Have you ever given up on a website form or a checkout? You were going to buy, or going to enquire, and you left anyway. That might be happening on your website right now.
Growth does not always mean spending more on ads to motivate people. The cheapest way to get more leads from the budget you already have is to make things easier.
Our experiment: 42.44% more leads, same traffic
We took a client’s landing page, moved the form to the top of the page and cut the required fields. Nothing else changed and the traffic was the same. Leads went up by 42.44%.
Removing friction directly drives leads. Not because of clever copy, but because a shorter form is easier to finish.
Quality beats quantity, until you have no pipeline
Capture as many leads as you can first, then filter them. If the volume genuinely becomes overwhelming, add qualifying steps later. What you should not do is pre-filter on the assumption that an easier form only brings in tyre kickers. It does not.
Our test leads converted well. And acquiring a client that way still cost less than paying an estate agent a referral fee.
Why it works: motivation, ability, prompt
Dr BJ Fogg’s Behaviour Model puts it as B = MAP. For a behaviour (B) to happen, three things have to line up at the same moment:
- Motivation – the willingness to act.
- Ability – how easy the action is to take.
- Prompt – the trigger that says do it now.
Generating a lead means getting someone to act, whether that is calling you or requesting a callback. Motivating them is only one third of it. Making it easy is the part most broker websites ignore, and a long form is the most common way to make it hard. Perfectly good leads, lost.
Audit your own form
Look at how you actually generate a lead and ask what you are demanding before someone has even spoken to you. Remove every nice to have, because they are costing you leads. To call somebody back, do you really need:
- Their last name? No. You can call someone knowing only their first name. Get the rest on the call and update your CRM then.
- Their postcode? Absolutely not. If you need it to allocate leads to local advisers, get used to allocating fewer leads. If they want someone local, transfer them on the call.
- How they found you? No. Are you even using that data? Most people either cannot remember or click the top option.
Email is the interesting one. You do not need it to call them, and removing it does not seem to change how many leads you get either way.
That leaves you with name (one field), email, phone, message. Stop optimising for what makes your life easier and make it easier for the person trying to reach you.
When making it easier will not work
A shorter form generates more leads from the people you already attract. It does not fix everything:
- No or low visibility. You will convert more of your existing visitors, not create new ones.
- A weak call to action. If the prompt is not clear, people never get as far as looking at the form.
- No social proof. With few or no reviews you will not attract the best quality enquiries, however easy the form is.
That list is not exhaustive. Our experiment proved that making it easier generates more leads, but it is one part of a lead generation process, not the whole of it.
Easier forms, more leads: FAQs
How many fields should a mortgage enquiry form have?
Four is enough: name as a single field, email, phone and a message box. Everything else you can ask on the call. Each extra required field is another reason for somebody to abandon the form.
Does a shorter form bring in lower quality leads?
Not in our test. Leads from the shorter form converted well, and the cost per client was still lower than an estate agent referral fee. Filter on the phone call, not with the form.
How much can moving a form increase leads?
Moving the form to the top of the page and cutting required fields increased leads by 42.44% in our experiment, with the same traffic going to the same brand.
What is the Fogg Behaviour Model?
B = MAP. A behaviour happens when motivation, ability and a prompt occur at the same moment. Applied to lead generation, it means an easy form and a clear prompt matter as much as persuading someone.
Do I need to ask for a postcode to route leads to local advisers?
No. Asking for it costs you leads. If a caller wants someone local, transfer them during the call instead of making every visitor qualify themselves first.