It’s important to carefully consider where you want your lead capture form to show up. A good rule of thumb is to make sure the viewer sees if after they’re reassured that they can gain something of value from you.
It stands to reason that you want your lead capture form to be visible and easy to access. But be warned: If your new viewer is just greeted upfront with a form to input all their personal information without knowing what you have to offer, there’s little chance of a conversion. If you present the form before properly explaining your offer, there’s a high chance of your visitor abandoning the page before you get the chance to connect with them.
It’s a delicate balancing act, though – you want the form to be readily available for interested users, but not so upfront that curious clickers will be put off by demands for their information. Put the form too far down the page and you’ll also decrease your chances of conversion since few viewers will take the time to read and explore your entire page on their first visit.
Try to imagine how a first-time visitor will be viewing your page when you’re deciding on where to place your lead capture form. You can workshop a few different versions with A/B testing to determine the best option. Avoid having a pop-up-style form show up right when a viewer clicks onto your landing page. Most people will find this irritating – they’ll have no idea of what you’re even about since they haven’t had a chance to browse your page yet. It’s best to have a pop-up appear after they’ve had a little time to explore.
Placing your form next to a special offer, video, or some other piece of content is a good way to entice the viewer and make your business seem more legit prior to engagement.
Make a Decision On Quality vs. Quantity
A general rule of thumb for a lead capture form is that you want as few fields as possible for the user to fill out. It shouldn’t feel like work to sign up for a list or learn more information. People already work enough in their day-to-day lives, they don’t need you giving them more to do!
It’s paired with a quick list of benefits and only asks for an email address, for maximum ease-of-use.
But that’s not always optimal. Some types of businesses will need a greater amount of information in order to qualify their leads and determine their usefulness.
Generally, when deciding on how many forms you want to include, it comes down to quality vs. quantity. You’ll have to decide what’s best for your business. If your form is shorter, you’ll get more leads. If it’s longer, you’ll have less leads but potentially more useful ones. If you’re just starting to grow your mailing list, then try to keep the forms to a minimum, but if you’ve already got a sizeable list it might be to your advantage to qualify your new leads with additional information.
If you do go the longer route, only include forms that you actually need. We can’t stress this enough. If you’re not going to actually employ every piece of information gathered in a concrete way, cut the field to reduce the intimidation factor. You’ll also need to offer the visitor something tangible in return if you’re expecting them to take the time to fill out your form.
Getting Rid of Friction
Generally, people don’t want to put a lot of effort into something that they don’t know much about. If they see a huge form to fill out, it can seem like some immense, impossible task, even if realistically it would only take them a few minutes. This resistance is often referred to as “friction”, and it’s that intimidation factor that causes visitors to bounce before they can become leads. There are a few things you can do to help create less friction with visitors and make your lead capture form more user-friendly.
Friction can happen both before the visitor gets started on the form and while they’re filling it out. Let’s start with what to do to reduce friction upfront.
Friction Before the Form
There are a few things you can do to alleviate friction that visitors may be feeling prior to filling out your lead capture form.