If you’re like a lot of people, you’ve probably made a New Year’s resolution for the new year, or you plan on making one.
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but the odds are you won’t keep it for very long. Why are we telling you this, and what does this have to do with web forms?
Here’s why: You can increase your chances of keeping a resolution 10 times if you know specifically what you want to achieve, and we’re here to give you six very clear, very achievable form resolutions for the New Year.
You don’t have to accomplish all of them, but if you commit to one and stick to it in 2018, you’ll be miles ahead of where you are now in just a year’s time.
1. Replace One Old Paper Process With a Form
As we ring in 2018, say goodbye to paper forms. Let’s be honest. No one likes them, and they’re wasting your time and resources.
Just about any paper form can be made into a web form, benefitting both you and your users. You’ll be able to cut out repetitive data entry, and your users will be able to complete a task much more easily than they would with a paper form.
Not to mention, web forms allow all sorts of cool things like prefilling of data, CRM and payment processor integrations, and easy branding and design.
Don’t be scared of change. Identify a web form that’s taking up valuable resources and transform it into a streamlined, sophisticated web form.
Read more: “8 Tips for Translating a Paper Process to a Web Form Process”
2. Move Beyond Boring Forms
If you’ve already embraced web forms as standard practice in your company, that’s great! Kudos to you! But are you really getting the most out of your form building tool or are you settling for blah forms with no design or branding? Generic forms will do the trick in some cases, but with all the possibilities for easy form design (no need to be a web developer), why would you want to stop there?
Web forms can function well and look great; you don’t need to choose between the two. In 2018, look at your forms and ask yourself if they’re contributing to brand recognition or whether they’re utterly forgettable. Are they designed to be pleasing to look at or do they look outdated and boring?
Your forms reflect on your brand, just like your website design does. If your form design isn’t where it needs to be, take steps to improve it in 2018.
Read more: “[eBook] The Ultimate Guide to Web Form Design”
3. Connect a Form to Salesforce and Say Hello to Better Processes
Does your organization use Salesforce? Chances are the answer is yes. Salesforce is an excellent software for storing information and streamlining communication for multiple industries, from higher ed and nonprofit to healthcare and financial services.
If you’re using Salesforce to store information, you also need the right form solution to get data into Salesforce (and make better use of it once it’s there). FormAssembly’s Salesforce Connectors are the perfect way to start connecting data to Salesforce. Start with one form, then give the Salesforce Prefill Connector a try, then before you know it, all of your forms will be Salesforce-connected, helping you rid your organization of manual data entry and data problems associated with human error.
Read more: “[eBook] Use FormAssembly With Salesforce to Streamline Processes and Optimize Data Collection”
4. Examine the Security and Compliance of Your Current Web Form Solution
Regardless of your industry, you want to know that the data collected by your forms is being handled in a secure manner, but there are certain industries and situations where extra protection or compliance is required.
If you need to collect sensitive data with your forms, look for things like encryption at rest and PCI DSS Level 1 Certification (FormAssembly offers both on all plans). These extra security measures help you ensure you’re conducting business in a secure way and are compliant with important regulations.
Read more: “[eBook] The Healthcare CIO’s Guide to Revolutionary Data Collection With Web Forms”
5. Improve the Experience for Your Users, Whoever They May Be
If you’re in higher education, your form respondents might be students. If you work in financial services, they might be financial advising clients. If it’s healthcare, patients are likely filling out your forms. Whatever the audience, make a resolution this year to be user focused when it comes to your forms.
Make it simple for new clients, patients, prospective students and other to fill out forms by providing clean, one-column layouts, prefilling information when possible, and redirecting people to polite thank you pages upon submission.
Read more: “3 Web Form Design Pitfalls to Eliminate”
6. Take One Form That’s Not Converting Like You Think It Should Be, and Figure Out Why
Conversion isn’t just a marketing-centered goal or objective. If users aren’t filling out forms, whether it’s a donation form, application form, or anything else, you need to figure out why so you can move closer to your goals. Conversion optimization can be a daunting task, so start with just one form and analyze every aspect of it to find what’s tripping your users up.
Even if your forms are bringing in enough responses, you might be able to make them even more effective.
Try tactics like:
- Removing unnecessary form fields
- Not asking for information like phone numbers
- Doing a better job of explaining the value to the user of filling out your forms
Make strategic changes to your forms and test them out multiple times to find out what works and what doesn’t.
Read more: “4 Hacks to Increase Your Form Conversion Rate”
7. Only Use Forms in One Department? Explore Ways to Branch Out
Yes, you can capture leads with forms, but that’s far from the only way to use them. Web forms can be used in any department to streamline just about any process from vacation requests to marketing projects to customer feedback forms.
If you’re only using web forms for one department, make a resolution to branch out and use them in all areas of your company. At FormAssembly, we use our own web form tool to improve efficiency in HR, marketing, sales, customer service and more.
Read more: “8 Ways Our Marketing Team Uses FormAssembly”, “7 Ways Our Customer Support Team Uses FormAssembly”
8. If You’ve Outgrown the Form Solution You’re Using, Learn How to Level Up
If you’re on a Premier Plan or Professional Plan and feel like it’s time to make a change, consider our Enterprise or Compliance Cloud plans:
FormAssembly’s Enterprise offering includes:
- Multiple users
- Admin control
- Enterprise-level security
- & more
FormAssembly’s Compliance Cloud plan includes:
- HIPAA ComplianceÂ
- Security and privacy controls for sensitive data
- Priority Support
- 99.9% SLAÂ
- & more
Read more: Compliance Cloud features, Enterprise features
Face the new year with a renewed understanding of how to create amazing forms that improve productivity across your organization. When you’re ready, take the next step and check out our plans.
