Why your contact form is not converting

Contact forms are now a standard part of any new WordPress installation. It is all too easy to overlook them and their significance. People have a tendency to select the first solution they find for their website, not realising that they may be compromising the growth of their business. With over 66 million WordPress-powered websites, there is a good chance that you have a site that exists because of the world’s most popular content management system (CMS). The tool is used by everyone from the next-door blogger to Variety, BBC America, and MTV News.

As a result, it appears all too simple to browse the plugin directory in search of a form and data-collection solution that will “do the job.” However, if you want to grow your business and attract genuine, prospective customers, this is not the best strategy. (The same can be said for contact-form add-ons for Drupal, Joomla, and other content management systems.)

Here are three reasons why you should carefully evaluate your website’s form solution.

The form has too many fields.

When a customer wants to learn more about your product or order your services, they want to speak with the most appropriate person, whether it’s sales, customer service, or something else. So why do you make every customer fill out unnecessary fields like address or phone number when you usually only need their name and email address to contact them?

According to a HubSpot case study, going from four fields to three increases conversions — that is, when someone fills out your form on your website and thus becomes a potential lead — by 50%. By removing just one field, you can more than double your conversion rate.

But what if you want to ask different departments different questions? You don’t want to ask a sales question to someone who is in need of technical assistance. Conditional logic comes into play in situations like this.

Conditional formatting makes it easier for your visitors to fill out your form by displaying only the questions they need to answer. With a conditional logic solution, you can simplify complex questions and route them to the appropriate department.

To paraphrase Steve Jobs, “simple can be more difficult than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean in order to make it simple.” Applying this logic means that, in order to obtain functional conditional formatting, you must first think through your workflow and ask the questions that each member of your team requires.

A newsletter system is not attached to the form.

Most contact form leads go unanswered due to a breakdown in communication between the website admin in charge of the contact form and the sales/marketing teams. But what if your contact form automatically routed the lead to your customer relationship management (CRM) solution for qualification and handover?

Automatic syncing would aid in the improvement of your sales workflow and the overall conversion rate. Often, businesses do not integrate their CRM systems with their contact forms because it requires a significant amount of coding. Certain form solutions, such as Gravity Forms and WuFoo, do, however, include built-in integration with providers such as Salesforce.

Selecting a form solution that integrates with your CRM can save you a significant amount of time and money.

Similarly, even after you make contact, good leads can be lost due to a lack of trust. You can solve this by integrating your form solution with your email marketing software. If you are able to email a useful bundle of resources to customers who expressed interest but fell out of touch, you will not only build trust with these leads but will also keep them in the loop.

Integrate your form with a newsletter plugin, such as mailpoet. Configure the plugin so that when someone fills out the form, the plugin sends him a welcome message with a special offer. You can also set mailpoet to notify all subscribers whenever a new post is published.

The form does not have captcha protection.

With the increase in spam every day, legitimate leads may be mislabeled as coming from a bot rather than a human. Similarly, bots can fill your contact forms with useless information. Having the right spam protection helps to identify bad leads while allowing legitimate leads to pass through, saving you time and frustration. There are a number of anti-spam options available, such as CAPTCHA, to assist you in combating the problem, but implementing the incorrect solution may harm your overall conversion. Adding the right technology, on the other hand, may save you a lot of trouble.

When selecting a form solution, it is critical to consider the spam control technology it employs or integrates with, as this can go a long way toward protecting you from spam leads. The first step in selecting the right plugin is to understand three of the reasons why your WordPress forms and data collection solutions may not be converted for you. It’s tempting to choose a plugin based on the number of installations and user ratings displayed in the WordPress Directory, but don’t be fooled.