If you are in the field of sales, you must be aware of how cumbersome collecting leads can be.

What if I told you that there’s a way to make things easier for you?

Well, there is.

Lead forms are an easy and quick way to generate leads. You just need to create lead forms and place them on high-traffic pages like home pages or blog posts. People will fill in their details and that’s a bunch of new leads for you.

However, it’s important to create the right kind of lead; otherwise, you risk the chances of people not filling it up.

Through this blog, I’ll tell you best practices to follow while creating lead forms.

What is a lead form?

A lead form is a web form that helps in capturing a potential customer’s attention and information. Different kinds of lead forms serve different purposes. For instance, an event registration form is designed with the purpose of gathering details of those interested in events, webinars or seminars. While a user who fills in their details in a newsletter signup form is curious about the newsletter.

Lead forms are used in:

• Pop-ups
• Landing pages
• Social media ads
• Website contact pages

What are the 4 key elements of effective lead forms?

• Simplicity: Ensure that the form only contains necessary elements. Too many fields overwhelm visitors, increasing form abandonment rates.

• Value: Ensure that the form is both compelling and easily comprehensible. It’s important to clearly communicate what the visitor will gain after filling out the form.

• Placement: Placing your lead form on the right page makes a huge difference. Ensure that you position it on pages where the traffic is high, such as home pages, blog posts or dedicated landing pages.

• Mobile-friendly: Ensure that your lead forms are mobile-friendly; otherwise, you may lose potential leads because they found it difficult to fill it out on their phone. That’d be a terrible way to lose leads.

What are some benefits of lead forms?

• Streamlined lead generation
• Enhanced lead qualification
• Higher engagement
• Seamless integration with CRM and marketing tools
• 24/7 lead capture

How to create a lead form?

Now that you know why lead forms matter, let me walk you through the exact steps to create a high-converting form.

• First, pick a form builder platform like Typeform or Wordpress forms
• Secondly, decide the type of form you need to create
• Thirdly, include necessary fields such as name, email, phone number, etc.
• Now, connect the form to a CRM system to store and manage leads automatically
• The final step is to test and deploy the form

What are the types of lead forms?

• Newsletter signup forms: This is a form of email marketing wherein users are encouraged to sign up to a mailing list for updates, promos, etc.

• Contact us forms: These are basic forms used to collect contact details and enquiries from website visitors.

• Event registration forms: These are designed to collect details of attendees of webinars, seminars, events, demos etc.

• Survey or feedback forms: These forms are designed to help businesses in gathering insights about their product or services from customers.

• Downloadable content forms: Users provide their details in exchange for a downloadable resource such as e-books, white papers or guides.

What are some frameworks for evaluating lead quality?

BANT framework

You can use this to assess:

• Budget: Can the lead afford your product/service?
• Authority: Do they have decision-making power?
• Need: Does your solution solve their problem?
• Timing: Are they looking to buy immediately or in the future?

Lead scoring formula

Lead scoring helps prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert.

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• Demographic fit: How well the lead matches your ideal customer profile (industry, job title, company size etc.).
• Engagement level: Interactions like email opens, website visits, content downloads, and social media engagement.
• Behavioral intent: High-intent actions like requesting a demo, signing up for a free trial or adding items to cart.
• W1, W2, W3: Custom weightages assigned based on your business priorities.

CRM integration steps 

• Choose the right CRM: Select one with lead scoring, automation, and analytics (e.g., HubSpot, Salesforce, Superleap).
• Integrate lead forms: Sync form submissions using native integrations, APIs, or tools like Zapier.
• Automate lead assignment: Route leads to the right sales reps based on criteria like territory or score.
• Enrich lead data: Use tools like Clearbit or LinkedIn to auto-fill missing information.
• Set up nurturing campaigns: Engage leads with automated follow-ups based on their scores.
• Track performance: Use CRM dashboards to analyze conversion rates and lead quality.

A/B testing tips

• Test one element at a time: Experiment with form length, CTA text, button color, and field labels.
• Ensure a large enough sample size: Gather sufficient data for statistically significant results.
• Optimize form placement: Compare pop-ups vs. inline forms, homepage vs. landing pages, and positioning on the page.
• Simplify required fields: Try reducing or making non-essential fields optional to lower drop-offs.
• Use smart forms: Pre-fill known details and personalize based on user interactions.‍
• Compare multi-step vs. single-step forms: Multi-step can reduce friction; single-step may be quicker.

What are some tools used to create lead forms?

Drag and drop builders

Examples: Typeform, Wufoo, Google Forms

Landing page builders

Examples: Unbounce, Leadpages

Wordpress plugins

Examples: WPforms, Gravity forms

Marketing platforms

Examples: Hubspot, Mailchimp

What best practices to follow for high-converting lead forms?

• Use a compelling CTA: A strong CTA compels the reader to take action and fill the lead form.

• Include freebies: It’s no secret that people like it when free stuff is given to them. Freebies act as subtle bait in urging the visitor to fill out the form.

• Only add essential fields: Adding essential fields encourages more visitors to sign up, as it is less time-consuming.

• Use interactive elements or images: Interactive elements or images capture the website visitor's attention and encourage them to fill out the form.

• Test lead capture forms: Trial and error also works well when it comes to deciding which lead form will gain the most traction. You can experiment and see which ones people tend to fill up more.

• Ensure that forms are secure: Visitors may be hesitant to fill up their details if they aren’t aware of your brand. Attaching a link to terms of service and privacy will put their mind at ease.

• Create urgency: Creating urgency by mentioning things like “Apply now” or “ Get this before the offer ends” speeds up the process by compelling more visitors to fill up the lead form.

• Include white space: White space improves focus by drawing attention to key elements.

What are some lead form optimisation strategies for different industries?

• E-commerce: Best for collecting first-time visitors’ emails with discount offers.
• SaaS: Effective when combined with free trial signups or demo requests.
• B2B Services: Works well with whitepaper downloads and webinar signups.
• Real Estate: Best for capturing leads interested in property listings or consultations with location-based filters or property-specific forms.
• Healthcare: Effective for appointment scheduling or offering downloadable health resources in exchange for contact details.
• Education: Works well with course catalog downloads or brochure requests, capturing leads by offering valuable educational resources.
• Hospitality/Tourism: Great for booking enquiries or special offers, encouraging visitors to share their email for travel packages or exclusive deals.
• Financial services: Best for capturing interest through downloadable financial tools (calculators, guides) or offering consultations in exchange for contact info.
• Automotive: Works well with trade-in evaluations, vehicle price quotes, or financing options, encouraging leads to submit details for personalized offers.

What NOT to do while creating a lead form?

• Unclear and low quality CTAs
• Forgetting to add a thank you page
• Not ensuring that the forms work on mobile devices
• No autofill or pre-filled fields