Your website is the hub of your business’s digital marketing presence. Are you making the most of the traffic you’re receiving to your website? If you’re not leveraging the power of web forms to collect potential customer information and enhance your customer experience, you are missing an important opportunity.
Where to use Web Forms on your Website
There are some top form types to consider across your website to increase your chances of collecting potential customer data, while also helping improve the customer experience.
Some advantages of using web forms include:
- Improving your visitor’s experience by making it as easy as possible for them to get a hold of you;
- Keeping the visitor on your website, and maximizing their chances of going to other pages or content; and
- Improving your administrative experience by keeping your existing and potential customer inquiries in one place, and in the same format.
Not all forms are created equal, here are some of our favorites for driving user engagement and developing leads!
1. Contact Forms
Does your “Contact Us” section just have your email address and a phone number? Then you may want to consider upgrading to a Contact Form!
Contact forms should be simple and easy to fill out, but also request some important information like name, email address, and reason for reaching out.
2. Registration, Sign Up, and Intake Forms
If your business solutions require your clients to register, sign up, or submit some intake information, this is a great opportunity to streamline the user experience with forms. Rather than using paper forms or PDFs, that can be difficult for your clients to complete, you can create these forms digitally.
We helped Stillpoint Mindfulness digitize their registration and intake forms to web forms in 2020, and the update has helped make their customer experience more enjoyable as well as increased the business’s ease of administration.
3. Gated Content
Have you ever given your name and email address to download something of value to you off of a website? This is called gated content. Gated content is a great way to collect new leads for potential clients. You could offer a free course, some downloadable content, or some special access to more information, in exchange for their contact information, and an agreement to receive more information.
Web Forms Best Practices
So now you have forms on your website. Why aren’t people filling those forms out? Did you know that 81% of people have abandoned a form after beginning to fill it out (The Manifest)? Make your forms experience the best for your visitors by keeping some of the following best practices in mind:
1. Keep It Simple
27% of people cite form length as the reason for abandoning a form. Keep your form simple to make sure you are providing the best experience, and getting the most from your forms.
- Only request information that you need, or is very high value to your business
- Use conditional logic where appropriate, to avoid showing fields that aren’t important to some of your customer base, but ensure you do show those fields to relevant customers.
- Order fields in a logical way, usually by importance.
- Use forms that allow users to use TAB or keyboard toggle to navigate through the form.
2. Offer Clear Guidance
More than 67% of site visitors will abandon your form and never return if they encounter any complications. Of those, only 20% will follow up with the company in some way (WP Forms). Make sure you are offering clear guidance and feedback to users as they fill out your forms.
- Make it clear what you are asking for in relevant form fields (e.g. 999-999-9999 for phone number).
- Provide clear error messages for common mistakes.
- Mark mandatory fields to avoid frustration.
- Offer clear feedback after the user has submitted their form, with a confirmation message, a redirect to their desired resultant page, or a confirmation email.
3. Make Your Forms Mobile Friendly
Although only 3% of users say they prefer to fill out forms on mobile, a shocking 45% of form data is submitted from a mobile device. Create a friendly user experience for mobile users by ensuring your forms are mobile friendly.
- Test, test, test! Try it out yourself to make sure your forms are easy to use on a mobile device.
- Try your forms on smartphone and tablet devices for greatest application.
In Conclusion
Web forms are a powerful tool in your website and digital marketing strategy, which can improve your customer experience, provide you with valuable data, generate leads, and more. By optimizing your use of web forms, you can see tangible results for your business.
If you’d like someone else to do the heavy lifting on digitizing your forms, updating your current website, or consulting with you on the best approach to generating leads with gated content, Psyche Digital can help. Contact Us anytime for more information!