Converting forms
As a tool for collecting leads or entering personal information in the checkout, the uses for forms are applicable to most types of sites. Unfortunately, it is not unusual that it is precisely the forms that scare away the visitor. Here we present four tips on how to create a form that keeps the visitor on the page.

Do you find that the forms on your site do not perform as well as you would like? To create a converting form, it must meet several different criteria. It is about creating value for the visitor and getting the person to resist their contempt by filling in another field with name, email, and social security number. But how do you proceed? Here are four tips on making sure you don't scare the visitor away with your form request.

1. Do not ask for more than you actually need

As a first step in making your form conversion-optimized, we recommend reviewing the fields that do not contribute valuable information. The information requested in the form must be relevant for both you and the visitor who takes part in the information collection.

If you have several fields marked as optional, they do not add anything to the visitor other than making the form look even more complicated. Do you need to know what position the person contacting you has in their company? Or is it necessary to know which city the person lives in if it is only a general question about your business?

For some industries and businesses, these issues are, of course, essential, but it is not uncommon for companies to use a set of questions just because they have noticed that others are using them. They can thus be entirely irrelevant for their niche.

2. Divide the form into sections

As a visitor, when you are met by a large set of fields to be filled in, it is easy to become overwhelmed and feel resistance instead of actually going with the flow and filling them in. There will be a battle between the value gained from filling out the form versus how long it will take to complete in the visitor's head. If the time required is expected to be long and cumbersome, there is, unfortunately, a risk that the visitor instead leaves your page, and you stumble and fall within sight of the finish line for a conversion.

If you have slimmed down your form by removing irrelevant questions, but still have a large number of fields, there are different ways to approach this. One solution is to divide the form into two or more shorter sections. Once the visitor has started filling in the fields on 'section one' and clicked on to 'section two', the person is more likely to complete the form as a whole.

It should be noted that if you choose to divide the form into sections, you should still make it easy for the visitor to get an overview of the different steps, for example, through a simple heading containing "Step 1 of 3". The questions asked in each section should be coherent and presented in a logical order.

3. Do not hit the visitor on the fingers

It should be quick, easy, and easy to fill in a form. But when you, as a visitor, receive an error message in the red text once you have filled in all the fields, it is easy to lose motivation. Thus, it is vital to create a form where you will minimize the customer's risk stating "incorrect" answers.

Do you need the customer's social security number? Then specify how it is to be filled in, for example, with the help of placeholder text in the field or with a simple information box in connection with the active field. Here it is also possible to be proactive, for example, by allowing both 87 and 1987 as answer alternatives when it concerns the visitor's year of birth or to supply a technical solution that notifies the visitor in real-time that a field is misspelled.

4. Motivate the visitor to fill in the form

What does the visitor get out of signing up for your newsletter? Something we often come across is bland forms that, rather than create engagement, raise questions. Be transparent about what you can offer, and feel free to list USPs and data on how many people received your services or newsletters.