Nurture your users by personalizing the content they see. If you have it, pull information such as name, location, referral source, etc. from your database or link appends, and dynamically insert it into your page or email copy. For example, let’s imagine we have a job board with a headline that reads, “Companies are hiring people like you:”. If we know where they’re searching, we can personalize the headline with dynamic fields. It then becomes, “Companies in Cleveland are hiring people like you”. This adds to the user experience by speaking more specifically to each user’s needs. Of course, you might not always have the information to dynamically insert for every user, so always be sure to set a default entry, such as “in your area”, or word the content in a way so that the dynamic fields can simply be left out, as we did in the example above.
Remove the “clear fields” button from your form
This one should be pretty obvious, but you still see a lot of forms out there with them. Offering your users an easy option to clear fields that they’ve already completed just doesn’t make a lot of sense when you’re trying to get people to complete the form fields. Stop making it easy for users to change their minds about whether or not to provide their information! Yes, there may be a case or two out there where someone might argue that providing this option helped them improve the quality of their leads or the accuracy of their database information because they were auto populating the fields, but in most cases it’s just plain not going to get you more lead conversions.
Try a single column form
One of the most important things to consider when designing forms is it’s scanability. Before making the decision to even begin filling out a form, most users will quickly scan the form, taking a quick mental inventory of what will be required of them. If the user feels that the form is too long or too complicated to be worth their time and effort, they may likely decide not to complete it at all. By vertically stacking your fields and sticking to a single column layout, your form fields will appear more organized and will be easily scanable from top to bottom.
There are a few related form fields, however, that are much more acceptable to list side by side. To make your form seem slightly shorter, try listing closely grouped items, such as first and last name, city and state, and dates next to each other horizontally.
Clean up your layout
Overcomplicated, busy designs have a tendency to be distracting. Try a crisp, clean layout that will allow your call to action to be the focus of the page. A clean layout will also help your content appear more organized, allowing your users to more quickly find what they’re looking for.
Make your site look more professional
Your visitors begin forming opinions about your business before they’ve even read a word of your copy. The second they land on your site, they’re presented with visuals that instantly begin forming impressions based solely on outward appearance. And because trust plays such a crucial role in whether or not your visitors will convert, it’s important that your site look trustworthy. If it doesn’t, many visitors may just bounce. Avoid looking “spammy” by investing the extra money to hire a professional designer. It shouldn’t look like you threw it together with some cheap drag and drop software in the mid-late 90’s. A website that looks expensive and professional usually is. It’s no different than being approached on the street by a disheveled homeless man versus a clean-cut business man in a suit and tie—would you turn and walk the other way or would you stop to listen what he has to say?