6 Web Form Resolutions You Can Actually Keep

Published in

Off the Assembly Line

5 min readDec 15, 2016

If you’re like a lot of people, you’ve probably made a New Year’s resolution for the coming year, or you plan on making one.

Not to be the bearer of bad news, but the odds are you won’t keep it for very long. Why are we telling you this, and what does this have to do with web forms?

Here’s why: You can increase your chances of keeping a resolution 10 times if you know specifically what you want to achieve, and we’re here to give you six very clear, very achievable form resolutions for the New Year.

You don’t have to accomplish all of them, but if you commit to one and stick to it in 2017, you’ll be miles ahead of where you are now in just a year’s time.

1. Replace One Old Paper Process With a Form

As we ring in 2017, let’s say goodbye to paper forms. Let’s be honest. No one likes them, and they’re wasting your time and resources.

Just about any paper form can be made into a web form, benefitting both you and your users. You’ll be able to cut out repetitive data entry, and your users will be able to complete a task much more easily than they would with a paper form.

Not to mention, web forms allow all sorts of cool things like prefilling of data, CRM and payment processor integrations, and easy branding and design.

Don’t be scared of change. Identify a web form that’s taking up valuable resources and transform it into a streamlined, sophisticated web form.

2. Move Beyond Boring Forms

If you’ve already embraced web forms as standard practice in your company, that’s great! Kudos to you! But are you really getting the most out of your form building tool or are you settling for blah forms with no design or branding? Generic forms will do the trick in some cases, but with all the possibilities for easy form design (no need to be a web developer), why would you want to stop there?

Web forms can function well and look great; you don’t need to choose between the two. In 2017, look at your forms and ask yourself if they’re contributing to brand recognition or if they’re utterly forgettable. Are they designed to be pleasing to look at or do they look outdated and boring?

Your forms reflect on your brand, just like your website design does. If your form design isn’t where it needs to be, take steps to improve it in 2017.

Read More: FormAssembly CSS Design Guide

3. Prioritize Your Users When You Create Forms

What does User Experience mean to you? Do you understand the impact that good or bad form UX can have on your users? More importantly, are you designing forms with the User Experience in mind?

Not thinking about what it’s like for your users to fill out your forms and whether it’s an easy or frustrating experience is dangerous. Poor user experience can decrease conversions, frustrate your users and reflect poorly on your company.

The good news is, this is a simple problem to fix when you have a form building solution with the right features. Over the next year, take a good look at your forms, fill them out yourself to understand what your users are experiencing, and make smart UX changes to improve their usability. Here are a few tips to get you started:

Use clean, one-column layouts with plenty of white space
Unclutter the look of your forms with conditional fields that appear only when needed
Reduce the number of clicks your forms take to fill out

4. Take One Form That’s Not Converting Like You Think It Should Be, and Figure Out Why

Conversion isn’t just a marketing-centered goal or objective. If users aren’t filling out forms, whether it’s a donation form, application form, or anything else, you need to figure out why so you can move closer to your goals. Conversion optimization can be a daunting task, so start with just one form and analyze every aspect of it to find what’s tripping your users up.

Even if your forms are bringing in enough responses, you might be able to make them even more effective.

Try tactics like:

Removing unnecessary form fields
Not asking for information such as phone numbers
Doing a better job of explaining the value to the user of filling out your forms

Make strategic changes to your forms and test them out multiple times to find out what works and what doesn’t.

5. Only Use Forms in One Department? Explore Ways to Branch Out

Yes, you can capture leads with forms, but that’s far from the only way to use them. Web forms can be used in any department to streamline just about any process from vacation requests to marketing projects to customer feedback forms.

If you’re only using web forms for one department, make a resolution to branch out and use them in all areas of your company. At FormAssembly, we use our own web form tool to improve efficiency in HR, marketing, sales, customer service and more.

6. If You’ve Outgrown the Form Solution You’re Using, Learn How to Level Up

If this article reads like a completed checklist to you and you’re confident you have every one of these things mastered, maybe it’s time to consider an Enterprise FormAssembly account.

FormAssembly’s Enterprise offering includes:

Multiple users
Admin control
Enterprise-level security

If your business uses forms frequently and for multiple departments, a multi-user Enterprise account might be just what your company needs.

Read More: FormAssembly Enterprise Plans

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Face the new year with a renewed understanding of how to create amazing forms that improve productivity across your organization. Learn more about our form builder plans and get 14 days free when you sign up.