This one should be pretty obvious, but you still see a lot of forms out there with them. Offering your users an easy option to clear fields that they’ve already completed just doesn’t make a lot of sense when you’re trying to get people to complete the form fields. Stop making it easy for users to change their minds about whether or not to provide their information! Yes, there may be a case or two out there where someone might argue that providing this option helped them improve the quality of their leads or the accuracy of their database information because they were auto populating the fields, but in most cases it’s just plain not going to get you more lead conversions.
Automatically populate form fields you’ve already collected
If you’re working on building a subscriber database, configure your lead forms to auto populate fields for which you already have the user’s information on file. Or, better yet, hide these fields altogether. Don’t make your users fill out their information again unnecessarily. Instead, ask only for enough information to accurately identify them with the database. By doing so you can greatly reduce the length of your form and in turn reduce friction and encourage engagement.
Left align your form fields
One of the most important things to consider when designing forms is it’s scanability. Before making the decision to even begin filling out a form, most users will quickly scan the form, taking a quick mental inventory of what will be required of them. If the user feels that the form is too long or too complicated to be worth their time and effort, they may likely decide not to complete it. When choosing how to align your form’s input fields and their labels, there are a number of variations you can use, but left alignments in general tend to aid scanability slightly more than others. Left alignments create a natural flow of information from top to bottom and ease scanability. Avoid right aligning field labels against their input fields, creating a ragged left edge and making more work for the eyes. Instead, try your labels left aligned, next to their input fields. Try also testing a version where the labels are left aligned above their input fields.
Communicate form validation errors clearly
If you’re using any kind of form validation on your site, be sure to communicate input errors clearly. Let your users know why the form wasn’t submitted successfully. Rather than vague “All fields are required” error messaging, tell your users specifically what they missed or why their input wasn’t accepted. Did their phone number not have enough numbers? Were they missing the “.com” from their email address? Give clear instructions as to how to fix the problem and successfully resubmit their information.
Provide incentive to sign up
Users rarely sign up for things just to sign up. They sign up in order to benefit in some way. Provide your users with some incentive to fill out your lead forms. Incentive can take the form of an informative email newsletter, a free trial, free guide, download or other type of link bait. Give your visitors something in return for their information. Make it clear to the user how they will benefit by signing up.