Double B2B Conversions
a Pardot eBook
8 quick steps to double your
conversion rates.
Executive Summary
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Simplify Your Form
Use Forms Best Practices
Tweak Your Layout
Tone Down Your Error Messages
Lock Up Your Valuable Content
Brag About Your Credibility
Track Implicit and Explicit Data
Test, Test, and Test Again
Conclusion
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
For B2B marketers, the sales process really begins
at conversion. You need to design and optimize every aspect of your landing pages to maximize your
visitor conversions.
In the B2C world, conversion starts and ends in the
same place: the purchase. For B2B marketers with long,
complex sales cycles, conversion typically means getting a
visitor to fill out a form in exchange for something of value:
a white paper, a demo, or a free consultation. Landing
pages are often the de facto site for these conversions,
making their
optimization crucial to the sales and marketing process.
There are four distinct groups of people that are
interacting with your landing pages:
Figure 1.0
Leave within 10 seconds.
Decide your page is
not compelling.
1
Visitors that leave within 10 seconds of arriving at your
landing page make up the vast majority of viewers.
2
Visitors that leave when they decide your landing page
is not compelling are the next largest segment.
3
Some visitors attempt to fill out your form but fail or give
up and then drop off.
4
A small percentage of your visitors successfully convert
and become leads.
In the eight steps that follow, you will learn how to boost the
effectiveness of your landing pages and raise the number
and quality of your B2B conversions. Some of these steps are
simple best practices and others are made possible by web
technologies like marketing automation, but all will contribute
directly to the success of your online lead generation program.
Attempt the form.
Successfully convert.
©2014 Pardot, a salesforce.com Company | 1-855-426-9213 | 3
1
SIMPLIFY YOUR FORM
No matter how compelling your landing page offer, you
can still scare visitors away from converting with a long
form demanding lots of information.
With landing pages, less is more. Nothing frustrates a
visitor more than arriving at a landing page, seeing a
compelling white paper offer, and then realizing he or
she will have to fill out a long and complicated-looking
form before receiving anything of value. Companies
who ask for more than a handful of data points in the
first interaction with a visitor are encouraging form
abandonment.
B2B sales are typically multi-touch and complex,
rather than instantaneous, impulse buys. Because
of the length of the sales cycle, marketers can flesh
out a prospect’s profile over time. Each touch point
provides an opportunity to collect more data. A solution
called progressive profiling uses what are known as
conditional fields to ask for just one or two data points
during each interaction, allowing you to gradually build
an in-depth prospect profile. This lessens the burden on
prospects while still collecting the valuable information
that the marketing and sales teams need to move
forward.
The same form may be used for all the content across
your site, but progressive profiling allows the form to
intelligently display only the fields that you are missing for
a prospect. Marketing automation software uses cookies
to identify returning prospects and remember what
information they have already given you.
Try to keep the first form down to four fields at most, and
guide prospects to view other compelling content across
your site in order to gradually obtain additional data.
Almost 80% of B2B marketers aren’t satisfied with their
current levels of customer conversions. (CMO Council)
©2014 Pardot, a salesforce.com Company | 1-855-426-9213 | 4
2
USE FORMS
BEST PRACTICES
Increasing conversion rates on your forms is about more
than your form fields. Stick to best practices to make sure
your forms function as successfully as possible.
FOCUS ON OUTCOMES
Here are some best practices for setting up and
formatting your forms:
Don’t put two or three mutually-exclusive options into
a dropdown menu; use a radio button instead. This
helps users scan faster.
Use checkboxes when users can select multiple
values simultaneously, or when giving a single option
that can be toggled on and off.
Conversions are all about expectations. It’s a value
exchange at its core: visitors should know what they’ll
see after submission and what they’ll get for giving you
information. You can increase your conversions in many
cases simply by making the call to action on your form
more descriptive and outcome-focused. For instance, if
you’re sharing a white paper that focuses on social media
ROI, ‘Learn How to Measure Social ROI’ might be a better
When you need a single selection, but you have
call to action for you than ‘Download White Paper’.
If your labels are beside your form fields, consider
more than a few options, use a dropdown menu.
Only select a default when the vast majority will
select that option, and ensure it’s clearly labeled. If
you have a lot of options (more than 20), consider
using a text field instead.
making them right-aligned for enhanced readability. If
USE THE RIGHT FORM FIELDS
Don’t just think about the number of form fields, think
about how they’re organized.
form length isn’t an issue, use top-alignment for even
faster form-filling.
Don’t give your visitors any reason to walk away from
your forms by sticking to these best practices.
©2014 Pardot, a salesforce.com Company | 1-855-426-9213 | 5
3
TWEAK YOUR LAYOUT
Your landing page has only seconds to capture the
interest of a visitor. This makes the aesthetics and
layout of your landing pages crucial elements of the
conversion process.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
It’s an unfortunate truth that, no matter how hard you
work to carefully craft your copy, the vast majority
of visitors simply aren’t going to read it. Visitors are
scouring the web for information, and an internet
full of near-useless content has taught us all to
expect little value. On a landing page, that truth gets
amplified.
Here’s what we know about how visitors “read”:
Text is almost always scanned, and not read
entirely.
Greater focus is given to words in the top and left
side of the page. Text is scanned in what’s called
an f-pattern.
According to Nielsen Norman Group, before a visitor
leaves, they’ll read — at most — 28% of the words
on a page.
If you need more than a couple of short paragraphs of
text on your landing page, make sure the first words in
those paragraphs give an idea of what they’re about.
If you can divide the content into groups, do so! Make
sure you write clear, concise headings to help scanning
eyes find the information they’re searching for.
Skip the Lifestyle Shots
Give your visitors a sneak peek of what you are offering.
How many times have you gone to a landing page and
been greeted with a header graphic that has nothing
to do with the offer? A better solution is to provide a
small image of the white paper or demo that is being
offered. This gives your visitors something tangible to
look forward to and a much more compelling reason to
convert.
©2014 Pardot, a salesforce.com Company | 1-855-426-9213 | 6
4
Tone down your
error messages
Don’t waste your visitors’ time with needless error
messages. Validating fields as a user completes your
form is an easy way to make sure a visitor gets it right
the first time.
In terms of annoyance for visitors, in-your-face error
messages are a close second to lengthy forms.
Imagine that your visitor has taken the time to fill out
and submit a form. The visitor expects to receive
your white paper, but instead of a familiar “thank you”
message, they are greeted with a red error message
— or worse — an empty form, forcing them to start all
over again. Guess what? They’re probably not going
to feel very motivated to complete your form the
second time, and another potential lead will bite the
dust.
without a full screen refresh, creating a better
user experience and reducing the risk of form
abandonment.
Marketing automation platforms make it easy to
validate specific form fields like email addresses.
Often times, personal email addresses will do your
sales team no good. You can prompt visitors to
supply only a corporate email address in real-time
as they are completing your form.
Handle error validation instantly, displaying any
error messages as soon as your visitor completes
a field.
The quick fix for this is to handle error validation
instantly, displaying any error messages as soon
as your visitor completes a field. This much softer
warning allows your visitors to correct their entries
©2014 Pardot, a salesforce.com Company | 1-855-426-9213 | 7
5
lock up your
valuable content
Emailing your collateral with a tracked link is an easy
way to ensure that you are a) getting valid contact
information, and b) gathering valuable behavioral
information for your sales team.
Many companies simply redirect to the requested
content when a visitor submits a form. A better practice
is to set the expectation that you will email a link to the
white paper or demo upon form submission. While this
does not always guarantee that the lead will give you a
valid, business email address, it does make it more likely.
A simple statement such as “Please complete the form
below to have the white paper emailed to you,” should
suffice.
Another option is to use validation on forms, which
allows you to set custom levels of approval to ensure that
email addresses are non-free (often important for B2B
marketing), from a valid email domain, or both.
It is also a good idea to include a short privacy statement
that informs prospects that their email address will not
be abused or re-sold. This is a small step that can help
reassure prospects who may be hesitant to provide their
information.
When delivering the content via email, it is best to send a
link to the document’s location instead of an attachment.
This allows you to track link clicks so that you can
determine exactly when the materials were accessed.
When your reps follow up with a phone call, they will
benefit more from knowing when the document was read
than when the email was opened.
Validate email address.
Send via email.
Provide tracked link.
©2014 Pardot, a salesforce.com Company | 1-855-426-9213 | 8
6
BRAG ABOUT YOUR
Credibility
Consumers are becoming more and more wary of
marketing messages. Third-party credibility indicators carry
far more weight than any marketing message.
Visitors who are not familiar with your company may
be hesitant to enter their contact information, even in
exchange for something of value. Listing a few seals,
certifications or awards that your company has won can go
a long way toward establishing some credibility with your
audience.
Examples Include:
Client testimonials
Your blog or website’s footer is a great place to display
credibility through badges or other endorsement graphics.
Badges such as the Inc. 500 and Marketing Excellence
Awards let visitors know that this company is legitimate
and helps reassure them that their information is safe.
They also serve as the first step to establishing your
brand’s reputation with new visitors.
Consumers are becoming more and more resistent
to traditional marketing messages. They are instantly
skeptical and take everything a company says with a grain
of salt. Third party credibility indicators are a great way to
circumvent this skepticism and can carry real weight with
potential customers.
Site security badges (Verisign, Thawte, Trust-e, etc.)
Ratings from Better Business Bureau and similar
organizations
Awards and industry recognition.
90% of respondents who recalled reading online reviews
claimed that positive online reviews influenced their
buying decision. (Dimensional Research)
©2014 Pardot, a salesforce.com Company | 1-855-426-9213 | 9
7
Track implicit and
explicit data
Your prospects are telling you a lot more than you
think. Tracking lead sources, abandoned form data,
and anonymous visitor data can give you a wealth of
information about your visitors.
You can gain valuable data from prospects on forms,
but even more telling is the implicit information that can
be gleaned from your visitors’ actions and behaviors.
By tracking activities at the individual prospect level,
you can:
Track the lead source on landing page submissions
down to the search term. This shows you exactly
where your leads are coming from, so you can
optimize your pages based on popular keywords
and determine which campaigns are most effective.
Capture all form entries – even corrected or
abandoned fields. This provides great insight
into a lead’s readiness to be contacted and helps
determine the right path for follow-up or continued
nurturing.
Capture data for both anonymous and identified
visitors using domain name and WHOIS lookup.
This can tell you what company your visitor came
from without them ever entering that information.
You can then run this information against Data.com,
Hoover’s, or other databases to find information on
the company and any contacts that might be listed.
A marketing automation solution can record any
abandoned or updated data even before the form is
submitted. If you notice a prospect enters two different
email addresses before supplying their corporate email,
this might indicate to a marketer that the prospect
is wary of being contacted via email. It may be more
appropriate to put leads like this one on a nurturing
track rather than contact them with a sales pitch.
Only 38% of marketers have a single view, including
current and historic information, of how buyers interact
with content across the digital touchpoints. (Forrester
Research)
©2014 Pardot, a salesforce.com Company | 1-855-426-9213 | 10
8
Test, test, and
test again
Continuously improving your landing pages through
multivariate testing is key to maximizing conversions,
and marketing automation platforms can do this testing
for you.
Offer: Experiment with white papers, demos,
free consultations and other content to see what
prospects view as most valuable
Imagery: Try a shot of your white paper cover, an
internal page, or a screen shot of your demo
The one great truth about landing pages is that you
can always improve upon them through testing. Many
Form length: If you started with a lengthy form,
marketing automation systems allow you to set up a
try removing a few required fields and see if
simple multivariate test, which automatically distributes
conversion improves
your incoming traffic to two separate landing pages.
The landing pages should be just slightly different,
Form fields: Try department vs. job title or
perhaps varying the design, copy, or content offering.
changing up formatting with drop down menus or
After some time has passed, evaluate which version
checkboxes
has a higher conversion rate in order to develop the
most effective page possible.
Copy: Experiment with how your text is organized
(short paragraphs, bullet points, etc.)
At a loss for what to test? Try a few of the following:
Headline: Keep it short and compelling; the headline
should describe an immediate benefit to the reader
Although testing can be difficult to do manually, many
marketing automation solutions can make complex
tests a breeze, automatically assigning traffic to each
of your page designs and reporting on the results.
©2014 Pardot, a salesforce.com Company | 1-855-426-9213 | 11
9
conclusion
Conversions are a crucial element of any B2B
marketing strategy. Creating conversion points
that really deliver results is easy with the proper
strategy and planning.
By implementing the eight simple steps mentioned
in this eBook, you will not only increase your total
number of conversions, but also the quality of the
data that you capture. Optimizing your site and
landing pages for conversions is an easy way to
increase the effectiveness of your marketing and
sales teams alike.
Some of the steps are simply best practices, while
others may be part of a marketing automation
solution. Most can be implemented at little or
no cost and will help improve ROI for any online
marketing program.
©2014 Pardot, a salesforce.com Company | 1-855-426-9213 | 12
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Guide to Inbound
& Automation
Learn more about the fundamentals of inbound marketing,
using forms and landing pages to augment an inbound
strategy, how you can avoid common pitfalls, and where
marketing automation fits into the inbound equation.
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Landing Pages
Handbook
Build optimized landing pages using marketing automation.
Our Landing Pages Handbook provides checklists, tip
sheets, and worksheets to help you build effective landing
pages that increase conversions, decrease bounce rates,
and create a positive user experience for your buyers.
GET THE HANDBOOK