SmartBug Media drives a 40% increase in sales leads with a single, customized Typeform

A full-service digital agency dedicated to helping its clients launch resilient growth across the entire customer lifecycle, SmartBug Media leveraged Typeform to:

• Increase total contact form completions by 40%
• Reduce the time required to build forms by 75%
• Decrease the time for sales team follow-up by 24%

"Partnering with Typeform was a fantastic decision for our team. It allows us to run faster, do more, and offer a better user experience on our website." - Stephen Lackey, VP of Marketing, SmartBug Media

Challenge

A website's contact page has immense potential to drive leads that turn into long-term revenue if it's fully optimized for conversions. SmartBug's "Let's Talk" button on its website sent all inbound leads to a single contact form—one that needed to be fully optimized.

The problem? The static form couldn't differentiate between various types of leads. So, instead of a relevant and personalized experience, leads often saw questions that weren't relevant to them, potentially decreasing conversion rates.

SmartBug Media's VP of Marketing, Stephen Lackey, recognized that the user experience (UX) could be better and wanted to do something about it:

"We saw people who wanted to talk to our sales teams, others who made media inquiries—and even those who wanted to pitch us projects. Updating our contact form would be an easy way to improve their user experience and satisfaction."

Stephen saw an opportunity to build a contact form he could tailor to different types of inquiries. One that would automatically route leads to the right team.

"We needed a form-creation tool with multi-step logic and dynamic questions based on user responses," said Stephen.

Directing leads to the right SmartBug team also created a better UX by decreasing response times—using automation to forward inquiries to the appropriate team members.

SmartBug’s marketing team was already using Typeform for small projects, and based on that positive experience, the team chose Typeform to develop a contact form that'd meet the needs of different audiences.

"We saw people who wanted to talk to our sales teams, others who made media inquiries, and even those who wanted to pitch us projects. Updating our contact form would be an easy way to improve their user experience and satisfaction." - Stephen Lackey, VP of Marketing, SmartBug Media

Solution

Before the SmartBug team optimized its contact form, they tested custom call-to-action (CTA) buttons to see if they improved click-through rates to the "Contact Us" page.

“We ran a five-way multivariate CTA test through HubSpot, with buttons labeled Boost Revenue, Increase Pipeline, and Secure More Leads, among others. We saw a dramatic increase in clicks going to our 'Contact Us' page,” said Stephen.

Knowing that customized CTA buttons helped with click-throughs, Stephen was even more convinced that a customized Typeform would increase completion rates.

A multi-step, logic-based form

The SmartBug team created a contact form that walks form-takers through a series of questions, with each subsequent question determined by their answer to the previous one.

The first question presents users with three options:

After form-takers complete a series of questions, they’re taken to a confirmation page with information and resources relevant to their request. These pages further help to improve the UX, giving them immediate access to resources even before someone responds to their inquiry.

A user-friendly, branded experience

The SmartBug team also applied branding to their forms, creating a seamless look and feel. And with no additional coding needed, the team cut down on the time and resources needed to build forms.

“We added a background animation of a rocket lifting off on our contact page, reflecting our slogan, All Systems, Grow. We also vary what users see next, depending on how they answer our questions,” explained Stephen.

With nearly unlimited photo, icon, video, and GIF options, SmartBug was able to create a fully branded form that was instantly recognizable as theirs.

Developing logic-based forms without developer help

Thanks to our intuitive form builder, the entire team at SmartBug was able to build the form in-house—all without coding or help from the dev team.

The team can effortlessly update the form themselves as their needs continue to evolve.

“Typeform offers so much more than a one-size-fits-all form. It is incredibly user-friendly. Our marketers can create dynamic, interactive forms without coding,” said Stephen.

Optimizing forms based on new data insights

The multi-step, logic-based form also gives Stephen and his team new insights into their audiences and prospective leads. Using these insights, the team can identify how to optimize their form and continue improving the experience.

“You can see where your drop-off rates are. You can check to see where people are answering specific questions. You can see how long it takes people on average to fill out a form. It's an incredibly valuable tool.” - Stephen Lackey, VP of Marketing, SmartBug Media

Using Typeform for other use cases

With the team's success with the Typeform contact form, SmartBug’s marketing team soon came up with new use cases, including a self-guided Shopify audit for their clients.

The 12 to 15-question survey allows users to identify if and how they need to modify and update their Shopify theme and integrations. The form integrates with HubSpot to generate dynamic email messages that highlight opportunities for improvement.

Stephen explained that they "created this survey without having to hard-code the page. Typeform integrates seamlessly with our other tools, including HubSpot. Our marketers can route data to multiple applications, and it's no longer siloed."

“Typeform offers so much more than a one-size-fits-all form. It is incredibly user-friendly. Our marketers can create dynamic, interactive forms without coding. We can even monitor drop-off and conversion rates for specific users and questions.” - Stephen Lackey, VP of Marketing, SmartBug Media

Results

With SmartBug’s new Typeform contact form, the company has seen a 40% increase in form completions. That's 40% more sales leads and potential future revenue.

“We hypothesized Typeform would increase our sales lead volume, but we were pleasantly surprised to see a 40% quarter-on-quarter or year-on-year lift," said Stephen. He explained that having a more dynamic form helps them stop talking to everyone at once and instead personalize the experience. They can even segment leads based on their responses.

Switching to Typeform also reduced lead follow-up times by 24% thanks to a more streamlined process.

“Typeform integrates leads from the contact page to HubSpot, making them instantly actionable by our sales team. That alone speeds up our response time. We also ask users what marketing platforms they’re using or hope to use, and that information helps our sales executives have better conversations with prospects. Our sales team has more 'at bats' and better data, increasing the likelihood of closing a deal,” Stephen added.

With the Typeform-HubSpot integration, Stephen estimated that his team's creating forms 75% faster with Typeform. And if they've got a question when creating a form, they simply reach out to our support team.

“We can create a dynamic form in a couple of hours, including the layout, logic, and destinations. The few times we’ve stumbled, Typeform’s help team has answered our questions in no time,” said Stephen.

Want to see what you can achieve with Typeform? Try it for free.