Almost every object in Ontraport works the same way. Deals, Companies and the custom objects you build all behave alike. Contacts is the exception. As the Support Center puts it, the Contacts object works a little differently than other objects in your account. In this lesson, you'll learn what's different, and how it should shape the way you set up your account.
First, what's the same. Contacts have fields, organized into sections and tabs, like any other object. You search, sort and group contacts in their collection the same way. And Contacts has its own automation maps, forms and messages under its menu, just like every other object. One small difference: Contacts is a default navigation item, so unlike other objects, you can't hide it from your navigation.
Now the differences. Start with messages. Every contact record has its own email address field, so a contact's emails simply go to that address.
Other objects reach people through their related contacts. Deal records don't have an email address field. So when you send an email from Deals, the Send email to setting defaults to the primary contact's email, the address saved on the deal's related contact record. Custom objects work the same way. A message from a Pets object can go to each pet's owner. You can also send to a related team member, like the deal's owner.
Texting is built around contacts too. The Send an SMS action sends a text message to a contact.
One caution. If you add an email address field to a custom object, every record in it counts toward your contacts limit, even if you never fill that field in.
Next, purchases. Every purchase automatically keeps a relationship to a contact, and invoices and payments are saved on that contact's record. The contact's Purchases tab, on Plus and above, holds their purchase history, their subscriptions and payment plans, and the credit cards they have on file.
On accounts with Advanced Purchases, which you turn on under your profile icon, then Administration, then Advanced Features, you can also link a purchase to a custom object record, like a ticket for an event. The purchase still belongs to a contact.
Web tracking follows contacts too. A contact's browser gets the Ontraport cookie when they fill out one of your forms, click a link in your email, click a tracked link, or log in to a membership site. Their visits to your pages show up in the contact log on their record. On Pro and above, UTM tracking saves the link that led them to opt in, and the last one they clicked, in the Lead Information section of their contact record. And your pages can fill in merge fields with values from the visitor's contact record.
Logins belong to contacts as well. You give a contact access to a membership site from the Membership tab on their record, or with the Update Membership Access action. And a customer center is where your contacts log in to view their invoices and update their credit card details.
That holds for dynamic pages, too. Who can see a page is decided by the visiting contact. On a dynamic template built from Contacts, you can show logged-in members only their own record. On a template built from another object, you can show a page only to visitors whose contact is related to that record, like the people who work at a company.
Finally, lead scoring. It lives under Contacts, then Settings, then Lead Scoring, and it scores your contacts on how well they fit your ideal customer and how they engage with you.
So here's the rule. If a record is a person you'll sell to, email or text, track on your site, or give a login, make them a contact. All of those features are built around contact records. So don't create a custom object called Customers or Husbands for the people you do business with.
Say you run a marriage counseling practice and need to know who's married to whom. Make both spouses contacts, and connect them with a relationship. The Support Center shows exactly this: a contacts form that collects a contact's details and their spouse's, creates a contact record for each, and links them with a Spouse relational field. Now both spouses can buy, get your emails and log in, and you still know who belongs together.
Save custom objects for things that aren't the people you do business with, like a veterinarian's pets. And don't split leads and customers into separate objects. Keep everyone in Contacts, and use a field to tell them apart.
So: every object shares the same basics, but email and texts, purchases, tracking, logins and lead scoring are built around contacts, and other objects reach people through their related contacts. Next up: multi-object forms, which create and link several related records with a single form.