Are Your Forms Hurting Sales?

By Michael Regan

Have you ever filled in an online form?

Of course you have.

Was it a good experience? Probably not.

Do you think your customers experience with your online forms any better? Probably not.

One of the basic principals of marketing is 'make it easy for your customers to buy your product'. Unfortunately, too many online businesses never got that message.

The problem is three fold. First, many web designers are just to lazy to make their forms easy to use. Second, users have become accustom to bad online order forms. And, finally, many online businesses don't test the forms.

The triple threat of bad service.

How do you improve your online forms?

The first step has nothing to do with form design. Simply make sure every page has a prominent link to you purchase form. It never ceases to amaze me how many sites hide the link to the order form.

How do you make your forms more customer friendly?

Pre-fill as much information as you can. As soon as a potential customer visits your site you know, or should know where they are located. This allows you, or rather your web designer, to pre-fill items such as the country and state. This is all done with software before the form is displayed to the customer.

Take this one step further. After the customer enters their name ask them for their zip code, (or postal code if they are from Canada). Now you have their not only the country and state but also the city and street. If your web designer can't update this information 'on the fly' - find a different designer.

Once you have the form layout - test - test - test.

This doesn't have to be complicated. Ask four or five people, who have never seen the form before, to come to your business and try to complete a transaction online. (Friends or family will be fine.) Don't prompt them or answer any questions - just watch what they do. The results may surprise you.

Once you have a form that is easy to use, start looking at other ways to make it customer friendly. For example are your required fields clearly marked; do you automatically rewrite the phone number to the correct format; do you automatically check email addresses before the form is submitted; is there a calendar for entering dates.

Think of all the things that you find frustrating when you fill in an online form. Treat you customers the way you would like to be treated.

Michael Regan is head of website development and online marketing for TIMR Web Services He has more articles on marketing your business online on the TIMR website and on his blog Seo Vancouver Island

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