Web Forms: How And Where To Use Them For Your Business

In today’s era of technology, digitization & the internet, rapid & immense industrial growth is no longer a distant dream for businesses. With the emergence of more & more, unique AI driven solutions, like ChatGPT, OpenAI Codex, etc., we are at the threshold of a disruption to the conventional & long-established business styles.

Does that mean mass lay-offs? Well, that’s a different subject of discussion.

But, does that mean businesses can expect newer & more efficient ways to operate and optimize their processes? 

Yes! And that’s what digital transformation is all about. And today we are going to discuss one of the most important elements of digital transformation: WEB FORMS.

What is a Web Form?

A Web Form, or an HTML Form (as the tech nerds you know like to call it) is an online page/document which allows the website on which they are hosted, to gather data/input/personal information from its users and subsequently transfer it to a server for processing.

Web Forms can be of several kinds depending upon the information the business is required to obtain from its users.

Although there is no limitation or a defined scope as regards the appearance, length, content-type, format, layout, design, etc., of a form, it should fundamentally be user-centric; as in understandable by the user, possessing only relevant fields, simple with a glitch-free and smooth interface.

How Does Setting Up Web Forms Help Your Business?

Web Forms, as the name itself suggests, are web based and so are the data storage & analysis systems associated with them. Not only do they make obtaining the information easy, but also help in storing & analysing it in a more organized and efficient manner.

Quoting HubSpot’s 2022 marketing statistics – “28% of marketers say the right form fields help improve lead scoring, which means more qualified leads.”

They are a paper-free and economic solution for gathering, storing and analysing user/client data making them sustainable both for the economy & the ecology. (Well, kind of a threat to Dunder-Mifflin!)

Since it’s all web based, tracking and accessing any updates and changes becomes real-time and synchronized. Not only does capturing information become easy, but so does validating, authenticating and integrating it with the crucial business systems. The business processes, in general become streamlined and lead to improved & accelerated customer service & satisfaction, feasible operational costs and reduced cycle times, mutually benefiting the business and its client.

As the information entered by the user directly gets stored on the server, the errors caused due to manual data entry and its associated transmission, become almost negligible. The information obtained therefore, is based on accurate and reliable analysis and can be used for making well-informed and largely unambiguous business decisions.

With CMS & SAP systems in place, submitted forms find secured storage, sharing & management.

Needless to say, they save the time, effort and resources of the organization.

Check this out for a video-based tutorial:

What Are The 6 Important Places Where Your Business Should Be Using Web Forms?

Well, the thing about ‘tech’ is, it sort of expands to all areas. Whether you’re a tech company offering SaaS, IaaS, PaaS solutions; a clothing/fashion brand looking to expand through their website; a restaurant; or even an education-service based company; it doesn’t matter. If you have a website & are looking to expand, web forms will cater to you!

A few ways on how forms can help your business are discussed below:

1. ACQUIRING LEADS: The most important functionality of web-forms is undoubtedly, acquiring leads. If you set up a contact form and ask your potential clients for their emails, you can easily create an extensive emailing-list. Adding a checkbox asking your users to subscribe to your monetized newsletter or even for simply allowing that they receive your promotional offers, can go a long way with regard to both traffic to your website as well as brand-building.

2. GATHERING FEEDBACK: The most important thing after acquiring a customer, is to get them to give you feedback. They can be used in the form of testimonials and can be helpful for showcasing your performance. Also, worthwhile feedback from even a small percentage of your customer base, might just end up giving you the breakthrough you were seeking for your product. Besides, it helps you to connect better with your customers and they feel a better sense of connection with your brand. Value the customers & they value your brand!

3. ONLINE RETAILING: People who don’t want to bear the expenses incurred by an e-commerce website may start selling products and services online using a form tool which allows for payment integrations.

4. LINK-BUILDING & WEBSITE TRAFFIC: Forms are a viable method to gain valuable input from your users, in the manner of images, feedback, reviews, comments & even entire blog posts. The responses thus received, may act as traffic sources and help in back-linking as well. All this, and the users don’t even have to have access to the backend of your website.

5. EVENT/SEMINAR/WEBINAR BASED FORMS: In case event, seminar & webinar sign-ups are a large part of your product/service growth, forms again have a vital role to play. For instance, businesses that depend on generating funding through websites like KickStarter & Indiegogo, often require a large emailing/contact list for promotions/deals/advertisements and forms are a sophisticated way to build this list.

6. SURVEYS: Gone are the days, where surveys were conducted by going door-to-door. Surveys are now-a-days not only conducted for government/official/institutional purposes but also serve as a resource for case-studies, researches and large-scale studies. Large websites like HubSpot, Ahrefs, etc. often have annual blogs showcasing statistics for various topics. These statistics are indeed obtained through survey forms & their analysis. This also improves the user engagement on the website.

How Web Forms Can Be The Game Changer For Your Business?

Forms are one of the most essential & economic tools as regards digital transformation of a business. They are effective sources of data collection, storage & management. They help streamline business processes thereby improving overall efficiency of the organization. 

As simple as they are in terms of usage, they go a long way in building a solid customer base, contact list and branding!

Start your Forms journey now!

We at Formester are in perfect form to get it done for you!