You’ve already created a great product or service. But you haven’t seen the spike in lead generation that you were hoping for. This is a very common issue among businesses and it can end up costing thousands of dollars in potential revenue.

But how can you increase your leads and consistently generate clients and revenue? Lead generation forms.

A lead generation form is a web form that clients fill out to share some of their personal information. The lead generation form usually has a place for the client’s name, email address, or phone number at the very least. And typically, users are prompted to fill out this form in exchange for something like a promo code, custom quote or to sign up for a newsletter.

If you’re looking to get started with a lead generation form on your website and are looking for tips on how to design one, keep reading!

1. Make the CTA Obvious

Don’t make your clients work hard. You want them to know exactly what to do and how to do it – and quickly. The best way to do this for lead generation is to create a clear and obvious call to action (CTA) button.

You may not have noticed it, but you see CTA buttons on practically every website you visit. They include things like, “sign up now”, “get started”, or “register”.

To make the most of this lead generation form idea, use a bold color, font, and placement for your CTA button. It should be clear and simple for the individual to become a lead.

You can check out some great lead generation forms examples right here!

2. Set It and Forget It

Once you’ve figured out how to create a lead form, you can automate the process of testing the forms. This will save you time and eliminate technology issues that could cause you to lose potential leads.

Imagine that you create a great lead generation form but for some reason, the form isn’t working in a particular internet browser or users keep getting an error message. That means that hundreds or thousands of potential leads (and dollars) are slipping through your fingertips. And each hour that you are unaware of the issue, you’re losing leads!

The easiest way to eliminate this issue is to pair with a professional lead generation form testing service. At FormTestr, we help businesses ensure the forms on their website work properly and are collecting the correct information by testing the forms either monthly or weekly. We have engineered a way to consistently test your lead generation forms and notify you if there are issues!

3. Optimize Field Titles

This tip goes back to making things as easy as possible for your leads. Your lead generation form should have easy-to-understand field titles.

Name, email address, and phone number are examples of straightforward field titles. If you want to collect more detailed information on your lead form or use an open field for text, that’s okay too. But you need to make it obvious what you are asking for.

For example, if your business offers weight loss solutions, you might include “reason for wanting to lose weight” as your field title. But you wouldn’t want to use “reason” as the title because it’s not clear what you’re asking for.

4. Keep It Short

Collecting data from leads can help you learn about your clients and ultimately be valuable for your business. However, if your lead generation form has 15 different fields, your audience may quit before submitting the form.

Choose the 5-6 most important fields for your lead generation form. Take a look at these lead form samples for good examples.

5. Use Drop Down Menus

When you design your lead generation form, consider using drop down menus where appropriate. For example, if you want to know how clients found your website, you can create a drop-down list of potential options such as “referral from a friend” or “Google search”.

This type of information is useful when you want leads to select from a specific list rather than typing in their own response. You can then easily organize your data to show what percentage of visitors found you through each channel.

If drop-down menus make sense, use them. If they don’t make sense, go without them.

6. Let Optional Fields Work to Your Advantage

Internet users value their privacy. And when they feel that a website is asking for too much information or personal information they may be weary.

The last thing you want is for a lead to start the form and not complete it because they aren’t comfortable with one of the questions. A person’s name and email address or phone number are likely the most crucial information. So you can make those fields mandatory and all the others optional.

While this strategy might seem off-putting, it’s effective. You’ll prevent the loss of leads by collecting some information rather than no information at all.

7. Create Appealing Aesthetics

Your lead form needs to look sleek. Clean design, simple font, and appealing colors make for a great lead generation form. The form should be consistent with the colors or images you typically use on your website and within your logo.

The personality of the lead generation form should match your business. So, if your business sells children’s books you want to use bright colors and friendly images. But if your business is funeral services, it would be best to shy away from smiling cartoons.

It’s also important to be aware of how much whitespace you have. The human eye is attracted to whitespace and it makes the form easier to complete overall. Something that looks to cluttered is unappealing and can cause a user to click away.

8. Try Two Different Versions

Can’t decide between two different lead generation forms? Test them both! You can run your own experiment by creating a form A and form B.

Then, you can collect data on which version results in more successful lead conversions.

Lead Form Questions

With so much at stake for marketers, it can be easy to get lost in the hunt for the next big outreach technique while one of the most efficient gets overlooked: the lead form. Designed to collect enough information to qualify legitimate prospects without making them feel invaded, an insightful lead form is one of the most powerful tools your marketing team has at their disposal — and among the most cost-effective, too. EmailMonday reported that in 2015, email campaigns generated $38 for every $1 spent, yielding an ROI of 3,800%. You’re unlikely to find that kind of return on your investment anywhere else, but low-cost campaigns are still a loss if they’re not thought out well.

The best lead forms strike a delicate balance of specific yet succinct, thorough yet simple. Too many questions and your prospect will either feel overwhelmed or invaded, and will navigate away from your page. Too few, and you won’t have the insight you need to usher potential clients into the top of the sales funnel, and guide them through to the other side. With that in mind, here are the lead form questions you should be asking.

Question 1. What’s Your (FULL) Name?

This one is so obvious some might think it goes without saying, but it’s not a given that your online prospect will disclose their name. It’s quite possible for potential customers to navigate through your website without identifying themselves until they know more about your services than you do about them, and getting their name will help personalize your interaction with them as they enter the sales funnel.

Asking the customer’s name carries an even more strategic benefit with it that your marketing team can use to further qualify their leads. Once they have the prospect’s name, marketers may scour social media or Google to learn more about their client and if they would be a good match for your services. The only catch: you’ll need to ask for the customer’s full name, not just their first name.

Question 2. What’s Your Email Address/Contact Info?

It doesn’t matter how deeply your landing page qualifies your prospects if you don’t know how to contact them, and these days, you’ll probably be doing that with email. In a world too busy for calls and that won’t check their texts unless it’s someone they know, emails are the preferred means of communication in both B2B and B2C industries — as long as they’re personalized. Research done by eConsultancy shows that personalized emails increase engagement rates by 74%, and customized calls to action perform 202% better than cookie-cutter CTAs. Before you can reap the benefits of all that added interaction, though, you first need to know where to send your personalized emails, so that your customers will see them.

Question 3. What’s Your Biggest Challenge?

Before you invest your time, effort and resources into a prospective lead, you need to know if you can help them or not. There are many questions you can ask to qualify your lead and ensure you’re only pursuing serious buyers, but many of these have the potential to drive away customers if asked upfront. The one question they’re most likely to answer without feeling threatened is what they need.

Adding a text box to your lead form so that the customer can describe their pain point is a great way to quickly learn if a prospect’s needs match your company’s services, but there are other, more efficient ways of getting the same information. A multiple choice form allows a potential customer to select what services they’re looking for without the hassle of typing — but adding an “Other” box that causes a typing window to populate is still a good idea for those with needs that your form may have missed.

Other Lead Form Questions

Name, contact info, and pain point are the major questions you should include in your lead form, but there are plenty other details you may need to refine your sales funnel. A few of them include:

• The company’s name and URL – This lets your marketing team do a deeper dive to better qualify your leads.
• Address/Location – This can make some buyers uncomfortable and may be unnecessary depending on the industry, but can help direct your lead to the right location for the services they need. Asking for just the zip code can remove some discomfort.
• Number of employees within the company – This will tell you if a buyer’s size matches your own, and how likely you are to profit from them.
• Individual job title – Knowing who you’re talking to can help you discern how serious a lead is in purchasing your services.

You certainly need enough detailed questions on your lead form to qualify prospective buyers, but the general principle is that less is more. Most leads will be perfectly willing to give you the specifics you need as they move further down the funnel, so you have more to lose from scaring a client off by being too intrusive than you do from a vague lead form.

Make the Most of Your Lead Generation Forms

Hopefully, you’ve picked up a few tips on how to build or improve upon your lead generation forms. Remember that appearance, content, and functionality are all important when designing your form.

Still looking for more information on improving your lead generation forms? Take a look at these additional tips.

And if you’re interested in using FormTestr to protect your leads and optimize your business, sign up with us today.

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