5 Ways to Increase Your Opt-in Form Conversions

Are you using an online opt-in form for lead generation, but your conversions are less then you’d hoped for? This isn’t uncommon for businesses, and fortunately, there are some simple tweaks you can make to increase your lead generation form conversions without spending a fortune or investing a lot of time.

1. Offer a Lead Magnet

Don’t just add a sign-up form to your website and expect to get a flood of submissions. Instead, offer a free lead magnet, and you’ll convert a lot more visitors into subscribers.

A lead magnet is a free piece of content that your target audience will find a great deal of value in. It could be an ebook, tutorial, or workbook. The choice is yours. As long as people perceive that the value of the lead magnet is worth more than the value of giving you their email address, they’ll likely respond.

2. Be Obvious

Don’t hide your opt-in form on a random internal page of your website. Instead, you need to keep it front and center and easily accessible from every page of your website.

Check out these tips to increase email subscribers with the right opt-in form placement and functionality. I promise when you follow some of the suggestions you find by clicking on the preceding link, your conversions will increase.

3. Keep It Simple

A big mistake that many businesses make when creating an opt-in form is asking for too much information. Remember, what you’re offering to people has to be worth more than what you’re asking them to provide to you in return.

To that end, your opt-in form should only ask for the information you really need. Of course, email address is a requirement, but do you really need first and last names? Do you really need a phone number or company name?

Every additional piece of information you ask for will decrease the number of subscribers you get according to multiple research studies, including research conducted by Hubspot, Expedia, and more. In fact, you can see a bunch of statistics about how fields affect opt-in form conversion rates in this infographic from QuickSprout.

It’s important to point out that fewer fields might equate to more conversions, but you’re also likely to get more low quality leads. With that in mind, make sure you design your opt-in form to match your lead generation and email marketing strategies.

4. Make Sure It Works

Test your opt-in form regularly. Just because the form looks good on your home page doesn’t mean it’s functioning properly on the back end. If users receive error messages, their perception of your business could be negatively affected, not to mention, you’ll also lose potential leads!

You should test the functionality of the form itself, test any email campaigns that are automatically triggered by the form, and ensure the appropriate lists are populated in your email marketing application when the form is submitted.

5. Offer Something Extra

In addition to offering a free lead magnet to generate opt-ins, you can offer free bonuses that people will receive after they submit your opt-in form. Create a follow-up email campaign that is sent out automatically when someone new subscribes to your list using your opt-in form so you can send them the free bonuses you promised.

For example, worksheets and checklists related to your free lead magnet make great free bonuses. Most importantly, make sure the lead magnet and the bonuses are all relevant to your business and your target audience’s needs!

Your Next Steps for Your Opt-in Form

Within the next week, spend some time making sure your opt-in forms are obvious, simple, and working. At the same time, create an amazing lead magnet and bonuses to make your opt-in form irresistible to visitors.

Don’t worry if your first lead magnet and opt-in form design don’t reach your conversion goals. Make some tweaks and try again. Testing is critical to finding the right lead magnet and form!

As always, if you need assistance writing your lead magnets, free bonuses, or email campaigns, I’m here to help! Contact me and we can get started.

Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc. and Founder & Editor in Chief of an award-winning blog, WomenOnBusiness.com. She is a 25-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored 10 books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing.