The Golden Rule for Lead Capture Forms That Convert

The Golden Rule for Lead Capture Forms That Convert:
Increasingly, customers using inbound marketing ask “what is the best lead capture form?”. Seems like a simple question that deserves a simple answer. But the issue of lead capture forms is perhaps one of the most critical to the success of a marketing program and there is a golden rule you can follow to ensure your forms perform.
Consider – You can have great content. You have done absolutely everything right regarding your SEO. You may have inbound links coming out of your ears. You may even have fabulous offers.  But if your lead capture forms are laborious, poorly designed or impossible to find, you’re not going to get the benefit of all the prospects who found you, loved your product or service and really want to develop a relationship with your business.
Recently online marketing guru David Merman Scott and CMO Mike Volpe of Hubspot debated the religion of anonimity versus making every transaction an exchange-in-kind. Scott’s position was to use no forms at the top of the funnel and just give away your content to cast your net and spread your influence as widely as possible. Volpe counterpunched with the argument that until and unless you can identify a visitor, the fact that they visit is purely academic and not valuable to a business. Both positions have merit and I’m not sure I can say that there is one right strategy for every business or every aspect of an inbound marketing campaign. But, I can say, without a doubt that the design of the lead capture form must be tuned to the part of the funnel where it is used and to the maturity of your online marketing efforts. Let me explain.
At the top of the funnel, visitors are swarming around your site. Some are interested in meeting your business, some just ended up at your site because Google pointed them there to find your original art/photo of a rocket scientist or lead magnet and have no interest in your product or service. Your offers are designed around that ‘first contact’ – the idea of a human meeting an extra-terrestrial for the first time actually does provide some object lessons here… another blog. Your forms, similarly, are simple and don’t require a visitor to provide their date-of-birth, social security number or other information that they wouldn’t freely give to a person they just met on the street. Often a simple first name and email address are all that should be on your lead contact form at this point. The exception to this rule is when your business is well established or when you’re offer is apt to be appealing to both people you will want to follow-up with and those you won’t. In that case, a lead form at the top of the funnel that is trivial for a visitor to fill-in simply creates a lot of junk in your funnel. A more extensive form – or to take David Scott’s position – no form at all is appropriate.

THE GOLDEN RULE OF FORMS THAT CONVERT Only ask for the information that is necessary to help you, help your prospect, make a choice to move to the next level of the funnel.

But back to the form… Apart from the need for simpler forms at the top of the funnel and increasingly information-rich forms as your prospect first gets to know and then comes to trust your business, the following tips will help your forms capture the greatest number of visitors and help convert them into leads:

1. Button – Don’t just use ‘submit’. Make your button label specific to the action your prospect is taking.
2. Asking for email addresses – Including a link to your privacy policy next to the email address field puts a prospect at ease that you really won’t sell their information to a spammer.
3.  Comment field – In most cases not necessary at the top of the funnel. Makes your forms longer and can scare off a visitor that might have turned into a prospect. Save them for later in the process.
4. Position – Above the fold. If a visitor must scroll to see your form, be assured they won’t and you will have missed an opportunity to meet your next customer.

There may be no one answer as to the way to create the best lead capture form, but there are guidelines that will help you create forms that don’t prevent visitors from self-identifying and starting the process of becoming leads for your business. As with any inbound marketing tactic – test. What’s been your experience with lead capture forms?