Zoho CRM is one of the most popular platforms on the market and unlike CRM software such as Salesforce, it is relatively easy to pick up. If you want to connect your Zoho CRM account with your WordPress forms, you don’t need Zapier or another third-party service.
Ninja Forms lets you create a Zoho CRM WordPress form using the Zoho CRM add-on, so you can easily collect your customer’s data and focus on growing your business!
There are probably many questions on your mind when it comes to connecting your WordPress forms with your Zoho CRM account, and in this article, we’ll give our best to answer them all. Ready to get started? Let’s dig in!
Table of contents
- How to integrate Zoho CRM with WordPress
- Send custom data from your WordPress form to Zoho CRM
- Sending sensitive data to Zoho CRM
1. How to integrate Zoho CRM with WordPress
Zoho CRM is not that complicated and your integration shouldn’t be either. We are here to show that connecting your Zoho CRM account to your WordPress website is a walk in the park so you can easily create a Zoho CRM WordPress form.
All you need is your free Ninja Forms plugin, an active Zoho CRM account, and our Zoho CRM add-on that acts as a bridge between your WordPress form and the Zoho CRM software.
Linking your Zoho CRM account to WordPress Forms
First, you need to install the Zoho CRM add-on. The next step is linking your Zoho CRM account to WordPress by creating a “connected app”. Navigate to the Zoho API Console URL and click on Self Client and click Create.
This will automatically generate a Client ID and Client Secret. On the left tab, you will need to generate code. You need to set the “Scope” to ZohoCRM.modules.all and set the Scope Description to Ninja Forms. Please note the Time Duration means the validity of the generated token. Click Create in order to generate the code. (authorization token).
Now head to Ninja Forms Dashboard > Settings > Zoho CRM Settings. Here you’ll need to paste the Client ID, Client Secret and Authorization Code you generated in Zoho API Console. Once you enter the Authorization Code, click Save Settings and test your Zoho connection.
That’s it you just linked your Zoho CRM account with your WordPress website. Now we will show you how you can create a Zoho CRM WordPress form!
Add a contact from your WordPress form to your Zoho CRM account (field mapping)
Now that you connected your WordPress forms to your Zoho CRM account, you can start sending your contacts to Zoho. This is done via Add to Zoho CRM action. For demonstration purposes, we created simple form fields that we will map to Zoho CRM:
The next step is to click Emails & Actions. Click the blue plus icon in the lower right and click Add To Zoho CRM action. After choosing this option, you will see a Zoho Field Map under the action name.
Now, you want to map all existing WordPress form fields to Zoho CRM. This is done by clicking Add New next to the Zoho Field Map. Click on the merge tag icon to pull out the form field data and map it to the correct Zoho Field. Make sure it is mapped to the correct Module.
Keep in mind, that the Zoho CRM add-on creates only a new record and does not update existing records. Any human or automated bot that enters a matching email address would have the ability to delete or overwrite all the entries in your account. For this reason, this decision was made to prevent spam-type submissions from corrupting valid data in Zoho CRM in order to protect against malicious updates. Also, it is not possible to transfer files to Zoho CRM due to security reasons.
If you don’t want to allow duplicate values for specific fields in your Modules, head over to your Zoho CRM account, can navigate to Customization > Modules and Fields > Select the Module and click Create & Edit Fields. Select the field you want to make changes and click Do not allow duplicate values.
Send custom data from your WordPress form to Zoho CRM
Sure, Zoho CRM has plenty of fields available to choose from but it’s not always enough. What if you are collecting specific data on your WordPress form and you need to use custom fields?
In order to send the custom data successfully, you’ll need 3 things: create form fields on your WordPress form, create custom fields under the desired Module in Zoho CRM, and finish mapping these fields on your WordPress form.
Create a custom field in your Zoho CRM account
Let’s assume you have your form fields ready in Ninja Forms. If you want to refresh your memory on form building, you can check our tutorial Building a Form.
Now, you want to head to your Zoho CRM account to create custom fields that match your form fields. Navigate to your Zoho CRM account and click the gear icon. This will open the Setup Dashboard. Navigate to Customization > Modules and Fields.
This will open the list of existing Modules. Click on the Module where would you like to create a custom field. In our example, we selected Contacts Module.
Now click on the Fields tab and click the blue button Create & Edit Fields. You will see the list of existing fields under the Contact Module but you want to focus on the table on the left that says New Fields.
If you want to create a custom field, you simply select your desired field and drag the field to the list under the Contacts Module. Please note that the creation of custom Modules is not supported in the Zoho CRM add-on.
When choosing your custom field, there are two distinct characteristics to consider: what is the format of the data and how is the data presented to the form user. For example, if the data being sent is text, you would select Single Line.
Map custom fields data from WordPress to Zoho CRM
If you successfully created a custom field in your Zoho CRM, make sure the Field Label is matching the Field Label on your WordPress form. In the example below, we created a custom text field in Zoho CRM that we named Test. This custom field was created under the Contacts Module. Since this is a custom field, you’ll need to select the Module that says Custom. Since we created the field under Contacts, we will select Zoho Field Contact Custom. Then you’ll want to fill in the data in Custom Field.
If you want to test if your contact has been transferred to Zoho CRM after you submit the contact, head over to Ninja Forms Dashboard > Settings> Zoho CRM Settings > Communication Status. If there is any error, this would be the place that would display the error message.
That’s it! You’ve just learned how to create a Zoho CRM WordPress form in our step-by-step guide.
3. Sending sensitive data to Zoho CRM?
Sometimes your organization stores sensitive data in the Zoho CRM. Securing this sensitive data such as personally identifiable information (PII), or protected health information (PHI) is a critical concern for organizations. While Ninja Forms has security measures in place to prevent malicious code, Ninja Forms relies on the security of your server.
When you integrate your WordPress forms with Zoho CRM, we don’t recommend saving sensitive data. The reason is all data is saved by default within the WordPress database. Ninja Forms gives you an option to disable the Record Submission action (just toggle off the button) to stop the data from saving to your server. Disabling this option your data is transferred straight to the Zoho CRM system.
However, If you decide to store your submissions with personally identifiable information, you can set submissions to expire. You can also mark certain fields as Personally Identifiable Data.
This means when Delete Data Request is processed, all Personally Identifiable Data on your form will be anonymized rather than deleted. To learn more about General Data Protection Regulation, make sure to check this blog post!
Create a Zoho CRM WordPress form in minutes!
Congratulations! You’ve reached the end of our article. We hope you feel confident about how to create a Zoho CRM WordPress form using our Zoho CRM add-on and free Ninja Forms plugin.
Luckily, you don’t need any third-party automation tool that comes with extra expenses to connect your Zoho CRM to WordPress. With the Zoho CRM add-on from Ninja Forms, you can easily make the connection between your WordPress site and your Zoho CRM account without spending a fortune! To learn more about the Zoho CRM add-on, visit our documentation page with step-by-step tutorials.
Go ahead and grab the Zoho CRM add-on today! Zoho CRM add-on is part of our Agency membership but unlike our competitors, we give you the option to purchase our add-ons individually. (single site, 5 sites, or 20 sites).
We also offer a 14-day money-back guarantee for our products, so you’ll have plenty of time to test your add-on with Zoho CRM software. We don’t want you to worry about losing your money so if you realize our product is not right for your project, we give you a full refund!
