You've probably heard that “money is in the email list” and that it's vital to build the one with engaged followers.

Your website and landing pages are one of the most proven ways to quickly build the list. When you add a lead capture form to your lead capture pages, you can start asking visitors for an email address. 

For example, you can offer them a so-called “content upgrade,” which could be an ebook, guide, video, checklist, or any piece of great content that you usually don't give away.

The high-converting lead capture forms have many components, all of which must be present to make the form effective. If your forms are not optimized for these components, you may lose out on lots of leads.

In this article, I would like to share with you the lead capture form tips that will help you to increase your conversion in 2020.

1. Offer an incentive according to the stage of a sales funnel

One of the best ways to boost lead capture form conversion is to offer an incentive.

According to a survey conducted by Ascend2, most of the marketers are growing their email lists with website access or content downloads (the “content upgrades” that I mentioned earlier).

Website access in this research means that the registration is required to get access to restricted or private areas within a website.

Both of these tactics share a more extensive strategy: Get the address in exchange for extra-good content, an essential practice used in matching content with your sales funnel.

2. Make your forms short and don’t ask for too much

Marketing Sherpa found out that every field you add to your lead capture form decreases your conversion rate by 11%.

So try to request only the most essential information. In many cases, “name” and “email” fields are more than enough to run a successful email campaign.

You can observe from the graphs that the optimal number of fields that are positively impacting your conversion rates is from 2 to 3.

Be sure the ROI gained from asking additional questions is more significant than the ROI lost.

3. Include a powerful call-to-action

The next important component of your lead capture form is a call-to-action button.

It should be large and visible, in a color that contrasts with the rest of your landing page color theme, so it's easy to see. Here is an excellent example from one of Shopify's landing pages.

Moreover, your CTA button needs to be creative. “Submit” is probably the most commonly used CTAs for lead capture forms. But studies show that optin forms with buttons labeled “Submit” have lower conversion rates than those that use other wording.

That's why I suggest being creative with your CTA and playing around with the wording until you find something that resonates with your website visitors.

4. Integrate your lead capture form copy with the design

The design of your form impacts conversions. 

Where most businesses get it wrong is in thinking that this is solely a matter of “what looks good.” Effective marketers should focus on the fact “if it converts good.”

In general, the simpler your optin forms are, the better for the conversion.

5. Capture visitors’ attention

Form visibility is a significant factor since all you want is to capture visitors' attention.

Far too often, marketers place lead capture forms at the bottom of a blog post or below the fold on a website. The fact is that most readers don't make it the bottom of a page, so try to place the form on the visible place.

But at the same time, it shouldn't be overly distracting. Always give an opportunity to quickly return to browsing a website if your website visitors don't want to sign up.

6. Use an informative headline

When creating headlines for the lead capture form, get straight to the point.

Provide clear information and deliver with simple words you are offering.

Use big, bold letters to state the claim. Add a subheading if you have a piece of additional information to describe your offer.

7. Define the required lead capture form fields

If you only have one field in your optin form, you don't need to let know that it's required. Otherwise, make sure you let visitors know which fields they have to fill out. 

Moreover, do not include warnings about required fields before visitors fill out the form, it may distract them from the conversion action.

8. Offer a free gift

Give your website visitors something that they can't get for free anywhere else.

Your gift could be anything you think, providing it's relevant, and something people are likely to want.

9. Add testimonials from your customers

You might add one or two testimonials from people who have already joined your list.

Such testimonials generate interest because it shows feedback of a real customer who tried and left satisfied with the product or service.

We wrote more about the importance of social proof in marketing in this article. 

In short, we are influenced by the actions of others when making our own decisions. It's the reason why we would rather trust strangers online than paid marketing ads.

10. Use bullet points to highlight the benefits

Bullet points draw the reader's eye and allow to communicate main ideas concisely.

Text framed with bullet points stands out because it's easier to read, and it looks more visually organized.

11. Use persuasive images for your optin forms

A great image is a powerful way to boost your value proposition.

There are only a few seconds to capture visitors' attention with your lead capture form. The relevant image will help you to incite the interest of your website visitors and get them ready for the optin form copy.

12. Create urgency

Customer hesitation quite often kills conversions. Anytime customer thinks “probably later” you conversion rates go down.

There is one way to get website visitors to take action immediately. This is urgency.

Offer something for a limited period, reward your first X subscribers, increase the price after X sales, capitalize on special holidays, offer today-only deals, etc.

13. Think about the optin form placement

You need to make sure that your lead capture form appears above the fold or easily findable on the landing page.

The viewer should not have to manually scroll down the page to see it. 

Make it easy to find and visible.

14. Validate and verify your form data

Email form validation and verification are essential to campaign deliverability and overall performance. Without it, too many hard bounces or complaints can create a marketer's worst nightmare.

So before launching an optin form, make sure that you set up proper validation and verification.

15. Pre-fill form fields

Pre-filled field form fields can save your users time and improve consistency.

For example, you can pre-fill the user contact details such as name and email if that user previously downloaded your lead magnets. In general, the fewer fields a visitor has to submit, the higher your conversion rate will be.

16. Call your newsletter something more interesting than “newsletter”

If you use optin form to collect subscribers for your blog, call it something more interesting than just a “newsletter.” Because it sounds boring and tedious.

For example, you can name it “blog updates,” “weekly tips,” or “premium content.” Be creative and make people leave their emails in your lead capture forms.

17. Put a default email address in the optin form

Little hints like showing how to fill out the form with real information such as name and email can help you to increase conversion. 

It makes your visitors just a little bit more likely to take the desired action.

18. Optimize your form for mobile

Don't lose potential clients who are on mobile. 

Designing mobile-friendly lead capture forms isn't as hard as you might imagine. Usually, all it takes is keeping some fundamentals in mind and testing your forms thoroughly before they go live. 

To make your forms user-friendly, remove unnecessary sections, use drop-down lists where possible, make sure your submission buttons are easy to touch, and ensure your form loads quickly.

19. Continuously A/B test your lead capture forms

According to the Form Conversion Report that studied the conversion rates of over 400,000 users across several industries, conversion rates vary based on the type of form you use.

Even though there is no magic formula to improve website conversion rates, A/B testing helps you build a stronger optin form. 

There are a few things that I'd recommend you to test in your lead capture forms: length, submit button copy, and field bottlenecks.

20. Don't forget about the privacy policy

People really care about privacy policy since data breaches happen from time to time with software companies.

That's why add a link to your privacy policy on lead capture form or ask your website visitors that they have read it before subscription.

How can you create a lead capture form?

You can easily create visually appealing opt-in forms and catchy pop-ups with Platformly which is a all-in-one marketing automation and lead capture software. The drag-and-drop builder is very easy to get used to and requires no learning curve.

To make the whole process even simpler, Platformly offers a library of pre-built templates for a variety of tasks. All you have to do is to select one of them and modify it for your needs.

It's effortless to find the necessary one by browsing categories of Simple Templates, Standard Templates, Rich Design Templates, Hello Bars, Full Page Templates, PLY Templates, SEO Audit Templates, and so on.

You can also post your requests and suggestions for the creation of new ones in the support forum. This library is continuously growing. Needless to say, all creative forms are responsive and look great both on the desktop and mobile devices.

Now, I want to hear from you

Which tip from this post you’d are you going to use first?

Are you going to make your forms shorter? Or offer a free gift?

Either way, let me know by leaving a comment with your thoughts.