The easiest ways to collect phone numbers on your landing pages

Getting your landing pages right can be tricky. You need to decide what to include above the fold and the most relevant messaging. Even if you do manage to get the content and structure right, you need the perfect call-to-action supported by a lead gen form that won’t turn people away. And they wonder why marketers drink so much coffee…

No topic is more divisive than what fields to include in your landing page’s lead gen form. In particular, a lot of marketers have strong feelings about whether there should be a phone number field or not. 

Unbounce notes a 5% dip in conversion rate when a phone number field is included and argues that you should omit it. An experiment from Vital found that including a phone number field on a landing page form reduced the submission by 47% for an ebook. Its conclusion is much the same.
But before you spill your coffee scrambling to remove the phone number field from all of your landing pages, we are here to tell you that you don’t have to choose between higher conversion rates or phone numbers.

Why don’t people like filling out the phone number field on your landing pages?

It’s worth asking why requesting someone’s phone number has such a drastic impact on conversion rates. Unbounce notes that the dip in conversion rates is because people don’t like someone calling them (unless it’s time-sensitive or critical to their success). Millennials especially hate phone calls and actively avoid them for several reasons listed below. 

Given that the millennial generation is now the biggest in the US and that they account for more than one-third of all workers, their preferences matter. So, if millennials hate phone calls, what channel do they prefer? 

68% of millennials admit to texting “a lot” daily, much higher than other generational segments (just 47% of their Generation X counterparts do). This personal use underpins why they want businesses to text them. The majority of millennials prefer two-way text messaging—citing that it’s easy to use, along with being fast and convenient.

The reality is that if your landing page forms give off the impression that you are collecting phone numbers to make phone calls, your conversion rates will suffer. However, if you let prospects know that you won’t call them but text them, people will feel much more positive about handing over their digits.

How do I collect phone numbers on my landing pages?

Now that we know texting leads can bolster conversion rates—and satisfaction with your sales process—let’s talk about some hacks you can use on your landing page that will ease prospects into providing you with their phone numbers.

Click-to-text button

Please, please, consider adding a click-to-text button to your landing page. It’s a simple and powerful way to encourage people to text you, increasing the number of leads you generate. Plus, given that the majority of web traffic now comes from mobile devices, your mobile audience is critical to your lead gen efforts.

How do I get a click-to-text button?

We’ve built a free click-to-text button generator that makes it easy to add click-to-text to your landing pages. (The best part is that you don’t even have to be a SimpleTexting customer.

When a user taps on the click-to-text button, the SMS app on their cellphone launches with a pre-written message that you determine. The best part is that the button is 100% customizable; you can set everything from fonts to colors. Take a look at how works.

🖱️Create your click-to-text button today.

Advertise a keyword

A keyword is a word or phrase that your customers can text to your 10-digit number. You likely associate keywords with promotional text marketing as opposed to business texting, but keywords can also drive conversions and facilitate sales conversations. 

You can encourage potential leads to get in touch by asking them to text your keyword to your text-enabled phone number. For example, a car dealership could advertise a keyword, “DRIVE,” that customers can text to obtain information about a test drive offer. 

The dealership can then respond with a text to answer questions and build rapport. You could even A/B test providing customers with this option versus a traditional lead gen form. If you aren’t currently A/B testing landing page versions, you could offer the keyword as an alternative option with a line of copy calling it out. 

The best part is that a business texting platform like SimpleTexting can automatically process replies and incoming messages.

Mobile sign-up widget

If you want to make it incredibly easy for your mobile visitors to text your keyword, then we recommend adding our mobile sign-up widget to your landing page. 

The mobile sign-up widget allows you to place a button on your website that visitors can click to open a pop-up. Within the pop-up is another button that opens the device’s default messaging app with your phone number and keyword prefilled. Once again, you don’t need to be a SimpleTexting customer to use it!

🖱️Create your mobile sign-up widget today.

Web form

If you believe that texting your leads is the way to go, then you could replace your traditional lead gen form with, for example, SimpleTexting’s web form. This way, website visitors can directly request a text message. Your call-to-action could be anything from “Text me an estimate” or “Schedule a demo.” 

Through a Zapier integration, you could then connect SimpleTexting with your CRM so that your primary sales tool is not missing any new landing page leads.

A word on follow-up

As a marketer, you know it’s not enough to get leads, it’s really only half the battle. While SMS can undoubtedly help you generate more prospects from your landing pages, to convert them into customers, you need to ensure you meet their expectations. 

With business text messaging, there are several implicit rules to follow. For example, if a prospect has a funny typo in their text message to you, it’s not appropriate to respond with “LMAO.”

Ladder lists 15 business texting rules to live by, and they do a great job of covering the dos and don’ts. The most important rules are to respond promptly, be clear, and remain professional.