Secrets To Creating Effective Web Forms

Web forms are common elements on every page as they are used as a more direct means of communication. The visitor simply has to complete his name, phone number or contact email account and wait for a response.

There may be no major difficulties in creating a contact form, however, on certain occasions, you can opt for web forms that contain more data. For example, in the case of adding a field for a query, you must include other information such as questions related to the specific assignment.

In this article, we mention some tricks to creating effective web forms that maximize your conversion rate.

Simplify your forms

Short forms usually have a higher conversion rate. This happens because when viewing long forms, users feel they are going to take too long and prefer not to fill them. There will be a percentage of visitors who decide to fill out the form, but will likely get discouraged midway because it takes them more time than they expected.

This situation forces designers to think about how to reduce the number of fields on a form and request only the necessary information. In some cases, to prevent the form from being extensive, the fields are grouped into sections and the user is shown the number of steps to follow. In this way, a form of 12 fields in total could become a simple 3 or 4 step process. However, before using this technique, it is advisable to evaluate the data that you are asking visitors to verify if it is possible to decrease the number of fields on the form.

Offer some kind of incentive

To increase the possibilities of conversion in your forms, you should not only make sure you minimize the number of fields, but also properly organize the information and offer feedback to your users when an error has occurred or the shipment has been completed successfully. Apart from using techniques to optimize your form, you could include some kind of incentive. It may not be enough to include all the benefits of the service, so you can send free files or offer discounts and special promotions to help convince visitors to complete the form.

Do not impose limitations on your users

Whenever possible, do not impose rules on users and let them control the process as they prefer. A simple example to understand is the use of passwords that often require a series of properties such as alphanumeric characters, capitalization, number inclusion, limitation of special characters that you may have, etc. In this process, while thinking of a password has all the indicated characteristics, users are delayed and can be frustrating for many. You want to avoid this situation because even if the user submits the form, you have already started the relationship with the left foot.

To avoid situations like this, think about the comfort of users and find solutions to certain problems. For example, you can place a checkbox to display the password instead of forcing users to repeat the password more than once.

Help users whenever you can

There is a high probability that users make mistakes when filling out the form. For this reason, to minimize the number of errors, you must make sure to request information accurately so that visitors do not enter incorrect data. If you have performed the process correctly, then the possibility of errors by users decreases. However, they are still likely to commit errors when typing some data. This is an external factor over which you have no control, but you can offer help to the user in these cases through notifications explaining the error. For example, if you have not entered the email address correctly, it is better to report this error immediately so that the user can correct it.

Tell the users the steps required

To encourage users to take a minute or two to fill out your form, they should know what will happen next. If you have added an incentive, they should know if they will receive it as soon as they submit the form or log in to the platform if it is an online store. But this is not all that you should indicate to the user but also the reason why they are filling out the form. Are you subscribing to any newsletter? Is it a free trial? Or some special discount?

It is equally important to indicate the specific type of action on the call-to-action button, so that instead of placing “Send”, you could put “Subscribe now”. Thus, the user knows exactly what the form is for. Being specific in the phrases you use in your call-to-action buttons not only prevents misunderstandings but also increases the conversion rate.

Place a link to the privacy policy

In forms, personal information such as name or email account is usually requested. In some cases, a bank account number or other data that is considered private is requested. Although it depends a lot on your target audience, but people are quite careful on the internet so you must offer additional security, such as using Https instead of Http and placing security certificates. Apart from reinforcing the security level of the page, it might be a good idea to place a link to the privacy policy that you are implementing. If you place this link in a visible place, simply being able to easily locate this content will already generate some confidence in your users as you are making important information accessible to users.

Consider the aesthetic design

Although most of the tips we have presented are based on improving the form at the level of messages and content, the aesthetic aspect is also important and in you can reinforce the grouping of content and other important features in a form. Unifying the form and optimizing the understanding of the content are objectives that you can achieve thanks to a great design. So, apart from verifying the content and messages on call-to-action buttons, also consider the design of the forms and the steps you can take to optimize them through rules of hierarchy, contrast, alignment, etc.

In conclusion

We hope that these general tips for creating forms have been helpful. There are many details that you should keep in mind and it depends a lot on the volume of information that your form requires. However, it is always wise to facilitate this process for your users. Before deciding on the design and content of your form, we encourage you to think about whether the included form meets certain usability rules and user experience.