When your customers seek a solution for a problem, they use a search engine to ask their question. Your website pops up in the results, and they click through to find out if you have the answer they’re looking for. If they like what they see, they call you or fill out one of your website lead generation forms to get more information.
This process is a good one. It represents marketing automation at its finest and allows your team to reach out to customers who have already shown interest.
But did you know that your lead generation form could be even more helpful to you? All you have to do is add one more thing: a conversation starter that allows your customer to give more information and provides more information to your sales team.
What Do We Mean By "Conversation Starters?"
Like a good networking opportunity, conversation starters are the part of your lead generation intake form that encourages the person submitting the form to share more details about their situation.
Your website and your lead generation forms are important parts of a marketing and lead generation strategy. In fact, 56 percent of marketers think optimizing lead generation form logic (including the process of adding a conversation starter) have a significant impact on website performance. Forty-six percent think the layout has a significant impact, too.
The goal of the conversation starter is to get more information about your customer's needs, budget allocations, or buying process. It gives you the basic information you need to see whether or not your company’s solution would be a good fit. Not only will this help your sales team save time in deciding which customers to pursue, but it will give you context for that first call so that you can be as helpful as possible from the start.
How to Figure Out Which Conversation Starters To Use In Your Website Lead Generation Forms
The art of lead generation conversation starters is just as important as the art of conversation during a sales call. It’s important to pick a question or a comment that will encourage discussion with your customer rather than come off as interrogative. You also want to avoid asking questions that might appear to ask for too much information too soon, or adding so many questions that your customer is turned off from filling out the form.
When you’re brainstorming a conversation starter for your lead generation form, consider whether or not some of the following ideas will be appropriate for your audience:
- What is your biggest business challenge?
- Why are you looking for [product]?
- Do you sell to other businesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C)?
- What is your role within the company?
- What kind of project are you looking to complete?
- What do you think we should know about this project before reaching out to you?
You can also cater these questions to your client's industry. Many of the lead forms on our website ask, "What's your biggest marketing challenge?" This helps give us some context about why someone might download something, and we can tailor our conversation to this need.
Specifically, a CPA firm might ask the question, "What's your company's biggest tax hurdle?" or "How would you rate your past experience with CPA firms?" A human resources consulting firm might ask, "What's your company's biggest challenge recruiting new talent?" or "Does your company have a college recruitment plan?"
Which questions are best for your customers? It will depend on who you are trying to reach. The best conversation starter will strike a balance between informative and low-pressure and allow the sales team to make the call with as much context as possible.
Do you have a conversation starter on your lead generation form? If you don’t, which question do you think you’ll add?
