Lead Generation Form Builder: All You Need to Know Guide

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When it comes to the revenue engine, ‘leads’ is the fuel that keeps it running. And what better place to capture leads than your website? 

Yet, businesses only use a few tools to capture leads from websites, missing out on quality and conversion. At most, you may use 1 or 2 forms on the entire website. Other times, businesses leave behind an email address with minimal actionable value. 

Other times, businesses leave behind an email address. Writing an email involves more effort from the prospect, which doesn't make it actionable enough. 

We understand that capturing leads may seem daunting, technical and time-consuming. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be!

What if there was a way to build forms, display them at the right place, track incoming leads and craft a website experience that your users will love – all with one tool?

We’re talking about a ‘lead generation form builder’.

Hold up, what’s a lead generation form builder?

To understand a form builder, we want to refresh the concept of a lead form.

Lead generation forms are online forms used to capture a potential customer’s information in exchange for value. 

It’s a popular and widely used method of generating leads for businesses by capturing contact data like email addresses, phone numbers and more. 

With that in mind, a lead form builder is an online web application or platform that helps you create lead forms. 

Its primary purpose is to enable lead generation by quickly creating forms based on your needs. You can share forms directly on the website or via other sources. You can also easily edit, configure and manage the web forms. 

Why should you use a powerful online form builder?

It has multiple benefits that boost your lead generation and improve revenue.  

1. Collect lead data

The most obvious reason is to collect lead data and do it quickly. It’s also easier for the lead to share details with the ‘pre-fill information’ feature.

The builder can also be connected to multiple channels so you can embed forms anywhere—website, email, and social media, among others.

It’s a more secure way to collect lead data, as legal data security obligations are incorporated in such tools. Plus, since the data is shared by the user directly, it’s more reliable and accurate than third-party data.  

2. Make customisations

With a form builder, you can personalise each form to fit your brand image, look professional, and align with audience needs.

Generally, a form builder will have multiple types of forms to choose from, with options to customise the visual design.

You can also add fields as you choose. For instance, you may allow users to skip questions that aren’t critical for your lead generation process.

3. Reduce bounce rate 

Bounce rate defines the number of visitors leaving your website after viewing just the first page or those who leave your website without completing an action.

Since lead generation forms are easy to understand and fill, it improves the user experience. Plus, visually appealing designs drive user engagement. A lead form builder also optimises forms for mobile.

Subsequently, a better overall user experience reduces the bounce rate.

4. Ease of use

Forms can be built quickly and easily using digital tools. Some applications may also have a drag-and-drop feature. This lets you choose fields and drop them in your preferred location on the form.

One of the best benefits of using a form builder is that you don’t need prior knowledge of writing code or programming.

5. Decrease manual efforts 

It’s challenging to scale your business while investing manual efforts in collecting lead information. A lead form builder saves time and effort by reducing manual intervention.

Also, you don’t need to learn coding to use a form builder.

The lead data you collect is more reliable, eliminating the hassle and errors caused by manual tasks.

6. Easy on the pocket

If you’re a small business, some form builders offer budget-friendly plans. This helps you save costs and still get an optimum lead generation experience. 

You also save on the cost of employing a technical expert’s services, learning to code or building a more complex form. 

If you’ve come this far, you’re seriously considering using a lead form builder. So let’s dive straight in!

Choose from several types of lead generation forms

The first choice you may have to make when choosing a form builder is between single-step and multi-step forms.

Single-step forms appear on a single page and are quicker to fill than multi-step forms.

On the other hand, multi-step forms may appear on more than one page with several steps for collecting lead information and take some time to complete. However, they’re also more interactive and generate more qualified leads.

Here are 4 primary form types for you to consider.

1. Banner form

Banner ads sell products, convert traffic from your site or capture leads. Banner ads can capture more website leads by adding a CTA to the lead form.

Generally, the banner slides down-to-up or up-to-down as you scroll a website page. Or it may appear at the bottom or top of the page.

A visible CTA button directs the user to a lead generation form. Herein, the user can fill in their details without leaving the website.

2. Inline form

Inline forms are inserted into the content of a page. This form type effectively attracts leads already engaged in a piece of content without interrupting their experience or the content flow.

Inline forms feel like they’re a part of your website rather than coming across as blatant promotion.

3. Modal forms 

A modal form appears as a pop-up on the designated website page. It shows up as a visitor browses the page, incentivising them to share contact details.

Since it’s a pop-up form, visitors can’t view the page unless they enter their details or close the pop-up. It may seem invasive for customer experience, but it provides quality leads if you offer a high-value lead magnet in exchange.

4. Landing page Lead Form

A landing page appears after users click a CTA button on an organic or paid post. 

Similarly, a landing page form is a separate page on your website with more specific information about your product. Its headline and copy let the visitor know what they can expect. 

You could also include testimonials from current and past customers to make the form more appealing. 

Landing page lead forms are more flexible as you can create different forms for different campaigns and increase the number of form fields to improve lead qualification. 

Which channels can you use lead generation form builders for?

Lead generation forms created using form builders can be used on multiple channels. We’ve listed a few key (and some surprisingly brilliant) channels for your business.

1. Website

The home ground.

Your website is where most visitors head to find out more about your offerings. Capture their details by using lead forms on several pages.

You can place forms on the home page, services page, contact us page, blogs, within case studies and as a pop-up on most-visited pages.

For instance, use the lead generation form builder to create a lead intake or customer consultation form for the contact us page.

Source: Salesforce

2. Chatbot

You can also use a form builder to develop forms placed within the chatbot. This chatbot can collect lead details before, between, or after chatting with a user.

Getting leads to sign up using a chatbot may be tricky. To encourage prospects to give you their details, you can share an enticing offer or lead magnet in exchange.

Source: Freshdesk

3. Paid media

Generally, your lead form here will be attached to a gated lead magnet. The post it appears on will reach a wider audience beyond your list of followers.

Source: BNP Paribas

Use a lead generation form builder to create forms for platforms that enable paid ads like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Quora, search engines, and more.

4. QR codes

QR codes are a surprising and underrated technique of using lead generation forms. You can build forms for QR codes for several purposes–out-of-home events, print, billboards, indoor screens, and more.

Most smartphones today come with in-built software to read QR codes from the camera app or a separate QR code app.

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Source: QR Planet

All users have to do is scan the code, and they’ll be directed to a lead generation form where they can fill in their information. You can also choose to sync this data with your CRM directly.

5. Interactive experiences 

A lead generation form builder can develop multi-step forms to collect zero or first-party data. You can embed this form on your website or use it in a PPC ad as a quiz or survey.

The customer responses will include their data, preferences, and buying behaviour.  

Source: Modsy

Another way to make the form-filling process more interesting is by attaching the form to a ‘spin the wheel to win offers’ feature.

Source: Basepaws

6. Exclusive access

The fear of missing out (or FOMO as it’s popularly known) significantly influences leads to share their information. 

In that vein, providing leads with exclusive access to the below encourages them to give you details:

• New product
• Free trial
• New feature
• Webinar
• Newsletter or mailing list
• Event 
• Industry-based community 

Encouraging leads to promptly share their details by creating a sense of urgency works well for your business. 

Remember this before you choose a form builder

The first decision you have to make before going ahead and building forms is between the quantity and quality of leads. 

If quantity matters to you, keep your lead form short. More leads will fill up a shorter form with fewer fields. And if you’re unsure of the exact number, Gartner suggests that 3 to 5 questions are the best for higher conversion. 

But if you’re looking at leads from a qualitative lens, develop a lengthier, maybe even a multi-step form, to attract prospects with high purchase intent. That’s because only leads seriously interested in your product will take the time to complete a long form. 

Here are three more questions you should ask yourself when building lead generation forms:

1. Where (channels) are most of your leads coming from?
2. What attracts customers to your brand, product or solution?
3. How does your offering solve buyer pain points?

Finding responses to these questions will help you craft better, more relevant copy.

In terms of the information you may seek from leads, here are two examples, for B2B and B2C, that give you an idea.

The questions below are for understanding the purchase intent of a B2C lead who has visited your website.

Depending on your requirements, you can add specific questions to the list.

For example, to qualify leads and get more insights if you are an automotive or real estate company you could ask them "When are you looking to buy?" with options such as 3 months, 6 months or 12 months or "What model are you looking to buy?' for cars and "What type of home are you interested in?".

You’re all set to start building your own forms. Except, there’s just one last thing. We’ve done the groundwork for you and highlighted a few mistakes to avoid in the following section.

Best practices for using a lead generation form builder

Below are 6 best practices to hold dear if you want to succeed with lead generation form builders.

Sync with the CRM

Downloading CSVs from individual tools or platforms and uploading them to the CRM is time-consuming and a waste of manual effort.

Instead, sync your lead forms with the CRM. It ensures that data collected by your form builder flows directly into the CRM.

Syncing helps you manage leads better and use the data meaningfully for future marketing campaigns.

Enable reporting and tracking 

Arrange to collect data from all your lead sources under one roof. Not all form builders may offer this feature, so you can use Driftrock for this.

Our lead generation reports provide a consolidated view of all platforms. These reports generate insights—best-performing sources, referrers, campaigns and keywords—for the team to perform better.

Tracking allows you to follow leads through the sales funnel touchpoints using UTM. You also get to track online to offline conversions.

Ultimately, tracking and reporting help optimise ROI.

Validate leads 

Invalid leads cost you time, money and manual efforts.

Some tools may offer to remove bad data before it reaches the CRM or any other tools in your tech stack. You can validate details such as phone number, emails and location.

Validation improves the ROI and quality of leads.

Look out for features

Some more advanced features that you must watch out for include:

• User-friendliness: The form builder must be intuitive, easy-to-understand and not need coding skills. 
• Form types: Form options provide a richer user interface
• Sharing: Option to share the form on multiple platforms 
• Integrations: With other tools or apps in your tech stack 
• Predefined questions: The list should be relevant and easily interpreted 
• Privacy policy: Display this policy when needed
• Conditional logic (optional): Create questions based on user inputs 

Uphold user experience 

Forms you create using the lead form builder should make it easier for users to share their details. For instance, if necessary, you may remove the CAPTCHA option to reduce friction. 

Keep your copy readable and accessible. Also, optimise the forms for mobile. Mobile internet traffic contributes to nearly 60% of web traffic, so you want to keep the mobile experience smooth. 

Offer solid value 

Ultimately, you can capture leads through forms only by providing solid value. Share a lead magnet, exclusive access, webinar recording or an attractive discount as value.

Also, showcase value on your website by:

• Promoting benefits next to your form on the landing page
• Using persuasive copy and CTA
• Leveraging the user’s sense of urgency 

If you’ve been following this blog closely thus far, congratulations! You’re almost there!

Check out a few real-world examples below before taking your lead generation campaign live. 

3 real examples of successful lead generation forms

These are real examples of brands that used lead generation form builders the right way.

1. BMW 

BMW wanted to target their existing email customer database for a competition. But the brand didn’t want customers to re-enter their contact information they had previously shared. 

Source: Driftrock

The brand used Driftrock’s Lite lead technology to allow customers to enter the competition at the click of a button without having to share personal details. A frictionless journey led to over 8,000 entries, delivered to BMW’s CRM directly.

2. The Car Expert

The Car Expert wished to convert more of their website traffic into valuable leads. Using Driftrock’s lead capture forms, the brand achieved this goal.

Source: Driftrock

And not only that, but leads also had a seamless form-fill journey without leaving the brand page.

The result? A 400% growth in signups and registrations.

3. Mitchells & Butlers

The brand wanted to engage customers with a 25% discount offer and drive measurable redemptions of coupons in their Toby Carvery and Harvester venues. The campaign focused on measuring online to offline conversion for optimisation.

Source: Driftrock 

Driftrock helped Mitchells & Butlers set up a geo-targeted campaign with an optimised landing page form to allow customers to access the codes by entering their details. 

We also tracked coupon redemptions and provided real-time reporting. 

The brand issued over 105,000 coupons with a 5% redemption rate and 67,000 opt-ins!

Start your online lead form journey with Driftrock

You can set up forms using our lead generation form builder and easily sync them to the CRM and extended tech stack.

Here’s how you can build a lead generation form in Driftrock:

1. Login to or Sign Up for your Driftrock account.
2. Visit the Driftrock lead capture library in the left navigation bar.
3. Browse the library to create a form
4. Click on the ‘setup’ button.
5. Follow the wizard. 
6. Besides the steps to create the form, you can see a live preview of your form as you build it
7. The steps in the wizard are:

• Name your Capture and Form
• Build the form
• Choose from different types of forms
• Design the form and add questions 
• Choose where the forms trigger 
• Optional: You can add additional fields or marketing tracking
• Select and set up your destination
• Review and Done!
• Track valid leads and view conversions in our live reporting dashboard 

Summing it up

An online lead generation form builder makes the process easier and quicker. It’s a solid value add to your lead generation campaigns. 

To make the most out of a form builder, select one that integrates with the rest of your tech stack. 

You can learn more about Driftrock’s extensive lead generation capabilities by booking a demo with us or testing our platform by getting started for free.

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