9 Ways To Increase Contact Form Conversions

Contact forms.

Most sites have one, but many marketers overlook its importance. They’re the first point of contact when it comes to lead generation and for that reason, it’s super important to get them right.

In this article, you will learn how to increase your contact form conversions by making your forms engaging and optimized for lead generation.

So without further ado – let’s jump into the tips.

1. Make use of multi-page forms

Long single-page forms with a lot of fields can be overwhelming for users, but how else can you collect a wide range of information from users without deterring them from completing the form? The answer – multi-page forms.

Multi-page forms are a great way to collect a lot of information from your leads without overwhelming them and discouraging them from completing the form altogether.

By splitting the different fields across 3-4 smaller pages, you are less likely to become over faced by your form and they will be more likely to see them through to the end if they are generally interested in getting in touch.

According to a Formstack study, multi-page forms have a completion rate of 13.85%, compared to 4.53% on a single-page.

Another benefit of multi-page forms is that they are useful for showing how committed your users are to completing the desired action, and this makes the information you gather much more valuable.

Users that are uninterested in what you have to offer are less likely to complete more than one step in order to sign up to your mailing list or get in touch.

Although this seems like a negative outcome, it’s actually a positive one. Users that complete every step of the form are likely to be a lot more engaged in what your business has to offer, making them more valuable to have on your email list.

Multi-page forms have been slowly growing in popularity amongst marketers and as such there are lots of great tools you can use to create them.

If you use WordPress, check out Kali Forms. It’s a powerful WordPress contact form plugin that makes it easy to create multi-page forms. And, better yet, you can connect it easily with your email marketing service of choice to generate leads.

Kali Form features

If you want to learn more about the plugin, check out Blogging Wizard’s Kali Forms review.

2. Reduce the ‘threat level’ by asking for personal information later in the form

Some people are reluctant to part with too much personal information – and for good reason. Form fields like email and first name are considered ‘low-threat’. In other words, users are usually happy to fill in these kinds of fields.

But when you start asking for phone numbers, dates of birth, and other more personal data, you run the risk of scaring them off.

If you absolutely must ask for more than just their email and first name, leave it until later on in the form. That way, they’ll have already committed to start filling out the form and are less likely to give up half-way through.

Or even better, make those ‘high-threat’ form fields completely optional. (More about this in tip number 5)

3. Reduce form fields where you can

When creating your forms, your aim should be to make it as easy as possible for the user to complete, without leaving out any fields that you feel are necessary to inform your marketing efforts. Therefore, you should try your best to reduce the number of form fields you include as much as possible.

A study from HubSpot showed that increasing the number of form fields from 3 to 5 reduced conversion rates by 5% and this figure continued to rise as more fields were added.

HubSpot graph on conversion rates for forms fields

When creating your forms, focus on the fields that are absolutely necessary and if you have more fields than about 3 or 4, consider using a multi-page form. 

4. Set up an email marketing automation sequence for your contact form leads

Getting people to fill out your contact form or lead generation form might be your initial conversion goal, but the ultimate goal is to make sales. That’s why it’s a good idea to start nurturing your leads as soon as you have contact information. A great way to do that is to set up an email marketing sequence (drip campaign).

Email marketing services like ActiveCampaign or ConvertKit can be used to send automated emails to leads as soon as they fill out your form.

Whether you’re using a plugin like Kali Forms or a dedicated SaaS form builder, you should be able to set up an automation to send welcome emails and other correspondence to leads generated via your contact form.

However, to do this, you need to insert an opt-in box into your form for users to give you the go-ahead to send their information to your email service.

Just be sure to give people a way to opt-in to this service. Don’t send leads to your email provider unless they’ve opted in.

This type of marketing automation can have a huge impact on conversion and sales. According to a study by Invespcro 77% of marketers saw an increase in conversion due to automation.

5. Make some fields optional

If you’re absolutely set on gathering as much information as possible from your contact forms, then one option is to include additional ‘optional’ fields.

The logic here is that less motivated leads will only fill in the necessary fields and the more motivated ones will fill in the optional ones as well. That means your motivated leads will be giving your additional information that you can use when you get in touch with them.

By including optional fields, you will of course be making your forms longer. However, labeling them as optional will help to reduce some of the friction caused by the length of the form and show users that you are at least trying to make it easier for them.

Pro tip: When using optional fields, only mark the optional ones and not the required ones. This will show your leads that you are not forcing them to fill out all the boxes and they won’t feel like your little red ‘required’ asterisks are bossing them around. It’s simple psychology that will help to improve your lead’s interaction with your business from the get-go.

optional fields

6. Choose the right color for your CTA button

Whether it’s a simple submit button or something more personalized to your site, the color of your CTA button is more important than you might think. Color psychology plays a big part in all areas of marketing, especially when it comes to conversions.

In a test conducted by HubSpot, simply changing the CTA button from green to red led to a 21% increase in form completions. In this case, red was just the ticket, but that doesn’t mean you should make every button on your site red.

7. Include privacy policy information

When asking people to give up their personal information, you want to try and make them have as much trust in your site as possible. That’s why it’s always a good idea to include a note about privacy somewhere on the form.

Now just to be clear you don’t have to include your whole privacy policy at the bottom of the form as this would have an effect on the design of the form and potentially overwhelm your leads with information.

Instead, just leave a quick catchy note that shows your leads that you value their privacy. This can be something as simple as ‘100% privacy guaranteed. We will not share your information.’ with a link to your full privacy policy. Here are some examples of ways to seamlessly add this to your form:

privacy 1 example
Caption after the visitor has entered their details
privacy 3 example
Caption below the button

8. Don’t use Captcha

Contact form spam can be a pain, so many people choose to add CAPTCHA’s to their forms. Although CAPTCHA’s successfully reduce spam sign-ups, but a study from Moz showed that the effect they have on conversions can be quite severe. According to the study, when CAPTCHA’s were running, around 3.2% of non-spam conversions were lost.

Why? Well there’s two main reasons. CAPTCHA’s can be confusing for people who aren’t great with computers, and some people simply can’t be bothered to complete the CAPTCHA because it takes too long.

The takeaway – skip the CAPTCHA’s and sort through the spam. It’s not ideal but it’s better than losing leads once they’ve already taken the effort to fill in your form.

And, if you use a plugin like Kali Forms, you’ll find alternative spam prevention measures that are less intrusive, such as the honey-pot method that is only seen by bots.

CAPTCHA Turned On Graph

9. Use heatmap tracking & session replays

Heatmaps can tell you how people behave when they’re on your page. This data typically gives you insight into clicks and mouse movement.

This sort of data can be incredibly useful, especially with more complex contact forms.

However, session replays can highlight exactly what’s stopping your forms from converting.

If you want to try using heatmaps and session replays with your contact forms, check out our article comparing the best heatmap tracking software to get started.

Bonus tip – Split test!

As with all things when it comes to digital marketing, testing is the key to getting it right. Trial all these tips we’ve suggested and see how they work out for you.

You can continue to increase conversions by performing split tests to see which elements of your contact form boost conversions and which don’t. The more tests you can perform, the more honed your contact form will become.

While there are a number of premium A/B testing solutions on the market, Google Optimize will allow you to run split tests for free.

Hopefully, this article has provided a good starting point for increasing your contact form conversions. Good luck!

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