How to use forms to qualify your leads
Keep in mind that when you are qualifying leads, you are trying to learn essential information that will help you understand whether someone is likely to become your customer. That means you need to find out if the lead has the authority to buy your product/service and if they have the budget to do so. Of course, there are other things you’ll want to learn that are more specific to your business.
One of the best ways to gather this information is through the use of forms on your website. With these forms, you will be able to ask your visitors questions outright, enabling you to gain the information you need to either qualify or disqualify the lead.
Here are the most effective ways to use your website forms to qualify leads:
1. Ask the right amount of questions
While it can be a little tricky, one of the most important parts of a website form is the number of questions. You want to gain the information you need without asking too many questions. Forms that have a lot of questions are a bit intimidating to website visitors and often prevent them from filling them out.
Figure out how to gain the information you need without overwhelming your leads. Streamline your questions to gather essential information that will enable you to reach out to them later and determine whether they are qualified or not.
Take the time to word each question in a way that enables you to gain as much information as possible in as few questions as possible.
” If you are running a project-based service business, then displaying a high-end, user-friendly request a quote form on your website is must. ”
2. Make sure your questions are the right questions
You will be best able to minimize the number of questions you ask by carefully wording each question and making sure you ask the right ones. To do this, you need to determine what sort of information you’re looking for.
The obvious goal is to be able to divide each lead into a qualified or unqualified category. Doing that means deciding what the criteria is for each. Your unique criteria is what you will use to design your questions.
For example, if the budget is an important component of qualifying your leads, you could use a drop-down form for visitors to choose the amount of money they would spend on a product or service like yours. The questions you ask are going to depend on the information you need in order to qualify your leads.
If you’re not asking the right questions, you’re going to end up asking too many questions and not really gaining any useful information at all. When you start by understanding your unique qualifications, you’ll be able to ask the right questions on your forms.
” We all want customers, right? Inbound marketing and customer acquisition start with great lead generation. But if you’re not qualifying leads correctly, converting them to customers is going to be difficult. ”
3. Use comment boxes to gather information on their problem
Comment boxes are a great way to collect a good amount of essential information. While drop-down boxes are useful, they’re not really customizable. The most detailed and useful information is going to come from a form that enables the lead to write out their own personal response.
You can ask questions on your website and have a comment box your visitors can use to answer. One of the best questions to ask on this type of form is about their problems, their pain points, their needs. With a comment box, they will be able to answer in as much detail as they want, providing you with the information you need to decide if their problem qualifies them as a lead.
4. Ask what solutions they have already tried
You can also use comment boxes to find out what solutions your leads have tried. What products or services have they purchased in an attempt to solve that problem? If their problem is relevant to your business, you’ll then be able to see what lengths they’ve gone to as they’ve tried to solve it.
This information is important in qualifying them, too. If they have purchased potential solutions before, this shows they are actively seeking an answer to their problem and will likely try yours.
If they haven’t tried anything as a solution, they might be wary of certain products or services, or they might not have found anything within their budget. A follow-up question of a budget-inquiring drop-down box might be exactly what you need.
5. Gather contact information on each form
Don’t forget to use your forms to collect contact information for your leads. This includes their name, email address, and phone number. You need this information in order to reach out to them after they’ve completed your forms.
Remember, there’s no point in qualifying leads if you’re not going to be able to reach them and continue pursuing them as potential customers. So, don’t forget to get that contact information.
Don’t waste your time on unqualified leads!
You need customers, which means you need qualified leads. You don’t want to waste your time and money trying to gain a customer that doesn’t even have the ability or need to purchase your product or service.
By following these tips, you can effectively utilize website forms in order to qualify your leads. With qualified leads, you’ll be able to focus on the customer journey that ends in conversion.