This Website Form Field Will Get You Better Insights on Marketing Performance
Your website’s lead form or contact form brings in critical new business leads. Most businesses are happy just getting the lead, but you want to learn more about how that lead came to you.
One simple text field on your lead form will impact how your marketing performance is reported.
Where your leads are coming from is a critical piece of information for both sales and marketing. This is commonly called lead attribution or simply, attribution.
Google Analytics will provide some basic attribution for completed forms, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. What most people do is create a checkbox or dropdown list of common sources (below).
If you’re using a CRM (e.g. HubSpot, ZOHO, or SalesForce), attribution is reported in ways like referral from XYZ website, Google paid search, social media, organic search, etc.
Here’s the problem with pre-determined choices: those options don’t include every possible touchpoint.
For example, you’re speaking at a breakout session for a local trade show. A prospect loves what you had to say. They get back home and decide to learn more by Googling your company to request a meeting.
Your CRM and Google Analytics will report that the lead came from an organic Google search. If the user is presented with a list of options—most prospects would simply click “found you on Google.” Technically that’s correct, but not the whole story.
Change your “how’d you find us” checkboxes or dropdown to a required text field. Let your prospect tell you how they found you.
Of course, you’ll get a lot of answers like “Google,” “Trade Show,” or “don’t know” but you’ll also get answers that offer a lot more. “Saw you at FabTech’s panel!” “Former co-worker recommended,” or “Heard you on that episode of Making Chips.”
These insightful details are called self-reported attribution.
By letting your prospects share their story you’ll gain more valuable insights into how well your marketing really performs.
PROTIP: Combine self-reported attribution with the reporting from Google Analytics or your CRM and you’ll get incredible insight into your marketing performance.
It’s as simple as adding or changing one form field on your website.
Self-reported attribution is just one way to get better performance insights into your marketing efforts. Email blasts, social media, and other paid marketing platforms are full of performance data that can help you make better informed marketing choices. You just need to tap into it.
If you’d like to create a marketing program that delivers leads and provides performance data—schedule a free consultation with Signalfire!