Inbound Lead Forms: Setup & Embed Guide

What are inbound lead forms?

Most forms send leads into an inbox, and by the time you follow up, they've moved on. With Project Blue inbound lead forms, the lead starts the conversation instead: they opt in, their messaging app opens with a prefilled message, and they send it straight to your Project Blue line. Because the lead texts first, they see the blue bubble chat right away, and your reply lands in a thread they began.

Use cases

• Lead magnets: a prefilled message like "FITNESS10" or "FREE5" that you can act on in your CRM or automations.

• Free consultations or strategy offers: the lead taps once and starts a conversation with you.

• Support or contact pages: route messages to a specific line, such as a support line.

Which form type should I pick?

Go to Settings > Inbound Lead Form in the web app and click New lead form. You can choose from three types:

• One step form: captures name, phone and email, then opens a prefilled text.

• Two step form: qualify the lead first, then book the appointment. Includes disqualification rules and a HighLevel calendar booking step. It doesn't open a text.

• Text us button (new): skips the form. The visitor taps a button and Messages opens with a prefilled text. No fields, works with any CRM, and can be shared as a hosted link, button, floating widget or QR code.

Setting up a one step form

The builder is organized into sections on the right: Basic Info, Line Setup (required), Form Fields and Share. Design is a button in the top bar that opens a panel on the left.

1. Basic Info

Set the Form Name (an internal name, such as "Support form"), the Form Heading visitors will see, such as "Contact Us", and the Submit Button Label. Contacts created from the form are tagged with the form name.

Also set the prefilled message the lead's messaging app will show. It can be a phrase, a sentence or a code you can act on in your CRM or automations. Give each form its own unique message, so you can tell your forms apart.

2. Line Setup (required)

Choose which Project Blue line receives the lead's message. You can select more than one line.

3. Form Fields

Name and Email are on by default and required when shown. Switch them off to hide them, and edit each label as you like. Phone number is always required. Use the + button to add more fields. If your GoHighLevel account is connected and you've selected a sub-account, your GoHighLevel custom fields can also be added from the HighLevel Custom tab.

4. Design

Match the button to the site where you embed it. You can change:

• Button type: choose Match form theme (the button uses your form's colors) or iMessage (a native iMessage-style button with its own palettes, colors, icon size and shape). New forms use the iMessage button by default. Existing forms keep their current button until you change it.

• Palette, button background, button text, icon background, icon color and icon size

• Button shape (for example, Pill)

5. Share

Use Preview in new tab to test the form, then click Save. Choose how to put it on your site:

• Inline: the form sits directly on the page. Set a width (for example 100%, 960px or 800px); the height adjusts automatically to fit the content.

• Popup: a floating button opens the form in a modal overlay. Set the button text and color.

Copy the embed code and paste it into a code embed block on your site (Webflow, for example). Forms you've already embedded keep working as before.

What the lead experiences (one step form)

1. The lead fills out the form (name, phone, email). Project Blue creates or updates the contact in your CRM.

2. They tap the button (for example, "Start on iMessage").

3. Their messaging app opens with the prefilled message ready to send. The lead can edit the text. On iPhone and Mac this opens iMessage, on Android it opens the Messages app, and on the web it uses the SMS link scheme on compatible devices. On a Windows computer, the button can show a QR code to scan with a phone (see the Show QR code on Windows switch below).

4. They tap send, and the message arrives on your selected Project Blue line.

If a visitor enters a valid phone number and then stops, a one step or two step form submits on its own after about 5 minutes, so a lead can arrive without a tap.

Automate a reply in GoHighLevel

For a one step form or a Text us button, you can reply automatically in GoHighLevel when the lead's text arrives:

1. In your GHL workflow, click Add Trigger and search for Project Blue: Receive iMessage.

2. Set Direction to Inbound. This is needed because outgoing messages fire the trigger too.

3. Add a Message filter set to Contains Phrase, and enter the prefilled message from your form. Matching ignores capital letters and also matches part of a word, which is why each form should have its own unique message.

4. Add your action, such as Send a Message, and save.

Two step form: what's different

Use this when you want to qualify leads before they book an appointment. It requires a HighLevel sub-account. The two step form doesn't open a text. It creates the contact in HighLevel and books the appointment. The sections are Basic Info (required), Select Calendar (required), Form Fields, Disqualification Rules and Share.

This video covers both the two step form and the Text us button:

Basic Info

• Select GHL Sub Account: choose the HighLevel sub-account to connect. Do this first, because calendars load from this account.

• Form Name and Form Heading: contacts created from the form are tagged with the form name.

• Description: optional text shown under the heading on step 1. It supports HTML.

• Continue Button Text: the label on the button that moves the visitor to booking, for example "Continue to Book Appointment".

Select Calendar (required)

Pick the HighLevel calendar visitors will book on. If no calendars appear, make sure you selected a sub-account in Basic Info first.

Form Fields

Same as the one step form: Name and Email are on by default, phone is required, and you can add more fields.

Disqualification Rules

Decide which leads shouldn't book the main calendar. Available options:

• Conditions: add a rule with + New condition to disqualify leads based on their answers. To use a custom field in a rule, add it in Form Fields first.

• Require valid business email (on/off)

• Secondary calendar for disqualified leads (optional)

• Redirect to URL after disqualification (on/off)

What the visitor sees

The form has two tabs: Fill out the form and Book your event. The calendar is shown beside the form but locked until the visitor completes the required fields. They then continue to pick a time slot.

Design and Share

Design has a Color tab with theme palettes and custom background, button, input field, text and button text colors, and an Options tab. Share works like the one step form: Inline or Popup, then copy the embed code.

Text us button: what's different

There is no form to fill out. The visitor taps a button, Messages opens with a prefilled text, and the conversation starts on your Project Blue line. It works with every CRM and for API users with no CRM. The sections are Button & Message, Line Setup (required) and Share.

Button & Message

• Form Name: an internal name for the button.

• Button label: the text on the button. The default is "Start on iMessage." Visitors on Android see "Start a text" instead.

• Prefilled message: the text that opens in Messages, for example "Hello, I am interested in your services." There are no form fields.

• Show QR code on Windows: on by default for Text us buttons (it's off by default for one step and two step forms). Visitors on Windows see a QR code they can scan with their phone, while iPhone, Android and Mac open Messages directly. On your own website, the button first opens the hosted page in a new tab, and the visitor taps again to see the QR code.

Line Setup (required)

Choose one or more Project Blue lines. With several lines, each tap picks one at random. Turn on Rotate across selected lines to send a visitor's repeat taps to the next line. Inbound-only lines are allowed.

Share

Select a line first. Then choose how to share:

• Hosted link: for bios, ads and email. Opens the Text us button on a public Project Blue page, with no login.

• Button embed: paste the code on your site. It only includes this button.

• Floating corner widget: pins the same button to the bottom right of the page it's embedded on.

• QR code: available for the hosted link or for a direct text. You can download it as a PNG or SVG for print, signage or business cards.

Design

Choose one of five palettes or set your own colors, then adjust button background, button text, icon background, icon color, icon size and button shape (for example, Pill).

Where the lead goes in your CRM

Leads go to whichever CRM you've connected. There's no setting to pick.

• HighLevel: works as before, including two step booking forms. If the contact already exists, the submitted fields overwrite its data.

• HubSpot: matches the contact by phone, then email, and only fills empty fields, so existing data is never overwritten. Each submission shows on the contact timeline as "Submitted lead form" with the form name, UTMs and answers, so you can build HubSpot lists and workflows on it.

• Close: matches by phone, then email, and keeps existing phones and emails while adding new ones. Close doesn't get a timeline entry or the form answers.

• API or no CRM: one step and two step form submissions come through the Lead form submitted webhook (below).

If a lead doesn't appear in your CRM, contact Project Blue support.

Lead form submitted webhook

To send one step and two step form submissions to your own tools, go to Settings > General > Webhooks, click Add Webhook and check Lead form submitted. The payload includes contact details, custom answers, UTMs and the CRM sync result.

• The event is off by default. Existing webhooks don't get it automatically, and they can't be edited to add it, so create a new webhook.

• HubSpot users see two tabs in the Webhooks settings: HubSpot workflows and Project Blue webhooks.

Testing before you go live

Use the preview link to open your form or button in a new tab and test it on your own phone before adding it to your site.