Capture: form to list

Step 2 of this pathway. Every automated email depends on one thing: contacts landing on a list, cleanly, without you touching them. This chapter builds that. In 20–30 minutes you'll have a form that pipes new leads straight into your email platform.

The two pieces you need.

• A form tool: a simple form builder (like Typeform, Google Forms, or the form built into your website platform) that collects name and email.
• An email platform: where the list lives and where sequences run (like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, or Beehiiv). Most have a free tier that's plenty to start.

Many email platforms include their own form builder. If yours does, use it; the connection is already done. Otherwise, connect your form to your platform through the platform's native integration or a connector.

Keep the form short. Every extra field costs you fill-ins. Ask for the minimum that lets you follow up:

• Name (first name is enough)
• Email
• One qualifying question, only if you truly use it (e.g., "What do you need help with?")

That's it. Phone number and long questionnaires belong later, once they've replied.

Caution: customer data. The moment a real person's name and email hit your list, you're holding their data. Keep that list inside your email platform and your private AI workspace only. Don't paste real contact details into public chatbots, shared docs, or anywhere outside tools you control. When you use AI to draft emails (next chapters), give it a fake sample contact, never your live list.

Set one tag or list on entry. Tag every new contact by where they came from: "website-form," "quote-request," "event." This one habit lets you send the right sequence to the right people later. Untagged lists become mush.

The 6-point setup checklist:

CAPTURE SETUP: do these in order

[ ] 1. Pick your email platform (free tier is fine to start)
[ ] 2. Create one list/audience inside it
[ ] 3. Build a short form: Name, Email, (1 optional question)
[ ] 4. Connect form -> email platform
       (use the platform's built-in form, native integration,
        or a connector, whichever is simplest)
[ ] 5. Set an auto-tag on entry (e.g. "website-form")
[ ] 6. Submit a TEST entry with your own email
       -> confirm it appears on the list, tagged, within 2 min

The test is non-negotiable. Fill out your own form with your real email and watch it land. If it doesn't show up tagged within a couple minutes, the wiring is off. Fix it now, before you send traffic. A form that silently drops leads is worse than no form.

Where this goes. Once contacts flow onto a tagged list, every other email in this pathway has fuel. Your missed-lead auto-reply, your nurture, your follow-up: all of them trigger off this list.

Next up, chapter 3: writing the welcome / nurture sequence that turns these new contacts into people who want to talk.