10 Steps to Making the Perfect Lead Generation Form
A conversion form is a key element in any lead generation strategy. It allows you to collect valuable contact information from your customers, like email addresses, so you can send them updates about your business or give them incentives to repurchase products and services. With a conversion form, customers won’t have to visit your website anymore to find out what’s new—everything they want to know will be sent straight to their inbox!
However, the trickiest part of the conversion form is getting your customers to fill them out. Not everybody is willing to give personal data, so you’re going to have to convince them to give it to you with incentives and a little bit of sweet talk. If you want to know the best way to do this and create an awesome conversion form that will actually get you some leads, then follow these 10 steps outlined by Los Angeles SEO experts!
1. Inspire Confidence
With threats to our privacy popping up every day, people need to know the companies they’re giving out their personal information to are trustworthy. An e-book or a coupon code is not worth the risk of a data breach!
So, how do you emanate authenticity and reliability? By having tons of proof!
For starters, you should make an effort to maintain your website. Keep it updated with high-quality, relevant information that you think your customers would enjoy. Also give some details about the company itself, like why it was established and what you hope to achieve with your products and services.
Additionally, add some user-generated content like reviews and testimonials. These make your company look more trustworthy as these are genuine, third-party opinions from people who are satisfied with your work. The more reviews and testimonials you get from happy customers, the more appealing you appear to prospective ones, making them more willing to share their contact information.
2. Give Value
Lead generation is a two-way street. If you want their contact information, you’re going to have to give something just as valuable in return. It has to be something valuable to the person and not anything they can get elsewhere—if they can get it for free from another website, then why bother filling out your form at all?
Additionally, you’ll want to refrain from giving monetary things like gift cards. You’re not trying to buy their personal data or bribe them with cash!
Try and focus on giving things that are convenient for them. This could mean things that save time (e.g., giving access to new releases before everybody else), remove barriers on your website (e.g., giving access to forums or comment sections that need login info), compile valuable information and simplify it (e.g., giving webinars or e-books), and offer exclusive content.
3. Get Rid of Distractions
If you’ve finally got a customer who’s willing to fill out your conversion form, it would be a damn shame if they got distracted and forgot about it. That’s why you should remove all distractions from your landing page when they’re filling out the form.
You often see these with e-commerce websites, like Bath and Body Works:
As you can see, everything else besides the email form fades into the background, making you focus more on filling out the form rather than the huge rubber duck behind it. Once they’ve filled out the form or decided not to fill out form, they can just close it out and access the rest of the website.
4. Place the Form Properly on the Page
In a world where products and services are provided quickly and promptly, a lead generation form that is easily accessible performs a lot better than a form that isn’t. That means positioning the form where people can easily fill it out with the least number of clicks and swipes possible.
Don’t believe us? According to a study by Quicksprout, one website had a jump in conversion rates after moving its form from the left side to the right side of its page! Perhaps most cursors rest on the right side, or maybe people just generally gravitate towards the right—whatever the case, go where the customers go.
Of course, this means having to study our customer’s behavior. If you see that they’re responding to one form more than the other, then it’s time to start prioritizing.
5. Don’t Ask for a Phone Number
Did you know that 37% of site visitors, when prompted for a phone number, abandon the form? People these days just don’t feel comfortable about giving out their phone numbers. So, you need to ask yourself if their phone numbers are crucial for lead generation, especially at the beginning stage of the marketing funnel. Lead generation is mostly done through email, anyway, so is there really much use for a phone number?
If you’re adamant about getting their phone numbers, then you need to give them an incentive. For example, you can offer real-time updates or quicker responses in exchange for their phone number.
6. Strike the Perfect Balance
Many marketers would probably think that the shorter the form is, the better. However, studies have shown that this isn’t necessarily true—rather, the length of the form is dependent on how much the customer has to gain from it.
It’s like applying for a university, in a way. If you’re not all too bothered about getting accepted into the university, then you’ll probably give halfhearted answers to their questions. However, if this university was your dream school and you’ll do anything to get admitted, then you’ll answer all questions to the best of your ability and provide any information they ask for.
7. Edit the Form Text
Instead of just having a basic, standard text on your conversion form, you should word it so people will be excited about filling out the form. Customers need to feel like they’re getting something from you rather than you giving something to them.
What do we mean by that? For example, if you run an SEO company in Los Angeles and offer free consultations, you should say ‘Get a Quote’ instead of ‘Ask for a Quote’ on your webpage. Your customers are giving you their information, after all, why should they ask for a quote when they obviously deserve one already?
In addition to that, you want to add some triggers here and there, too, to give readers a little push. “It’s free,” “No sign-up required,” and “Want 10% off?” are common ones.
8. Enumerate All Steps
If your form comprises several seemingly unnecessary steps, you probably won’t get a lot of completed forms back. Nobody wants to answer a form that seems like the SATs!
Try your best to have the form all on one page or at least show how many steps there are in the form, like how job recruiters often divide their forms into Basic Info > Educational Attainment > Job History. This sets your customer’s expectations, making them feel less impatient.
Also, be transparent about how you’re going to use their data. This will build trust between you and the customer and is also compliant with data protection laws.
9. Have Required and Non-Required Fields
Asking too many required questions is never a good thing, and you should always respect your customers if they choose not to fill out all the questions, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to try.
On the form, have a good mix of required and non-required fields. Required fields are ones you need for lead generation, such as names and emails. Non-required fields, on the other hand, are ones you technically don’t need but would be cool to have, such as birthdates and phone numbers. You can then use these to send emails on their birthdays or send text notifications.
We recommend having an equal number of required and non-required fields or lesser for non-required.
10. Label Your Form
This may seem like an obvious tip, but many companies still fail to do this properly!
When labeling your form, you need to make sure you’re not just titling it. You also need to include an example just in case the person gets confused about what to put. This also makes it easier for you to compile your data on a spreadsheet.
For example, if you’re asking them for a birthdate, you shouldn’t just let them put whatever format. March 31, 1995, can be inputted as 3/31/95, 3/31/1995, Mar 31, 1995, and more. If you’ve ever worked with Microsoft Excel before, then you’ll know that this is a nightmare to edit!
Add an example after every label if you want your readers to follow a particular format.
Conclusion
Despite its innocuousness, conversion forms can make or break your business. Anything from the text on your form to the placement on your webpage can affect how well your lead generation goes. So, you must take great care in crafting your form to generate as many leads as possible by following the tips we’ve outlined above, though it might take a little bit of trial and error.