I wrote this back on January 23rd and submitted it for approval on PixelMEDIA’s Blog. (blog.pixelmedia.com/face-it-your-web-form-is-too-long/) After ten months it still hasn’t been posted, so I thought you might like to read it. Please note that my comment could have been filtered by a spam blocker, and my comment doesn’t take the clients request into account. PixelMEDIA is one of the best design and development agencies around!

The author has recommended the following six fields (two being optional):

* Full Name
* Job Title
Company
* Email
* Phone
Comments

I’d even think about cutting a few of those fields as well. Let’s start from the bottom up . . .

Comments are unnecessary here, as you know the purpose of the user filing out the form. They want to download the material! What are they going to tell you how excited they are to finish the form and print out the white paper?

Leave the comments for your general contact forms.

Phone number screams telemarketing and is one of the biggest road blocks aside from social security number. The subconscious thought process involves fear of declining offers. It’s much easier for a consumer to unsubscribe from an email than it is to tell a sales person to stop calling. Many are quick to avoid this confrontation whether they know it or not.

Email is a keeper!

This brings me to company, and a point that most people don’t always think about when optimizing a form. I realize that you want to know where your prospect works in order to help qualify them. This one field can answer many questions . . . Is this lead from a company we already service? Is it from a Fortune 500 that will get me a raise? Is this company qualified to use or afford our products?

All good questions, but they blind us from the simple fact we’re already asking for their company name! I’d say about 98% of all qualified leads will have the company.com as their email address. And if they care enough to use a personal/ web based email address, then they’re probably going to lie about the company name as well. Add a small step to your process and eliminate one from the form.

Job Title is a good field, but should not be required! I understand most clients “need” this to help qualify leads, but make it optional. Prospects with high level titles like to fill in that field. It’s almost like bragging about their position. If this field is left bank, the user is either very busy or embarrassed about their intern tag. Are you really going to base your follow-up decision on the title if the email address is audi.com? If the company’s a fit, you’re contacting whether it’s Intern Joe or CEO Jane!

Full Name is a keeper as well!

This is my standard rational for the common soft join form. Once you truly analyze what you need from a prospect to give them a whitepaper, the form gets pretty short. In this down economy is critical to capture as many prospects as possible. Use automated tools like drip email campaigns and feedback forms to further engage and qualify new leads.

Lastly, learn to measure Revenue per Email address. This is very similar to Revenue per Click in search engine marketing. Having a dollar amount tied to new leads, will help your clients understand the real value of each new address. Nothing means more to client-side marketing managers than ROI!

Keep up the good work guys!