Lead capture forms are the lifeblood of a healthy sales pipeline. They’re critical in driving new prospects to your business. However, if you have noticed that its performance is flatlining as opposed to an upward climb, then it could be a symptom of an underlying problem.
In this post, we take a detailed look at lead capture forms, their importance, and how you can maximise value from this marketing tool.
What is a Lead Capture Form?
A lead capture form is the hero of your landing page. It’s an instrument for collecting data from site visitors, prospects, and customers who take an active interest in your business and its offerings.
Quite often, they gain something through this transaction like a free ebook, a free product demo, or a discount code in exchange for their information.
Here’s a quick overview of why lead capture forms matter:
- A lead generation form captures details of individuals interested in your business. And so, in a way, it automatically qualifies leads.
- You get details straight from the horse’s mouth, which minimises any potential data entry errors.
- They are highly customisable and flexible. Businesses control the number of fields depending on their requirements.
- It ensures a seamless transition from a relevant advertisement to lead generation without any drop-offs.
- Since they’re often straightforward and conveniently located on landing pages, they minimise distractions during lead capturing.
- You can seek explicit consent from the customer while accepting and validating data to stay compliant with data privacy and security regulations.
- These often come with built-in analytics, allowing businesses to sort and segment leads into different cohorts.
5 Helpful Tips to Create a High-Converting Lead Capture Form
Keep it simple
‘Keep it simple’ has been the latest mantra of all things on the internet.
Whether it’s the web design and layout or the flow for the checkout process on eCommerce websites – the goal is to minimise cognitive load so that the users can enjoy a frictionless experience. The same applies to lead capture forms.
Craft lead generation forms that are easy to fill out and capture the user’s attention. Here are some of the best design practices to keep in mind:
- Be generous with drop-down menus
- Offer auto-filling capabilities
- Keep the number of fields to the minimum – enough so that the form is functional without overwhelming the user
- Make sure it’s responsive and displays well on different screen sizes
- Leave a lot of white space
- Use popping colours for your CTA button
RELATED: 8 Design Essentials Your Website Needs to Have
Placement matters
It’s found that users are 84% more likely to view and engage with above-the-fold content than below-the-fold content. The results are consistent, regardless of the device.
The results from this strategic placement make sense seeing as it loads quickly and is the first element that a visitor encounters while engaging with a page.
However, if your business or its sales process thrives on long lead generation forms, then it would make sense to place it at the bottom, that is, after you highlight your value proposition.
Always have a strong CTA
Neglecting to add a CTA to your landing page or lead capturing form is effectively leaving money on the table! You’ll be surprised how much such critical consideration goes unnoticed.
On that note, it’s also worth mentioning how not all CTAs are alike.
Generic CTAs like “Submit” can still cause 3% of your audience to abandon a lead capturing form. While 3% may not seem like a lot, and you may still gain results, personalised and targeted CTAs can perform a lot better.
They give a clear message about what you want your target audience to do next encouraging them to take action. So, instead of a generic “Sign Up” CTA, you can specifically prompt users to “Book a Consultation”, “Download Free Ebook”, etc.
Induce trust
Users are conscious of sharing personal data through digital media. Your lead capturing forms are only as successful as they are trustworthy.
Be transparent about your data privacy and security policies so that customers know what they are signing up for.
Further, you can ask for explicit consent for future communications so that your marketing efforts bear fruit. You can also resort to displaying security badges, if any, to make people feel safe about sharing their details.
Perform A/B testing
Split testing or A/B testing is doing an experiment on marketing assets to identify which gets the most positive reaction from customers.
Carrying out an A/B test on your lead capturing forms will help identify the form that would perform better.
You can create two versions of your form where you can use different colours and CTAs for each. Then, show design A to half of your audience and design B to another half. Make sure to allot enough time to complete the whole experiment and analysation of the results before the actual launching of your form.
Boost conversions with a well-designed lead form
As an essential marketing tool, it wouldn’t be a waste to put a lot of thought and effort into creating your lead capture form. Because in no time, when built right, it could be your strongest channel to earn new customers and sales.
The actionable tips shared above will offer you a push in the right direction to get your lead capture form functioning like a well-oiled machine.
