AKA: "Beyond Forms: Advanced Strategies for Capturing Online Leads." Prospective customers are less willing to fill out the almighty online form, meaning sales teams have fewer leads to nurture, and marketers have a harder time tracking their results. This presentation gives 25 concrete solutions to the problem of “form fatigue.”

1. How To Stalk A Prospect
Without Being Creepy
Beyond Forms: Advanced Strategies for Capturing Online Leads
Stacy Sutton Williams
Senior Director of Conversion
Nebo
10/23/15
@stacywms @neboweb

2. What’s the problem?
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3. Why the reluctance to fill out forms?
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4.  Fewer leads for sales
to nurture
 Harder to track –
marketing gets less
credit
 No standing ovation
for marketing!
Why is “form fatigue” a problem?
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5.  Find a way to entice people to fill out the dang
form already!
 Make it easier
 Use a third party
 Give them something of value
 Work around it
 Market to them and track them another way
How should marketers respond?
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6. Use all your marketing wiles and charm…
Entice Visitors To Fill Out The Form:
Make It Easier

7. Conversational & friendly
Image credits: Solo Horton
Brushes, Paymetric, Medecision,
Bizible

8.  25% lift in conversions
(eBooks)
 10% lift in conversions
(webinars)
 Lower cost per conversion
 Increase in lead data
quality
AutoFill
Available with LinkedIn’s “Lead Accelerator”
service. Thanks to Catavolt.
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9. Single Sign On (SSO)
Image credit: Zendesk
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10. Progressive profiling
Images credit: Act-On

11. Unobtrusive pop-up with only one field
Image credit: GetDrip.com
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12. Unobtrusive pop-up…in a video!
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Image credit: Act-On

13. Pop-up as they show “exit intent”
Service by Reactful.com, as seen on Big Drum’s site @stacywms
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14.  Short form on landing
page: 14% conversion
rate
 Button leading to
short form on second
page: 32%+ conversion
rate
Interim step can help them commit
Thanks to JasonSwenk.com
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15. Form analytics
Image source: Inspectlet.com. Also recommended: Formisimo.
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16. Use all your marketing wiles and charm…
Entice Visitors To Fill Out The Form:
Use A Third Party

17. They don’t trust you…but they trust them
Note: you may or may not be able to actually get the contact info from the third party
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18. They’re more likely to engage on social
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19.  Imagine instead:
 “Talk to one of our
mobile security
advisors”
 “Chat with a
compliance
consultant”
Not a third party…but not a sales rep
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20. Use all your marketing wiles and charm…
Entice Visitors To Fill Out The Form:
Give Them Something Of Value

21. Tempt them with a taste
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22.  Valuable software available
free to developers if they’d
register
 No one registered
 Ungated software & offered
users a free $30 O’Reilly book
 Conversions skyrocketed
Appeal to their self-interest (not business needs)
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23. Answer their question – address their pain
Understand your various personas…
…and what they’re looking for at each stage of the
buyer’s journey. For God’s sake – give it to them! They’ll
fill out a form for something valuable and relevant to
their needs!
Images credit: HubSpot

24. Understand your various personas…
…and what they’re looking for at each stage of the
buyer’s journey. For God’s sake – give it to them! They’ll
fill out a form for something valuable and relevant to
their needs!
Images credit: HubSpot
Seriously, people – don’t be lazy! It may be faster and easier to
implement some of the other approaches in this presentation, but this is
by far the most effective way to entice prospects to fill out a form.
Providing unique content that solves your prospects’ challenges also:
• Strengthens branding / credibility / thought leadership
• Builds a relationship with your target audience
• Gives them something to share – you could go viral
Answer their question – address their pain

25. There are other ways to skin a cat
(no cats were harmed in the making of this presentation)
Work Around It

26. Phone call tracking
Image credit: Marchex
But…if they’re not going to fill out a
form, they probably aren’t going to
call.
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27. Event tracking (microconversions)
Source: Google Analytics
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28. Path report (microconversions leading up to conversion)
Source: KISSmetrics
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29. Remind me later
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30. Ungate content, cookie, remarket
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31.  Prospect visits
landing page but
doesn’t submit form
 Dynamic content
block with CTA is
triggered to bring
them back to the
same landing page
Form abandonment recovery campaign
Images credit: Transpose
(gotranspose.com).
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32. Build rapport with chat, then ask
Image credit: ContactAtOnce!
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33. Some chat companies are trained to capture leads
Image credit:
LeadChat
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34. Test your chat greeting too
Images source: Olark. Details: https://www.olark.com/using-olark/how-clever-greeters-increase-conversion-rates
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35. Anonymous visitor tracking (reverse IP lookup)
Image credits: Visual Visitor, HubSpot

36.  Visit BestBuy.com on a
Mac – get a different
experience than if
you’re using a Dell
Implicit personalization (browser-based)
“Experience Marketing” can be done with Sitecore, Adobe & Transpose,
among others. Images & resources from Arke Systems (arke.com)
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37.  Content changes
based on type of
content consumed
during last visit
 Or referral source
Implicit personalization (behavior-based)
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“Experience Marketing” can be done with Sitecore, Adobe & Transpose,
among others. Images & resources from Arke Systems (arke.com)

38. Implicit personalization (industry-based)
Images credit: Transpose (gotranspose.com). Their
preferred term is “persona-based marketing.”
Original
Personalized for Retailers
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39. Don’t ignore form fatigue – wake ‘em up!
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40. Thank you.
Stacy Sutton Williams
Senior Director of Conversion
Nebo
www.neboagency.com
swilliams@neboagency.com
linkedin.com/in/stacyswilliams
This presentation is already posted at slideshare.net/stacywms
10/23/15
@stacywms @neboweb