A lead capture form is vital to any B2B marketing strategy, serving as the gateway between your potential leads and your sales funnel.
However, even the most well-intentioned forms can fall flat, failing to convert visitors into leads. If you need help with low conversion rates, your lead capture form might make some common mistakes.
In this post, we’ll explore seven frequent issues that could be holding your forms back and provide actionable solutions to help you fix them.
What is a lead capture form?
A lead capture form is a tool used to collect information from prospects, typically in exchange for a valuable offer like a free demo, eBook, or webinar access. The data collected, such as names, emails, and company details, is crucial for nurturing these prospects into paying customers.
Given its importance, optimizing your lead capture form is essential for improving your conversion rates.
1. Asking for too much information
One of the most common mistakes marketers make is asking for too much information upfront. Long forms with multiple fields create friction, which can deter potential leads from completing the form.
Additionally, asking for irrelevant information that is optional for initial qualification can further encourage users.
Solution:
- Reduce friction by asking only for essential details
- Aim for a balance between qualifying leads and maximizing conversions
- Break down the form into smaller steps, ideally no more than three
- Ask for just two or three questions directly related to the prospect’s needs for practical lead qualification
- Include primary fields such as first name, last name, email, and company name
Example:
Foldfocus, a WordPress agency, uses Lead Booster Pro to structure its forms effectively. They ask prospects about the project type, project goal, and a brief description, which is enough to determine lead quality before the first discovery call.
Additionally, they request the prospect’s first name, last name, email, and company name to prepare for the call, striking a perfect balance between information gathering and ease of form completion.
2. Poorly designed lead capture form
A poor user experience can lead to frustration and, ultimately, form abandonment. Issues such as form validation that triggers only upon submission, malfunctioning autocomplete features or seemingly endless steps can cause users to give up before completing the form.
Solution:
- Make the form as easy, intuitive, and enjoyable to fill out as possible.
- Use well-designed, user-friendly inputs like checkbox cards or innovative dropdown options.
- Qualify leads early in the process and hide irrelevant questions based on previous answers to keep the form concise.
Example:
The startup Kayzen uses a lead capture form to gather interest in its educational services. Users choose whether they’re interested in webinars or private workshops early in the form.
Depending on their selection, subsequent questions are tailored to their choice, making the form shorter and more relevant, which improves both user experience and conversion rates.
3. Lack of clear value proposition
When prospects fill out a lead capture form, they expect something in return. A common mistake is failing to communicate what they will receive, resulting in lower conversion rates.
Solution:
- Understand your prospects and craft a compelling value proposition communicating the benefits of completing the form.
- If you serve multiple target audiences, consider creating dedicated landing pages and forms with unique value propositions for each.
- This approach allows you to target your audience precisely, catering to their needs and increasing your chances of capturing leads.
Example:
If you’re offering a B2B software solution, you may have different buyer personas, such as marketers, developers, and executives. Identify the audience you want to target with each lead capture form and create dedicated campaigns with unique landing pages and forms for them, ensuring the value proposition resonates with each specific group.
4. Confusing or unclear call-to-action (CTA)
A transparent or generic CTA in your lead capture form can lead to clarity and reduce the number of leads you capture. The needs tots potential if the CTA doesn’t grab attention, clearly communicate the value proposition tote a sense of urgency.
Solution:
- Avoid using generic CTAs like “Submit” or “Send.”
- Think about the action you’re asking the prospect to take and the value you’re offering.
- Craft a clear, concise CTA that reflects the benefit the user will receive.
- Adding a benefit to the CTA can make it even more compelling.
- Avoid overloading it with too many words.
Example:
Instead of using “Submit” on your demo request form, try “Request a Demo” or “Get Your Free Demo.” To increase conversions, try “Talk to Our Experts” or “Get Your Demo Today,” depending on your product, market, and audience. The key is understanding your customers and what will resonate most with them.
5. Ignoring mobile optimization
With significant web traffic coming from mobile devices, even in B2B markets, a lead capture form that needs to be optimized for mobile can seriously impact your lead generation efforts.
Mobile users often need help with challenges such as long forms, small input fields, and poor design, leading to reduced conversions.
Solution:
- Use native form inputs such as email input fields designed for mobile to simplify data entry.
- Keep your forms short and easy to complete on a small screen by limiting the number of fields and steps to minimize scrolling and reduce friction.
- Ensure sufficient contrast in your designs to improve readability and completion rates, considering that many mobile users are on the go and may encounter varying light conditions.
Example:
At Lead Booster Pro, all form questions are designed with native mobile support. For example, the form uses a mobile-optimized email input when asking for an email.
We recommend asking no more than two long questions or five short questions per step to keep the process smooth and user-friendly.
6. Slow lead capture form loading times
Even in the age of high-speed internet, slow loading times can negatively impact user experience and SEO performance. Google penalizes slow-loading pages with lower search rankings, which can further decrease the visibility of your lead capture forms.
Solution:
- Minimize the use of images and unnecessary elements
- Ensure form builder solution is optimized for fast performance
- Use techniques like minification, compression, and removing unused assets to improve load times
Example:
When implementing forms in-house, dedicate time to optimizing performance. If you use a third-party form builder, test their load times using page speed tools.
Many form builders claim fast speeds, but thorough testing can reveal whether they truly deliver.
7. Not testing and iterating
While A/B testing is standard for landing pages, many marketers need to pay more attention to its importance for lead capture forms. You need to regularly test and optimize your forms to avoid wasting significant conversion potential.
Solution:
- Make testing and iteration a regular part of your lead capture form strategy.
- Develop hypotheses for improving form performance, prioritize the most promising ideas, and run A/B tests to compare different form variations.
- Aim for at least 100 form submissions per variation to ensure statistically significant results.
- Analyze the data to determine what works best, and repeat the process to improve your forms continuously.
Example:
To generate ideas for improvement analyze existing forms for completion times and step abandonment rates. If a form has multiple steps, identify the steps with the highest drop-off rates and focus on optimizing those areas. Regularly testing and refining your forms can steadily improve your conversion rates over time.
Summary
Optimizing your lead capture form is crucial for maximizing conversions and ensuring the success of your B2B marketing efforts.
Addressing these common mistakes and implementing the solutions provided can create more effective forms that capture more leads and drive business growth.
