THE ESSENTIAL LEAD GENERATION FORM

A large number of websites do not use optin forms or lead generation forms at all! These websites are letting potential customers slip through their fingers. Building a lead capturing form in the style of an optin popup will help you acquire an email list to further nurture your audience.

From the introduction, we’ve seen an example of a lead generation form for a book review site that could use some work. Here’s another example from another book review website, Book Riot, that shows you how you can improve a simple form. Here are some notes to consider:

• There’s a clean design with large and attractive text that tells users what they’ll receive if they sign up to their site.
• It has a lightbox effect that makes the form stand out from the background which is darkened
• The subscribe button has a distinct color that matches the theme and calls the users attention
• It uses text that’s more compelling. The use of an exclamation point and Subscribe Now convey more emotion and is more compelling

Try to create a clean, attractive, lead generation form that clearly tells users why they should sign up with you. You only need to add one field for entering email addresses and you’re good to go.

Forms with Power Words

This example from Copyblogger features the brilliant use of copywriting techniques to capture leads. Here’s what you should notice:

• The main text body is short but conveys the full benefit a subscriber gets in just six words
• It makes use of power words; in this case, the word ‘Free’. It also highlights the power word in a different color
• The subtext provides more information that’s also compelling and more detailed than the main text
• Here, the subscribe button is super specific as it says ‘Teach Me’ rather than the typical ‘Subscribe’

It’s vital to focus on simple, powerful, and informative text in your lead generation forms. Make sure that it’s actually relevant to your users and provides them with precise benefits.

A Full Page Lead Gen Form

It is very appropriate to include the lead generation form from the John Chow website’s front page.

Let’s breakdown everything that it’s doing right that you can follow when building your own lead generation form.

• Using a full page lead generation form is an obvious eye-catcher. You can use images and text to their full advantage
• There are three short and succinct bullet points that explain real and actionable benefits
• It uses power words and the button also features actionable text
• The subtext with the ‘lock’ symbol and ‘No credit card required’ immediately conveys security and safety