6 Smart Tips to Optimize Your Web Forms

One of the most important goals of all companies is to generate leads. Wondering, what would make it slightly easier? Well, your web forms can!

Forms are the aces up your sleeve. In fact, 50% of marketers agree that inbound strategies, such as onsite forms, are the primary source of their leads and 49.7% say that online forms are their highest converting lead generation tool.

Let’s learn all about different types of forms and how you can optimize your forms to gain better leads.

What are the types of forms that a business can use?

Every business uses forms one way or another but it’s mostly to gate premium content and capture lead data. However, for B2B marketers, it can be a bit tricky to determine which forms are right for their business needs and how to use them.

We’ve listed a few popular types of forms that are best aligned with B2B needs.

1. Newsletter/blog sign-up form
2. Email opt-in form
3. Contact us form
4. Sales contact form
5. Event/Webinar registration
6. Customer feedback form
7. Service registration
8. Audit registration

All these forms are fruitful in their own way and can be used according to your unique business needs. The icing on the top would be if you can use functionalities like pre-populating forms and progressive profiling to make your forms a catalyst in your lead generation efforts. But more on this later.

Now that you are familiar with different types of forms, let’s understand how to fine-tune them.

6 smart tips to optimize your forms the right way

Your forms are at the left, right, and center of your lead generation and conversion efforts. They can be conversion powerhouses if optimized the right way. We’ve enlisted a few tips to help you optimize your forms and get better leads.

1. Have an organized structure: A form should be well-organized and easy on the eyes. Your form is like a conversation and, like any conversation, it should have sequential steps. Avoid using many fields, keep it close to 3 tops. According to a study, limiting the number of fields to 3, witnessed a conversion rate of 25%. Create an apt order of your questions to ease potential leads into the conversion.

2. Only ask for what you need: A good practice is to only ask for the information you really need for the next stage in the marketing/sales process. Tailor your forms based on the funnel stage. For instance, in the awareness stage, ask a few questions like first and last name, company name because you haven’t yet earned their trust. As you move down the nurturing road, you can ask for additional information.

3. Solidify your CTA: CTAs are your trump cards if you’re looking to boost traffic, conversions, or leads, CTAs are the way to lead a visitor action on your website. One size does not fit all, so do some experimenting on what works best, play around with colors, fonts, or placements. For instance, “start my free 30-day trial” CTA increased 90% more click-throughs than “start your free 30-day trial”.

4. Harness the power of the pre-fill functionality: This functionality takes the data you’ve already collected on your prospect, such as:

• their name/email address,
• their location, and
• if they’re already a customer/re-visiting lead

and automatically pre-fills the form fields on their next visit which improves customer experience. For instance, filling out 5 fields of your form may seem like a lot of work for downloading an eBook or whitepaper unless, of course, it’s all filled in and the user can just hit click.

For Marketo users, this can be a bit tricky to do, as Marketo recently bid farewell to the ‘pre-fill’ functionality. There is, however, a solution for it – OneMark, a smart way to pre-fill your Marketo forms to create a seamless user experience. Additionally, it is compatible with any website or format.

5. Add an interactive flavor: Forms don’t have to be basic, you can sizzle them up with interactive elements to make them fun. In fact, making your forms interactive with quizzes, polls, or assessments can be your best bet to engage leads.

6. Build trust with transparency: People are skeptical to share their personal information. To put their minds at ease, make sure you’re compliant with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Make your privacy policy transparent and accessible. Disclose how users data is used, exhibit your commitment towards the safekeeping of their data, and add double opt-in to ensure that your subscribers really want to hear from you.

So, there you have it, your forms can either help generate leads or make your visitors go MIA. You definitely don’t want the latter. So, optimize your forms to change the game and breathe new life into them by following these tips to make your users’ lives easier while increasing your conversion rates, and you’ll see your ROI going through the roof!

Do you wish to level up your forms? Talk to us.