Empathy in lead forms (aka gated content)
I’ve always hated testing my own lead forms because it can skew the metrics. But here’s what can happen when you don’t.
I saw an ad for a white paper that looked valuable to me – enough to offer the standard “payment” for a resource like this: first, last, company, email. I clicked the ad and was pleased to see a form requesting only email, industry and company size before the “download” button. Great! Done.
Suddenly I’m on a page asking for first, last, company, job title, address, city, state, zip, country, phone, email. ALL REQUIRED.
Guess what white paper I didn’t download.
Now, this white paper is hosted by the digital version of a print magazine, so I’m sure they’re used to asking for address info. But had someone tested the form (swapped places with their reader, as Ann Handley says) they would have noticed:
- you don’t get the asset after clicking “download,”
- there’s no reason to require address info, and
- the whole thing lacks empathy for the person who wants the asset.
I went from looking forward to reading the white paper to being unpleasantly surprised by the process to being frustrated that it “cost” more than the first form showed.
How to make friendlier lead forms (that people won’t mind submitting)
There are volumes written on this (see HubSpot’s guide and flowchart, Marketing Profs on gating videos and OptinMonster’s how-to), but here are a few quick tips:
Match the “payment” to the value. I mentioned earlier that I was willing to trade basic contact info as payment for the white paper. If your audience is thrilled with the info they get, they’ll be glad to have given you their info (not least because they’ll hope to get more great stuff from you). But if they digest your content and feel like it wasn’t worth giving away their email address (spam-haters unite!), they won’t “buy” from you again. (Watch a fun video by Andrew Davis on this payment system.)
Put another way: ask only for what you need. Are you putting something in the mail after someone submits this form? If not, don’t ask for an address. Are you planning on calling them? If not, don’t ask for a phone number. Are you offering a birthday coupon? If not, don’t ask for their birthdate.
Use progressive profiling to gradually learn more about a person. Progressive profiling means collecting a little more info each time someone submits a form. If you have a marketing automation platform that recognizes who’s visiting your website, you can tell it to hide lead fields that the person has already completed and insert a different field. People are more willing to complete short forms than forms that require a bunch of information.
Make the button do what it says. When I submitted the first form by pressing the “download” button, that’s what I thought would happen – my computer would download the white paper. Instead, it sent me somewhere else. If there’s a button that says, “Get the ebook/guide/checklist,” that’s what it should do when someone clicks it. It should give them the resource. Anything else, and people will think you’re giving them the runaround.
Tell them how you’ll use their info. Are there any promises you can offer to make hitting the submit button a little easier? “We’ll never spam you” is a great start – but you have to know what they’d consider to be spam and then stick to your promise! Do you segment your lists based on interests, buying history, location, funnel stage, etc.? “We’ll use this information to send you content that’s relevant to you.” What else could you promise to put people at ease?
Your forms give people insight into what it’s like to do business with you.
People judge your company at every interaction – and that includes what happens online. If you’re empathetic and helpful in your lead forms, they’ll assume you’ll be empathetic and helpful when they’re bringing out their wallet.
What emotional journey do your lead forms create for your audience? Test them and find out.
