Having signup forms on your website makes it simple for visitors to join your list while they’re most engaged. Instead of leaving them to search for where to subscribe, the form is right there—leading to more signups and a smoother experience.
You can leverage this capture tool to collect SMS opt-ins! If you’d like to learn more about SMS marketing compliance, you can refer to this article for a detailed overview: SMS compliance overview (US and Canada)
When your forms are connected to Hive, new contacts flow straight into your account in real time. This gives you the ability to:
Automate immediately – trigger welcome emails or SMS as soon as someone signs up.
Save time – no need to export and import files from another platform.
Reduce errors – avoid missing, outdated, or duplicate data.
Act quickly – segment and message contacts while interest is at its peak.
To learn more about creating and adding a popup form to your website, check out this help article.
Create a new signup form
In your Hive account, go to Capture in the left-hand navigation and select Signup Forms. This will bring you to your main signup forms page. From here, click + New Signup Form (top right).
You’ll see three options:
Signup page – Creates a standalone page with a unique URL you can share, plus an embed code for your website. This option collects standard contact information only.
Signup form – Creates a form with embed code that you can place directly on your website. This option gives you more flexibility to customize the fields and data you collect from contacts.
Hive SDK – for sites with a custom-built signup form, allowing you to connect signups directly to Hive.
For this article, we’ll walk through creating a signup form (embed option).
Configure your form
After selecting Signup Form, you’ll be taken to the form builder where you can customize and complete the configuration.
Add form details
Give your signup form an internal name. This name is only visible inside Hive, so choose something clear and recognizable for your team.
Customize the design
When you create a signup form, Hive generates an embed code that you can further customize to match the look and feel of your website. Within the signup form builder, you can:
Add header text – the main message that appears on your form.
Select a form layout – choose vertical or horizontal.
Font Family – select a custom font for your form fields and submit button independently.
Button label
Customize the call-to-action text on your button. By default it says Subscribe, but you can edit this to match your brand voice. You can also select a custom Font Family for the button specifically.
Choose your form fields
Select the information you’d like to collect (e.g. name, email, mobile number) by checking the box next to each field. As you make selections, you’ll see a live preview of your form update on the right-hand side of your screen.
Notes:
If you include a mobile number field, Hive will automatically add the required compliance text to ensure the data is collected correctly.
The more fields you add, the higher the chance of signup drop-off. Collect only the information you know you’ll use in your marketing efforts.
Returning fan recognition – If a visitor visits a signup form and is already in your contacts, Hive will automatically recognize them and pre-fill the form with their existing details (such as name, email, phone, location, birthday, segments, and custom properties). This reduces friction and makes it easier for returning fans to update their information without starting from scratch.
Add to segment(s)
Choose which segment(s) new signups should be added to. This won’t display on your form—it’s just for organizing your contacts in Hive.
To add users to an existing segment, type the segment name exactly as it appears in Hive (case and character sensitive).
You can also create a new segment directly from here.
Set up opt-in segments (optional): Add interest or preference segments as checkboxes on your form. When visitors select these, they’ll be added to the corresponding segments in Hive. You can remove any default options by clicking X.
We’ve seen opt-in segments work especially well for venues that host different types of events—for example, rock, hip-hop, or jazz. When contacts complete your form, they can indicate which genres they’re most interested in (and which ones they’re not).
This gives you the ability to send more relevant, targeted content for upcoming shows. Not only does this create a better experience for your audience, but it can also improve key email performance metrics such as open and click-through rates—ultimately driving higher conversions and attributed revenue.
Custom User Properties (Optional)
Similar to segments, you can use Custom User Properties (CUPs) to define your own customer fields. These properties allow you to filter and segment your contacts based on the data you collect.
The key difference is how the information is captured:
Segments are pre-populated options where a contact (or you) checks a box.
CUPs are free-text fields, meaning the information can vary for each contact.
Which option you use depends on the type of data you want to collect. For standardized preferences (e.g. genre interest: rock, hip-hop, jazz), segments work best. For open-ended or unique data points (e.g. favourite artist, membership ID), CUPs are the better choice.
Write your success message
Create the confirmation message visitors will see once they successfully sign up (e.g. “Thanks for joining!”).
By default, the preview will display your main form. To view the success message, toggle the preview switch. We recommend reviewing both the main form and the success message (what visitors see after submitting) before going live.
Save and get embed code
When everything looks good, click Save & Get Embed Code (top right).
Copy the generated HTML code and paste it into your website where you’d like the form to appear.
For details on how to view and export the contacts collected by a signup form, check out this help article.
Customize your welcome email/SMS
Did you know that 74% of people who sign up for SMS or email expect to receive a welcome message? Without it, they may assume something went wrong. A welcome message also ensures SMS compliance by clearly showing new subscribers how to opt out if they choose.
Setting up the welcome email/SMS automation
When you create a signup form and click the edit welcome email/ sms, Hive automatically generates a Welcome Email/SMS automation for you. From here, you’ll need to:
Review the content to make sure it matches your brand’s look and tone
Toggle from pause to live when you’re ready to start sending
For step-by-step instructions on customizing and editing automations, check out this help article.
Note: the great thing about starting with your signup form page is Hive will automatically create a draft automation for you.