removal feature to eliminate any distractions. This ensures that the focus remains on the team members themselves. Take it a step further by injecting a dose of humor through the addition of fun photo backgrounds to use in your card. Canva’s extensive photo library provides a plethora of options, allowing you to customize the selfies with playful and lighthearted graphic “props” and backdrops. This creative touch not only brings a smile to your clients’ faces but also reinforces a positive and approachable image for your brand.

Add Some Sweet Stickers

Add Valentine’s Day-themed Elements To make your Valentine’s Day card more festive and engaging, consider adding themed elements such as hearts, flowers, or Cupid. Canva offers a vast library of Valentine’s Day-themed graphics and illustrations that you can use to enhance your card design. Here’s how to access and add these elements to your card:

Search for Valentine’s Day elements: On the left-hand sidebar, click on the “Elements” tab and type “Valentine’s Day” or a related keyword into the search bar. Browse through the available elements and select those that best suit your card design.
Customize the elements: Once you’ve added an element to your card, you can customize it by changing its color, size, and orientation. To do this, select the element and use the options in the top toolbar to make your desired changes.

Change out the Font For a Festive Feel

Typography can elevate the overall design of your Valentine’s Day card. Experiment with different fonts to find a combination that complements your message and aligns with your brand. Canva provides a variety of font options, including script, serif, and sans-serif styles. The possibilities are endless!

Signed, Sealed and Delivered

Take your Valentine’s Day card to the next level by adding a QR code that links to a personalized video message or a special offer. This interactive element adds a modern touch and engages your clients in a unique way. Canva allows you to generate QR codes and seamlessly integrate them into your design.

Once you’re satisfied with your Valentine’s Day card design, it’s time to bring it to life. Canva offers printing services, or you can download the design and print it locally. Consider factors such as paper quality and finish to ensure the final product meets your expectations.

Decide on the most effective way to distribute your Valentine’s Day cards to clients. If you have a physical office, hand-delivering cards adds a personal touch. Alternatively, mailing cards with a personalized note shows thoughtfulness and consideration. Canva also allows you to create digital versions that can be sent via email or shared on social media.

There You Have It!

Sending Valentine’s Day cards to your clients is a meaningful gesture that strengthens your professional relationships. With Canva’s user-friendly interface and versatile design features, you can easily create personalized and visually appealing cards that reflect your appreciation. Follow this comprehensive guide to craft memorable Valentine’s Day cards that leave a lasting impression on your clients and contribute to the growth of your business.

Need some help with your marketing strategy?

Give IFTS a call at 412-559-7177 or email us at si@iftsdesign.com

Get The Marketing For Your House Painting Business Right – January Edition

Should I Offer Promotions or Discounts, and How Do I Market Them?

Are you the owner of a house painting business?

Do you want to get your marketing right this year?

Well, we want to help you!

Painting business owners often ask us lots of questions about marketing. They want to know how to enhance their business visibility and attract more leads. They also want to know about the best way to turn those leads into clients.

So, let’s go over 3 common questions that we get asked. More importantly, let’s also review the answers to those questions so your 2024 marketing gets you to your revenue goal.

Question 1 - How Can I Effectively Target My Local Market?

To effectively target your local market, it’s important to employ a multi-prong approach that combines both online and offline strategies.

Start with your foundation, your website.

Be sure to use onsite search engine optimization techniques, such as:

Page titles
Alt-text for images
H1, H2, and H3 tags
Website schema where appropriate

Make sure that the website is optimized for local keywords.

Need keyword ideas? You can use tools like:

These tools can tell you what people are searching for and how often it’s being searched in your area.

Next, utilize online platforms like Google Business Profile, Apple Business Connect and Bing to enhance your local visibility. Be sure to fill out your profile completely and post regularly.

After you have a solid foundation, you can move to the next level, which is social media. Engage with your followers and your community through social platforms that your prospects are using. Share before and after images, customer testimonials and relevant content to the work that you do.

You can also leverage online advertising through these platforms, as they allow you to target using specific geographic areas as well as demographics and psychographics.

After you have your online efforts started, use the power of traditional marketing methods as well to 2X your efforts.

You can:

Distribute well-designed flyers or signs in local neighborhoods
Participate in or sponsor community events
Partner with local businesses
Partner with a local charity

Don’t forget about the local database you already have – your client list! Ask satisfied clients for referrals (or if they have anything else that they need to have done).

All of these methods can contribute to a robust local marketing strategy.

Bonus Tip - Be sure to monitor and analyze the performance of your marketing efforts.

Make adjustments as needed based on feedback that you receive from your clients and the effectiveness of different channels.

By combining online and offline strategies, you will create a comprehensive approach to effectively reach and connect with your local market.

Question 2 - How Can I Differentiate My Painting Business From My Competitors?

Some people believe that all painting businesses are the same and they just look at the price.

Well, it is your job to make yourself different from everyone else and change that person’s mind.

So, how do you do that?

First, you need to focus on your hook to “reel” people in. Your hook is your unique and compelling identity.

What are your strengths?

What sets your company apart?

Some examples:

A commitment to craftsmanship
Innovative painting techniques
The speed at which you can get to a client’s house
A guarantee that you offer all clients
Any other distinguishing factor that sets you apart

Next, craft a strong and memorable brand message that communicates your hook to your target audience. You may want to create an accompanying image that illustrates your hook as well.

Once you have your messaging finalized, it’s time to start advertising it!

Showcase your brand message through content marketing. Create informative blog posts, videos or social media posts that revolve around your messaging and targets your exact audience that you want to reach.

Some additional points to highlight in your content marketing:

Your painting skills
Your industry knowledge
Your commitment to customer service

This will position your business as an authority in the field as well as building trust with future customers.

Another way to set yourself apart from your competition is to encourage and actively collect positive customer reviews and testimonials.

Be sure to display these on your website as well as your marketing materials. This can help build credibility and reinforce the quality of your services.

Get the Top 3 Social Media Post Templates for Painting Companies to Grow Your Following and Get New Clients

Engage with prospects and save time with your FREE Canva template kit. This kit features the top 3 social media posts for painting companies and directions on how to brand them for your own business in 5 minutes or less.

Enter your email below and get the templates sent directly to your inbox along with an instructional video on how to make personalized edits.

Question 3 - What Online Platforms Should I Use For Marketing?

Choosing the right marketing platform really comes down to a few things. You will need to look at:

Your target audience (where do they hang out?)
Your business goals (how much do I want to make and how much can I spend?)
The nature of your painting services (what value do I provide?)

Here are some effective online marketing platforms to consider:

Google Business Profile (GBP): Make sure that your business profile is optimized and completely filled in. This platform enhances your local visibility, provides essential information to potential customers, and encourages reviews.
Your Website: As we mentioned above, your website is the foundation of all marketing. It serves as your online storefront, providing information about your services, your work photo gallery, customer testimonials, hours of operation and contact details. Optimize it for SEO to increase your overall online visibility.
Facebook/Instagram: Share high-quality photos or videos of before and afters, completed projects, your team at work, engaging content and more! Let prospects put a face to the name of the business and get to know, like and trust you before they hire you.
Google Ads: You can find people with a buying intent here. They allow you to target specific demographics, locations and interests to reach potential customers effectively.
Email Marketing: Create and maintain an email list that has both clients and prospects. You can send them newsletters, promotions and updates to keep yourself top of mind and them fully engaged.
Content Marketing: Create valuable content, like blogs, videos or articles that are related to house painting and home improvement. This positions your business as the authority in your area and improves your SEO at the same time.
Review Sites: Be active on all of the review sites that you can, such as Google, Yelp, Home Advisor and more. Encourage your satisfied customers to leave you reviews. You will also want to address any negative feedback that you receive on these platforms as well.
Local Directories: List your painting company on local directories and industry-specific platforms. One tool that you can use to automate this process is Yext. This helps with SEO, enhances your online presence and helps potential clients find you more easily because you are in more places that they may search.
YouTube: Did you know that Google owns YouTube and that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world? YouTube can be powerful for reaching an even broader audience than before. Create engaging videos that show off your painting projects, client testimonials or DIY tips.
Community Engagement: Take part in local online forums and community groups. Be sure to engage with the local residents and offer valuable insights. This will help establish you as THE local house painting expert that they should call when they have a paint job.

Elevate Your House Painting Business with Strategic Marketing in 2024

In the dynamic world of house painting, mastering the art of marketing is essential for business growth. As we’ve explored in this article, the key to success lies in a well-rounded approach that blends both traditional and digital strategies. Whether you’re aiming to enhance your local visibility, differentiate your business from competitors, or choose the right online platforms, a strategic and multifaceted plan is paramount.

Effectively targeting your local market involves optimizing your website with SEO techniques, leveraging online platforms like Google Business Profile, and engaging with your community through social media. Traditional methods, such as distributing flyers and partnering with local businesses, complement these efforts to create a robust local marketing strategy.

Setting your painting business apart from competitors requires a strong and memorable brand identity. Identify your unique strengths, craft a compelling brand message, and showcase it through content marketing and positive customer testimonials.

When it comes to choosing the right online platforms, consider your target audience, business goals, and the nature of your painting services. From Google Business Profile and social media to email marketing and community engagement, each platform plays a role in enhancing your online presence and reaching potential customers.

As you embark on your marketing journey in 2024, remember to continuously monitor and analyze your efforts. Adaptation is key, and by combining online and offline strategies, you’ll create a comprehensive approach that effectively reaches and connects with your local market. Here’s to a successful year of growing your house painting business through strategic and impactful marketing!

Want help accomplishing your goals this year?

Check out our Painter Marketing 365 program!

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