Improving Online Registration and Web Site Forms

Whether trying to download software or a whitepaper, we've all had issue with onerous, lengthy, intrusive site registration forms. Being in the marketing and PR profession, we know what those registration forms are trying to do. They are intended to voluntarily extract full and accurate information from site visitors, information that can be automatically populated into a SFA/CRM tool so that marketing can track campaigns and sales can fill the pipeline.

But most online registration forms suffer from a fatal flaw -- they don't work. Few site visitors want to take the time to fill out tens of fields or have the inclination to enter real information when they are just kicking the digital tires. The result? Visitors either bail out of the process or enter false information, such as not_myname@fakedomain.com. Organizations end up with no or bad data, and visitors leave with nothing or with a bad memory.

 

Registration dos and don'ts

Let's cut to the chase: We believe that the current use of forms is completely backwards and is a vestigial process based on how we used to generate leads online -- back before there were inexpensive and sophisticated tools and service for Web site analytics, monitoring, trends, etc.

B2C and B2B buyers will use their criteria -- not yours --  to make their decision to buy. More times than not, forms are a sales inhibitor. Prospects in all industries resent the requirement that they divulge a lengthly list of personal information before you give them any value. With frequent stories of lost backup tapes, stolen laptops, and compromised databases, not to mention spam and dinner time sales calls from harvested personal information, we have all learned to be cautious giving out information. Nobody really reads the site privacy policy, just as they don't read software licensees. They assume the worst -- the data they provide will results in undesired sales contact at best, the loss of that information to hackers at worst.

As Internet marketers, we completely understand the rationale for using extensive registration forms. In a perfect world, a robust form enables good data that automates the sales proces. But in the real world, forms create bad data and drive away prospects. This impact is particualry true for starups that don't have the company history, market penetration, or brand that wil make prospects more willing to part with personal data or spend the time to fill out form. The outcome? Web forms enable:

• Prospects to self-qualify ... but they don't provide good information. Forms try and wring out as much information as possible, relying on a seemingly endless list of qualification questions. But its just this endless list that encourages visitors to fill the form with garbage.
  
  
• An automated lead generation process ... that stalls as the garbage comes in. With a fleshed out form driving leads, an organization can do without -- or limit the size of -- an internal sales team. But bad data means that the direct team is flooded with unqualified or dead end leads, mitigating any savings from shrinking the front line team.
  
  
• Instant market metrics and measurements ... that don't point out anything real. Forms allow marketing a real time, instant window into the lead generation process, highlighting the effectiveness of ad, email, and other campaigns. But while a spike in registrations may make your boss happy, the bad data that doesn't lead to sales will eventually make it clear that the process is not working.

 

Good data can be seen as bad, and bad data can be seen as good

The problem with relying on forms is that you may overlook good data while you focus on bad data. For example:

• Visitors with free email address can be great leads. Some of the best prospects we have seen from mandatory Web site registrations used Yahoo! or other free email addresses -- and many were almost deleted from the system before we researched the names simply because of a *@hotmail.com or *@gmail.com suffix. Why is this the case? Many of the smartest and most qualified visitors what to explore a product on their own terms, and they don't want their work email box or their work phone line to be bombarded by well-intentioned but undesired sales activities. They often become the best prospects when they voluntarily re-engage with the company once they have done their research.
  
  
• Form finishers aren't necessarily good prospects. Those that complete forms are not necessarily good prospects, and they must be re-qualified by your sales teams anyway. .Edu, .org, and other domains are generally not tagged as "hot" leads in many SFA/CRM systems. These potentially unprofitable inquiries can consume a lot of organizational time. The registration numbers may look good, but the all important conversion numbers are really what matters.
  
  

Forms aren't a good way to lock out the competition. A common reason for placing whitepapers, product sheets, analyst reports, and downloads behind a registration form is to keep competitiors from accessing them. But every vendor we have talked to gets around the form by logging in from home or using dummy accounts (hint: anything you do to get competitive information, your competitors will be doing that, and more, to get yours). It just isn't worth the effort to lock up these items. The barriers will only keep out those who might actually become customers.

Our recommendations

So, what should you do about forms? Try to:

• Develop a forms strategy -- not just a form.  Use forms judiciously -- it is okay to have different forms for different resources on your Web site. For example, you can have a simple form that allows visitors to enter their email address to be added to the contact list, and a longer information form to request a sales person contact them.
  
  
• Have a mini-form on the home page. Make it very easy for an individual to opt into your marketing database. A one-line form on the home page won't attract much garbage. It also won't collect much information, but it will allow you to spread the word of your offerings and eventually track whether that email address becomes a customer.
  
  
• Use as few key fields as possible. Not only will more people complete the form, but it makes it easier for those Web site visitors coming from handheld devices, such as an iPhone or Blackberry, where screen size real estate is limited. The key is to find balance. One company we worked with had a poorly performing form and felt they were not getting enough registrations. They dramatically reduced the number of fields and saw an incredible 60% increase in the number of registrations. They have since added two additional qualifications fields and have seen only a 10% drop in registrations.
  
  
• Rely on more thorough forms only for more valuable assets. If you are offering an onsite visit or a source code analysis, you can demand more information to qualify the lead. As mentioned above, use the long form sparingly, and don't use it for less valuable items, such as product overview PDFs.
  
  
• Use analytic tools to understand the health of your forms. What do visitors do when they reach your forms? Do they bail out before completion? What percent complete the form? Of those that complete them, what percent are qualified prospects? It takes some work, but without measurement, you can't make informed decisions and fine tune your forms for maximum effectiveness.

In summary, consider the long-term sales impact of your Web registration process and the associated forms.  Invest your time in creating great sales collateral -- not protecting it.

If you have encountered a good registration form, send it along and we will do a follow-up post on well designed registration forms.

And for those who want some extra reading on the topic, visit these sites:

• Some Random Dude Blog and this section on forms
  
  
• CSS Web 2.0 form design and this post on forms