The Psychology of the Landing Page Form

There is perhaps nothing more important than the humble website form. It sits at the end of the buyer's journey and it has to capture the data of the visitor on the page.  The visitor may be wondering - is it worth my while to fill out the form? Are these guys legit? Will they spam me? What value will I get in return for leaving my email address? Shall I fill it out - yes or no?

 

As Inbound Marketers, we have to make sure we do everything we can to get that form completed to capture the new lead. To do this we have to look into the psychology of form filling.

 

There's a lot of uses for forms for different types of web content, they can vary considerably, and form types can differ between different businesses. But we've found that there are some form building principles you should know about in order to deliver a successful form design to get the higher conversions.

 

Here are five Inbound Marketing principles to help you get going with better form building and conversions.

 

 

If you're going to build forms designed to convert, you have to know the four field form rule.

 

The minimum number of form fields is three - first name, last name and email address.

 

This is a proven way of creating the least resistance to get someone to hand over their email address to get your offer so you can capture the lead.  However, three fields have the potential to lower the quality of your total leads, and that's the quantity / quality payoff you have to decide on.  

 

Research has shown, that if you decide to put four fields into your form, you might as well have seven fields as the conversion rates are so similar. By adding a fourth, fifth, sixth, or even seventh field, you still won't change the conversion rate that much. The fact that you have already gathered information from the most important fields (first name, last name, and email), means that you can now collect more useful buyer insights with the additional fields.

 

So, if you have four form fields this is your chance to ask some extra questions, like job title, website address, company name, etc., otherwise, you could be missing out. Remember you're going to get approximately the same conversion rate for four to seven fields. So don't be afraid to increase your opportunity for greater insight and to get better quality leads.

 

However, if you're a business looking for more leads, you can increase your conversion rate by just lowering the number of form fields to three. So, it depends on what your goals are - quality or quantity? Putting more fields on a form can be a good thing, but to others, it may be a deterrent.

 

 

Research ran by Oli Gardner co-founder of Unbounce, revealed that the words used in a form are crucial. He found that different words in the form fields produced different conversion rates. For example, adding the field wording “Your best email address” had a 15 % lift. The phrase “work email” received a 22% lift, but surprisingly the phrase “business email address” gained a 59% lift in professional emails coming in. So the copy used in your form is critical.

 

 

Form psychology is an area we should know more about. Open-ended questions, for example, add to the cognitive strain are sometimes pointless, so only add a "message" or "comment" box if absolutely necessary.

 

Just think of your ideal customer and the data you need to find out more about them - what insights do you need to take them to the next level is the sales process?

 

The form questions don't have to be too obvious or standard like everyone elses, but the questions do need to provide you with enough insight so you can properly nurture the lead. 

 

Forms with drop-down options can be problematic, if you haven't included all the options - what if there are no applicable options for a certain type of visitor? You've lost them, or they can end up falsifying your data because you didn't give them a true option to complete. So make sure you offer “Other” in all your drop-down form fields.

 

Here's something different to try. When building a landing page, we've tried building the form copy first, then designing the landing page around it.

 

The idea is that if you design your form first, as if it's the only thing on the landing page, can it successfully stand alone, communicate, persuade and convert the visitor. Then start adding the additional information you think they are going to need.

 

 

How far down the page should your form be? Research has shown that putting your form 40% of the way down the page is the ideal place. That's probably because you get a chance to tell your story before you ask for the commitment of the purchase decision.

 

Putting a form with video is a great way to get a conversion while someone is watching your video. Try putting the copy "If you want to continue, you have to fill in the form”, about 15% of the way through the video. If you put the form at the start of the video, visitors will instantly be deterred from filling in their information and they'll leave without watching the video. Neither does the form work at the end of the video - it simply doesn't get looked at.

 

Consider implementing these 5 principles of form building to help your Inbound Marketing and track the improved conversion rates on your landing page.

 

THE BRIT AGENCY is a B2B Inbound Marketing Agency providing Inbound Marketing, Inbound Website Design and Inbound Sales services to companies around the world. We're focused on growing website traffic, qualified leads and sales, using the Inbound lead generation and marketing automation process.

THE BRIT AGENCY is a certified Gold Tier Hubspot Partner, a HubSpot COS certified Inbound Website Design Agency, a Shopify eCommerce Partner, and a certified "Google Badged Agency Partner". We have offices in Toronto and Barrie, Canada, and Salisbury, UK.