What Fields Should be Required on Contact Forms?

At Leap Clixx, one of the reasons we love inbound marketing so much is because it’s a unique blend of technology, psychology, science, and of course creativity.

However, as fun and inspiring as things get on the inbound marketing landscape, there are some basics that, frankly, don’t rank all that high on the excitement scale – yet are critical for success. And at the top of this admittedly boring, but extremely important list of fundamentals are CONTACT FORMS.

Contact Forms Matter More than You Might Think!

Of course, you already know that contact forms matter because they’re the mechanism through which prospects reach out and download your (hopefully great) content — such as ebooks, whitepapers, checklists, guides, infographics, and so on.

And even more importantly as far as you are concerned, contact forms are the gateways that allow you to capture some valuable data about your prospects, so that you can follow-up, build a relationship, and ideally usher them forward on the customer journey.

However, what you may not know – but definitely need to factor into your inbound marketing campaign – is that what you ask on a contact form (i.e. the fields you use) directly impacts whether or not it will be filled out in the first place!

Contact Forms: What to Ask and When

Contrary to popular belief, the design of your contact forms shouldn’t be made in light of the content that’s being offered. So that means you shouldn’t think to yourself: “the content we’re offering here is outstanding and we spent a lot of money and time on this, so let’s make sure we get the most bang for our buck by asking for all kinds of information”. This kind of thinking is theoretically appealing, but not aligned with what actually works in reality.

Instead, the design of your contact forms should be mapped to where prospects are on the customer journey. For example, prospects who are doing their preliminary research – i.e. checking out companies, exploring possible solutions – should only be asked to provide their name and email address; not because you don’t want them to give you more data, but because they simply won’t give you anything more. Asking for too much too soon triggers disengagement. It’s really that simple.

The good news, of course, is that you can and should ask for more data as the relationship deepens, and prospects are further along in the customer journey. For example, you might be able to capture their phone number, industry, job role, budget, top problems/goals, and so on if the prospect is nearing a purchase decision.

The Bottom Line

As you can hopefully now see and appreciate, while contact forms aren’t the most exciting pieces of the inbound marketing puzzle, they play a surprisingly significant role in campaign success – or more often, lack of success.

Learn More

To learn more about what fields to include on your contact forms – and to ensure that they’re working for your business vs. against it — contact the Leap Clixx team today. Your consultation with us is free and so is our FREE eBook on Inbound Marketing best practices found below: