As a business, many of your marketing campaigns can be based on one main goal: getting people to fill out a form. Oftentimes, designing a compelling landing page isn’t enough to encourage people to submit their data. Many factors can discourage someone from filling out a form, including an unwillingness to provide contact information.

Say “NO” to distractions

When directing your audience to a form, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to distract them with detours. Landing pages should be as simple as possible. Here are some examples:

1. Direct your audience to a landing page, not your website.

You want people to do one thing: fill in a form. You should direct them with a simple and attractive email to a landing page that is specifically designed for your campaign. Sending someone to your website offers a plethora of distractions, including images and text that don’t apply to the appeal of your campaign, multiple links to other information, and in some cases, links to external websites. If you want people to reach their destination directly, don’t leave them in the middle of the web where navigating to the related topic can be complicated. Similarly, avoid cluttering your emails with the same distractions.

2. Minimize the navigation of the landing page.

Don’t offer an exit when trying to capture a person’s information on a form. Doing so can shift your initiative away from the main call to action. Will they find their way back to your form? Maybe. Most of the time not. Your landing pages should be designed in a simple way, and if possible with only ONE action they can take: fill out the form.

Be consistent

Emails, ads, and social media campaigns should look similar. Using different images, designs, titles or texts can create a disconnect for people and can even make a person feel that the content is not trustworthy. Instead, try using the following techniques in your design:

1. Use the same (or reasonably similar) header image in your email or post and on the landing page.

2. Repeat some of the content on the landing page, especially the title.

3. Use exactly the same colors in emails, landing pages, and on forms.

4. Always provide a clear CTA: Don’t make people search for it! One option is to use the “BOB” (for its acronym in English Big Orange Button). Emails and landing pages should always contain some version of the BOB.

Do more with less

Too often, we’ve seen emails and landing pages designed with too much text and too many images or even third-party advertising. Asking your audience to read a full magazine before they’ve filled out your form and already have some brand recognition will certainly help them lose interest or outright ignore you.

Here are some tips:

•  Your email should be fast, direct, and provide enough information to get them to the landing page, and don’t forget the BOB!

•  The juicy details should be found in the content downloaded after submitting the form, not in the email, and not on the home page either. Otherwise, what is the point of completing the form?

•  Use short forms! This may seem obvious, but we have seen many forms with an excessive number of fields. On average, forms with five fields or less have higher conversions. However, several factors can affect conversion even on short forms. For example, making the phone field mandatory is a very common detour. In some cases, simply moving the phone field to the bottom of the form can help. Results may vary depending on your content and your audience. To optimize your forms, try an A/B test and see which one performs better.

Positive results

In this exciting new digital age, social media has impacted the behavior of internet users in a way that creates multiple challenges for businesses. These days, we are all used to getting all the information we need in a short social media status message or a short online article. The main mission of companies is to learn from this behavior. These micro status messages prompt people to follow links to landing pages. Your marketing strategy should do the same.

Creating short, simple, and actionable marketing messages using the techniques we’ve explained on this blog can have a positive impact on conversion rates. While this is not an exhaustive list of conversion strategies, these basic concepts can have a significant impact on your results.