11 Tips for Optimizing Landing Page Forms

Landing page forms help you gain leads and get your customers on the road to conversion. Here are some tips for their design and optimization.

Landing page forms are a marketing tool that demands some extra attention as they’re one of the most important tools in converting new clients. From a simple contact form to the most sophisticated versions, they will gain you leads and put your customers on the direct road to conversion. For this reason, you will want to avoid being stuck with clumsy or confusing landing page forms whose purpose is not immediately apparent.

All your painstaking advertising efforts will be in vain if your potential customers get stuck in the floodgates of a registration form. A good form should be meaningful, concise and easy to complete. It’s all about creating a positive user experience through your layout and content, which should guide people who have chosen your offer quickly and safely to their destination.

User experience as the basis of efficient landing page forms

User experience is a key factor in completing a landing page form. Nobody wants to waste their time answering a form. If it takes too long to complete, many users may prematurely jump off without completing their enquiry. You must ensure maximum ease of use to avoid any sense of frustration. Even seemingly simple forms, such as those used for registrations, applications or contacts, can be optimized with targeted measures.

For example, registration forms should ideally have a maximum of five fields to fill out. Recent studies have determined what information users are most willing to submit. These are requests concerning physical address, first name, last name, email address and telephone number. Here, the phone number and possibly the address or company details are quite private pieces of information that many users do not like to reveal during an initial contact.

It’s recommended that you ask for the most important data first as you can always collect additional data later.  You’ll gain more approval by asking interesting or meaningful questions of the user in the first instance. For example, a real estate company could quickly ask whether you are looking for an apartment or a house, seeking rental property or looking to buy your own home. Address data and other personal information should only be requested once the user’s interest has been piqued. Ask the most difficult questions at the very end. Setting your requirements too high at the start of a form can provoke a premature termination. On the other hand, when the form is almost complete the user’s willingness to take time for a few final, demanding questions will also increase.

Signing up can be simplified if you are able to offer a social media alternative, such as signing up via a Facebook account. All the user’s existing data can then be simply transferred.

To avoid further frustration, when creating forms, you should also clearly identify any mandatory fields, e.g. by the famous “*” star/ asterisk. If you choose to do this, you will need to include a legend as part of the form to explain what the asterisks stand for. Alternatively, you could highlight your mandatory fields using colored borders or fill colors.

Explain the purpose of your landing page form

Do not leave any questions unanswered – as soon as your users must ask themselves what they are complaining about, some uncertainty arises. Then, if there is no quick answer, many users will jump off. Make sure, in advance, that all your terms and requirements are sufficiently well explained, so that it’s immediately clear what data you are collecting and why. If necessary, you can do this by linking a FAQ section to the form. Once users know why you need their data and what you intend to do with it, they will be more willing to provide the information.

Building trust in this way makes it easier to get users to respond to your call-to-action. The submit button itself should clarify what happens after you click and submit the form. Use suitable captions such as “register for webinar” or “download now.” Finally, you can create a page to say thank you for completing the landing page form. In this way, you maintain contact with the customer and, if appropriate, can immediately point out further offers. This may, for example, include the option to obtain additional offers such as newsletters or sweepstakes.

Optimize your landing page forms for different customer groups. If your offer is extensive, it can be divided into sub-headings. For example, a travel agency could place a variety of preferences on a travel page. “Exploring by car”, “by boat” or “by air” could be the title of individual sub-pages with suitably adapted forms.

Tips for the layout of landing page forms

In the following, we present a selection of layout basics that may be helpful in creating larger landing page forms.

1. The Title: Give the form a unique name to make it clear.
2. Clarity: Make it easier for your users by dividing forms into meaningful subgroups, each with their own hierarchical order. It should always be clear to the user how far he or she has travelled. For example, display progress as a series of steps (page 2 of 4) or percentages (70% complete). A good layout can do a lot to make things easy and uncomplicated.
3. Distances: Make sure there is enough space between the individual fields. This makes the form more readable and pleasing to the eye.
4. Font and font size: Use easily readable fonts with sufficiently large letters. Block letters are best suited for use on the screen. A left alignment is recommended for an ideal reading flow.
5. Field labels: Each input field should have a name that unambiguously explains its purpose. In most forms, the name should be placed directly above the field.
6. Field size: The size of the input field should always be sufficient to enter the respective data easily. For example, fields for dates of birth can be small, while input fields for names or other personal details should offer more space. Thus, your field sizes allow the input effort to be assessed at a glance.
7. Mark when fields have been filled in correctly: For example, the classic tick or check mark is a symbol that’s immediately recognizable. You should mark all your mandatory fields.
8. Minimize scrolling: Ideally, each section of your form should fit on a screen. Split the form so that users can “flip” it without having to scroll.
9. Responsive layout: Pay special attention to the fact that the keyboard layouts should correspond to the purpose of the input field. There is not much space on a smartphone display; therefore, when entering your email address, for example, it is very convenient when the “@” icon is also available in the keyboard view.
10. Reflect your Corporate Identity (CI): Essentially, the layout of your landing pages should seamlessly fit your CI as it appears in your company design. Use this to reinforce the recognition value of your brand.
11. Use templates as required: Numerous templates for landing pages are available as internet downloads. If you don’t have the budget or the talent to design your own, you can quickly get started with a free template.

Test the success of your landing page forms

A/B testing or split testing allows you to try different variants of the same landing page simultaneously in order to test their effectiveness. As well as different colors and headings, you can also test more complex variants. For example, in one variant you could integrate the form directly on the landing page and in another version include an intermediate step in which the form is called up via a call-to-action button. Whilst some users may like to get started, others can feel slightly taken by surprise when immediately confronted with a form. The latter group may require detailed text or graphic information. A/B testing will help you find out which version is better for your target group.

Conclusion

There are many clear rules for creating user-friendly forms on landing pages that are easy for newbies to use. Working with templates will provide a lot of practical knowledge. Of course, your conversions will ultimately depend on the quality of your offer and your online marketing. This information will then help you pave the way for satisfied customers to conclude a deal.

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