Create contacts from conversations

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  Conversations is no longer available for purchase as of January 3, 2023.

Contacts can be created from conversations in three different ways: they can submit responses to a form via the chatbot automation, they can send an inbound email to your unified inbox, or you can pass their email address into the Conversations javascript. 

Create contacts from chat

You can use the Form action in your chatbot automation to collect information from visitors when they initiate a chat with you. This Form will appear in the chat widget for visitors. You will be able to collect the following information using the Form action:

  • Email address (required; all form blocks must contain this field)
  • Phone number (can be optional or required)
  • Account (can be optional or required)
  • Full name (can be optional or required)

Once the email address and other pieces of information are collected, a contact profile will be created for the visitor in your ActiveCampaign account. All interactions will be stored in the Conversations unified inbox and on contact profile pages under the Conversations tab. 

The Form action in the chatbot automation is enabled when you set up Conversations on your account. However, you can always update this block to remove the phone number, account, and full name fields. You can also make these fields either optional or required. To do so:

  1. Click “Conversations” in the left menu, then click “Conversations Settings.”
  2. Click the “Chatbot Automation” tab.
  3. Click the Form block. A modal window will open.
  4. To make the Phone Number, Account, or Full Name fields required, click the "Required" checkbox. 
  5. To make the Phone Number, Account, or Full Name fields not required, click the "Required" checkbox to remove the check.
  6. To remove a field from the Form block, click the "X" for the field you wish to delete.
  7. Click the "Save" button.

Once a contact submits the form, you can add them to an automation using the “Enter an automation” action in the chatbot automation.

Create contacts from inbound emails

An inbound email is a single unique email address that will route emails into your Conversations inbox. With this email address, you can forward emails from your personal email client and collect replies to campaigns and automation emails.

When you receive an inbound email from an unknown email address, we’ll create a contact profile record for them in your account. The conversation will appear in both the unified inbox and on the contact record under the “Conversations” tab.

Note that there is no automation trigger for contacts created from a Conversations email.

Create contacts from Facebook Messenger

You can turn an unknown visitor from Facebook Messenger into a contact. Once the visitor starts a conversation, you can manually add contact information to a new contact record.

Follow these steps to create a contact for an unknown visitor from Facebook Messenger:

  1. In the visitors detail pane, select "Click to add" next to email field.
  2. Enter visitor contact info.
  3. Click "Save."

Pass a visitor's email address into Conversations javascript

If you have identified the visitor when they start a conversation with you, you can insert their email address into the Conversations Javascript code that you get from the Settings > Tracking page in your ActiveCampaign account.

For example, if the visitor is logged into a page on your site, you may be able to identify them after they log in. Once their email address is passed to the code, any message they send will be associated with the contact matching that email address. 

Learn how to pass a visitor's email address into the javascript code.

Can I email contacts created from the Capture form?

While contact records are created when visitors submit the Capture Form, they are not considered opted-in contacts and are not added to any email marketing lists. This is because they have not explicitly provided their consent to receive marketing communications from you.

If you wish to invite the contact to subscribe to your list, you can supply a link to your online subscription form to them via chat or add them to an automation that sends a follow-up email and includes a link to your subscription form. Note that this follow-up should be treated as a transactional email and should only relate to the discussion you had with your contact.

What happens to visitors who leave before they submit an email address?

The chat widget code you place on your site also places a tracking cookie on site visitors. If they initiate a chat and leave without submitting their email address, that conversation is still captured and stored in your Conversations unified inbox. If the visitor comes back within 30 days and does not clear their cookies, we’ll associate that visitor with their previous chat. If they submit their email address, a contact profile page will be created for them and their interactions will be listed on their record.

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