The Web Form Checklist

Web forms are widely used to collect information from potential customers. Every day people visit dozens of websites and fill out their information to access marketing content. While necessary, it can be tedious for your audience to fill in their information again and again. In this post we cover how to reduce the number of times someone has to fill the form, how to limit the number of fields, and how to ensure the best submission experience.

How to reduce the number of times someone has to fill the form

• Add a form only where it's absolutely necessary: no one is happy to provide information until there's trust. Engage visitors with content first, then ask. Follow the 80/20 rule — 80% engage with content, 20% ask for information.
• Hide the form from known users: most modern MA systems can hide the form from known visitors and show a custom message with a CTA instead, with no impact on activity tracking.
• Prefill the form: if you still show the whole form, use prefill so prospects can see and correct what you have on them without re-entering data.

How to reduce the number of fields on the form

• Minimize fields: fewer fields, less effort, higher conversion.
• Remove inferable fields: use data-append services to enrich industry/company size/revenue from the company or email domain instead of asking.
• Use progressive profiling: capture additional data points over time instead of all at once.
• Use conditional visibility: only show relevant fields/options (e.g. show US states only when country = United States).

How to ensure the best user experience during submission

• No scripting errors.
• Post-submission experience: a properly embedded thank-you page with clear messaging and relevant follow-up content.
• Mobile-first design.
• Input masking (great for phone numbers), field tooltips, and field sets to group related fields.
• Local language on form fields to reflect that you care about your customers.