There’s one in every group—or ought to be. The person who, whenever you start to say “I wish I had . . .” or “I wonder where I could get...,” jumps in with a great suggestion every time. These friends and acquaintances are the unofficial concierges of the world. They’re wonderful. A great LeadBox™ is kind of like one of these people. It pops up exactly when you need it, and offers something that’s truly useful at that moment. If you don’t follow through on its suggested course of action, you may even feel a little guilty, although nobody’s going to bug you about it. We’ve often written about the importance of building “giving pages,” rather than “taking pages” that make a transparent grab for your information without offering enough in return. This month’s best LeadBoxes truly give visitors value and do it in style. There’s plenty of inspiration here for your own LeadBoxes. For even more on setting up attractive, high-converting LeadBoxes or any other opt-in forms, download the new guide we’ve created: “Our Top 10 Tips for Building LeadBoxes® That Work.” Get it free below:
Let’s see what’s inside these boxes.
1. Luke and Cat Photography: Timed E-Book LeadBox
What Stands Out: The entire website of photographers Luke and Cat Neumayr is pretty as a picture. To offer an e-book (actually an excerpt from a longer, for-sale resource—a smart move) on golden-hour photography, they’ve created a fully customized LeadBox that positively glows. In the header area, they’ve uploaded a branded custom graphic featuring a photo of the duo found throughout the rest of the site. The e-book is represented by a hefty, nearly tangible book illustration that fully communicates the value of this content upgrade. Luke and Cat’s attention to detail extends even to the font choices, which harmonize not only with each other but with the rest of the site.
2. Meghan Telpner: Blog Widget LeadBox
What Stands Out: Nutritionist Meghan Telpner blogs about health and beauty with warmth and conviction. In this post examining the claims of natural cosmetics companies, she’s embedded a button triggering a LeadBox where readers can opt in for a broader view of her philosophy. The call-to-action button is set inside its own attractive content box, and the LeadBox pops out of this space seamlessly with its large header photo: a different angle on the still life pictured on the page. Because the post widget included such precise details on the opt-in offer, the text inside the box doesn’t need to do much work. Instead, it can focus on adding personality with language like “I Want in on the Awesomeness.”
3. Woven Capital: Timed Quiz LeadBox
What Stands Out: Partway through reading Woven’s financial planning blog, you’re met with an almost irresistible offer: take a quiz to discover how financially fit you really are. Given the nature of the company, this LeadBox will feel appropriate on any post it adorns. A magazine-style illustration stands in for the quiz, and the design is fully of a piece with the rest of the site. The golden, nature-inspired color palette of the LeadBox turns up in the blog post image, the “Schedule a Meeting” button in the navigation bar, and even the logo.
4. Cartelero: Contest Entry LeadBox
What Stands Out: This page offering the chance to win concert tickets to see Mexican singer Juan Gabriel stands out with a spectacular image of the star on stage. From the sequins to the lighting, it’s downright dazzling, and the LeadBox smartly takes a supporting role. What I love about this LeadBox is that it’s deeply useful without sacrificing an ounce of style. The large logo lends authority to the offer while matching the button and other page elements perfectly. And the headline conveys a lot in a few words: what you’ll win, the concert date, the location, and even the number of winners.
5. Amber Renae: Video Course LeadBox
What Stands Out: Australian designer, stylist, and educator Amber Renae uses LeadBoxes throughout her stunning, magazine-like site. In this one, she offers the chance to learn some of her web-design secrets through a free video course. The page is a rather long, multimedia presentation of the contents of the course—adding tons of value, especially considering that the course itself is free. Having read it through, visitors are likely to agree with the call-to-action button: “I’m Ready!” Gazing toward the headline in a remarkable outfit, Amber appears almost to be speaking the words in the LeadBox herself, perhaps with a little sass. “Trust me there’ll be note taking,” she promises/warns in the headline, then reassures visitors, “We will treasure your email like a fresh Net-A-Porter delivery” in the footer.
6. Ellen Rohr: Weekly Tips LeadBox
What Stands Out: Business columnist and plumbing magnate Ellen Rohr went all out on the design of her website, filled with splashy colors and fun custom photography that work to create a personable and professional image. She takes an almost theatrical approach to website design, and her LeadBox follows suit. It’s a common (and effective) tactic to use people in stock photos to gesture toward a call to action. Less common is to use a picture of yourself. Ellen points at the headline and grins at the viewer while delivering a friendly message: you’re working pretty hard already, and her weekly tips can help support you.
7. Traffic Jam: Podcast Upgrade LeadBox
What Stands Out: We’ve seen plenty of creative examples of content upgrades affixed to blog posts. Given that a podcast is basically a blog in audio form, it makes a lot of sense to apply the same strategy there. That’s what James Reynolds of the Traffic Jam podcast does here. If you’re listening to the podcast from the embedded player, you’ll probably be lingering there for a while, so James introduces a timed LeadBox with his content upgrade. The upgrade itself is a guide version of the podcast topic, which the LeadBox reinforces with a remarkable image: a custom illustration of the host and his guest in conversation.
8. Academy of Public Speakers: Landing Page LeadBox
What Stands Out: This page gets attention right away with a bold headline and magenta button on dark background, and the LeadBox keeps things simple to avoid competing messaging or visual clutter. In fact, when you click in, the surrounding page goes black except for the call-to-action button, providing an intense sense of focus. That approach gives room for the LeadBox image to shine. The highly polished book cover primes visitors to expect a high-value, professionally produced resource that will help them feel more confident in their own lives.
9. The Rule Breaker’s Club: Content Upgrade LeadBox
What Stands Out: Splashy blogs with powerful use of white space seem to be shining bright these days, and Courtney Johnston pulls off this style deftly with neon colors and dynamic imagery. Even if you stumbled in by mistake, you’re unlikely to click right out of a blog that looks this good. By contrast, Courtney’s LeadBox trigger is fairly subtle, if that can be said of anything in hot-pink type. Rather than clutter her design with buttons, she places a text link at several points throughout the post and calls it out straightforwardly with copy like, “Wait! This post comes with a free checklist.” Likewise, the LeadBox itself is quite simple, personalized by a beaming headshot, pink border, and green button. It’s the work of a marketer with an exquisite sense of balance and an eye on what visitors will find valuable.
10. Good in a Room: Homepage LeadBox
What Stands Out: Film-exec-turned-author Stephanie Palmer takes a relatively understated approach to her homepage and LeadBox. Her use of a limited color scheme creates a thoroughly pulled-together image, the thread that runs through her logo, headshot, buttons, and LeadBox illustration. That illustration is a nice reminder that you don’t have to go full 3-D to add value to your LeadBox with imagery. Elegant title text, a few graphic elements, and a subtle symbol of a good conversation—two overlapping speech bubbles—do the job quite well. To make your own LeadBoxes that look and function as nicely as our top 10 this month, don’t forget to download our free guide full of detailed LeadBox guidance. Click below to get it now:
