Leverage pages and forms to optimize the subscriber journey
Pages and forms are critical tools for guiding potential customers and retaining existing ones. By mastering pages and forms, you can provide a seamless subscriber journey that increases conversions and customer satisfaction. Read on to learn actionable tips and techniques for creating engaging content, building relationships, and inspiring your audience to take action.
What is a customer journey?
The customer journey is traditionally a step-by-step process that encompasses the experiences and interactions a person has with your brand across all touchpoints. If you need a refresher, here are the steps:
- Reach
- Acquisition
- Conversion
- Retention
- Loyalty
So where does your customer viewing your site fall on this list? When a customer lands on your website, they are considered in the “reach” category. They will be able to subscribe to your email marketing, which helps build a relationship with your brand.
What is a form
A form is an interactive element on a webpage specifically designed to collect information from your visitors. They can be used for various purposes in the subscriber journey, such as gathering contact details, capturing leads, conducting surveys, or simplifying customer service processes.
When creating a form in Dotdigital, typical data fields include name, email address, and phone number. However, as a brand, you can personalize your forms to collect additional, unique data fields such as asking additional unique questions, such as birthdays or favorite colors. Always think ahead when building your forms and consider what information you might need for future campaigns.
The benefits of forms
As forms are versatile and flexible, they enhance the subscriber journey. With forms, you can:
Capture valuable leads
Forms collect contact information. This enables you to nurture potential subscribers and build email lists for targeted marketing campaigns.
Enhance the user experience
Well-designed forms provide a straightforward way for visitors to engage with your website and access the information or services they need.
Boost conversions
Forms are essential for ecommerce websites, guiding your subscribers through the purchase process.
Encourage engagement
By offering valuable resources through lead capture forms, you can foster a stronger connection with your audience and encourage them to interact further.
Streamline communication
Forms centralize inquiries from visitors, making it easy to manage and respond promptly.
Simplify event registration
Registration forms guide users through signing up for events, courses, or membership programs, streamlining the process.
Pop-over and embedded forms are two key types of forms you can use to capture information and create a dynamic experience for your subscriber journey.
The pop-overs form
Pop-over forms are dynamic features that appear on your website at a specific time. It can be used during the subscriber journey to obtain consent, collect email addresses, or highlight specific information on your website.
You can use pop-overs to greet new visitors to your website and kickstart their subscriber journey. Use offers or highlight your brand’s USP to encourage viewers to subscribe to emails by filling in their details, such as first name, last name, email address, or SMS number.
It’s key to inform potential subscribers about the content and benefits they’ll receive when signing up for your emails. For instance, educational or non-profit organizations may emphasize the value of access to informational resources and event invitations.
For retail or ecommerce businesses, your pop-over form can offer early access to upcoming products or discounts on their initial purchase. Alternatively, you could offer a special discount or complimentary gift on your subscribers’ birthday if you collect their birthday information.
Examples of pop-over forms
Be careful not to disrupt the user’s experience. Avoid creating a spammy impression or displaying the pop-over just as they are about to buy. There are various strategies to implement forms effectively, depending on the desired outcome of your subscriber’s interactions:
Show after: Or a timed form
The user will enter your site, and after a time of your choosing (i.e., thirty seconds or one minute), the pop-over form typically appears in the middle of the page. This is one of the most popular pop-overs.
Exit offers
This form may be triggered when a subscriber leaves your site. Essentially, it’s a last-shot attempt at converting a visitor before they leave the website.
Banners
Although less dynamic in design, this form sits at the top of the site like an umbrella. This can be used to show off discounts or make timely announcements.
The embed form
In some cases, a pop-over form might not be the right fit for your brand. An alternative to growing your audience is an embedded form. This type of form can be used as a standalone landing page or integrated into an existing landing page on your website to gather information from your visitors.
If a pop-over appears, then naturally, the embed form is embedded into the web page. To add the form to your site, you need to create code and paste it into your HTML.
Unlike pop-overs, embedded forms are more suitable for event registrations, and customer service requests, and a less intrusive option to subscriber acquisition. While pop-overs are typically used as your main source for subscriber acquisition, setting subscription expectations, and calling action to discounts and promotions.
When to use embedded forms
Imagine this: You’ve written an engaging blog article that connects with your target audience. This is an excellent opportunity to integrate an embedded form to that page of your site to collect contact details and grow your subscriber list. By encouraging email and SMS sign-ups using embedded forms on popular landing pages of your website, you will grow your audience, fuel conversions, and nurture valuable leads.
So, when should you use embedded forms? Here are some ideal moments to utilize their power:
Lead generation
Whether it’s event registrations, contact forms on landing pages, or service requests, embedding forms within your content can be a highly effective way to generate leads and gather valuable customer data.
Research
Embedded forms provide an excellent opportunity to gather subscriber feedback. By inviting your audience to share their thoughts and insights, you gain valuable insight into their subscriber journey. This allows you to improve your strategies.
Section logic
In cases where your form involves technical aspects or conditional content, embedding forms utilizing section logic allows you to hide or display specific sections based on the options chosen by the user. This logic-driven approach ensures a seamless and personalized user experience.
Customer service
Whether it’s a contact form on your website’s landing page or a post-purchase feedback form, embedded forms enable streamlined communication with your subscribers. It encourages them to reach out, share their experiences, and assists you in providing timely and effective customer support.
Send confirmation emails to improve the subscriber journey
It’s important to send a confirmation email to your subscribers after they submit a form. This triggered email lets them know that their submission has been received and provides reassurance.
If you are using a pop-over, your initial welcome program campaign should be set in the form of your first message. For event registrations using an embedded form, consider sending a confirmation email that includes the exact details of the information they provided when filling out the form.
Summary
Use Dotdigital’s EasyEditor to effortlessly add forms and pages to your website and create an engaging experience for your audience. Follow these best practices to improve your subscriber journey, increase engagement, boost conversions, and build lasting connections with your subscribers.
