How to Use the New Form Builder 2.0

Progress on our Form Builder Roadmap! You can now switch between form styles and templates, you can change the label for form fields, and reorder your custom fields however you’d like!

How to Use the New Form Builder 2.0

When the original ConvertKit form builder came out, it was a game changer for email software. It allowed you to have as many forms as you wanted across your email account and each form could deliver a different opt-in incentive. And the out-of-the-box design was beautiful and trendsetting.

It’s been years since then and like all things on the internet, design standards have changed. Beyond design, you also expect more functionality from your opt-in forms than ever before and you shouldn’t have to pay for separate software to get that functionality.

That’s why we recently launched Form Builder 2.0, an entirely new experience for building forms and landing pages. With this new form builder, you:

• Have access to a WYSIWYG editor to help you build beautiful forms without having to fidget with HTML and CSS
• Can create forms with multiple fields or allow your subscribers to select what categories of content or tags to add to their own account
• Are still able to assign a specific opt-in incentive to each individual form
• Will have access to a growing library of landing page templates to help you more easily gain new email subscribers

One of the delightful little details in the initial release is a new landing page template we call “Profile.” It’s the perfect way to quickly setup a one page description of your new idea or business to gain subscribers without having to build an entire website. If you have a social following, you can point to your Profile landing page so your followers can hear directly from you regularly.

Frequently asked questions about the new Form Builder

We’ll use the rest of this article to answer your frequently asked questions about the new feature. We’ll also keep it updated over time so that you know what’s been built, what’s coming, and where you can find answers to your top questions about this new feature.

How do I get started with Form Builder 2.0?

To get started, log into your account and head over to the ‘Forms’ tab. (With the update of our subscriber graph, the ‘Subscribers’ tab is now the homepage in your account.)

Click on ‘Create a New Form.’ It’s important to note that simply copying an old form will not work with the new form builder. We needed a way to support your existing forms while also making the new form builder available and this was the cleanest way to do it.

Next, select from a landing page or form. Forms are best used in the context of a larger page of content — usually your homepage, a sales page, or a blog post, for example. Landing pages are best used for clear calls to action with a desired outcome of getting a person’s email address — usually pages like webinar signups, pre-launch pages, or an opt-in incentive page.

Once you’ve picked a landing page or form, use our handy Knowledgebase article to drill down on the details of building with the new form builder.

READ THE KNOWLEDGEBASE ARTICLE HERE

What if I liked the old forms better?

Ah, change. It can be tough to adjust to. We know that you’ve probably gotten used to building with the old forms, just like us.

Luckily, we’ve built the new form builder to solve for all of the pain points we heard from you over and over. Our beta testers and team tell us the same thing: the more they use the new form builder, the more they love the simplicity of the creation process and the beauty of the end results.

As you make the transition, here are a few things to know:

• Your old forms still exist, just as you built them originally
• You can duplicate old forms to have access to the old settings in the short-term
• Old forms will eventually be phased out entirely (there’s no set date yet, so you have time)
• For documentation on old forms, you can currently access the getting started guide and the advanced guide

Is design really easier with the new form builder?

Yes, especially if you don’t have in-depth knowledge of HTML and CSS. While the new builder functions differently, as you learn it, you’ll see that it makes the process of creating beautiful forms much more simple.

As always, you can select options like:

• Forms that go inline on your page or modal (pop-up) forms that display based on a variety of criteria
• Minimal, clean, or full templates based on the aesthetic or function you’re looking for
• Showing a success message or redirecting to a specific page after a subscriber fills out your form
• Give away a different opt-in incentive with each individual form through the incentive email

And now, you can also:

• Add custom fields into your forms to collect things like phone number or favorite travel destination
• You can add a dropdown selection or multiple-selection option for your subscribers to tag themselves based on their interests
• You can label each custom field or tag so that your internal naming of tags/fields can be separate from what your subscribers see
• Add photos, colors, and font styles directly through the WYSIWYG editor instead of raw CSS and HTML

Can I still create modal (pop-up) forms?

Yes, of course! The internet continues the age old debate about pop-up forms, but we remain safely neutral in giving you the option to do what’s best with your business.

You can use modal to display an opt-in form when a website visitor:

• Scrolls a certain percentage down the page
• Clicks a button
• Spends a certain amount of time on a page
• Attempts to exit the page

You can also choose to show the form only once every so many days to a subscriber or set the form to show on mobile or desktop devices only to account for SEO standards.

How do I add my subscribers to a sequence?

The best way to add your subscribers to a sequence is to use visual automations. Your automation will end up looking something like this:

Adding your subscribers to a sequence after they sign up for your list on one of your forms used to live in multiple places throughout the app. There were the form settings, automation rules, and visual automations. It was confusing, to say the least.

With the release of the new form builder, we’ve cleaned up the app wherever possible to align with our goal to create fewer settings that are easy to forget, hard to find, and generally create confusion in the app. That includes the form setting that connected a form to a sequence.

Can I still access raw HTML and CSS?

Yes! That said, the CSS classes are a bit different in the new form builder, so stay tuned for a full Knowledgebase article about the CSS classes to reference in your code.

Do Genesis (eNews) or Rainmaker and Form Builder 2.0 work together?

Yes! But we did see some issues early on because of a change in the form action URL you need to make things work.

Here’s our Knowledgebase article on getting things all squared away with eNews using the new form action URL.

I don’t blog in English. Can I change the label for First Name and Email Address?

Absolutely! We’ve pushed a update to allow you to edit all labels for your form fields, including first name and email address, so your new forms are compatible with your preferred language.

Does the Wordpress plugin still work?

Of course! The Wordpress plugin is one of the most popular ways our creators take advantage of our forms.

The most important thing to know is that you need to update the plugin to version 1.6.2 to get full compatibility with the new form builder.

There are two plugin issues that some customers have experienced:

1. Updating the Category default form
2. Javascript errors on your pages where forms exist (we’ve found this is being fueled by other plugins that cause forms not to show)

If you experience either of these issues, write in to help@convertkit.com and we’ll help you troubleshoot and get it fixed up!

Ok, so what comes next for Form Builder 2.0?

While the feature is released and fully functional, there are a couple of mini-features that didn’t make it into the first release (all of these are scheduled to be available very soon):

• Duplicating forms
• Bulk Importing subscribers to forms
• Switch between modal and inline forms after creation- Complete!
• Switch between form templates after creation- Complete!
• Edit labels for form fields- Complete!
• Reorder custom fields- Complete!

Finally, with the new form builder, we’ve laid the foundation to begin building out all new landing page templates designed to help you gain more email subscribers. While new templates aren’t currently in development, we’ll be adding them regularly, so stay tuned.