Website form: friend or foe?

B2B websites traditionally rely on forms to collect information from prospects. Visitors are encouraged to fill out a form so that your sales team can then reach out and nurture the relationship with the hopes of getting them into a sales cycle. 

But are these forms enough?

Relying on forms alone to convert website visitors won’t cut it. After all, a study by Harvard Business Review showed that it takes an average of 42 hours for a salesperson to reach out after a form has been submitted. In this time frame, your buyers move on to other things, including your competition. That could be risky, as 78% of customers buy from the company that responds to their inquiry first, according to Lead Connect.

In order to generate more pipeline from your website and deliver a more frictionless buying experience, you'll want to give your qualified buyers another avenue to get in touch with your sales team. You can do this instantly with Conversational Marketing.

You don't have to ditch the form completely. You can use Conversational Marketing alongside your website forms to improve website conversions. Today, we’re sharing how B2B businesses can improve their website conversion and uplevel their buying experience with Conversational Marketing.

Why B2B websites rely on forms

On B2B websites, forms allow marketers to gather contact info that can be passed on to sales teams. These forms are usually requests to contact us, sign up, or get a demo.

Forms are a helpful way to collect information and can provide intel on prospects. Many forms can help qualify prospects through the fields. For example, if a prospect is required to share the title or product interest, that can help you narrow down if they’re well-qualified.

Unfortunately, the time it takes for teams to follow up on forms is usually too long. According to a report by Salesforce, 71% of customers expect companies to communicate with them in real time. That’s a far cry from the 42 hours it takes teams to respond to a form.

At Qualified, we don't want you to ditch your forms completely, but we do want you to consider if they’re earning their keep. Want to improve your forms? Complement them with a Conversational Marketing solution.

How to use Conversational Marketing to complement your form strategy

Conversational Marketing allows you to instantly engage with qualified prospects using tools like live chat and chatbots. By integrating your Conversational Marketing solution with a tool like Salesforce, you’ll have access to all the data you need as you engage in sales conversations.

For example, ThoughtSpot was able to uncover new selling opportunities by connecting with website visitors who display buying intent but haven’t actually filled out a form. In doing so, they were able to increase online sales conversations 10x and generate +70% more marketing qualified leads.

Here’s how to use Conversational Marketing to complement your form strategy:

• Give your visitors an alternate route to get in touch. Rather than forcing visitors to fill out a form, invite them to have a live sales conversation right on your website. If you know someone is qualified (perhaps they’re browsing a high-intent page or they’re a known lead in Salesforce), you can have your sales reps meet with them straightaway. 

Or, you can use chatbots to capture lead information, quickly enrich it with data from Salesforce, then route qualified prospects to a live sales conversation or invite them to book a meeting, right in the messenger.

• Invite qualified visitors to "skip the line" and talk directly with your sales team. Your qualified visitors don’t want to wait, so allow them to skip the line by getting in touch with your sales team instantly. Here at Qualified, we call this The Form Converter.

• Ask a prospect to chat after they’ve filled out a form. If a prospect fills out a form and meets certain criteria, you can instantly ask them to chat right away. This allows you to explore if they’re a fit before suggesting you jump on a call. At Qualified, we call this the Post-Form Converter. 

Wrap up

Forms are not dead. In the B2B world, they’re alive and well for good reason. Forms provide B2B teams with the opportunity to collect information that can be used to capture leads and qualify prospects. But a form alone is not enough. By using Conversational Marketing in addition to forms, you'll open the door to capture more leads and convert more website visitors. The takeaway? It doesn't have to be one or the other. Forms and Conversational Marketing can still be friends.