The Power of a Web Form

For years now, web forms have served a very limited purpose, to allow a prospect to enter information in order to get something in return. Times have changed and so has the purpose of web forms. There are three areas that I would like to discuss:

1. Prospect data
2. Hidden data
3. Action triggers

Prospect data is the data that the individual fills out, such as name, phone, address, etc... The more data that you collect the more valuable that lead is, but, you need to make sure that the form itself does not become a deterrent to the prospect. Only require what is necessary for you to perform your activities. Obviously, if you need certain information to produce a quote then require that data but if it is not necessary do not force them to enter it. Also, make their job as easy as possible. Where ever you can, in the form, give them a drop down menu with choices or boxes to check. This will shorten the process and allow you to capture much more information that you would have otherwise.

Hidden data is the data that the form passes through to you that the individual is unaware of, such as website analytics, key words and referring sites. This data is extremely important as you develop and drive traffic to your website and can give you key information to the behavior and activities of your prospects.

Finally, as ASP and SAS become more and more popular and as they integrate more heavily with your website you can use hidden fields to trigger activities within many of the applications. For example, Insidesales.com uses data passed through to its CRM to trigger an immediate dialer call back of a live sales or support rep (during business hours) or a recorded message (after business hours) that puts the sales rep in touch with the prospect immediately after the submit button is pressed. Other triggers include routing leads, sending emails or faxes or scheduling tasks and events in an employee’s calendar and so on.

A business that I have recently worked with has a three step web form. The first is standard personal information, the second is information about health and the final is about spouse and children. The forms populate a quote for insurance at the end. Using web analytics, they were able to identify that 60% of everyone that started filling out the first portion of the form did not complete it. In order to increase conversion, they were able to trigger an automated phone call based on the completion of the first form that offered the support of a client services rep to help complete the form. The prospect need only press one and they would be speaking with someone that could walk them through the rest of the process.

Creative usage of web forms can ultimately deliver superior leads to your sales team as well as a superior experience to your prospects and customers.