Putting forms on your website is hard enough work, but making the form appealing is even harder. However, having got someone this far, it’s a tragedy to lose them at the last hurdle because your form is offputting. One of the reasons people don’t litter their websites with individual landing pages for every promotion they do is the pain involved with creating good ones. At a recent seminar, I asked industrial marketing managers if they’d be interested in a service which enabled them to create landing pages, with response forms, just by filling in a few details (on a form!) and uploading some images. The response was “very interested” and we’ll have something to offer you soon.
However, that won’t get over the fact that you need forms on your website, not only for the generic “more information” page but for specific projects, especially newsletter signups, if you’re producing such a thing. In Guidelines for an Effective Subscription Form on B2B Marketing ROI there’s a good summary of an article from the Infobox Newsletter called 11 Tips to Create a Great Subscriber Form. I suspect few of you will ever create forms yourself, so it’s a good checklist to go through before briefing your website manager or designer if you’re going to be asking them to create a form.

Creating an email marketing campaign? Components of a Successful Marketing Email from the B2B Marketing ROI blog gives you a nice checklist of things to consider. According to the article, subject lines, email content, formatting and timing are the key factors contributing to open and conversion rates. You’ll have to do some Googling to get some in-depth advice on each subject, but it’s a good place to start.

As I mentioned yesterday, offering free stuff on your web site drags people in (and, if it’s the right free stuff, drags the right people in). But it shouldn’t end there. Once they’ve signed up for your teaser, reel them in! As the post Don’t Give Up Without A Fight in the B2B Marketing ROI blog comments, “there is no reason to have your ‘thank you message’ consist of nothing but a thank you. Encourage your prospects to continue the interaction by offering up additional opportunities for them to explore your company…”