Now that you have your marketing-automation system in place, is it really necessary to use those sorry Web registration forms when collecting leads? After all, you already know who these people are, since you can track their click-throughs when they download your whitepapers or data sheets, right? Not so, says Howard J. Sewell, in a recent blog post on The Point: "Offering direct links to resources without landing pages is a bad idea, especially since you can easily present pre-populated landing pages that demand very little of the reader."

Below, Sewell's main reasons:

1. Offering up pre-populated forms on landing pages gives contacts the opportunity to update or correct existing information, and that improves the quality of your CRM data.
2. Without a registration form, you'll be unable to implement progressive profiling—i.e., asking additional qualifying questions of prospects based on what you already know.
3. A click-through can be instinctive, a whim, idle curiosity, even an accident and it does not demonstrate either interest or intent in the same way that an actual registration does. If you track clicks and not registrations, you'll be measuring response, generating sales alerts and assigning lead scores based on an action that is less than an actual response.
4. If the email gets forwarded to a colleague, influencer or decision-maker, you'll miss the opportunity to capture that new person's contact information.

The Po!nt: Pre-populated registration forms demand little of your prospects, but still give you the information—and permission—you need to nurture them.

Source: The Point. Read the full post here.

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