We get it – spam leads are frustrating! They waste your time, skew your data, and occupy your CRM space. To combat the spam leads, you add more filters and more form fields to prevent them, but now you’re concerned that you may be turning away actual, qualified prospects! What’s the right balance?
At Brillity Digital, we help businesses minimize spam while maximizing high-quality leads. Let’s figure out the right approach for your team!
Why am I getting so many spam leads?
Spam leads can come from a variety of sources, such as:
- Bots auto-filling your contact forms
- Fake or non-serious users clicking on your ads
- AI tools writing realistic but fraudulent submissions
Previously, spam leads were super easy to pinpoint. Messages would be littered with typos, off-topic messages, and sketchy links. With the rise of advanced AI tools, spam bots are submitting things like job applications, complex forms, and well-written messages, all of which appear to be written by a human. This makes identifying spam harder than ever.
Will adding more form questions reduce spam leads?
The good news is, yes, adding more form questions will reduce spam leads. The bad news is that more form questions could reduce the number of real leads as well. Adding qualifying questions such as “What is your budget?” or “What service are you looking for?” may block low-effort and spam submissions. Unfortunately, this increases friction for legitimate users as well, especially those who are early in the decision-making process. The bottom line is that too many form fields will result in higher abandonment rates.
What are the pros and cons of locking down your contact forms completely?
Some ways that you can lock down your form and prevent spammy leads include:
- Add CAPTCHA or reCAPTCHA
- Use honeypot fields
- Require users to answer a security question
- Block spammy keywords and domains
- Only accept submissions from users who took more than X seconds to fill out the form
This method of lead management will dramatically reduce the amount of spam you receive. Unfortunately, you may lose leads who are mistakenly filtered out or are put off by the extra steps required.
What if I’m willing to sort through submissions manually?
Adding a human touch is never a bad thing. So if you have the time and resources to review form submissions manually, we recommend:
- Use light spam filtering
- Let a real human determine what’s real and what’s spam
- Train your team to spot patterns and evaluate quality
This will inevitably take more time, but with AI-generated spam getting more sophisticated, a well-trained human is still going to be the best spam filter available. You’ll end up getting more leads overall and may find some gems who would’ve been filtered out otherwise!
What’s better for spam reduction? Locking down forms or manual review?
This really depends on how much time you’re willing to spend on managing your leads, versus how much you’re willing to risk losing them.
Locking Down Forms
Pros: Low time investment, minimal spam leads.
Cons: May block good leads and lower number of form fills.
Manual Review
Pros: Catch more legitimate leads with higher accuracy.
Cons: Takes more time and staff attention.
Can I use both form lockdowns and manual reviews to prevent spam leads?
Yes! And you should! We suggest starting with moderate spam filtering, such as reCAPTCHA, honeypot, and ~1 qualifying question. Follow this up with ongoing human reviews of submissions, especially for high-ticket services.
This will allow you to balance automation with human instinct, giving you control over the quality and quantity of leads!
Spam bots are getting smarter. Is your lead management strategy keeping up?
In the race between AI spam bots versus spam filters, the bots are currently in the lead. A smart and balanced strategy can still keep your inbox full of real leads without wasting your time with a bunch of spam. If you need assistance with keeping spam leads at bay, reach out to our team at Brillity Digital! We’d love to assist you.
