Free Assessment: How does your sales & marketing measure up?

Get Started
Close

Free Assessment:

How does your sales & marketing measure up?
Take this free, 5-minute assessment and learn what you can start doing today to boost traffic, leads, and sales.
Get Started
Erica Dube

By Erica Dube

Nov 29, 2016

Topics:

Lead Generation
Lead Generation

The 10 Real Reasons Your Forms Aren’t Converting (& How to Fix Them)

Erica Dube

By Erica Dube

Nov 29, 2016

The 10 Real Reasons Your Forms Aren’t Converting (& How to Fix Them)

reasons-your-forms-arent-converting.jpgSimply put, the first step to generating leads from your website is the addition of landing pages with forms.

Marketers use forms to capture information from their site visitors in order to send them additional content designed to educate and move them “down the funnel” or simply give sales more background to close the deal.

Time after time, however, these same marketers find themselves scratching their heads when they see high traffic to a page but low conversions once they’re there.

Econsultancy even tells us that “only about 22% of businesses are satisfied with their conversion rates”. So, what’s the problem with your forms?

One of these 10 reasons may be to blame.

Reason #1: Too many form fields

The biggest mistake and also the biggest quick win when comes to optimizing your forms for conversions is reducing the number of fields.

Just put yourself in the shoes of your visitor.

Upon arriving on a landing page they will read through your content and assess the amount of “work” they’ll have to do to get it against the benefit of what they’ll get in return. -- More form fields look like more work.

Review your forms and if any field isn’t absolutely necessary for your company to gather at that stage of the funnel, remove it!

The “sweet spot” for forms is typically 3-5 fields. A study by Unbounce tells us that forms with 3-5 fields have a 20% conversion rate while forms with 6+ fields show results of only 15% conversion.

If you don’t want to sacrifice losing that extra data from the conversion, another option is to break your form into multiple steps.

Reason #2: Too many required fields

This goes right along with reason #1.

It’s intimidating to see a form with those scary red stars next to form fields. It not only seems aggressive and like a lot of work, but it also could come off of as invasion of privacy.

Reducing the required fields to only what is absolutely necessary will eliminate friction for the visitor.

This is especially important for your more top-of-the-funnel offers. Cut the fields then test the before-and-after conversion results.

Looking at the data, you can better decide what’s “nice to have” and what’s “need to have.” For most B2B companies - name, email and job title are the three required fields for any form.

Reason #3: No help text in the field default

Be clear on the information you are asking for from your visitor.

The addition of a short line of help text above fields that may be misinterpreted by some can go a long way -- especially when it comes to multi-line fields where a user can write out their response.

Tell people overtly what you are looking for, but remember, try to avoid using the help text or label inside the actual field.

This can cause the visitor to mistake the field as already filled in and not prompt them to take action. You can learn more about increasing conversions through help text and other forms of micro-copy here.

Reason #4: Your form fields aren’t “smart”

If you are able to, a common lead generation tactic for inbound marketers is “smart” forms or progressive profiling technology.

When a contact is already in your database and is prompted to fill out a new form on your site, “smart” forms make it so they don’t have to reenter information they’ve already filled out in the past. This helps your forms from feeling cumbersome and repetitive.

This will not only decrease friction for that visitor but give them a personalized experience which will make them more likely to convert again.

This is also a valuable opportunity to ask new questions and learn more about that lead, prospect, or customer.

reasons-forms-arent-converting-smart-forms.pngImage Credit: HubSpot

Reason #5: Your submit button text isn’t clear or actionable

Based on your persona, changing your button text to reflect expectations, benefit, and the actual action at hand can also increase conversions.

For example, I’d recommend testing “click to download” as well as “get it now” against “download” or “submit.” Using words and phrases that inspire action from the visitor, like these, are usually more successful.

Also, keep in mind point of view by testing things like first-person and second person language.

Orbit Media did an experiment on point of view and suggests that first-person button text converts better because it speaks from the perspective of the action-taker.

reasons-forms-arent-converting2.jpg

Reason #6: Your dropdowns have too many options  

Are you using dropdowns with more than 15 options?

The Baymard Institute has a great article that points out that a list with over 15 options becomes difficult for visitors to navigate and slows down the input of information.

reasons-forms-arent-converting3.png

Many companies use dropdowns for location-based fields such as country and state, but try incorporating autocomplete (where the user can start typing and be automatically taken to that option.)

Reason #7: Your dropdown has too few options

While too many dropdown options can be bad news, ironically so can too few.

If you have a field with less than 5 options, opt for a radio-select button or checkboxes rather than a dropdown. Using a dropdown for a small number options allows users to immediately see the options and take action, rather than having to complete that extra step to see the choices.

reasons-forms-arent-converting4.png

Image Credit: Baymard

Reason #8: Your CAPTCHA isn’t smart

If you find yourself battling with a lot of SPAM responses, you may have implemented a CAPTCHA feature to your forms. This is a great addition to avoid unqualified responses, however if you are using it for every form, for every user, it may be causing friction for your visitors.

Try using it only for first-time conversions or people who have resubmitted the same form multiple times from the same IP.

Reason #9: Your form blends in with the page

Make your form a contrasting so that it stands out on the page.

This will be a visual cue to the visitor that the form is important and inspire them to take action.

In the example below, you can see how the green stands out against the white background and draws your eyes right to the form. Crikey also uses a dark grey arrow against the white page to add more visual direction for the visitor.

reasons-forms-arent-converting5.jpg

Reason #10: You’re asking for phone number

Unbounce states that you can expect a “5% dip in conversion rate” by asking for phone number in a form that is not a contact form.

If someone is trying to access an offer and is not raising their hand to be contacted, why ask for this information? If people are not on a contact page, they have no desire to speak to someone on the phone or give your company the option to call them whenever they want.

People can spot this as a sales tactic from a mile away so stay far away from the phone number field as much as possible.

Get Started!

With all of these tips in mind, take a look at your lowest converting forms and pages and identify issues to solve and test for.

Remember, while all of these tips are useful, every audience is different. You will only generate real results if you test for your audience and identify what boosts conversions for it specifically.

Free Assessment:

How does your sales & marketing measure up?
Take this free, 5-minute assessment and learn what you can start doing today to boost traffic, leads, and sales.

Related Articles

Demand Generation vs. Lead Generation: What’s the Difference?

April 10, 2023
Kristen Harold Kristen Harold

35 Landing Page Examples to Inspire Yours in 2023

January 26, 2023
Ramona Sukhraj Ramona Sukhraj

Should You Still Gate Your Content in 2023?

January 23, 2023
John Becker John Becker

Here's Why You Keep Getting Garbage Inbound Marketing Leads

December 19, 2022
Jessica Palmeri Jessica Palmeri

How To Grow Your Email List: 13 Savvy Tips To Try in 2023

November 22, 2022
Ramona Sukhraj Ramona Sukhraj

Increase Landing Page Conversion Rates With These 3 Simple, Powerful Hacks

June 2, 2022
Hannah Woods Hannah Woods

20 Tips for Optimizing Your Business Blog Articles for Conversions

April 21, 2022
Jen Barrell Jen Barrell

How To Make Each Lead Capture Form a Conversion Powerhouse

April 8, 2022
Carolyn Edgecomb Carolyn Edgecomb

The Selling 7: 5 Best Landing Page Video Examples

December 23, 2021
Zach Basner Zach Basner

Rethinking Your Approach to B2B Lead Gen, ft. Chris Walker (Inbound Success, Ep. 200)

June 21, 2021
Kathleen Booth Kathleen Booth

What is the Content Marketing Funnel and How Does It Work?

June 2, 2021
Kimberly Marshall Kimberly Marshall

What is Lead Nurturing?

May 28, 2021
Kimberly Marshall Kimberly Marshall

88 compelling words and phrases to prompt website visitors into action [Infographic]

April 24, 2021
Kaitlyn Petro Kaitlyn Petro

What is Conversion Rate Optimization? (Definition, Examples, and Tips)

March 31, 2021
Jolie Higazi Jolie Higazi

What is a good average landing page conversion rate?

March 12, 2021
Christine Austin Christine Austin

Call-To-Action Examples: 31 Designed to Earn Clicks and Generate Leads

March 11, 2021
Karisa Hamdi Karisa Hamdi

6 Reasons You're Not Generating Leads With Your Blog Content

November 9, 2020
Justine Timoteo Thomas Justine Timoteo Thomas

9 keys to building an effective landing page [Infographic]

October 3, 2020
Steve Polito Steve Polito

5 effective strategies for decreasing bounce rates on a blog article

August 25, 2020
Kevin Phillips Kevin Phillips

7 savvy tips to boost conversions in your retail e-commerce store

July 17, 2020
Pratik Dholakiya Pratik Dholakiya

6 most common lead generation website problems (and how to fix them)

January 28, 2020
Jen Barrell Jen Barrell

Facebook ads help: Why are my ads not converting?

January 20, 2020
Rachel Palmateer Rachel Palmateer

11 Best Examples of Lead Generation Website Designs

January 20, 2020
Justine Timoteo Thomas Justine Timoteo Thomas

Top 9 proven lead generation ideas you need to try in 2020

December 3, 2019
Ali Parmelee Ali Parmelee

New study reveals which Google My Business features boost conversions

November 4, 2019
Jenna Ott Jenna Ott