Leads are the life-blood of any sales driven organization. Businesses focus on ways to create more sales opportunities and that means that leads become critical. While driving traffic is important, it is also critical to make sure there is a system in place to capture those leads as they come in. This is why Retaliate1st recommends making an effort to optimize your lead generation via perfecting your web forms. Here we list our 4 ways to optimize web forms for more leads.

4 Ways to Optimize Web Forms for More Leads

1. Don’t Neglect Your Headline

Almost all lead forms come with a space for a headline. Most companies waste this opportunity to gain a lead. You may be super excited about your product or service, but to the stranger who just landed on your page, you are just another business trying to get their email address. What can you do to turn stranger danger into a new business relationship?

Promise something that they want, and deliver on it. But, get to the point. Your form’s headline should promise a benefit for your visitor – an ebook, a discount, free stuff, etc. Don’t waste prime site real estate being pithy or cute. Promise something that they want, then give it to them.

2. Don’t Ask Too Many Questions

Or, ask the bare minimum. Studies by Marketing Experiments have shown, over and over, that the more fields you add to a lead form, the lower your opt-in rate. If you’re giving away a White Paper or Discount, then you may only need their email. First Name is usually a safe bet, too. Last Name is going to lower opt-ins a bit. Do you need their phone number? If you do, ask for it. If you’re selling a high-ticket item or service, or you set leads over the phone, then get the number. If you don’t really need it, don’t ask for it.

The Phone Number field can decrease opt-ins by more than 5%. If you do need the phone field, consider making it optional. One site doubled their opt-in rate after adding “Optional” to their phone number field. What about physical address? Again, only ask if you absolutely need it. If you are doing home improvement services or selling home-related items, address may be needed, and simply asking for it will eliminate tire-kickers.

CTAs To Close Leads

3. Benefit-Rich CTA

Does your call to action button display only the lowly “Submit.” If so, you’re losing leads every day. “Click Here” is simple, direct, and it works. So does adding the benefit – “Click Here for Your Free Estimate,” “Click Here to Download Your Free Book.”

4. Test Forms

Like any other aspect of marketing, you won’t know what works best on your web forms until you test them. A simple A/B test is a good start. Continue until you find the version that pulls the most. Remember, all these percentages add up quickly when you have thousands or tens of thousands of visitors on your site daily. A 5% dip for a phone number, 4% more for the address field, 2% for “Birthday,” can cost you hundreds of leads per month. This makes testing a must.