Help Center

1. Getting Started

Creating your account

1. Visit /signup and enter your email address.
2. Check your inbox for a confirmation link and click it to verify.
3. You'll be taken to the onboarding wizard to set up your profile.

Onboarding wizard

The four-step wizard walks you through:

1. Business category — Select the industry that best describes your business (plumber, electrician, CPA, etc.). This determines how AI contextualizes every lead for you.
2. Zip codes — Choose the zip codes you serve. Leads from public records filed in those zips will be routed to your dashboard.
3. Signal types — Pick which record types matter to you: building permits, home sales, or new business filings. (Free and Starter plans get 1 signal type; Growth and Pro get all.)
4. Notifications — Choose how you want to be alerted: email digest, SMS, or push notifications (channel availability depends on your plan).

You can change all of these later in Settings.

Free plan limits

The free plan includes 1 zip code, 1 signal type, and 5 leads per month. AI relevance insights are not included — you'll see lead details but the AI analysis section will be locked. Upgrade anytime from Settings → Billing.

2. Dashboard

Your Dashboard is the home screen after logging in. It shows a snapshot of your lead activity for the current month:

• Stat cards — New leads this month, saved leads, and total alerts generated.
• Conversion Funnel — A visual breakdown of how leads move through your pipeline: New → Contacted → Quoted → Won. Click any stage to jump to the filtered leads list.
• Signal distribution — See which record types (permits, sales, filings) are generating the most leads.
• ROI section (paid plans) — Revenue tracking, cost comparison, and smart prompts. See the ROI Dashboard section below.

3. Leads & Feed

The Leads page shows every lead matched to your account, newest first.

Lead cards

Each lead card shows:

• Signal badge — The record type (Building Permit, Home Sale, New Business).
• Property address and zip code.
• Key details — Sale price, permit value, year built, square footage, etc., pulled from the public record.
• Why This Lead Matters (paid plans) — AI-generated analysis explaining exactly why this lead is relevant to your specific industry.
• Action Plan (paid plans) — A step-by-step numbered plan with timing and channel recommendations.
• Pipeline status — A visual progress bar showing where the lead sits in your pipeline, with a dropdown to change status.

Filtering leads

Use the filter bar at the top of the leads page to narrow your view:

• Signal type — Filter by building permit, home sale, or new business.
• Status — Filter by pipeline status (new, saved, contacted, quoted, won, lost).
• Zip code — View leads from a specific zip.
• Has contact — Show only leads where you've added contact info, or only those without.
• Date range — Filter by when the lead was created.

Tip: clicking a stage in the Dashboard's Conversion Funnel will take you directly to the leads page filtered by that status.

4. Pipeline & Statuses

Every lead moves through a pipeline that tracks your progress from discovery to close:

To change a lead's status, use the dropdown on the lead card. The visual progress bar updates automatically. You can also add a deal value when marking a lead as Won — this feeds into your ROI dashboard.

5. Contact Management

For each lead, you can record who you contacted. This helps you track outreach and builds a history of interactions.

Adding a contact

Click Add Contact on any lead card. Fill in the available fields:

• Name and Phone — Available on all plans.
• Email, Source (lookup, door knock, referral, etc.), and Notes — Available on Starter, Growth, and Pro plans.

Free plan users can add up to 5 contacts total (name and phone only). Paid plans have unlimited contacts with all fields.

Editing and deleting contacts

Click the edit icon on an existing contact to update it, or delete to remove it entirely. Deleting a contact does not change the lead's pipeline status.

6. AI Insights

ZipSignal uses AI (powered by Google Gemini) to analyze every lead and generate two pieces of content tailored to your industry:

Why This Lead Matters

A 2-3 sentence analysis explaining why this specific property or filing is relevant to your business. It includes property details (address, price, year built, size) and highlights risks or opportunities (e.g., "1960s-era home likely has original galvanized pipes nearing end of life").

Action Plan

A numbered 4-5 step plan with specific timing, outreach channels, and talking points. For example:

1. Send a postcard within 48 hours mentioning your kitchen plumbing package.
2. Follow up with a door hanger on day 3-5.
3. Call the homeowner on day 7 to offer a free inspection.

Postcard copy & outreach drafts

When you generate a postcard or mailer for a lead, AI creates a personalized blurb written directly to the recipient. Pro-tier users also get a full outreach letter draft ready to send as-is.

7. Map View

The Map View plots all your leads on an interactive map so you can see geographic clusters and plan efficient routes for door knocking or service calls.

• Leads are color-coded by signal type.
• Click a marker to see the lead details.
• Zoom and pan to explore different areas within your zip codes.
• Clusters automatically group nearby leads — click a cluster to zoom in.

Map View is available on Growth and Pro plans. You can switch between list and map views from the leads page.

8. Postcards & Mailers

ZipSignal can generate ready-to-print postcard designs for any lead. Each postcard includes:

• Your brand color and hero image (set in Settings → Branding).
• An AI-written blurb personalized to the recipient's property.
• Your business contact information (website, email, phone).
• A default offer or call-to-action you define.

Generating a postcard

On any lead card, click Generate Postcard. The AI will create a personalized blurb and the postcard image will be rendered with your branding. You can then download the image to print and mail.

Monthly quotas

• Growth plan — 5 postcards per month.
• Pro plan — 20 postcards per month.

Postcard quotas reset on the 1st of each month.

Setting up branding

Before generating postcards, set up your branding in Settings → Branding:

• Website & email — Displayed on the postcard.
• Brand color — Used as the accent color on the design.
• Default offer — A default call-to-action (e.g., "10% off your first service").
• Hero image — Search Unsplash for a header image or upload your own.

9. Notifications

ZipSignal can notify you about new leads through multiple channels. Configure your preferences in Settings → Notifications.

10. ROI Dashboard

Paid-plan subscribers see an ROI section on the dashboard that tracks the return on their ZipSignal subscription:

Revenue hero card

Shows your total revenue this month (from deals marked "Won"), your subscription cost, and the ROI multiplier (e.g., "12x return"). Also displays month-over-month change.

Revenue chart

A 6-month bar chart of your monthly revenue with a reference line showing your subscription cost. Hover over a bar to see deals won and average deal size.

Conversion funnel

A visual funnel showing how leads flow from New → Contacted → Quoted → Won, with conversion rates at each stage. Color-coded against industry benchmarks:

• Green — At or above target.
• Yellow — Close to target.
• Red — Below target.

Cost comparison

Compares your cost per lead and cost per customer on ZipSignal vs. alternatives like Angi, Thumbtack, and Google Local Services Ads.

Smart prompts

Contextual banners that appear based on your activity — for example, nudging you to follow up on stale leads, celebrating new records, or suggesting an upgrade when your ROI is high.

Monthly ROI email

On the 1st of each month, paid subscribers receive an email summarizing the previous month's performance: revenue, deals won, pipeline stats, and top wins.

11. CSV Export

Pro-plan subscribers can export their lead data as a CSV file for use in CRMs, spreadsheets, or other tools.

• Go to Leads and click Export CSV.
• The export includes all lead fields: address, signal type, status, AI insights, contact information, and timestamps.
• Active filters are applied to the export — what you see is what you get.

12. Billing & Plans

Plans overview

See the full feature comparison on the pricing page.

Upgrading or downgrading

Go to Settings → Billing and click "Upgrade" on the plan you want. You'll be taken to Stripe to enter payment details. Your new plan takes effect immediately — existing leads are retroactively unlocked with AI insights.

To downgrade or cancel, click "Manage Billing" to open the Stripe customer portal where you can change or cancel your subscription. Downgrading to Free removes access to paid features at the end of the current billing period.

Payment security

All payments are processed by Stripe. We never store your credit card information on our servers. Stripe is PCI DSS Level 1 certified.

13. Settings

The Settings page is organized into sections:

• Profile — Update your business name, category, and email. Changing your category will update how AI contextualizes future leads.
• Branding (Growth/Pro) — Configure your postcard branding: website, email, brand color, default offer, and hero image.
• Zip Codes — Add or remove the zip codes you want to monitor. Each plan has a limit on total zips and monthly changes. Removed zips have a cooldown before they can be re-added (varies by plan).
• Signal Types — Choose which record types to monitor. Growth and Pro plans get all signal types automatically.
• Notifications — Toggle email, SMS, and push notifications. Configure your phone number and consent for SMS.
• Billing — View your current plan, upgrade, or manage your subscription through Stripe.
• Danger Zone — Permanently delete your account and all associated data.

14. Data & Privacy

What data does ZipSignal collect?

We collect your email, business name, industry, and notification preferences. Lead data comes from publicly available government records — we don't scrape private information. For full details, see our Privacy Policy.

How is AI used?

When a lead matches your account, we send the public record data (address, sale price, permit details) and your industry category to Google's Gemini AI. The AI generates relevance analysis and action plans. No personal customer data or your contact lists are sent to the AI. Google does not use paid API inputs to train models.

Exporting your data

You can export all your lead data as CSV from the Leads page (Pro plan) or request a full data export from your profile.

Deleting your account

You can permanently delete your account from Settings → Danger Zone. This removes all your data within 30 days. This action cannot be undone.

15. Support & Feedback

ZipSignal has a built-in support system so you can report bugs, request features, ask billing questions, or share feedback — all without leaving the app.

Submitting a ticket

You can submit a support ticket two ways:

• Support page — Go to Support from the navigation bar for the full-page experience with all form options and your ticket history.
• Floating widget — Click the help button in the bottom-right corner of any page for quick access without leaving your current view.

Ticket types

• Bug Report — Found something broken? Include steps to reproduce and optionally attach a screenshot.
• Feature Request — Suggest a new feature. Other users can upvote your request to signal demand.
• Billing Help — Questions about your plan, payments, or invoices.
• General Feedback — Rate your experience (1-5 stars) and share your thoughts.

Tracking your tickets

Visit the "My Tickets" tab on the Support page to see all your past submissions, their status (Open, In Progress, Resolved, Closed), and any replies from our team. You'll also receive email notifications when we respond.

16. Frequently Asked Questions