When you first get going with inbound marketing, many people are focused on simply generating as...
More than half of marketers (61%) say generating leads is their top challenge. We’ve got a feeling they aren’t using HubSpot. Read on to see how easy it is to make forms, landing pages and marketing magic to generate website leads.
Building HubSpot forms
You don’t need to be a master at marketing to know forms do the job to capture website leads. It’s a format we’re all familiar with — and one that works. That’s why 74% of companies use web forms for lead generation.
Forms sneak into every area of our website, from obvious spots, like your contact us page, to more clever hiding places, such as gated content pieces. Purpose-built landing pages exist just to house forms and we can even create pop-up forms in HubSpot to sprout up in plain sight.
When building forms you’ll later embed into content, you’ll want to create three types to match the buyer’s journey. Each form will be assigned a score, getting progressively higher as the journey progresses — but more on lead scoring later.
Your form fields will probably also follow a similar pattern.
Don’t expect too much from a new visitor in the awareness stage; the fewer the fields here, the better. But once they get to that all-important decision stage? Well, then you can probably ask for more than a name and email.
| Top tip: Something you should always ask for? Consent. Make use of HubSpot’s notice and consent information.
It’s easy to build the form. Just follow the tips Emily outlines in her quick vid below or check out Will's two-minute read.
Once your forms are built, you’re free to add to, A/B test and clone them to your heart’s desire. They can sit on your most important website pages or lodge into landing pages. Whatever feels right.
Building landing pages in HubSpot
Landing pages are one of the most obvious places to put a form. After all, that’s what they’re built for. The idea is a visitor lands on a landing page (duh) and then it all gets a bit tense as they decide whether or not to pull the trigger.
Thankfully, landing pages are easy to build too, especially if you’ve previously built a template. By doing this, you can clone and tweak every time you want to add a new offer to your website, making it quicker and easier to build.
Watch long time marketing coordinator Emily explain the basics of landing page builds below and then spare three minutes to read about three easy ways to improve them.
Of course, creating the landing page is just the start. You’ll need some form of content that accompanies the form to seal the deal. It’s the last step before conversion, so you’ll need to put out something persuasive.
| Top tip: Sometimes actions speak louder than words — as much as it hurts my soul to admit as a writer. Consider using video in landing pages to increase conversion rate.
You can play with a whole host of landing page modules to make this happen. Whether it's including a carousel to steer away from the static or boosting your benefits bar.
What HubSpot can’t help with
HubSpot’s possibilities are endless. Forms and landing pages are the bread and butter of lead generation, but we all know, more goes into it than that.
- You might also want to consider optimising your most important web pages from time to time.
Alright, you will want to consider it. These house forms and, of course, aim to generate website leads. The better the layout, the copy, the SEO and the strategic value of the page, the more leads you’re likely to get.
So, make your key pages better — run tests, install Hotjar, write out 50 new and improved headlines and pick the best of the bunch. HubSpot can help you do this, but you’ll need to initiate it. - Think about forms from a human perspective. Forms are what they are — once you know how to build them, they’re a breeze. But getting people to fill out your form takes more than the click of a few buttons (despite how easy HubSpot tries to make it).
If you were a website visitor, would you feel compelled to fill out the form? Would you be frustrated if a pop-up obscured the content you’re trying to read? Would you give up typing after the fifth form field?
What to do with leads post-capture
Say you’ve followed all the above advice. You’ve mastered form building; you’ve lovingly made landing pages that are impossible to abandon. You’ve probably got yourself some website leads. But what now?
What you do with your leads is essential. A messy contacts list and a cluster of unfollowed leads are pretty much pointless. Now and in the future, conversations won’t make hit the same if you don’t pay attention and get organised.
You’ll need to organise leads by segmenting them into lists to later market to. Email campaigns can be super targeted with different lists for different stages of the life cycle, as well as more niche criteria like persona, job title, engagement and company. Static lists. Active lists. There are many options and if website leads are your goal, you should know about them.
| Top tip: Talking of emails, it’s worth creating a nurture workflow that all leads will be enrolled into for different stages of the buyer’s journey. Lead nurturing emails get 4-10 more responses than standalone email blasts.
Next, make sure someone on your sales team is accountable for the website leads trickling through. When someone gets to the decision destination, they’ll want someone there to meet them. Leads are 9x more likely to convert when businesses follow up within five minutes. Yet, five minutes, a half-hour or a day, it’s better to follow up than to not.
But — and it’s a big Kardashian-sized one — you can only facilitate this if you’ve correctly set up lead scoring in HubSpot.
Lead scoring will accurately depict where leads are in the buyer’s journey. When building forms, you’ll need to attribute points to them, depending on the action, as well as other actions throughout your website. As the points add up, leads will be scored and moved through the journey to the eventual decision stage.
It sounds complicated, but lead strategist Sam makes it easy. Listen to part one of Sam’s Inbound After Hours talk. It’s a goodie.
See How HubSpot Can Work For You
Forms and landing pages only scratch the surface of what HubSpot can do.
Smart content, lead scoring, customer service, CRM software and everything in between make HubSpot a full marketing and sales platform that can take care of lead generation, as well as the process of nurturing leads once they enter your sales pipeline.
Book a call to discuss the intricacies of HubSpot with the experts – our team at the world’s #1 HubSpot agency. We'll tailor the chat to you, so you can make the most out of HubSpot.
