Lead qualification without hurdles

Which web visitors can do without forms?

It is not possible to dismantle web forms everywhere. If a user is browsing the web anonymously, forms are essential to initially identify Mr. X — whether to assign him to a person in the database or to record him as a completely new contact. Forms are also essential as soon as an explicit declaration of intent from the user is required — e.g. when registering for an event. The good news, however, is that forms can be dispensed with as tools for lead nurturing of existing contacts in most cases:

• Has a contact already been entered in the customer database? In this case, the company usually already has the most important information about the person.
• Is important information about a contact missing, can a company follow up through telemarketing campaigns.
• When additional information about the company is required in B2B marketing, it is possible to dynamically enrich contact data from address databases such as Dun & Bradstreet or Hoppenstedt.
• The use of BANT questions (“Budget, Authority, Need, Timeframe”) in forms is generally questionable. They encourage many users to deliberately answer dishonestly, as the questions are perceived as too intrusive. (see also: bridgegroupinc blog — “Get Rid of BANT and Go to NOW!”.

Which channels can be used to dispense with forms?

Users can access a company's websites, microsites or landing pages in a variety of ways. They do not always have to undergo a visible “identity check” using a form to verify their identity.

Email campaigns: In lead nurturing campaigns via email, the contacts contacted have already gone out of anonymity — at least their email address is known to the company. If someone from these contacts clicks on a link in the email, this is easy to track.

print mailings: The same applies if customers or interested parties are referred to a website via a personally addressed print mailing. Here it is possible to integrate personalized URLs and QR codes into the mailing. Here, too, you can track which contact was interested in which content online.

Are additional cookies set for contacts from emails or print mailings, these contacts can be identified and tracked repeatedly at later times — even if they no longer reach the website from an email or via a personalized URL. Forms on websites that are intended to identify anonymous users can be dynamically hidden from cookie carriers.

Forms help identify leads

In the lead nurturing process, many companies like to use forms to further enrich existing information about existing contacts. The focus is often on measuring interest in specific products and offers — and calculating lead scores based on these predictors. Lead scores are values that — based on previous user behavior — provide a forecast for the future: They signal the probability that a person could purchase a specific product in the future. If the lead score of a prospective customer is high enough for a specific product, then it is worthwhile to contact sales directly.

Many lead nurturing processes work primarily via web forms in the online and email sector: If a contact fills out a form that contains information about a specific product or product group, this contact receives additional lead status points for that product or product group in the database. Implicit interest indicators such as clicks, reading or sharing of content are also rarely included in determining predictors — because recording and evaluating them is much more difficult.

“Thank you for your interest — please pay with your details.”

Users basically “pay” for the profit that companies make from web forms. And they want to receive a corresponding benefit for the “price” of registration that they pay. With forms that have been integrated into the communication process exclusively for lead nurturing reasons, the “cost-benefit ratio” for users is usually very poor:

• Forms cost time and energy: Filling out a form is time-consuming and laborious. Even with pre-filled forms, users are forced to check that the data is correct — unless they simply want to confirm incorrect information once again. However, forms that are used solely for lead nurturing often provide users with little benefit. For example, many users probably do not understand why downloading a product brochure should require information such as whether you have a budget.
• Force forms to relinquish anonymity: In both B2C and B2B markets, the unwillingness to give up one's presumed “anonymity” via form registration can lead to high cancellation rates. Especially at an early stage of the purchase process, which is characterized by the information and evaluation of a product, the “name and address” price for product information appears too high.
• Forms enforce explicit expressions of interest: Forms are explicit expressions of interest that are submitted to a company. When a form appears on the screen, many users may even become aware that they are transmitting information to a company when surfing the web — and this awareness can suddenly change user behavior. The fear of being bombarded with unwanted advertising or perhaps even being contacted by telephone scares many — and results in forms either not being filled out incorrectly at all or intentionally.
• Forms are unsexy: Imagine surfing the web and finding a perfectly presented product. It looks good. It solves exactly your problem. They want to have it. But first, you would like to have a look at the product brochure again in peace and quiet. You click on the link — and a lengthy form appears. What do you think? The fact is: Forms not only interrupt the “flow of communication” when browsing the web. Forms also interrupt the conversion process, which may be taking place in the user's head right now. They create frustration where (pre) joy and enthusiasm could actually grow. The more emotional and impulse-driven a visitor's buying behavior is, the more devastating a form is. And: Forms often have a negative side effect on the image of a company, brand or product. This is because they create the bizarre situation that potential customers feel compelled to first prove that they are “worth” being provided with information — before they can check whether the information they receive is really of interest.

Let numbers do the talking: In a period of six months, we measured bounce rates of between 60 and 90 percent for forms that were integrated into one of our customers' email campaigns. Although the jumped off contacts had clicked and showed interest in the advertised products by clicking, they fell through the cracks due to the lack of form registration during lead qualification. For primarily form-based lead nurturing, this means that all contacts who are interested in a product but whose interest is not (yet) strong enough to pay the price of “filling out a form” are lost during lead qualification.

Consider soft lead indicators—but how?

When taking soft interest indicators into account in the lead qualification process, companies today face two challenges in particular:

1. The systematic recording of implicit interest indicators is much more complicated than entering form data. When a user fills out a form, he transfers a structured data set to the database. But what if you now want to record all clicks, shares, reads, etc. of this user and adequately evaluate them as indicators of interest? If you measure implicit interest indicators, you get an almost unmanageable amount of atomic information that is difficult to handle.
   The solution: Intelligent solutions for user response recording and analysis offer the option of assigning individual user actions to one or more categories. This enables multi-dimensional data analyses. By adding weight to the individual categories, the depth of user engagement is taken into account: A workshop registration simply shows greater interest than a single click on the website. In this way, the mass of incoming response data can be collected in a manageable structure and continuously aggregated. The result is not only a significantly improved user experience (as there are fewer forms), but also the ability to identify leads that would otherwise have remained undetected forever.
2. Implicit interest indicators Such as clicks, reads, durations, shares, etc. are not equivalent to a completed form that represents an explicit expression of interest.
   The solution: By creating weighted categories, implicit and explicit expressions of interest can be taken into account to varying degrees in the lead nurturing process. If a new contact fills out a web form to download a presentation, this has to be weighted significantly higher than if an existing contact accesses the same presentation directly from an email.
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Example of the different weighting of different categories of user engagement

Our conclusion: Hard and soft interest indicators — the combination makes the difference!

Web forms are necessary to gain new contacts over the Internet — but in the subsequent lead nurturing process, forms should be avoided wherever user engagement can also be identified and measured in other ways: Why create hurdles where potential customers are not (yet) prepared to skip them?