Zero-Effort Forms can skyrocket your event attendance

Think back to the last invitation you received. Did you have to fill out your name, email, and other details in a tedious RSVP form? How many events have you skipped simply because the registration was too much of a hassle?

The truth is, the party inviting you likely already knows your information — at least your email address (they just used it!) and probably even your name. Yet, they still make you fill out every detail from scratch.

There’s a simple solution: pre-fill all known fields for your guests automatically. Shockingly, almost no one is using this incredibly effective technique.

Note: HubSpot will try to fill known fields, when it can identify the form visitor from previous interactions via cookie. But this doesn’t work in many, or most cases.

Maximize % of Pre-filled Forms with One Simple "Trick"

The key to seamless pre-filled forms? It’s all in the URL. By adding a few smart parameters to your invitation link, you can make form-filling virtually effortless for your attendees.

When you create a form or landing page, it generates a basic URL. This is where the magic happens — you can append personalized data directly into the URL, streamlining the process for your recipients.

Basic form URL sample:

https://share.hsforms.com/2kqa01BXTR7evE-zLIbKgIw3i7hp

Note: You can make the Form part of a Landing Page and publish it as a nice URL on your domain.

And now the magic. Every input of a Form has internal ID in HTML code. You can see the ID in HubSpot Form editor:

Add parameters to the URL address

You can simply add parameters after the basic URL using Form Inputs IDs. These parameters will be passed on to the form if they match objects in the HTML page. Example of new URL address with parameters:

https://share.hsforms.com/2kqa01BXTR7evE-zLIbKgIw3i7hp?firstname=Vojtech

Use "&" separator, if you want to add more parameters:

https://share.hsforms.com/2kqa01BXTR7evE-zLIbKgIw3i7hp?firstname=Vojtech&lastname=Foukal

Note: URL addresses don't support all our characters, but only 128 original ASCII characters set. All non ASCII characters have to be added using "URL encoding" using their UTF-8 hexadecimal code. I.e. space character is added as "%20" in the URL. More info at W3Cschools.

Replace fixed values with personalised HubSpot values

And now finally, we can create a URL address that will fill personalized values for each invitation email recipient:

https://share.hsforms.com/2kqa01BXTR7evE-zLIbKgIw3i7hp?firstname={{ personalization_token("contact.firstname") }}&email={{ personalization_token("contact.email") }}

You can use this technique for both marketing emails as well as 1:1 email templates.

Note: Each invitation email contains these personal data. If forwarded, anybody using this personalized URL will get the form pre-filled for the original recipient.

HubSpot personalisation variables cheetsheet

Here is a reference table of the most common variables: