Formidable forms form fromising businesses! (Now repeat 3x with 3x times the speed. :) ) So… I maaay have cheated a bit by switching “promising” with “fromising” just to create this awesome tongue twister.

But you have to admit; not many people can form tongue-twisters out of forms. :) Do you know what’s something else not many people can do?

It’s to create high-performing forms that can skyrocket conversions to greater heights.

If you also struggling with your conversions, then you’ll love this guide.

We’ll cover the underpinnings of high-performing forms so you can emulate and integrate the lessons in your forms.

Let’s hop right in.

Fact. You don’t need bazillions of colors, graphics, and moving elements in your forms to make it awesome.

You want to keep it simple.

Clear.

And clean.

Check out Thecxlead.com’s form on their guide about the best UX software.

Notice how clean and minimalist it is?

That’s one way to NOT shooo your readers away from using your forms.

Forms with truckloads of elements and colors tend to be distracting and could very easily wreck the experience of your site visitors.

For the most part, having compelling copy that clearly highlights the benefits of the sign-up is all you need.

2. Compelling copy

Here’s a neat trick to improve your form conversions.

Add the word “because” with a reason on your calls-to-action (CTA). Doing so helps increase your conversions by 34%.

The word “because” is a magic word for getting people to do something. Ellen Langer conducted research at Harvard that supports this.

Using the word “because” is just one of the many strategies you can follow to make your form’s copy compelling.

Below are more tips on how to write compelling content:

• Highlight the pain points of your audience
• Use the actual words they use to describe their problems
• Add an element of scarcity
• Add social validation

For the sake of brevity, and brevity is absolutely important, you can’t use all of the points above in your form’s copy. Just choose one to two, then run split tests to uncover which copy works better.

3. Mind your branding

In the content creation software post published by the Indiemedia.club, the color they used on their form aligns perfectly with the purple-ish color they’re using on their site.

The alignment in color works because it doesn’t disrupt the reader’s experience.

Moreover, it helps the readers associate the color with the brand.

While branding goes far beyond color choice, color palettes certainly have an impact on brand alignment. (Notice how established companies are meticulous about aligning the color palettes used on their merch and marketing materials with their logo, among other banding elements.) To improve the brand alignment of your forms, follow these tips:

• Use the same font style.
• Incorporate the choice of words commonly used to describe your brand.
• Ensure the images are also aligned; if you’re using cartoony-type images on your site, avoid adding hyper-realistic photos in your forms.

4. Tone down the required fields

I get it.

The more data you acquire from form users, the better, right?

After all, data is power.

The more data you have, the easier it becomes to segment and categorizes your form users. The insights you generate can also be used to make well-founded decisions that can skyrocket company growth.

While that’s good and all, requesting truckloads of information on your forms is not a good practice.

Requesting lots of information overwhelms your site visitors. If it becomes remotely tedious to fill out your forms, your site visitors could easily click away.

Make using your forms frictionless and convenient by asking for only 1 - 3 details. That way, your site visitors won’t feel burdened or hassled about typing their info.

If you require more info, you can send your form users an email asking for additional details after their initial completion and submission.

5. Use humor

Wanna learn a neat trick to make your site visitors like you, therefore, be more receptive to your CTAs?

Make ‘em smile.

You don’t need to make ‘em fall off their chair laughing.

Making them smile helps put down the barriers and walls they put up.

That’s why using humor can do wonders for improving your conversions.

Checkout what Hootsuite did.

The form copy they used is casual, humorous, and friendly.

It doesn’t have a pushy, salesy feel to it. (At least, in my opinion.) There are a handful of ways to make your forms humorous.

For starters, use memes.

With the myriad of meme generators available online, creating memes should be a breeze.

You can also add knock-knock jokes. And if you’re still out of ideas, you can hire freelance writers to come up with humorous, clever lines for you.

6. Don’t hide the close button. Make it uber visible, even.

No one wants anything shoved down their throats.

Forms are no exception.

And yet, some companies add forms to their pages without making their close buttons highly visible, making the readers feel they’re compelled to read the form content, or worse, use the form.

No one wants that.

I’m sure you don’t.

Not even your neighbor’s grandma or your cousin Ray Ray, so don’t even think about doing it to your readers?

Not only will hiding the close button confuse your readers, but it might also even frustrate them to the point where they’ll bash your company.

Bonus tip from “My friend”

A friend told me that Slapform is an awesome form builder that’s easy to use, feature-packed, and does a swell job of storing your submissions securely on the cloud.

Again, one of my friends said this. Not me. :) According to my friend, Slapform’s features are uber impressive. Here are some features he highlighted:

• Simplified submission dashboard
• Spam protection
• Unlimited extensibility
• Extensive custom triggers

Pretty sweet, huh?

The best part?

Slapform’s basic plan is… wait for it…free f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

#mindblown!

What’s next?

What other points do you think did we miss in this guide?

If there are other elements or best practices for creating high-performing forms you think belong to this guide, feel free to reach out to share them with us. Cheers!

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