Do you have web forms on your company or brand website for visitor data collection? That’s great! Web forms are important tools in your digital marketing arsenal. They capture important data that could help generate, qualify and segment leads.
Many of us mistakenly think of web forms as simply a data collection tool. The fact is, the web forms reveal as much about the company or brand behind it. A website visitor first interacts with the landing page and the web formon it. His/her experience with the web form influences the perception they will form of the brand or website behind it.
Complex web forms highlight poor customer understanding
Does your website have small business forms with 40 fields? Long forms are in the list of forms users dislike. Customers don’t want to take that kind of time and trouble to let them get to know you. The unsaid expectation of customers is “I expect you to know about me without revealing anything about me”.
Today’s digital marketing is all about knowing the customers even before they interact with the brand. Social media data, web trails, website visit analytics, and other such data reveal powerful insights. This should help in shrinking the form size to only relevant details.
The more questions that you ask, the less you seem to know about the customer. And what sort of customer would want to hang around for that?
The longer the load time, the more ancient you seem
The recommended load time of landing pages, including your web forms, is less than 3 seconds today. Only old business form templates have a long loading time. Get with the times. Make your forms snappy and easy loading. Otherwise, you risk looking ancient and outdated.
Give-and-take small business forms build trust and loyalty
Web forms are not just about taking data from the customers. You can also give away something important to the customers as well. These give-and-take forms do much better at lead capturing, conversions and building long-term loyalty.
Here’s an example.
Imagine you are a logistics firm who is looking to capture leads from expanding national businesses. Find out who is likely to land on your web page. Your most likely users are the supply chain managers. Figure out what they would need. A handy report on supply chain trends on the major categories or latest technology in supply chain management is likely to grab their interest.
Design a small giveaway of these which can be downloaded only after filling in the web form. The giveaway makes it worthwhile for the customer to part with their information.
Want to create this type of form?Go here: How to Send Lead Magnets Just Through Your Online Forms
Greedy information gathering leads to distrust
This cannot be said enough, but here we go again. Only collect information critically relevant to your businesson the web form. Remember GDPR?
Fields like social security number, residential address, business travel frequency etc. may get the guard up of the customers. If these fields are not seen as obviously relevant to your business, customers may not perceive you as a trusted brand.
Explain upfront what data you will be collecting, why you need that and what you will be doing with it. Stick to the most critical data gathering. This helps the customers build trust in you.
Offering a single language option makes the web form less welcoming
With the rise of bilingual and multilingual families in the US, the expanding borders of global businesses, we cannot afford to speak only English.
The web forms must offer a choice of English as well as other languages such as Spanish/ French/ German. Forcing our visitors to read English may not make them feel welcome, prompting a hasty exit. Choose a form builder that has a global language localizationso your custom business forms can be translated into your users’ native language.
The Takeaway
These are some simple but powerful insights about how customers perceptions are shaped by our small business forms. They are not just a data collection tool, they reveal a lot about your brand. Design them carefully to make a larger impact, encourage users to opt-in, improve customer service, and boost your company’s earnings!
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