Lead capture is the key to transforming casual browsers into engaged prospects, paving the way for long-term growth and profitability. By collecting visitors’ contact information, you gain the power to personalize marketing efforts, deliver targeted messages, and guide prospects through the customer journey.
In this blog, we’ll uncover 6 essential lead capture strategies for ecommerce. First, let’s start with the basics of lead capture and why it’s important.
What is Lead Capture?
Lead capture is the process of obtaining and collecting contact information from individuals who have shown interest in a brand, product, or service. It involves gathering valuable data, such as names, email addresses, phone numbers, or other relevant details, with the aim of initiating communication and nurturing potential customer relationships.
Lead capture allows marketers to establish direct connections with prospects, enabling personalized marketing efforts and guiding them through the customer journey. Ultimately, the goal of lead capture is to convert these leads into customers and drive business growth.
Why is Lead Capture Important?
Lead capture is crucial for marketers due to its multiple benefits. Firstly, it can expand your customer base by allowing you to collect contact information from potential customers. By enabling direct communication and engagement, you can increase your chances of converting leads into loyal customers.
Secondly, lead capture facilitates personalized marketing efforts. By gathering valuable data about leads, such as preferences and interests, marketers can tailor messaging and offers to resonate with shoppers’ specific needs. This personalized approach boosts engagement and conversion rates throughout the customer journey.
With that being said, let’s move on to six essential lead capture strategies specifically designed for ecommerce.
6 Lead Capture Strategies for Ecommerce
1. Incentives
Capturing leads by offering incentives is a powerful strategy that brands can employ to encourage users to provide their contact information. Incentives create a mutually beneficial relationship as shoppers receive immediate value in the form of discounts, while brands gain access to valuable lead information.
Incentives can take various forms. For example, you could offer exclusive discounts or free trials. Offering tangible benefits that are appealing to shoppers encourages them to exchange their contact details.
Even if a shopper doesn’t convert immediately, a series of optimally timed reminder messages can bring shoppers back to your site and recover sales.
While it may not align with your strategy to give discounts to every shopper, you can instead offer incentives only to highly segmented audiences, such as underperforming traffic segments or first-time visitors.
2. Back-in-Stock Notifications
When a product is temporarily out of stock, allow shoppers to sign up to receive alerts when it becomes available again.
Back-in-stock notifications benefit both shoppers and businesses. Shoppers can be the first to know when the product they want is restocked, so they can grab it before they miss out. While businesses can capture valuable lead information and keep from losing the sale to competitors.
Businesses can leverage shoppers’ contact information and insight into their product preferences for future marketing efforts.
3. Price Drop Alerts
Price sensitivity is a common characteristic among many online shoppers. Catering to this segment specifically can enhance your lead capture strategy.
To appeal to shoppers’ price sensitivity, allow them to opt into a price drop alert.
A price drop alert is a notification or message sent to shoppers when the price of a product or service they’ve expressed interest in decreases. It’s a proactive way to inform price-sensitive shoppers about a price reduction and encourage them to take action.
4. Gated Product Quiz Answers
Gated product quiz answers are another effective strategy for collecting leads. Businesses can drive engagement by offering personalized quiz results or tailored product recommendations in exchange for contact information.
Quizzes allow businesses to gather valuable insight into potential customers and segment leads based on their preferences. Additionally, the interactive nature of the quizzes increases user engagement, leading to higher conversion rates and a better understanding of customer needs.
By collecting leads through gated product quiz answers, businesses can nurture and follow up with shoppers in hyper-personalized email marketing campaigns.
5. Chatbots
Another great lead capture strategy to build a spectacular customer experience is using chatbots. By offering a conversational chatbot, you can capture more leads and increase conversions by up to 40%.
Chatbots serve as virtual assistants, providing support to online shoppers by answering basic questions, guiding them to specific products or support pages, and even requesting their email addresses for further engagement. These AI-driven chatbots operate 24/7, supporting customer journeys during hours when human representatives might not be available.
Automating interactions with shoppers through chatbots simplifies daily operations and enhances the overall customer experience.
6. Newsletter Sign Ups
Offering a newsletter signup is an excellent way to nurture a direct line of communication with potential customers. Newsletters are an opportunity to engage with people who are already interested in your brand and want to stay up to date.
You can stay connected and provide them with updates, promotions, and exclusive content. This not only helps to build a loyal customer base but also increases the likelihood of conversions and repeat purchases.
How To Create High Converting Lead Capture Solutions
A/B Test
Businesses can find the most effective lead capture strategy by launching A/B tests to evaluate different variables and determine the most successful approach.
When it comes to A/B testing lead capture strategies, brands can test design elements, launch strategies, form fields, calls-to-action, as well as the segments these engagements launch on.
By tracking and analyzing the performance of each variation, you can identify which variables are most effective at achieving your lead capture goals.
Learn more about A/B testing in our Online Retailer’s Guide to Effective A/B Testing.
Limited Form Fields
Requesting only necessary information in a lead capture form is crucial for maximizing conversion rates and enhancing the user experience. Lengthy and intrusive forms can discourage potential customers from completing them by creating friction.
By streamlining forms and only focusing on essential details, businesses can reduce barriers and increase the likelihood of completion. Offering shorter forms respects the users’ time and ensures a smooth and efficient lead capture process, ultimately increasing the number of leads you capture.
Native Designs
Native designs play a pivotal role in optimizing the lead capture process and ensuring a seamless user experience.
Native designs create a sense of familiarity and comfort, making the lead capture process feel natural and intuitive for the users. This approach eliminates any visual or contextual disruptions, enhancing user engagement and trust.
Highly Segmented Audience
Using highly segmented audiences is a critical tactic to develop a successful lead capture strategy. By dividing your target audience into specific segments based on demographics, interests, or behaviors, you can personalize your approach and increase the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Segmentation allows you to tailor your lead capture strategies to the unique needs and preferences of each segment. By understanding the characteristics and pain points of different segments, you can create personalized messaging and offers that resonate with potential leads on a deeper level. This targeted approach can increase your chances of capturing leads that are genuinely interested in your brand, resulting in higher-quality leads and improved conversion rates.
Provide Additional Value with a Great User Experience
A great user experience is an essential component of an effective lead capture strategy since users’ perceptions of your brand impact whether they’ll want to engage further. Engage potential leads with a seamless user experience to build trust and increase the likelihood of successful lead capture.
Site Search
69% of shoppers go straight to a search bar when shopping online, and 80% leave due a poor experience. Site search functionality plays a vital role in enhancing user engagement. When visitors can easily search for products, services, or information they are looking for, it reduces friction and frustration.
A robust and accurate site search feature allows users to quickly find relevant content, making their browsing experience more efficient and enjoyable. This seamless search experience not only keeps users on your site longer but also increases their chances of finding valuable information or products that may prompt them to take action and become leads. Additionally, site search is evolving into a potent marketing tool, with AI-powered search bars offering upselling opportunities to customers.
Mobile Usability
Mobile usability is crucial for delivering a good user experience as more people rely on mobile devices for accessing websites and online services.
Implementing a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes and resolutions enhances the user experience by providing seamless navigation and faster load times. This optimized experience leads to increased user engagement and a higher likelihood of conversion.
Another option is having a mobile application and interacting with shoppers through push notifications.
Videos
Having videos on your site can influence shoppers’ perception of your brand and draw in more leads. According to Think With Google, over 50% of shoppers said that online video helped them make a decision about which brand or product to purchase. Including videos on your product pages can give customers the information they need to make an informed decision.
Visual representation, mainly via pictures and videos, positively influences consumers’ purchase intentions, as well as a shoppers’ first impression of your brand. By using videos to represent your products in the best light, you can increase conversions and drive engagement.
Capture More Leads to Unlock Your Shop’s Full Potential
In conclusion, effective lead capturing features can make all the difference in the growth of your ecommerce store. Capturing leads gives you an opportunity to reach out and establish a connection with shoppers to bring them back to your site. By perfecting your lead capture strategy and nurturing a great user experience, you can gain more potential customers and build more lasting relationships with shoppers.
Discover UpSellit’s Lead Capture Technology
UpSellit’s Lead Capture case study looks at personalized lead generation strategies and their impact on new-to-file email collection. Download the case study to learn how UpSellit’s Lead Capture identifies +61% shoppers at various stages of the funnel.
