Email capture forms are a crucial component of any successful lead-generation marketing strategy. They provide a way to capture the contact information of your audience and build your email list.
However, are you struggling to capture high-quality leads through your email sign-up forms? Are potential subscribers ignoring your forms or abandoning them halfway through? If so, it may be time to jazz up your email capture forms and make them more engaging and effective.
In this article, we’ll share expert tips and strategies for creating eye-catching and effective email capture forms. From getting the timing right to including social proof and incentives, we’ll cover everything you need to know to make your forms stand out and capture high-quality leads.
First up, let’s prove how important email marketing is in today’s B2B landscape.
B2B Email Marketing
In today’s fast-paced digital world, many B2B businesses are focusing on social media, content marketing, and other new forms of communication.
However, if you’re not investing in email marketing, you could be missing a trick. Email marketing remains a highly effective tool for building relationships and driving business growth.
Here are some reasons why email marketing still matters for B2B businesses:
- Personalization: Recent research tells us that B2B companies believe that the greatest benefits of a successful personalization strategy are an improved customer experience (51%).
Email allows you to deliver highly personalized messages to your target audience. By segmenting your email list and tailoring your messages to each group, you can increase engagement and build stronger relationships.
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- Direct communication: Unlike social media or other forms of marketing, email provides a direct line of communication to your audience. This allows you to nurture leads and respond quickly to customer inquiries and feedback.
- Measurable results: With email marketing, you can easily track open rates, click-through rates, and other metrics to measure the success of your campaigns.
- Cost-effective: Compared to other forms of marketing, email marketing via website forms is relatively low cost – a great option for businesses with limited budgets.
- Builds trust: Consistently delivering high-quality content and personalized messages to your audience helps build trust and credibility for your brand.
How Is Email Capture Rate Calculated?
Email capture rate is calculated by dividing the number of email addresses captured through your email capture form by the number of people who visited the page with the form.
The formula for calculating email capture rate is as follows:
Email capture rate = (Number of email addresses captured / Number of visitors to the page with the email capture form) x 100%
For example, if you have an email capture form on your website that receives 500 visits per month and captures 50 email addresses, the email capture rate would be:
Email capture rate = (50 / 500) x 100% = 10%
This means that your email capture form is capturing email addresses from 10% of the people who visit the page with the form. By monitoring your email capture rate, you can track the effectiveness of your email capture form and make adjustments to improve your results.
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How to Boost Email Capture Forms for More Conversions
To help make your email capture forms more engaging and secure high-quality leads, take a look at the following tips:
Use Engaging Headlines
Using engaging headlines can be a powerful way to attract visitors to your email capture forms and encourage them to sign up.
A great headline captures visitors’ attention and entices them to take action, whether it’s filling out a form, downloading a resource, or subscribing to your newsletter.
When creating headlines for your email capture forms, it’s important to focus on the benefits of signing up. What will your visitors gain by subscribing to your email list? Will they receive exclusive content, special offers, or helpful tips? Use these benefits to craft a compelling headline that resonates with your target audience.
Also, consider trialing headlines that invoke urgency or scarcity – phrases like “limited time offer” can create a sense of urgency that motivates visitors to sign up before it’s too late. This can be especially effective when combined with a compelling incentive, such as a free resource or discount code.
Keep It Simple
People are more likely to fill out a form if it’s quick and easy – so simplicity is key.
Keep your form short and sweet, only asking for essential information you need to personalize your emails and deliver value to your subscribers. You can always ask for more information later on when you’ve built more of a trusted relationship.
Deliver Social Proof
Social proof can be a powerful motivator for email sign-ups.
Highlight positive reviews, testimonials, or social media mentions showing your audience that others trust and value your brand. Use social proof strategically to build trust and credibility with your potential subscribers and show the value of joining your email signup form.
Be Timely
Identifying triggers helps you to segment your email recipient audience based on their behavior on specific email capture form pages.
For example, consider triggering actions such as:
- On landing: When a visitor lands on your website.
- On scroll: When the element you specify is visible on the page (good for long-form content).
- On inactivity: When a defined period of inactivity has elapsed.
- On exit: When a user goes to leave
- On timer: After the user has been on the page for a set time.
- On click: When an element on the page is clicked.
- On hover: When an element on the page is hovered upon.
Be Transparent
Many visitors are wary of giving out their email addresses due to concerns about privacy and spam.
By including a privacy policy on your form, you can reassure visitors that you respect their privacy and will only use their email addresses for the purposes outlined in your policy.
Be clear about the type of data you’re asking for (name, email address, birthday, etc.) Then share how you’re going to use it (for newsletters, testimonials, or to tell them about new features, etc).
Lastly, explain the value for your audience – will they get special access to sale events? If so, be sure to tell them.
Offer Incentives
People are more likely to sign up for your email list if they get something in return.
Consider offering a discount, free ebook, or other valuable resource in exchange for their email address. The incentives must be relevant to your target audience, for example – a concert sponsorship package might be just the ticket to entice music fans to sign up.
Optimize Landing Pages
Your landing pages play a critical role in email capture.
Make sure your landing pages are optimized for conversions by keeping them simple, using eye-catching visuals, and including clear calls to action. Test different versions of your landing pages to see which ones perform best.
Take care to position your email capture forms strategically. The position of your email capture form can have a significant impact on its effectiveness.
Consider placing your forms in a prominent location on your website, such as a header, footer, or sidebar. Use pop-ups or slide-ins strategically to grab visitors’ attention without disrupting their browsing experience.
Clear Calls-to-Action
Clear calls-to-action are essential for effective email capture.
Use actionable language and make your calls-to-action stand out from the rest of your form. Make it clear what subscribers can expect to receive and how often they can expect to hear from you.
Optimize for Mobile
Make sure your form is mobile-friendly and easy to use on smartphones and tablets.
It’s crucial to ensure that your email capture forms are mobile-responsive. Use a responsive design that automatically adjusts to fit the screen size of your visitors’ devices. This will make it easy for visitors to complete your form on any device and improve your conversion rates.
Chances are, mobile visitors probably won’t commit to certain services when they’re quickly browsing on their phones, so capturing their details is even more important to continue the conversation at a later time.
Multi-Step Opt-in Process
A multi-step opt-in process can help increase conversions by breaking up the form into smaller, more manageable sections.
This can help reduce form abandonment and make the sign-up process less overwhelming for potential subscribers. Use a progress bar to show subscribers how far along they are in the process to encourage them to complete the form.
Follow-Ups
Following up with subscribers after they sign up can help build a relationship and encourage engagement.
Use a welcome email to thank subscribers for signing up, introduce them to your brand, and set expectations for future communication. This is a great time to offer additional incentives or exclusive content to build loyalty.
Convert High-Quality Leads Today
If your current email capture forms are not generating as many conversions as you’d like, you’re not alone.
Many businesses struggle with email capture, but using the techniques and strategies in this article, you can turn your email sign-up forms into powerful lead-generation tools. Remember to continuously test and refine your email capture process to optimize your results and achieve long-term success.
Author Bio
Yauhen is the Director of Demand Generation at PandaDoc, an all-in-one document management tool for almost all types of documents, including this PandaDoc Oregon bill of sale template. He’s been a marketer for 10+ years, and for the last five years, he’s been entirely focused on the electronic signature, proposal, and document management markets. Yauhen has experience speaking at niche conferences where he enjoys sharing his expertise with other curious marketers. And in his spare time, he is an avid fisherman and takes nearly 20 fishing trips every year.