Underestimating the influence of lead capture forms can result in lower conversion rates.
Although a form seems like a non-issue, it is crucial when it comes to turning visitors into customers. That being said, applying optimization techniques to your WordPress lead capture form can also optimize your conversions.
Here are some tips on how to optimize your WordPress lead capture forms:
- Place your form at the top of the page;
- Distract with a purpose;
- Align a copy;
- Ensure strong call to action;
- Keep the form short;
- Consider the number of fields;
- Stop asking too many questions;
- Mark the required fields;
- Be transparent;
- Have a clear message;
- Make the form mobile-friendly;
- Do thank;
- Ensure privacy;
- Split test;
- Aim for design quality;
- Add a personal touch;
- Make your form interactive;
- Insert visuals;
- Offer something in exchange;
- Create popup forms;
- Use captchas to block spam;
- Include social proof;
- Create a multistep process.
Place Your Form At The Top
According to the research, people spend 74% of the viewing time above the fold. When a page first loads, this refers to the part of your site that visitors can see without scrolling. Therefore any crucial action you want your audience to take should be placed right there (your WordPress lead generation form included).
Distract With A Purpose
Another good practice is to embed a form in the middle of the article so you double benefit: readers have a chance to get themselves familiar with your content and you still collect data without irritation.
Align The Copy
One of the key components of effective lead generation form is an alignment with the rest of the content, like keeping design and language (also the use of keywords) consistent. In that case, your form will achieve a greater impact on visitors with a persuasive message that creates a sense of moving forward (without interrupting the flow).
When in synergy, relevant call-to-action, body text, and a headline are aligned not only with your audience’s expectations but also with best search engine optimization (SEO) practices.
Ensure Strong (And Persuasive) CTA’s text
If your form is the cornerstone of the lead generation process, your CTA (call to action) is the cornerstone of your form. Your CTA should instruct people on how to complete an action you want them to take. Think of a CTA as a specific campaign with a single purpose.
A tip here: the text of your button should tell what will happen next once a visitor clicks. A small (yet creative) tweak in the copy can massively impact the click-through rate.
Keep It Short
Don’t indulge in long forms to achieve the primary goal of the form. You want your form to convert, that is why so crucial is to keep it short, engaging, and concise. The less you ask, the more likely visitors give away their personal information.
Put it simply, you need to ‘kill your darlings’ – eliminate any unnecessary fields (like an alternative phone number, etc.).
Consider The Number Of Fields
The number of fields included in your form depends on multiple things. You need to define at what stage of your sales funnel you are going to reach out to your potential leads and what is the main goal of the particular form as a part of your conversion rate optimization efforts.
After that, the remaining is to consider what personal data is absolutely necessary to ask.
But still, the shorter the form, the more likely visitors won’t resist it.
Stop Asking Too Many Questions
Long forms irritate because they create a feeling that a brand is asking for too much. When time and attention are the most valuable resources, you should keep people engaged throughout the process of filling the form.
Mark The Required Fields
Optional fields will make it easy to leave data even for those who are not very motivated while you will still collect the desired information. If you have both required and optional fields, you can either mark required fields with an asterisk or name optional ones right inside the field.
Be Transparent
If your form still requires to be a long one, introduce transparency into it. Show your potential leads how much time they need to invest in and display a progress bar to stimulate the process.
People are more likely to give up the task if they haven’t made any progress there.
Have A Clear Message
Clear communication doesn’t end with a straightforward copy and a strong what-will-happen next call to action. It also requires to align the form and the rest of the landing page and display users’ mistakes when misentering information or skipping fields.
To get more clicks and stimulate the right decision, your form should be simple and easy to understand.
Make The Form Mobile-Friendly
According to the recent data, half of all people who have access to the Internet use mobile devices to view websites. That’s why creating a site (and a form) optimized for mobiles is the rule of thumb, so you convert mobile users as well. To achieve these two aims at once, go for a website builder that ensures built-in auto responsiveness.
Because having an unresponsive form can hurt your conversion rate optimization efforts, you can also prevent it by sticking to a one-column layout, and skipping captchas for those using mobile devices.
Do Thank
Include a ‘Thank you’ message after visitors fill out the form. Thanking is a great way to show you value everyone who comes across your page – not only existing customers.
Because strong long-lasting relationships with your audience should be built as early as possible, let them know you appreciate their time and attention they have spent answering.
Ensure Privacy
It’s crucial to inform your visitors about how you are going to use their personal information to convince them to share one. Being transparent can reduce visitors’ hesitation, gain trust and credibility in your brand.
You can link to your privacy policy either at the very bottom of your form or include a checkbox asking for permission to use given data.
Split Test
Do test your forms. This is a great practice to keep abreast of whether your form (and its optimization) works or not.
You can perform split tests (also called A/B tests) by using a free Google Optimize tool by Google. It can help you to determine if and how you can optimize the conversion rate of your form by changing its position, the color of your CTA button, and more.
Aim For Design Quality
A well-polished form can increase your brands’ credibility because people associate the quality of the design with your company’s trustworthiness.
Some of the best practices to enhance the appearance of your form is to allow white spaces, follow color psychology principles, and use relevant eye movement patterns (visual hierarchy) when designing the form.
Add A Personal Touch
Decisions are often empowered by emotions that guide thinking and actions. Personalizing the design and the copy of your web form humanizes your brand. Human language and authentic appearance are what makes a form stand out and increase peoples’ willingness to come back to your website.
For example, instead of presenting an empty name field, include ‘Hi, my name is *your name*, what’s yours?’ in there.
Make Your Form Interactive
Making your form as interactive as possible will create a positive user experience and add a human touch to your form. An ability to interact and engage with a form increases its value to users which results in a higher probability for you to convert valuable leads.
Insert Visuals
The psychology behind successful UX of web forms states that pairing textual information and visuals makes it easier to recall the form (and therefore your brand) and also attract more visitors by being perceived as easier to use.
Offer Something In Exchange
One of the best ways to reinforce people’s desire to fill out a lead capture form is to present a statement of benefits or create a giveaway. Offering something in exchange, for example, a checklist or a free ebook, can boost form submissions and result in higher conversions.
Create Popup Forms Instead
Popup forms are another controversial strategy to capture leads. While it’s proven they do work, some people abandon and ignore information presented that way. To avoid it, you need to create a user-friendly popup form. This can be done by studying the behavior of your audience to set the right popup trigger and an appropriate format.
Use Captchas To Block Spam
Captchas can either drag down the conversion rate or increase it. Yet people are easily getting frustrated when encountering long forms or captchas, these security services prevent robots from completing your form.
You can put captchas at the very end of your lead capture form to eliminate spam submissions and make your subscribers feel safer while interacting with your site.
Include Social Proof
The behavior of an individual is often influenced by other people. The same can be applied when it comes to building trust in your brand and engaging people to share their data. The phenomenon of social proof is a very powerful marketing approach to motivate your audience – people are more likely to act if others are doing so.
Illustrate the benefits of your product via customers’ quotes or highlight a number of people who have already filled out the form.
Create A Two-Step (Or More) Process
There are two required components for people to give away their personal information: permission and trust in your brand.
To gain credibility, avoid scaring visitors with one large signup form and create a multi-step process instead (break up the form into several stages). Start by asking very basic questions and aim for more in further steps.
Conclusion
Not optimizing your WordPress lead capture forms could hurt your conversion rate optimization efforts.
To get the best out of it, use a simple formula: minimize all that can irritate visitors and maximize the perceived value by turning peoples’ decision-making process into an effortless and easy-to-accomplish task.
When applied, these proven strategies help your potential leads to build trust in your brand and remove any doubts about giving out their personal information. In exchange, you will get a stream of high-quality leads and enhance your conversion experience.
Author:
Paula is a passionate content creator & marketing specialist at Visual Composer. She believes that words can empower like nothing else.
