HubSpot: Capture a Web Lead and Follow Up the Same Day

Why this matters

Many small firms send their website form to a shared inbox. Nobody owns it, so leads wait days for a reply, and some never get one.

HubSpot's free CRM turns each form submission into a contact record and alerts a named person. You reply, set a status and add a follow-up task from that record, so every lead has an owner and a next step.

Practice

Do every step yourself in a practice copy of the real tool. It checks your work, and “Do it for me” finishes any step you get stuck on.

HubSpotHubSpot: Capture a Web Lead and Follow Up the Same Day13 steps · ~12 min · nothing touches your real accounts

Start the practice →Prefer to read? Step-by-step guide

What you’ll build

You help Priya Raman, who runs Bramble Street Accounting, a made-up accounting firm that got 18 web inquiries in a month, took about 2 days to reply and never answered 5.

You build a HubSpot form with required fields, set new contacts to Lead and pick who gets notified, publish and share it, open the contact the form created, email the lead from the record with a follow-up To-do, set the Lead Status, book a call task and check the activity timeline. The HubSpot screens are screenshots from HubSpot's own knowledge base, credited and linked under each one.

What you need

Nothing to start the practiceThe lesson uses HubSpot's own knowledge-base screenshots. Bramble Street Accounting and every number are made up.
A free HubSpot account, to do it for realForms, contacts, tasks and one-to-one email are on HubSpot's free tools. HubSpot's pricing page says the free plan is for up to 2 users.
Your work inbox connected to HubSpotGmail or Outlook. HubSpot needs a connected inbox to send one-to-one emails from a record.
Access to your website, or just the share linkPaste the form embed code into your site, or test with the form's share link first.

Concepts

Forms create contacts

Each form field saves into a contact property. By default the Email field is required for a submission to create a contact, and a new email address creates a new contact record.

In the form settings you can set the lifecycle stage new contacts get, such as Lead, and choose users to notify on each submission.

Reply from the record

The Email icon on a contact record sends a one-to-one email from your connected inbox and logs it on the record. Associated with shows which records it is logged to.

Tick Create a To-do task to follow up before you click Send, so a reminder is waiting if the lead does not reply.

Lead Status and the timeline

Lead Status is a contact property with defaults such as New, Attempted to Contact, Connected and Unqualified. Filter your contacts by it to find leads nobody has answered.

The Activities tab shows the form submission, emails, tasks and changes in one timeline, so anyone on the team can pick up a lead.

Do it for real

Now repeat it in your own account. Tick each step as you go.

In HubSpot, go to Marketing > Forms, click Create form, select the Form Editor and click Next. Add Email, First Name, Last Name and a "How can we help?" field, and turn on Required field where you need it.
Click the settings icon. Under On submission, update contact and company lifecycle stage, pick Lead. On the Submission settings tab, add yourself under Add users to notify.
Click Review and update, then Update. Use Get embed code for your website, or Copy a share link to test it.
When a lead arrives, open the form's Actions > View submissions, click View submission, then View object records > Contact.
On the record, click Email, write a short personal reply, tick Create a To-do task to follow up and click Send.
Set Contact owner and Lead Status (Attempted to Contact), add a Call task if needed, and check the Activities tab.

Quick check

3 questions to check you’ve got it.

1. Which form field does HubSpot need, by default, for a submission to create a contact?

Phone number
Email
Company name

Show the answer

Email. HubSpot's docs say the Email field is required by default for form submissions to create contacts.

2. You email a lead from their contact record. How do you make sure you are reminded if they do not reply?

Write it on a sticky note
Tick Create a To-do task to follow up before you click Send
Set the lifecycle stage to Customer

Show the answer

Tick Create a To-do task to follow up before you click Send. The To-do is created when the email is sent, with the date you pick, and it shows on the record and in your tasks.

3. On the free plan, can HubSpot set the Lead Status and create the task automatically when the form is submitted?

Yes, with a workflow on any plan
No, HubSpot's docs say workflows for that need Professional or above, so you do it by hand
Only on mobile

Show the answer

No, HubSpot's docs say workflows for that need Professional or above, so you do it by hand. HubSpot's help center lists creating tasks and setting property values with workflows as Professional or Enterprise features.

Course complete

You reached the end of AI for Accounting & Bookkeeping Firms

Your web leads now get a same-day reply. Next, use AI to draft those replies and your engagement letters faster.

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