Having fillable web forms on your website is extremely important so your customers have a way to contact you. When developing the forms, you may think that if they look good then they will be filled out. This is not always the case. Just because your form is designed well doesn’t mean it will convert, and that your customers will fill it out. Having a form that converts on your website is extremely important because it can help you to gather valuable customer information and use their information to build a newsletter or email marketing subscription list.

Watch Capital District Digital’s 5 Tips for Creating Web Forms that Actually Get Filled Out Video!

  1. Provide an Incentive

Customers are more likely to fill out a form on a company’s website if they are getting something in return. To encourage your customers to take the step of filling out your web forms, try offering them a coupon or informational PDF download in return for their information. For a general contact form, providing an incentive is not necessary. This incentive method is more for forms that encourage them to fill out additional information.

  1. Design with a Clear Outline

When designing your web forms, make sure to keep it simple. Using one column is ideal when creating web forms for many reasons. Having too many columns can get confusing and could potentially make it easy for customers to skip or leave out questions when filling out the form. Having too many sections or columns can also make the form hard to view on smaller electronic devices like tablets and mobile phones.

  1. Keep it Short and Simple

Customers often don’t want to take the time to fill out a web form unless they find it quick, easy, and important. Keep the form narrowed down to only questions you absolutely need the answer to. Don’t waste their time asking questions that are irrelevant and that you don’t need the answer to. If you need additional information, you can always follow up later in the sales process once you build a trusting relationship with your customers.

  1. Use Autofill Options

Creating autofill answers makes filling out a web form extremely easy for your customers. Common fields to place an autofill answer are the email field and the city or state field. You can have your form autofill common email domains such as gmail, yahoo, or aol, to eliminate the customer from having to type out their entire email address. Having an autofill answer for the city or state field works really well when your customers are mostly from one location.

  1. Personalize

Lastly, when creating a web form, it’s important to use graphics and copy that are attention grabbing. If the form does not stand out amongst the rest of your website, it will not be filled out as often. You can even try implementing pictures or emojis when utilizing polls or rating scales, to add some personality into your form.