Shorter forms convert better

[Brian Turner]

Shorten your lead generation forms!

I've been recommending this to clients for ages, because it makes so much sense to grab those leads more opportunistically - and now at SEL, there's apparent "proof" of common sense:


http://searchengineland.com/080206-073946.php

• Short Form: Conversion rate 13.4%, cost per conversion $31.24
• Medium Form: Conversion rate 12.0%, cost per conversion $34.94
• Long Form: Conversion rate 10.0%, cost per conversion $41.90

[Robert Moore]

That's quite interesting Brian.

Obviously some industries need to ask a few more questions, ie mortgages, invoice factoring etc in order to make any sense at all of the leads and to sort out the sometimes copious quantities of crud.

Wonder in those situations whether it is better to spread the form over a couple of pages, perhaps giving the illusion of a shorter form.

[lin robinson]

I see people doing that. With continuing "CONTINUED" buttons. And no idea how many more there will be. I have to be really motivated to continue more than about twice.

There seems at times to be an internet equivalent of what I long noticed in the real world: the tendancy for forms to always use up a whole sheet of paper. So there are all these useless questions just to take up space.

I personally think a lot of designers get hung up on making forms involved and tricky. For instance...is it really easier to pick out a country from some long pull-down list than to just type UK or USA or even MEXICO?

This is a principle that mail marketers were aware of years go: don't put up to many hurdles in front of somebody who wants to sign up.

[Brian Turner]

The trouble with the mortgage/loan etc applications is that they only need all that information to make a final decision - there's no attempt to bring in the leads first, then qualify them.

It's a kind of "can't be bothered" approach that bugs me - if someone clicks through to your page, they are probably comparing to competitors. Every line in the form gives a reason to keep comparing.

Keeping it really short should be better at capturing opportunities and converting them to leads, instead of just saying - "if you're a lead, click here, otherwise get lost"
which is my interpretation of long forms.

Considering how much mortgages are worth on a lead basis, I would have thought it made more sense to capture all opportunity and then sift them through a call centre, then insist everything is prequalified to start with.

I'm thinking especially in terms of Seth Godin's book "The Big Red Fez" - the harder you make the Call To Action to proceed with, the easier it is to lose potential customers.

Just my 2c.

[lin robinson]

That makes a hell of lot of sense.
I end up wondering why so many people working for major companies and designers haven't figured that out.

[jazzermonty]

Not sure I agree

Point 1 - drop down selections are good, as the data capture on your database makes it easier for interegation later on e.g. writing a query for your customers in any given country could look like:

SELECT * FROM customers WHERE country='UK';

instead of SELECT * FROM customers WHERE country = 'UK'
AND 'GB'
AND 'Great Britain'
AND 'United Kingdom' ect, ect. If you remove as much of the manual input to your database from the customer, there is less danger of errors.

Point 2 - surely it's easier to build 1 rules enging based on the questions asked at the point of enquiry than it is to train a multitued of call centre agents on this stuff 'prior' to any sales? IT systems are generally cheaper than human beings to maintain.

Point 3 - Using the financial industry as the example, a lot of the seemingly unnecessary questions are required by some law or another. This could well be fraud prevention or race relations, and all this before you get a quote, so not always as simple as it seems.

Also, when a lead does turn into a sale, the data is already captured and therefore the transition is much simpler. You also have their information for any future add on sales.

Cheers