Step 1: Build a Real-time Marketing Form
Go to Customer Insights – Journeys → Real-time Marketing → Forms
Create a Lead generation form.
Add fields:
Contact fields: First Name, Last Name, Email, Phone, Address
Additional fields (custom questions)
Step 2: Enable Prefill and Audience
In the form's settings, enable: Enable prefill
Audience: Contacts
Step 3: Configure Submission Behavior
Under Submission → Lead creation, choose:
Create new Lead
Map Contact fields → Lead fields manually (this step is crucial!)
First Name → First Name
Email → Email
Enable “Set parent contact” on Lead
This ensures the new Lead inherits the Contact fields and gets linked.
Step 4: Send Email Using Real-time Journey
Use Customer Journey (Real-time) and design the email.
Insert form link with prefill token:
Use the dynamic link from the form record (or use Insert → Form link option).
This adds the personalized token (ci_contact_key=...) for prefill to work.
Step 5: Test It
Send yourself a test email as a Contact.
Open the link:
Fields should be prefilled.
On submit: a Lead is created, fields are copied, and the Lead is linked to the Contact in “Parent Contact”.