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Double B2B Conversions 

a Pardot eBook 

8 quick steps to double your 

conversion rates.

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Executive Summary 

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. 

1 

2 

3 

4 

Visitors that leave within 10 seconds of arriving at your 

landing page make up the vast majority of viewers. 

Visitors that leave when they decide your landing page 

is not compelling are the next largest segment. 

Some visitors attempt to fill out your form but fail or give 

up and then drop off. 

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. 

Decide your page is 

not compelling. 

Attempt the form. 

Successfully convert. 

©2014 Pardot, a salesforce.com company | 3

1SIMPLIFY 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. 

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. 

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 

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) 


2USE 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 

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 

call to action for you than ‘Download White Paper’. 

USE THE RIGHT FORM FIELDS 

Don’t just think about the number of form fields, think 

about how they’re organized. 

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. 

When you need a single selection, but you have 

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. 

If your labels are beside your form fields, consider 

making them right-aligned for enhanced readability. If 

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. 


3TWEAK 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. 


4Tone 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 


5lock 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. 


6BRAG ABOUT YOUR 

CREDIIBLITY 

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 

Site security badges (Verisign, Thawte, Trust-e, etc.) 

Ratings from Better Business Bureau and similar 

organizations 

Awards and industry recognition. 

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. 

90% of respondents who recalled reading online reviews 

claimed that positive online reviews influenced their 

buying decision. (Dimensional Research) 


7Track 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) 


test, and 

test again 

8Test, 

Continuously improving your landing pages through 

multivariate testing is key to maximizing conversions, 

and marketing automation platforms can do this testing 

for you. 

The one great truth about landing pages is that you 

can always improve upon them through testing. Many 

marketing automation systems allow you to set up a 

simple multivariate test, which automatically distributes 

your incoming traffic to two separate landing pages. 

The landing pages should be just slightly different, 

perhaps varying the design, copy, or content offering. 

After some time has passed, evaluate which version 

has a higher conversion rate in order to develop the 

most effective page possible. 

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 

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 

Form length: If you started with a lengthy form, 

try removing a few required fields and see if 

conversion improves 

Form fields: Try department vs. job title or 

changing up formatting with drop down menus or 

checkboxes 

Copy: Experiment with how your text is organized 

(short paragraphs, bullet points, etc.) 

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. 


9conclusion 

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. 


PARDOT IS SALESFORCE 

FOR B2B CUSTOMERS. 

Pardot offers a software-as-a-service marketing 

automation application that allows marketing and 

sales departments to create, deploy, and manage 

online marketing campaigns that increase revenue 

and maximize efficiency. Pardot features certified 

CRM integrations with salesforce.com, NetSuite, 

Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and SugarCRM, 

empowering marketers with lead nurturing, lead 

scoring, and ROI reporting to generate and qualify 

sales leads, shorten sales cycles, and demonstrate 

marketing accountability. 

Your customers are smarter, more capable, and 

better- informed than ever before. This new 

breed of consumer demands a better breed 

of marketing, and the Pardot platform has the 

capabilities to get you there. 

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. 

GET THE FREE GUIDE 

UP NEXT... 

Guide to Inbound 

& Automation 

UP NEXT... 

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. 

Learn more at pardot.com > 

GET THE HANDBOOK 

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