If they aren’t already, forms should be a staple of your marketing strategy. While forms don’t get the same attention as other digital marketing methods, they can be extremely effective in improving your lead gen efforts, and helping you transform your inbound and outbound marketing strategy.

But why are forms so important and effective? First things first, they’re extremely useful when it comes to quickly gathering information on your leds and customers. Plus, having a more thorough understanding of your target audience is always helpful when it comes to building out your entire marketing strategy.

And, in the world of adaptive forms, you can personalize your forms for even better results. Focusing on asking the right questions, and making the overall experience interactive and enjoyable provides your leads and customers with extra motivation to share a bit about themselves with you.

Of course, as is the case with all your marketing efforts, there are ways you can use forms for better engagement and results. And, today we’re listing a few ways in which you can get creative in order to gather the information you need to inform and revamp your marketing strategy.

1. Entice Leads and Customers to Share A Bit About Themselves

While using forms to collect information may seem like a no-brainer, it’s sometimes easier said than done. Plus, there is also the challenge of convincing your audience to give you their contact info and other relevant information when they know little or nothing about what it is you do. That is why I advise offering customers some sort of incentive that will both peak their interest in what you do, and make them feel that sharing a bit about themselves with you is worthwhile.

For example, did you know that content marketing results in six times more conversions than other forms of marketing? Therefore, offering customers an asset such as an eBook, video or webinar is a great excuse to ask them to fill out a form in exchange.

2. Use Forms to Identify the Best Opportunities

Forms can help you do so much more than just collect information. If used strategically, they can also help you identify the best leads so both marketing and sales can focus their efforts effectively and efficiently. As your leads move along the sales funnel, consider providing them a form that will inform your team whether this is your ideal customer and an opportunity worth pursuing.

Need some inspiration on how you can use forms to identify leads? Check out our recent interview with Kat Krieger from Joyride to learn how her team is using Act-On forms to find and focus on the best opportunities.

3. Survey Your Current Customers to Find Out What they Want

Collecting feedback from your customers is an important part of nurturing a relationship with them. It doesn’t only show that you care and are dedicated to providing them with amazing customer service, it can also inform how you approach business in the future.

For example, are you looking to innovate your product or add services in the near future? You can take some of the headache out of brainstorming and spending money on research by asking your customers directly what they want. Ask customers to fill out a form telling you what they like about your product and what is on their wish list. Try offering customers some sort of incentive, such as a chance to win a gift card, in order to improve your conversion rate.

4. Make Your Emails Fun

Forms don’t have to be long and tedious. Including a multichoice block in your emails to prospects or current customers is a great way to gather information over time. You can ask your audience questions about what type of content they prefer, their interests, business goals and much more. And the great thing is that the right marketing automation tool can help you easily add one into your email template, eliminating the need to know any special code to make your emails a bit more interesting.

A Few Tips for Optimizing Your Forms

Optimizing your forms is just as important as the way you use them. After all, you don’t want your target customer to leave your form filled out halfway because they lost interest or it was too difficult to complete. Here are a few tips to creating a form that encourages customers to submit:

• Make Sure Your Forms Are Branded: It’s just as important that your forms, like any other content, meet your brand guidelines. Your forms are part of the nurturing process, and you want potential leads and customers to be able to put a face to the name.

• The Length of Your Forms is Important: The last thing you want to do is have your customers browse away from your form because they decided it was too long and time-consuming. It’s best to gather information over time instead of in one fell swoop. Decide what questions to ask based on where your customers are in the sales funnel.

• Minimize the Amount of Typing Required: Did you know that 66% of B2B customers think companies should make it easier to access their content? That means less is more when it comes to forms. When designing your form, think about where you can use multiple choice, checkboxes or dropdown menus instead of text boxes. This allows you to ensure consistency in the type of information you gather from your form, and save your leads and customers time in filling it out.
• Make it Personal: The great thing about adaptive forms is that instead of creating a generic form, you can tailor them to best fit the needs of each of your leads and customers. When creating a form, think about who each of your customers are and what type of questions will apply to each segment. That way, they will only have to deal with questions that are relevant to their needs, which will in turn enhance their trust in you to deliver a solution.  
• A/B Test: Like all your other marketing efforts, it is extremely important to A/B test your forms and update them based on your findings. In each version of your form, use a different CTA, content, images and/or design, and measure conversion rates to gauge which of these combinations resonates best with your audience.
• Make Your Form Mobile Friendly: Making your forms easy to view and fill out on mobile is just as important as making your websites and emails mobile friendly. Having font that is too small or requiring your audience to scroll, may discourage them from filling out the form in the first place. Making your form mobile friendly will enhance their experience resulting in a better conversion rate.