How to Use HubSpot Lead Flows to Convert More Website Visitors

You teeter on a fine line when asking your visitors for too much information in a form or when disrupting them from their main intent when visiting your website. You want every visitor to have an enjoyable experience on your page, but you also want to gather information about that individual that will ultimately convert him or her into a customer. So how do you find the balance?

Fortunately, HubSpot has come up with a solution. In 2016, the new lead flow tool was announced at their INBOUND 2016 Conference. It is the HubSpot take on a pop-up box and is designed to increase the number of leads generated from simple offers while also offering visitors a seamless browsing experience. HubSpot tested the lead flow tool in a study and found that there was 7 times higher conversion rates for content offers when presented through a lead flow.

Non-Disruptive Lead Generation

The lead flow tool allows you to capture new leads without disrupting their visit to your website. How is this possible? Because the entire conversion process happens in a pop-up box on the page they are currently visiting. Visitors are able to see the offer, fill out the form, and receive an in-line thank you message quickly and easily.

The secret is keeping it simple. Be sure that your lead flows focus on simple offers that are both valuable and relevant to your audience. You are only allowed 4 form fields for a reason. This should be a quick exchange of information that your visitor hardly thinks about but that you greatly benefit from.

Get Your Offer in Front of the Interested Parties

HubSpot lead flows are able to live on any of your website pages that also contain HubSpot tracking, meaning you can be as narrow focused with the offer as you like. You decide where and when a lead flow appears on your website. For instance, you can place a lead flow for a “Packing Checklist” on a page about “How to Make Traveling More Efficient.” If someone is already reading information on how to travel easier, then they may also be looking for a way to streamline their packing.

Because of this ability to narrowly focus, you are then able to place the right offers in front of the right people at the right time when they are engaged, thus increasing the number of leads gathered on your page.

It all depends on the resources you have available. On one of our client's "Request a Demo" page, we had a lead flow on exit intent for visiting their library with resources on this particular product. Thinking that if they didn't fill out the demo request, they may still need more information on the product's capabilities.

All businesses are trying to lead their prospects deeper into the buyer's journey to make it that much easier to close business. A well-planned and executed lead flow will not only capture visitors’ attention (and their emails) but it will also reduce unqualified leads and increase the probability of moving your prospects to a buying decision.

Build Lead Flows into Your Marketing Strategy

When HubSpot first launched the lead flow tool, it was a shiny new object that we were excited about, but we were also unsure of how to best utilize. Whenever a new tool comes out, it is so important to experiment with it and see how your audiences responds to it. We have one client with whom we did extensive testing, turns out their audience really likes the pop-in right over the pop-in left. 

As you get more familiar with the tool, it then becomes important to incorporate it into your marketing strategy. That way you have plan that can be but into action, evaluated and updated as needed. We have found that we particularly like adding white papers or webinar lead flows on corresponding blog pages, so we have added a column in our content calendar for any lead flows we would like to create once a blog is published. 

And just like any good strategy, once a visitor has filled out a lead flow form, you will want to nurture them further down the funnel properly. So build your follow-up into your strategy plan as well. 

Take the Class

HubSpot Academy offers a quick class that covers everything you need to know about lead flows in just 15 minutes. Learn real-life examples and best practices and you'll be generating leads in no time!