A Guide to Capturing More Leads With Onsite Forms
By John Turner, founder of SeedProd
Do you want to capture more leads on your website? If so, you're not alone. The explosive growth of online businesses over the past decade has resulted in more people trying to reach more consumers than ever before.
If you feel overwhelmed, keep reading. I'm going to explore several tricks you can use to generate more leads on your website. Specifically, let's discuss your onsite forms and how to use these invaluable tools to get more people engaged with your website.
1. Keep it short.
When you're creating a form for your website, brevity matters. Most consumers don't have time to answer a lengthy questionnaire just to sign up for a website. They want to fill out the information that's relevant to their lives and move on with their day.
Keep this in mind when you're creating content, email, or lead magnet forms. You will increase the number of people who complete your forms if you avoid asking questions that don't benefit your business or the user.
As a general rule, I suggest keeping your form fields to five or fewer. Ask their names, email addresses, and possibly a couple of other vital questions that you can use to personalize their experience.
2. Ask relevant questions.
While we're on the topic of creating concise forms, let's discuss the questions you should ask your leads for more signups and engagement. Ask questions that you can use to improve UX on your site and through your emails.
For example, if you run an online pet shop, one of your form questions might be "What kind of pets do you own?" This information is valuable because it lets you know who is signing up for your form based on the pets they own, and this data allows you to send targeted marketing.
If someone signed up and said they owned three cats, you can bet that it would be a good idea to show them offers related to their furry friends.
Your questions will vary depending on your niche and which form the consumer is filling out. I suggest that you take the time to gather customer feedback so you can learn what's important to your target audience. Use that information when asking questions on future forms.
3. Create an irresistible lead magnet.
Lead magnets are pieces of content or an offer that you show to users to persuade them to subscribe to your email marketing list. Examples of lead magnets include e-books, infographics, checklists, and limited-time coupons.
When creating a content-based lead magnet, the information in your content must catch the user's attention. Make sure that the infographic, guide, or e-book is detailed and relevant, and that it offers to teach them something new.
Saving money and learning more are two primary motivators that turn curious consumers into loyal customers. Creating lead magnets for your business can help you cultivate a lead list and segment them in the future for personalized marketing.
4. Split test your forms.
Split testing, also known as A/B testing, is a popular marketing technique that can help you generate new leads to your website. Essentially, split testing is when you take an existing campaign and make subtle changes. Once you've decided on a change, you show both offers to visitors and see if your test results in more people subscribing.
You can split test various elements of your form. Some business owners swear that changing their call-to-action (CTA) text resulted in more subscribers. Others insist that changing the colors of your text, background, and CTA results in more engagement.
The truth is, all of the different parts of your form can determine whether someone completes the signup process. You'll want to split test as many pieces of your form as you can. Keep in mind that it's not advised to make more than one change at a time. You want to know the exact percentage change between your tweaks, and single-element testing will help you get the most value from your experimentation.
5. Use what you've learned.
Finally, use what you've learned to fine-tune all the forms on your site. If you want to generate email subscribers, capture more abandoned customers, or gather leads to learn about your target audience, there's always room for improvement.
As you begin to experiment with some of the techniques discussed here, you'll start to make observations about your customers and your website design as a whole. Use what you've learned to change your website for a better UX and more lead generation opportunities.
Don't get discouraged if you don't see immediate results. Patience is the name of the game, and with these actionable tips, you'll have no problem capturing more leads with your onsite forms.