Research-driven tips to power up your lead capture forms

It’s important to start every day off on the right foot, and it’s just as important to make every client interaction memorable from the start. Typeform’s data science team analyzed form features and completion rates for over a thousand typeforms to come up with tips for making your lead generation typeforms better than ever.

Ready? Let’s dive in!

Keep it simple

The less time your new leads spend filling out a contact form, the sooner you’ll be able to start building a relationship with them. Our team found that typeforms with more than 6 questions had less than a 50% completion rate. We also found that the completion rate of forms that took less than a minute to complete was, on average, 15 percentage points higher than forms that took longer to complete.

And when it comes to getting contact information, the early bird gets the worm - asking for a respondent’s email first thing in the typeform was associated with a 9-percentage point higher completion rate when compared with typeforms of similar length and features.

How can you design your typeforms to minimize length and maximize completion? Typeform’s variety of question types help you get the information you need, and in the correct format. Logic only shows respondents the questions they need to see, so the form feels more like a friendly conversation than a robotic back-and-forth.

Get straight to the point

Use active language in your typeform’s start text to make it clear what responses you’re looking for! Our researchers found that typeforms whose Welcome Screens avoided questions (like ‘Are you interested in our exclusive newsletter?’) in favor of other wording (like ‘Sign up now for our exclusive newsletter’) were associated with a 5-percentage point increase in completion.

Make your forms anything but formulaic

Take advantage of features like Hidden Fields to make your forms feel personal from the first page. This small step can have big payoffs: lead capture typeforms that used Hidden Fields anywhere in the form saw an increase in completion rate of nearly 5 percentage points, and forms that used Hidden Fields in the Welcome Screen had an increased completion rate of 16 percentage points.

Here’s a form that uses a Welcome Screen without Hidden Fields:

And here’s a form that uses a Welcome Screen with Hidden Fields piped in:

Feel the difference? Forms that make smart use of Hidden Fields can bring your brand voice closer to your audience.

If you’re new to Hidden Fields, find out all about using them here.

Give ‘em the ol’ razzle-dazzle - and follow through!

People love feeling special, and why shouldn’t your new leads, too? Make your company’s value clear from the start by incorporating two strategies our researchers identified as particularly effective.

First, tie form completion to a one-time reward, also known as a lead magnet. Maybe it’s a coupon code, a free trial, or an entry in a gift giveaway. This is a low-effort way to show respondents that you appreciate their time - and in Typeform’s study, forms with Welcome Screens that mentioned gift- or reward-related keywords had a 5-percentage point higher completion rate.

Similarly, the completion rate was 7 percentage points higher for typeforms that mentioned a number in the Welcome Screen. For example, you might include phrases like “7-day free trial” or “25% off”, which offer concrete rewards for finishing the typeform, or “only 2 minutes of your time”, to show that your form is easy to complete.

Community-building is another way to boost completion rates. If the people filling out your form can get an early look at new products or a subscription to your newsletter, mention that up front! In our study, lead capture typeforms that used phrases like ‘be the first’ or ‘members only’ in their Welcome Screen had a completion rate that was 10 percentage points higher than forms without this wording.

Get all the info on adding a Welcome Screen to your typeform in this article.