Got a landing page? Congratulations! The next question we’ll ask is if you are using a form to capture the lead?
The capture form is often the source of discussion in the Digital Marketing world. Once you hear us out, you’ll realize not only why to use one – but how to do so as well. Because let’s face it: simply adding a form and capturing irrelevant lead data is not going to be enough. You have to capture contact information that will allow you to nurture, market or sell to them at a later date.
The Capture Form
First of all – lets define what a capture form is – it’s a web form that you see on landing pages that asks for your name, email address, telephone and so on before you are able to get to a nugget – be it a downloadable white paper, register for a webinar or try a free trial.
Challenges
For the most part, visitors who come to your landing page are anonymous. You may have a sense of what part of the world they come from but that’s certainly not enough to market to them a second time. One of the challenges of the capture form is that its a double edged sword: it gets you the contacts but also deters visitors who don’t want to share who they are. Some people just aren’t interested in filling out a form, they could be busy or don’t want to receive more e-mails in their Inbox.
What to ask
Don’t just ask for the sake of asking – any information you seek out needs to be valuable. Take a moment to think about what you truly need to know about your visitors. If you aren’t sure – consider what your competition is asking for on their capture forms! The ideal capture form is brief and effective. Of course you will ask for Name and E-mail address. But many also like to ask for Company Name. One excellent work around – without creating a second question, is to simply ask for their company e-mail address. They inherently give you the company in the domain name. While it is not foolproof, it does work most of the time.
There is other information Digital Marketing professionals like to include in their ask as well, such as:
- Telephone number
- Location
- Job
- Mailing address
People value their privacy and often prefer to fill out less information as opposed to more. Digital Marketing professionals with landing pages are often interested in knowing about the “Size of Company” as a question but there is another way to do this. Try instead to ask how many “User licenses” will be needed, as this may give you a sense of how big a potential sale this is.
Testing
Another factor to consider is A/B testing for your forms. Try them on either the left or the right side of the screen to see which captures the most interest and works best with your landing page layout. Consider forms that open on the screen once the user has pressed a button. These options can all perform well for you but the key is to experiment, to see which works best not only for you but with this specific landing page.
Don’t forget to have a clear “Submit” button with strong Call To Action text. “Free Trial,” “Download” or “Register” are things users notice and will confidently deliver value for your site. Some use “Contact” or “Submit” – which compared to the stronger CTA we’ve given you, simply sounds archaic. Once your landing page is ready to launch, make sure your privacy policy is mentioned somewhere on the form. This will bring comfort to the user and likely increase conversions.
What are you waiting for? Get started on your capture form now!
