How to Use Automation to Send E-Sign Agreements in Dropbox Sign Follow
How to Automate Sending of E-Sign Agreements in Law Ruler
Law RulerTM proudly supports our integration with our approved third-party e-sign provider, HelloSign (also searched as “Hello Sign") e-signature software. This tutorial will also help familiarize you with how to set up automated sending of your firm’s e-sign agreements as part of your firm’s workflow or embedding e-signs directly in a web form or landing page.
As an overview, there are two workflows for setting up e-sign automation.
- Embedded/Sign Now on a Website Form or Landing Page
- Status-Driven as a background process
If you want to prequalify your leads with qualifying criteria on your web form/landing page and display one e-sign template to them right then and there instantly on the website, then you will want to use our embedded workflow. However, it should not be used without purpose, and of note, only one e-sign template may be used per landing page. Depending on the workflow, some firms will want to use this embedded feature to sign first and do an intake second. Most firms will not use this embedded workflow since they prefer to do an intake first and only send an e-signs selectively after an extensive qualification and verification process.
The second e-sign automation workflow is status-driven which will work as a background process. To use the status-driven workflow, you will set up a specified status in Law Ruler Automations that will trigger a HelloSign e-sign template to send to your potential client via text message and email. Then, they sign it and you have a new client! If they do not sign it, then you will use Law Ruler automated reminders to follow up with the potential client to sign it or to trigger outbound phone calls to have your staff call them and talk about it.
HelloSign is a third-party that allows users to Easily eSign Documents, Forms, and Agreements Online. Law Ruler is a legal case management software CRM that integrates with HelloSign to send e-sign agreements to Law Ruler leads/intake/clients.
Aside from Law Ruler, all other trademarks, trade names, screenshots or company names referenced herein are used for identification purposes only and are the property of their respective owners.
For any support needs regarding HelloSign please contact HelloSign support directly since Law Ruler may assist with the integration and set up process but they cannot support HelloSign.
Table of Contents
How to Set Up a HelloSign E-Sign Template in Law Ruler
Using Embedded E-Sign with HelloSign on Your Website or Landing Page
Overview of How the Status-Driven E-Sign Automation Works in Law Ruler
Creating a Status-Driven Automated E-Sign Campaign
Activating E-Sign Automation and Selecting the E-Sign Template for Each Campaign
Viewing or Editing the E-Mail Content for Each E-Sign Automation Campaign
Viewing or Editing the Text Message Content for Each E-Sign Automation Campaign
Multimedia Messages (MMS) - Adding Bells and Whistles to Make Your Firm Stand Out
How to Set Up a HelloSign E-Sign Template in Law Ruler
Setting up a reusable e-sign template is a straightforward process in Law Ruler. After you set up an e-sign template, you will be able to use it with Law Ruler automation that is triggered by a “Status” change or directly from your website or landing page.
For further details on creating Law Ruler e-sign templates, please review this video:
Using Embedded E-Sign with HelloSign on Your Instapage website
Law Ruler has built a custom instapage integration to allow embedded e-sign for HelloSign on any InstaPage website/lander. This tutorial will show how to use InstaPage to implement this new feature. The way it works is that once a web form has been successfully qualified/submitted on your website, then it will trigger the embedded e-sign automation.
After the form submission, the lead will be instantly created in your Law Ruler system, and then the e-sign template will pop up on the screen for the potential client to sign. Within a minute or two of the e-sign screen pop, the e-sign will also be sent via text message and email to the potential client's email and phone. You may only use one e-sign template ID per landing page as that multiple e-sign templates on one landing page are not supported.
⚠️ Please also review our related InstaPage tutorial about working with Hidden Form Fields.
💡 Best practices dictate that you should use a stage/test landing page or website to get this working before making changes to your live website/landing page forms. It is critical to do some tests to make sure that this works, or all of your new leads will fail and not be created in Law Ruler as a result. Adding these changes to your live/production landing page or website and not testing them is a recipe for failure.
🚀 Let’s get started. First, on your landing page/website form, you will need to add these “Hidden Form Fields” if not already since these are required to create a new lead in Law Ruler.
- CaseType (value "Auto Accident" for example, pick the appropriate case type from the Law Ruler Case Types screen)
- key (Your firm’s secret API Key)
- LeadProvider ("Referral" for example, or use Keyword Tracking DNI to dynamically insert it)
In addition, we need to add these fields for the Embedded HelloSign Website feature to function:
- guid (No value is added here. This is created by Law Ruler’s API but must be included)
- esignID (You must select the HelloSign e-sign template ID number to use for this website/landing page. This is located inside of Law Ruler in Setup > E-Sign Settings)
Screenshot example of the required Hidden Form Fields for Embedded HelloSign on a website/landing page:
After adding the “Hidden Form fields” we will need to add the Form Submission behavior to redirect a successful web form submission to the embedded e-sign template. To do this, you will click on “Form Settings” and then “Submission”
Then, in the "REDIRECT" tab > click on the “Outside URL” tab
⚠️ Very Important: You must set your Law Ruler site URL inside of the copied code in the “HTML/CSS” Footer. There is a placeholder of developertest7.lawruler.com that must be changed to your firm’s domain, or this will not work.
Press “Save” to continue.
Next, we will need to integrate Law Ruler’s custom embedded e-sign JS code into the website or landing page. This is necessary to tell your website/landing page what to do after a successful web form is submitted.
Click on the “HTML/CSS” tab. Then, click on the “Footer” tab.
You will copy and paste v2.0 of the JS code from the attached file to the “Footer” tab. Password = LR
⚠️ Very Important: You must set your Law Ruler site URL inside of the copied code in the “HTML/CSS” Footer. There is a placeholder of developertest7.lawruler.com that must be changed to your firm’s domain, or this will not work.
Press “Save” to continue. After all the above steps have been completed, you will want to “Update” your live InstaPage form (for InstaPage) or publish your changes after careful testing on a test site.
⚠️ As a reminder, it is critical to do some tests on a sandbox/test/stage website or a landing page first and again on your live form after making these changes. It is strongly recommended that you make sure that this works, or all of your new leads will fail and not be created in Law Ruler as a result. Adding these changes to your landing page or website and not testing them is a recipe for failure. Best practices dictate that you should use a stage/test landing page or website to get this working before making changes to your live website/landing page forms.
Overview of How the Status-Driven E-Sign Automation Works in Law Ruler
Let’s get started with a high-level overview of how the Status-Driven Law Ruler > HelloSign Automation works so you can conceptualize it while performing the steps below.
- Inside your Law Ruler system, you will upload a Word or PDF document that will be used as an e-sign template
- Then, you will add fillable “mail merge” fields to the e-sign template. Each “mail merge” field will fill client data into the document from the database when you send each e-sign template to a client
- Then, you will add 1 or more signature and/or initial blocks to the e-sign template and “Save” the template.
- After creating an e-sign template, the next step is to create a Law Ruler Automation that will trigger the selected template to automatically be sent to each client as a certain Law Ruler “Statuses” are reached.
- As a result, you should certainly sign up more clients than ever before
- Complete! Yay! 👍
Creating a Status-Driven Automated E-Sign Campaign
To start, you will go to the left-side blue menu, and click “Automation/Workflows” then click on “AI and Automation Campaigns”
Next, you will click the blue “New Automation Campaign” button.
When you are inside of a new automation campaign, it will look like this:
When you are finished, your “Campaign Settings” screen should look like the screenshot below:
To set up a HelloSign E-Sign Automation Campaign, you will need to make the following changes:
- “Turn this Campaign On/Off” – set this to the “On” position
- “Email On/Off” – set this to the “On” position to email the e-sign
- “SMS On/Off” – set this to the “On” position to SMS text message the e-sign
- “Ignore Snooze” – set this to the “On” position to send the e-sign whenever it is requested without snoozing
- “Campaign Name” – enter a name for your automation. We recommend “E-Sign Automation” or you may use a more descriptive name to reference a specific case type if you would like to set up more than one automation.
- “Status to Trigger Campaign” – This will vary based on each practice area. Be creative. You may add as many different E-Sign Automation Campaigns and Status Triggers as you would like.
- Some firms have pre-qualification scripts on their websites/landing pages so by the time that a new lead is created in Law Ruler, the potential client is already pre-qualified (thus disqualified leads are never created). For that type of workflow, we recommend that you select “New Lead” to trigger e-signs to new leads.
- If that is not your workflow and your firm’s process is a bit more structured, then use a status that makes sense for your firm. If you wanted to send e-signs after your clients complete the online intake form, then you may want to use a trigger status such as “Intake Questionnaire Completed”
- Or, if you have an internal review process for each intake, then you could use a custom status for your firm such as “Intake Review Completed”
- “Retrigger automation if the same Status is reused” – this is in the “Off” position by default. You may leave this “Off” unless you are going to trigger an Automation with multiple statuses.
- Press “Create and Continue” to save your automation.
⚠️ It is not recommended that you modify any of the other settings on this tab since they aren’t relevant to E-Sign Automation
Activating E-Sign Automation and Selecting the E-Sign Template for Each Campaign
After you finish setting up your “Campaign Settings” you will need to go to the “Document Automation” tab.
- Press “Next” to get through the “Select Recipients” tab.
- Now, you will arrive in the “Document Automation” tab. This is where you will activate the e-sign automation and select the e-sign template that you would like to use.
- “E-Sign Automation” – set this to the “On” position
- “E-Sign Template” – this is a required field. You must select one (1) e-sign template that will be sent when this automation is triggered.
Example screenshot of a completed E-Sign Automation configuration:
- Press the blue “Next” button in the top-right corner two more times to skip the “Workflow Automation” and “Task Automation” tabs.
Viewing or Editing the E-Mail Content for Each E-Sign Automation Campaign
Now, you should be in the “Email Content” tab. You now have an opportunity to edit the email that is sent to each client along with each e-sign. It is optional to make changes here.
There is a default email template that is inserted here so only modify this if you would like. If you would like, then you may add any additional “Mail Merge” codes by choosing them from the widget on the right side of the screen, copy/paste, and then inserting into the email template.
✋ Opt-Outs: By the way, if a client has opted out of either email or text messages, then you should have no concern, they will only be sent communications through the opted-in communication channels.
⚠️️ Also, of note, please do not delete the “<<HelloSign>>” tag in the email or you will send blank emails to your clients with nothing to sign. This tag tells Law Ruler to open the selected e-sign template from inside of the email.
Press the blue “Next” button in the top-right corner to go to the final automation tab, “Text Msg Content”
Viewing or Editing the Text Message Content for Each E-Sign Automation Campaign
At this time, you should be in the “Text Msg Content” tab. Want to customize the text message template that is sent to each client along with each e-sign? It is optional to make changes here.
There is a default text message template that is inserted here so only modify this if you would like. If you would like, then you may add any additional “Mail Merge” codes by choosing them from the widget on the right side of the screen, copy/paste, and then inserting into the text message template.
⚠️ Also, of note, please do not delete the “<<HelloSign>>” tag in the text message or you will send blank texts to your clients with nothing to sign. This tag tells Law Ruler to open the selected e-sign template from inside of each text.
✋ Opt-Outs: By the way, if a client has opted out of either email or text messages, then you should have no concern, they will only be sent communications through the opted-in communication channels.
Multimedia Messages (MMS) - Adding Bells and Whistles to Make Your Firm Stand Out 🌟
💡 There is one more secret of the pros that you may want to try out. Not only can you send an e-sign text message, but you can also brand your text messages by including a miniature version of your firm’s logo, an animated graphics file (GIF), or a short video (up to 15-seconds) along with each e-sign by adding a multimedia message. This is a nice way to introduce each client to your firm.
To add a multimedia message (MMS), you will upload your graphics/video file. Please be aware there are size limitations that are governed by each wireless carrier, so if your MMS file is not compliant, then it will be automatically removed from any messages by each wireless carrier.
Please follow these wireless carrier guidelines:
To avoid issues with deliverability, the rules of the road for the wireless carriers are as follows:
- There is a maximum file size of 600KB for images and video content as an industry standard for wireless carriers.
- Any larger video files will be compressed for you, but it is highly recommended that your videos do not exceed 15 seconds in length, or they may not be high enough quality to be useful.
- Pictures will not be compressed by the carriers so please do not send anything larger than 600KB or it will fail.
Finally, when finished, press the green “Add Campaign & Close” button in the top-right corner to save your Law Ruler E-Sign Automation Campaign. Now, that this is completed, each time that the trigger status is reached, your client will receive the configured E-Sign Template. We love it when a plan comes together!
Support/Assistance
If you need further assistance, then please contact Law Ruler Support to assist you further.
🤗 Thank you very much for choosing Law Ruler!