For years now, the lead capture form has been a favorite tool in the marketer's tool belt. But do forms actually work? We wanted to use data to explore how today’s lead forms are performing, as well as how leads and customers like using traditional communication channels associated with forms (i.e. phone and email). Learn more here: https://blog.drift.com/truth-about-forms/

1. The Truth About Forms
Lead capture forms worked a decade ago, but times have changed
*

2. 11
= the average number of form fields on a
lead capure form.
(source: Formstack)

3. 2.35%= average landing page form conversion
rate across all industries.
(source: WordStream)

4. Median Landing Page Form
Conversion Rate, by Industry
Travel*
5.0%
Real Estate*
2.8%
Business Consulting*
5.0%
Business Services*
3.4%
Credit & Lending*
5.5%
Health*
2.8%
Higher Education*
2.6%
Home Improvement*
3.3%
Legal*
3.2%
Vocational Studies & Job Training*
6.0%
You Can Do Better
(source: UnBounce)

5. 55%= the percentage of sales teams that take
5+ days to respond (or never respond at
all) after a lead fills out a form.
(source: Drift)

6. 80%= marketers who think their lead
generation efforts are only slightly or
somewhat effective.
(source: Crowd Research Partners)

7. 2%= senior marketing leaders who think
their current demand generation
strategies are highly effective.
(source: CMO Council)

8. 41%= optimization specialists who are either
quite dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with
their conversion rates.
(source: Econsultancy/RedEye)

9. 84%= entrepreneurs who think they have
insufficient strategies in place for
achieving their lead generation goals.
(source: LinkedSelling)

10. 0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
open rate click rate
After the Submission:
Average Email Opens
& Clicks
21.5%
2.5%
(source: MailChimp)

11. After the Submission:
Percentage of People Who Answer
Phone Calls (source: ThinkingPhones)
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
unknown
caller
43%
65%
56%
known
caller
overall

12. We’ve gotten rid of traditional
forms on our website for the
reason that now we have so
many other ways to have
conversations with people.
Capturing someone’s email
address and relentlessly
attacking them with nurturing
campaigns doesn’t work
anymore.
-Tom Wentworth,
CMO at RapidMiner
“

13. Today’s Buyers Prefer Messaging
6 out of 10 of the world’s most used apps are messaging apps
(source: 2016 Internet Trends Report)
0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200
KakaoTalk
LINE
Viber
WeChat
WhatsApp
Facebook Messenger
monthly active users (millions)
1.2 billion
1.2 billion
889 million
260 million
217 million
50 million
*

14. 3/10 consumers would
be fine giving up
phone calls altogether
if they could use
messaging instead.
omg that’s crazy
i know, right?
The typical consumer has
3 different messaging
apps on their phone's
home screen and sends
an average of 3
messages per hour.
(source: Twilio)(source: Twilio)

15. Smartphone users aged 25 to 44 now spend nearly 2x
as much time using messaging apps versus email apps.

16. Smartphone users aged 13 to 24 spend 8x as much time
using messaging apps versus email apps. (source: App Annie)

17. So why are so many companies still
selling like messaging doesn’t exist?
9 out of 10 consumers want to be able to talk to businesses via messaging
(source: Twilio)
*

18. Live Chat
Today, live chat has the highest customer satisfaction rating of any
customer support channel, including phone, email, and social.
Rated “Easy to Use”Rated “High” in Satisfaction
73% 67%

19. Phone
The takeaway: Customers are starting to prefer messaging
as their go-to channel for communicating with businesses.
45% 26%
(source: eDigitalResearch)

20. By adding messaging to your website, you’re
creating a “second net” for capturing leads.
Example: Perfecto Mobile grew their site’s conversion rate from 6% to 20%
(source: Drift)
*

21. 0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
6 months w/ live chat
3 months w/ live chat
before live chat
websitevisitortoleadconversion%

22. Leads that come in through chat tend to have a higher velocity. So you’re
able to solve the problem or meet the needs of the request in real-time.
Think in terms of somebody coming to a website, and having a question,
and filling in a contact us form. And they’ll hear back in 24 hours, or two
days … that problem might not be there anymore. If they’re able to initiate
a conversation, so skip the form, and have a conversation in real-time,
we’re seeing that move very quickly.
-Chris Willis,
CMO, Perfecto Mobile
“
#NoForms

23. Visit Drift.com to learn how we’re reinventing
modern marketing & sales using messaging.