Forms, calls to action, landing pages and thank you pages are key components to capturing leads on your website. Forms gather information, calls to action encourage click throughs, landing pages encourage form submissions and thank you pages provide the offer and opportunity for further exploration down the sales funnel. A solid content strategy uses all four of these components to power the lead generation machine.
Can I get those digits?
Forms are powerful. Wouldn’t it be great to know if someone was interested in your product or service without having to physically ask them? Wouldn’t it be even better if that same person gave you all the information you need to know to determine if you’d be a good fit without you physically having to ask? Forms help you do that.
In a marketing strategy, the person implementing the strategy is the gatekeeper of all of the information that comes in through the forms. It is this person who decides if the person submitting the form is a sales qualified lead or a marketing qualified lead. Why is this important? Well, here are a few reasons:
- You generate more qualified leads (marketing or sales) without cold calling
- If they need nurturing, your marketing team can do that
- If they are ready to engage in conversation, you hand them off to a sales rep to seal the deal
Sure, all of this sounds great, but how do people find the form?
Calls to Action (CTA)
We’ve all seen them. Whether we know it or not the internet is filled with graphics encouraging website visitors to “Learn More,” or “Download our Checklist,” or the one every website has: “Contact Us!”
Calls to action can be as simple as a button, or as complex as a big graphic with a fancy photo and some text about what you want the user to do. The goal of a CTA is to tell the user there is more to what they’re seeing right now. A good CTA sparks interests and encourages click throughs to a landing page.
Landing Pages
This is where the magic happens. Once the user clicks that call to action, whether it be from a blog post or just a generic website page, they are taken to the landing page. A landing page houses the form and also shows the user there is value in submitting their contact details.
Here’s what a good landing page looks like:
- A form asking relevant and reasonable information
- Bullet points about the piece of content you will receive
- A photo, or sneak peek of what the inside of the offer looks like
- All navigation is taken away to prevent the user from being distracted or clicking away
Once the user finally feels ready to submit the form they are then taken to the thank you page.
Thank You Pages
Congratulations, you’ve got a lead! Once someone ends up on the thank you page, you are literally doing just that - thanking them for downloading the offer. You also provide the user with a link to download the offer directly to their computer.
One forgotten tactic to employ on a thank you page is encouraging further conversion. For example, let’s say the user downloaded an industry relevant checklist about all of the products they need to be successful. On your thank you page you should have another CTA linking to a product specific eBook or whitepaper.
The more a user converts, the more you know about them. The more you know about them, the better you can communicate with them, solve their problems or help them with their opportunities.
Now What?
Now that you know the basics of the tools and tactics you need to generate leads through gated content, you’re ready to give it a try. Whether you’re using WordPress, Studio PFG or HubSpot, all of these content management systems have options to execute on these tactics.
We’re here to help...
At ProFromGo Internet Marketing, we eat, sleep and breathe lead generation. We’ve been developing landing pages, designing CTAs and encouraging website conversions for years. Whether you’re already an expert and don’t have the time, or this is outside your wheelhouse and you need some help, give us a call. We’re happy to help!
