Email Marketing

Lead Capture Best Practices: Forms, Pages & Channels

Email Marketing

Lead capture means gathering potential customers that may be interested in your company's services. It also concerns customer relatioship management that should increase the chances of a potential sale.

Lead capture is all about keeping a balance between quality and quantit. You don't need to gather as many contacts as possible; instead, aim for their quality and concentrate on those leads who can eventually become your clients.

How You Should Prepare for Lead Capture

There are several things you need to work on before you start capturing leads and getting your first sales.

1. Optimize Your UTM Parameters

URL tracking is essential for everyone who wants to generate more leads for their business (learn the basics of URL tracking and UTM tags generation from our previous article). You can organize your work with UTM parameters using a table (see our example below).

2. Make Sure You Store the Lead Source

A lead source is a channel where users learn about your business (we'll talk about the channels later in this article). There can be many options here: a lead might have taken an offline survey, subscribed via a pop up on the website, filled out the form on your website, etc., and all these options should be stored in your CRM platform.

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3. Choose Lead Capture Channels

When you choose lead capture channels for your business, you must take into account as many factors as possible. For example, if we compare push notifications, email marketing, and text messaging, we must pay special attention to the website traffic and expenses for each channel.

We'll talk about the most popular lead capture channels later in this article.

4. Plan Your Communications & Lead Capture Strategy

When the lead gets into the database, you should initiate the communication as quickly as possible. The more time the lead waits, the lesser the chance of conversion is.

If you don't understand why and how to communicate with leads, it's too early to speak of lead capture processes. Don't gather leads just for fun: first of all, figure out the purpose of lead capture and only then think about the processes and touchpoints.

5. Figure Out What Lead Capture Integrations You Need

Lead capture usually employs several platforms and different kinds of software. That's why integrations are essential for practically any lead capture strategy.

Here's a classic lead capture campaign we create for our clients:

we create a pop up that helps gather the leads' personal data on the website;
we set the analytics system to track user behavior on the website;
we set up the CRM software to store the leads' data, making it possible to analyze them.

If one doesn't integrate the lead capture page, the analytics platform, and the CRM software, one can lose a huge amount of data. Also, always check lead capture forms at the very beginning of the lead capture campaign: how they work, what they show after the lead fills them out, and whether the data gets into the CRM platform.

Free Lead Capture Strategies

As you see, lead capture is a complex project that often requires professional care. The good news is that sometimes you can capture leads for free!

Get New Leads From Your Old Database

For example, you've got a base of contacts, but haven't worked with them in any way. There's a good chance of turning these contacts into prospects. Yes, probably, some of the contacts don't exist anymore, and another part has lost its interest in your products or services. Still, you can work with the remaining part and start a reactivation campaign (for example, resubscribe them via email).

You can also suggest subscribing to your updates via another channel, for example, in a messenger.

Launch a Referral Program

It's as simple as that: ask the active people in your database to tell their friends about the product in exchange for some bonuses or discounts. Sometimes bonuses mean expenses, and in this case, you should properly calculate the terms of the referral program to make it bring more profit.

Find Prospects in Social Media Communities

You should always keep in mind that a subscriber on your social media is not a lead yet. Some of them see your updates, but most of them probably don't. Perhaps, some people even don't remember that they subscribed to your page, and some accounts might be inactive for a long time.

But if you get your subscribers to agree to receive personal messages from you, that'll be another case. Such personal communications will be more effective, and you'll also be able to segment the leads (manually, with the help of CRM software, or using a chatbot).

Exchange Leads With Partners

Email collaborations help companies exchange their databases. Your partner and you can come up with a mutual promotion and send announcements to both databases.

For instance, Capcom, the owners and developers of Resident Evil, has collaborated with another videogame Dead by Daylight. In the email campaign below, Capcom promotes the partners' game and the content the partners created together.

Lead Capture Forms and Pages: a Practical Guide

If you have a website for your business, it should have

1. Inline Forms

Inline forms are the forms built in the content of the site. They are not necessarily static and can hide or appear depending on the terms you need. For example, you can show the form for a promo-code input if a user came from an email.

Inline forms, unlike pop-ups, do not overlap the content of the site.

Here is how an inserted form may look like:

2. Pop-up Forms

Nobody likes the pop-up window, yet still, they are effective. It is important to notice that a pop-up will be effective for lead capture and won't scare the site visitors away.

There are special services for the pop-up windows setting: e.g. Pop Mechanic. Many CRM platforms also have such functionality within themselves and this allows you to avoid integrating several systems and to keep all of the data in one place.

There are different pop-ups options.

3. Standard Pop-up

Just a form that shows up under certain conditions: if the visitor left a certain channel, spent a certain amount of time, or looked through x pages.

Such forms' conversion depends on the offer in them. You can see a form in the Spa Dream internet shop in the picture above. Its conversion is good - 5% of the visitors leave their email. They are most likely attracted by the 10% discount. If this form offered to subscribe to the news, its conversion would have been lower.

Conversion also depends on the way the window looks. We had this next case. On the pop-up window of one of our clients showed up at the very bottom of the viewscreen as a thin strip with a suggestion to subscribe. Such a window didn't annoy the users and didn't interfere with viewing the website. 0.9-1.1% of users have subscribed through it.

Having watched through the visit record on the web visor we've discovered that the users almost don't notice this pop-up and don't interact with it. So we've made it more noticeable - now the window appears right at the center of the page and then the conversion has risen up to 3.5%. Wherein the depth of the view hasn't decreased reliably.

4. Two-step Pop-ups

It is a widget+pop-up bundle. For example, the official Bethesda Merch Store has a landing with a rewards program widget (lower left corner).

Clicking on the widget a pop-up form containing the call to sign up to get special rewards appears.

The widget turns out to be noticeable and doesn't interfere with viewing the page and the pop-up window is shown to the interested visitors only.

5. Multipage or Dynamic Pop-ups

There are pop-up windows with special functions. For example, lots of you have seen a roulette like this, that allows to involve the users into the discount giveaway and at the same time collects the contact data:

You can also use other mechanics. For example, a user is offered to take a survey and the results of it are to be sent to the email address.

This variant involves the visitors, but it is difficult to set up and implement.

6. Feedback Windows

These windows are generally used for more complicated products, e.g. car dealers use them. To understand the terms of the purchase and payment potential clients order a call back to ask the necessary questions. Here is an example of our own.

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7. Providing Access to the Content

Another good way of generating leads is to offer useful content in exchange for their contact data. For example, there are materials on some websites that can be downloaded if you fill out the form:

8. Web-push

The browser notifications subscription is a rather simple thing. There are two mechanics. The first one is when entering the website the user sees a standard browser pop-up window right away:

As people are familiar with it, they can close it or block the notifications without even looking at it. But this variant doesn't suggest any extra steps.

Another variant is a two-step web-push. Firstly, a widget appears on the website, suggesting you subscribe to the notifications:

And clicking the widget will summon the standard browser window that will offer to confirm the subscription.

In this case, another step is added that can reduce the conversion of subscribers. But those who have subscribed are surely the target subscribers and not people who've accidentally clicked something.

Here are several things you should know about the browser push notifications:
- notifications deliverability cannot be 100% because of the technical features of the channel work - sometimes it is even 25% so the expected effect may not be acquired:

- notification click percentage is usually not very high, everything depends on what exactly is sent in the pushes, that's why you should send unique and interesting content;

- pushes cannot contain much information (standard: title, clarification/description, an image, and CTA);

- percentage of subscriptions from web-pushes are much lower than from other channels, that's why it is usually better to use them as an additional channel;

- it's difficult to unsubscribe from the pushes, the difficulty depends on the user's device and browser;

- in most cases, the channel is suitable to initialize the beginning of the subscriber's session on the website, but not to sell anything.

9. Chats

You can contact the user via online chat and offer them something. That's why the chats can be classified as a lead capture channel.

You can not only show the chat with a "We are online, ask us anything" message, but also set up a chatbot and show the chat itself under certain conditions. When using a chat you can also suggest ordering a callback and voila - you have a telephone number now.

The users' most frequent behavior with the chat during the session is closing the chat window. This is why it is recommended that you hide the chat by default, and open it with an icon on the website on the side or other panels so the user could open it on their own if needed.

You can set up automatic answers and summon the company employee into the dialogue in most of the systems. For example, you can do it on the Dashly platform.

10. Referral Programs

A referral program is difficult to compose, but it is transparent for a client and effective. To get new leads all you have to do is just to address your existing subscribers and offer them a bonus if they bring in their friends.

This kind of program's conversion and success depends on its working conditions and value for the user. If the program is composed correctly it will bring the new leads with the help of the activity of the current ones pretty much for free.

Such promotions bring in leads to Capcom's partners and sales to Capcom itself.

12. Social Network Groups

Social networks can become a part of the lead capture process.

Firstly, when offering someone to subscribe to your page you need to think of what profit they will gain from it. Secondly, you need to understand what you will do with these subscribers, what you are aiming at with them. Just posting in the group is not enough to turn the subscribers into the product's users.

For example, the Burger King group on Facebook has nearly 9 million members that always see new content in the form of humorous posts, surveys, and special offers.

But the main goal is to transfer the subscribers to the new Burger King app. There is a special CTA in the group's description for it:

But still, you should evaluate your resources and understand if you can regularly fill the group with interesting content that will help you with achieving your goals.

13. Chatbots

Chatbots are available in many messengers:

WhatsApp;
Viber;
Facebook Messenger;
Telegram.

Chat can be successfully used for:

lead capture;
segmentation;
familiarizing with the product;
involvement;
retention;
sales increasing.

Popular platforms that can be used to set the chatbots up:

To capture the leads with the help of chatbots, the user needs motivation for the first message to the bot. The mechanics can be different depending on the product and the messenger. The important thing is after the dialogue with the chatbot in a messenger the connection with the user remains in this dialogue, even if they didn't make the target action.

Typically the users are sent to the chatbot with the help of widgets on the subscription website.

14. Installing an App

If a product has an app, installing it will also help to capture leads. Signing in in apps you need some contact data as email or telephone number, e.g. Zara:

Getting contact data will allow you to include the user in the communication chain. But these channels require expenses and sending push notifications is way cheaper. This is why it's not necessary to think about emails or SMS right away, you can stimulate the user to allow notifications in their phone. Besides, such notifications are way more convenient to bind with other marketing channels to build communication chains in most CRM systems.

15. Offline

Collecting leads offline is important for those products that are sold both offline and online. Uniting the online and offline work results is really important to understand the success (or lack thereof) of the work, but it is often expensive and difficult.

It's rather difficult to glue together the offline and online data. For example, Uniqlo has an online store and lots of offline ones all across the globe. A subscriber can get an email with a promotion, get interested, and buy something offline, and not in the online store. It turns out that the email has worked, but the senders won't know it.

Uniqlo uses promo codes that will show the items bought in the official app if scanned at the checkout at an offline store. They become a unified client's identification both online and offline.

The offline lead capture should be arranged in a way that you could understand its result and see the way offline and online influence each other.

16. A Phone Call or an SMS

If a client approached the company via a phone call or an SMS, their phone number would stay in the CRM. In order to correctly read CPL (cost per lead), you need to track the source of the phone call or SMS.

For phone calls, it is done via spoof telephone numbers. Special services capture separate telephone numbers for different offline sources. The spoof telephone numbers services are costly, so most small companies prefer not to separate offline for the different channels and calculate the CPL based on the general results.

The situation is the same with small companies and SMS. The usual scheme of lead capture looks like this: a person is suggested to send an SMS to a short number. But the short number is costly, so small companies cannot afford it.

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17. QR Codes

QR codes help to transfer people from offline to online.

Usually, they put a link that leads to the landing into the QR code. In this case, it is easy to track a channel - you just need to place UTM tags into the link.

You can create interesting mechanics with QR codes. They will involve the user and motivate them to leave their contact data.

For example, one company places the QR codes at events with great amounts of people. Scanning the QR code, people get to the page that suggests completing a quest. To complete it, they need to leave their email or phone number. Playing the quest gets the user familiarized with the product.

18. Survey

Nearly everyone has come across a survey that needs to be filled out when you get a loyalty card after you buy something in a shop or with an application in some tourist bureau. In such surveys, there are always spaces for a telephone number or email address and you can often see the "How did you hear about us?" question with answer options: from your friends, from the radio, internet, and so on.

The person filling these out typically doesn't understand that they become a lead at this moment and helps to identify the personal traffic source. Of course, there are no UTM tags and analytics system calculators in the survey, but it can show the general source. After transferring the survey into the electronic system, a new picture of the source of the new leads and buyers appears.

Surveys allow identifying the extent of the brand's publicity, whether people recommend it to their friends, how the radio commercial worked out, how often people come from online to offline, and many other things. This method is very important if offline takes up most part of the business, but still remains an additional, not the main, part.

Sometimes brands suggest filling out a poll or leaving a contact to get a sample of their product for free. For example, it can be done at expos where managers communicate with the visitors of the event. Such campaigns forward not only lead capture but also:

brand's advertisement;
familiarizing with the brand;
loyalty towards the brand;
starting using the brand's products;
familiarizing with the brand's advantages;
segmentation.

There are other methods of collecting leads offline and tracking their source, but they are not as important as the ones listed above. You shouldn't make the mistakes made by the large companies in the methods listed above.

Mistakes in Lead Capture

The most widespread mistakes in lead capture mostly happen in pursuit of a large number of leads. In this case, the quality is not taken into account and the product is analyzed casually. The mistakes can be of various kinds, but all of them lead to one thing - low-grade lead capture.

Mistakes in lead capture:

a desire to start getting leads as soon as possible;
setting up the standard methods independently of the product's peculiarities;
unwillingness to change anything in the technical part or add anything to it to increase the quality of the work;
a big amount of subscription forms: a tendency to get the leads by all means;
many subscription channels: subscribing a person to something or to everything at once;
no use for the visitor during and after subscribing;
long subscription forms;
launching lead capture without tests before and after;
not setting up the welcome or other essential chains;
calling to subscription deceives the buyer, doesn't correspond or highly exaggerates its value;
the number of the pop-up windows is not thought through and annoys the visitors;
subscription to only one channel or no choice for the visitor;
technical error: incorrect mutual work of several pop-up windows or forms;
the traffic source is not set up and you can't understand where the leads come from;
the pursuit for a high percentage of the conversion into subscription and inevitably quality loss;
only launching lead capture without analyzing or upgrading its work;
unsuitable main communication channel;
the subscription bonus is too big and the subscriber isn't interested in further cooperation.

All the other mistakes have their source in the ones listed above, as lead capture is the early beginning of the communication with a user.

Conclusion

The result you will get from lead capture, in the end, depends on many factors: the correct choice of channels, correctly formulated expectations for the subscribers, and your work with leads.

It is important to evaluate the lead capture results not only by the quantity of the gained leads but also by their quality, as in the long run, it is important how much money this work will bring. For example, if the conversion into subscription differs on two similar websites: 5% on the one and 2% on another it doesn't say that the first one is more successful. Maybe, this 2% of the second website converts into deals better than the first website's 5%.

Andrey Blagov

Leading CRM Marketer

Andrey Blagov

Leading CRM Marketer

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