Sales teams/businesses/bloggers are always hungry to get more leads for their websites.
After all, it’s the leads that have the potential to become customers.
So what is lead capture? How to capture more leads? What are the best practices and software for successful lead capture?
Let’s find out below.
What is lead capture?
Lead capture is the process of gathering contact information from potential customers who express an interest in a product or service.
In exchange for the contact information, you provide something valuable – an irresistible offer, an ebook, access to special content…
This information is typically collected through forms on websites, landing pages, or other digital channels.
For example, the button is a CTA that encourages visitors to enter your email in exchange for the resource.
The purpose of lead capture is to build a database of potential customers and to track their level of engagement with a company.
The gathered information is then used for lead nurturing and sales follow-up, with the goal of converting leads into paying customers.
The lead capture happens at the top of the sales funnel. More the leads, the more chances of converting them to customers.
Best practices on how do I make a lead capture
With the definition and purpose of the lead magnet being clear, let’s see how effectively you can get quality leads.
Determine your target audience
This is the first critical first in lead capture. Understanding who your ideal customer is, what their pain points and needs are, and how they behave will help you create a lead capture strategy that effectively attracts and converts leads.
How to determine your target audience:
- Develop customer personas that represent your ideal customers, including their demographics, behaviors, motivations, and pain points.
- Conduct market research to gather data on your target audience, such as their age, income, location, interests, and buying habits.
- Ask your current customers for feedback on your product or service, including what they like and what they would change.
- Use tools such as Google Analytics to analyze your website traffic and determine who is visiting your site, what pages they are visiting, and how long they are staying. This will help you to select which page to run the lead magnet on and what the content should be.
- Study your competitors to understand their target audience and what they are doing to attract and convert leads.
Create targeted lead capture pages or lead capture forms
You can create a dedicated lead capture page or use forms on different landing pages to capture leads.
If you wish to create a separate landing page for lead capture, do these:
- Make the page clean and simple, with a clear call-to-action and minimal distractions.
- Use high-quality images, graphics and videos to add a visual appeal to the page.
- Include a form that asks only for the essential information you need to nurture and convert the lead.
- Use language and messaging that speaks directly to your target audience and addresses their needs.
- Ensure that the landing page is optimized for mobile devices, as more and more people are using their smartphones to browse the web.
And if you are setting up a lead capture form, do these:
- Limit the form to only the essential fields, such as name and email address.
- Use a clean and simple design that matches your brand and is visually appealing to potential customers.
- Avoid technical jargon and use easy-to-understand language.
- Provide clear instructions on how to fill out the form and what will happen after the form is submitted.
- Ensure that the form is optimized for mobile devices.
- Include a clear call-to-action, such as Submit, Download or Sign Up, that encourages potential customers to complete the form.
Create a lead magnet
The lead magnet is what nudges a visitor to share their contact information.
The idea behind a lead magnet is to provide potential customers with something of value in exchange for their contact information, such as an email address.
The best you can do is embed forms in the lead magnet to capture leads. So potential customers can easily access it via download or email opt-in.
Here’s what makes a successful lead magnet:
- It should solve a specific problem or address a pain point that your target audience faces.
- Be specific about what the lead magnet is and what it will do for the potential customer.
- It is relevant to your target audience and the product or service you offer.
- Clearly communicate the value of the lead magnet, and explain how it will help the potential customer.
Check out some top lead magnets to capture more leads.
Promote your lead magnet
You can’t accept visitors to land on all your website pages and subscribe to your lead magnet.
Refer to these tips to promote your lead magnet:
- Share your lead magnet on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to reach a wider audience.
- Include your lead magnet in your email marketing campaigns and offer it as a free resource for subscribers.
- Run targeted ad campaigns on platforms such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads.
- Partner with influencers in your industry to reach a new audience.
- Create blog posts, videos, podcasts, and other types of content that promote your lead magnet and provide value to your target audience.
- Encourage satisfied customers to refer their friends and family to your lead magnet, and offer incentives for successful referrals.
By promoting your lead magnet through a combination of these channels, you can reach your target audience, engage with them, and convert more leads into customers.
Lead capture follow up
Once you have your leads, you need to nurture them. This means building a relationship with leads, providing value, and ultimately converting them into customers.
Some tips for effective lead capture follow-up:
- Personalize your follow-up messages with the lead’s name and reference the lead magnet they signed up for.
- Provide value in your follow-up, such as tips and resources related to the lead magnet they signed up for.
- Be consistent with your follow-up and send regular, relevant communications.
- Use marketing automation tools to automate your lead follow-up and ensure that leads receive the right message at the right time. You can set up autoresponders to not lose engagement with the list.
- Segment your leads based on their interests, behavior, and other criteria, and tailor your follow-up accordingly. Segmented lists will always give you more conversions than sending out an email blast to your entire list.
- Provide a clear next step in your follow-up, such as scheduling a call or demo, to move leads closer to a conversion.
Analyze and optimize
Track the performance of your lead capture efforts and regularly analyze and optimize to improve conversion rates.
- Conduct A/B testing on different elements of your lead capture process, such as form length, placement, and call-to-action language, to see what resonates best with your target audience.
- Use personalized messaging and images, and tailor the content you offer based on the individual’s behavior and interests.
- Implement a lead scoring system to prioritize and categorize leads based on their likelihood to convert.
Free WordPress lead capture software
Your lead capture is impossible without a lead capture tool or plugin.
There are many lead capture tools available, such as landing page builders, forms, and opt-in pop-ups.
For a free, easy-to-use lead capture plugin, use Icegram plugins.
Grow your list, engage with them, set up email marketing automation using Icegram plugins:
- Use Icegram Collect to create a form that visitors can fill out to join your email list. Get readymade form templates and styles that can be inserted anywhere on your WordPress website.
- Use Icegram Engage to set up powerful lead magnets. Create a lead capture popup or other messages like slide-in, overlay or line that displays the form. When a visitor subscribes, they’ll be directed to a page with a freebie, such as a downloadable PDF or other resources.
- Use Icegram Express to stay in touch with your subscribers. Segment lists, schedule emails and do a lot more with the automation features of the plugin.
Winding up
Lead capture is a crucial aspect of any successful marketing and sales strategy.
By utilizing the best practices mentioned above for landing pages, forms, and lead magnets, businesses can build an effective lead capture system.
And if you are using WordPress, then Icegram should be your go-to choice to build a successful lead generation machine.