We have just added some additional AJAX updates to Open Leads, which have streamlined additional edits for the application.
Among these are the “Add Field” and “Add Type” functions. Now, instead of being taken to an additional page to create a new Field or Type, it is done on the same screen. Not only does this make the process of adding a Field or Type easier, it reduces the number of clicks and time that it takes.
Additional updates to the user interface are coming soon. Stay tuned!
Using forms has always been the easiest and most productive way to manually add a new lead to your Open Leads account. By entering a lead using a form, you are able to use only the pertinent fields for new lead entry, and are also able to trigger a Workflow upon entry. Workflows adds one or more Types to the leads, can assign a User and Actions, as well as trigger an Autoresponder Email.
But until now this required creating a form and then opening it in a new window in your browser or using the preview function. While effective, it was not the most efficient way of doing this. The latest update to Open Leads adds the function to add a lead from a form directly in the application. To use this function, first click on “Add Lead” from your lead list. When the dialogue opens, you have the option of adding manually (the same as before) or adding from a form. Choose the latter and then select the form you wish to use from the dropdown. At that point all of the fields from the form you chose will be displayed and you can add data and tab through the fields as needed. Once done and you click “Save,” your lead is entered, and any Workflows associated with it are triggered.
The key to this working well, of course, is to create a form (or series of forms) for your specific new lead needs, and any workflows you wish to be applied. Make sure that you reference them in the Apply Workflow section when you edit your form.
Form spam becomes a problem for popular websites (including ours) and, although it is basically harmless fpr Open Leads users, it is an major annoyance. The best way to circumvent this process is to make sure all forms are completed by a living, breathing human being, rather than a computer, or “bot,” buy using a Captcha code on your forms.
The development team at Open Leads upgraded all accounts to include Captcha on all Open Leads forms. Captcha, for those not familiar, is the process of requiring human completion of a form by verifying a specific code (usually a series of letters and/or numbers) before submitting a form.
This a vital upgrade for all Open Leads users because it enables them to prevent the “spamming’ of their form by bots. If you elect to enable Captcha on any of the forms that you directly link to, or if you use the embed code and have your form fields in an iframe, the person filling out the form will have to enter the specific code displayed in order to submit the data.
To enable Captcha on any form you currently have active, click on the Forms link under the Settings Tab and select the form you wish to enable Captcha on. Once you open the form editor, on the right hand side of your screen, you will see several options, including one called “Uses Captcha.” Click on the checkbox and the Captcha code will be automatically inserted on your form. That is all there is to it for hosted forms. If you have forms created by exporting the HTML from our system, you will need to enable Captcha for those forms, and then update the HTML on your site.
If you want to test how it works, simply create a new “test” form in your system and set it to use Captcha. Then fill the form out and observe the process.
Users may now elect to either Archive or Delete a lead that they no longer wish to appear in their active leads. Archive is a new feature that effectively removes the lead, but allows a user with Account Administrator privileges to recover the leads at any time.
Updates to the delete process also archives the deleted leads for retrieval, however the lead will only remain accessible to recover for 30 days. Deleted leads will then be removed forever.
Due to popular request, we have added a “Default View” feature in the latest release. If you open your Saved Views from the Lead List, whichever view is the first one on your list will become your default View. This means that whenever you log in to Open Leads and go to the Lead List, this will be the View you see. To change which saved View is your default, simply drag the one you wish to use to the top of the list.
If you like the ” View All Leads” that is the default when you first set up your account, you will need to save it and then drag it to the top position. The trick to doing this is to add an additional field to the view, sort a column or make some other modification to the view. The View then becomes a “Custom View” and can be saved. To save the view, just click on the red “Save” link next to “Viewing: Custom View” and then name the View – “All Leads” for example.
One of the most attractive features of Open Leads is its flexibility. Open Leads has always been an application that could be used for a variety of different lead types, simply by creating different forms for your different types of leads. The only limitation was that the forms had to be posted or linked to in order to get the Lead data.
With this latest update, though, the flexibility has increased dramatically. Many of our users receive leads from lead generation websites that email the lead information to them. Now, instead of having to manually enter the data into Open Leads, that lead can be written directly into your account.
Account administrators can set up the process first by establishing an email code if you have not done so already. This is done from the “Settings” tab, by clicking on the “Email-in” icon. Here you will see your current email in address (i-CODE@openleads.com) which you can change if you need to at any time. Keep in mind that changing the email address will invalidate the old address and require updating any lead sources that use the existing address.
You may then supply that email code to any third party lead source that supports the email formats supported by Open Leads. Any lead that is emailed to you at that point will then be written directly to your account. Currently Open Leads supports leads from the following:
More are being added as needed. If there is a particular source you need to work with Email-in in Open Leads, please contact us
