Web forms are where your prospects become your leads. All your ambitious advertising campaigns, lovingly crafted landing pages, strategic SEO efforts and compelling content, finally pay off when that form gets filled in. As such it’s really, really important to get them right.
Consider this: If your average lead value is £500, your landing page attracts 1000 visitors a day, and your web conversion rate is 4%. A dip in conversion rate to 3% would equate to a £5000 daily loss. Despite this, we marketers rarely give the humble web form much thought, we make do with the platform or method that was being used by our company when we started. And if that makes you curious about: how are other people doing it? Or, what if there’s a better way? Or, what if there is a much, much better way?! Read on! Because I have spent an obscene amount of time looking into it. To get started, let’s compare how most people build and manage their web forms.
Marketing Automation Platforms
Eloqua, Marketo, Pardo, Hubspot
Large enterprises commonly leverage the native web forms integrated into their Marketing Automation Platforms (MAPs). Due to their inherent connection with the platform it does make tracking and reporting a bit easier, but they suffer from being outdated, cumbersome, and feature-light. The process of creating forms is largely manual and requires significant effort from your marketing team.
When using a MAP, forms are embedded on your website using static HTML or Scripts. Consequently, any modification to a form mandates a tedious cycle—return to the MAP, implement changes, retrieve the HTML, and update the web page. This labor-intensive procedure will be repeated for every single change, for every single web form, on every single page, AKA Snoozeville, Population: a few hundred thousand interns.
Content Management Software
Drupal, WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Sitecore
A Content Management Systems (CMS) primarily focuses on content management but can integrate web forms into their templates. Most CMSs will come with a basic built-in form component, but unless you only need a simple contact form, they are unlikely to have the features and connectivity required to be anything other than a hindrance. CMSs get around this by offering a marketplace of plugins and extensions with varied levels of functionality, customisation, connectivity and cost.
Form Builders
Form.io, FormStack, JotForm, 123FormBuilder, TypeForm
Dedicated form builder platforms are specifically designed for the creation of lead forms, surveys, and feedback forms. Unlike MAPs or CMSs, form builders generally provide a more extensive array of form-related features and a much cleaner UX. Additionally, they offer a broader range of integrations and APIs so you can connect with other marketing tools. It’s worth noting that (as the name suggests), form builders place a primary emphasis on the creation of forms, with comparatively less focus on comprehensive form management. So with form builders you’re going to have lot more templates and designs to choose from, they are also going to be easier to build and provide a better experience for your web users. However, large enterprises are going to struggle with management across regional marketing teams and data governance (getting the right data to the right place in the right format) will be a challenge.
Bespoke
The DIY Approach
So you’ve had a look around and nothing quite fits the bill, why not build them yourself? Bespoke or DIY web forms involve custom development by your in-house (or outsourced) web team from scratch. It is by far the most flexible approach but it is also the most resource-intensive. While this does give you complete control over form design and functionality you’re going to have to keep going back to the developers for ongoing support, updates and maintenance. With the average day rate of a digital project manager or senior web developer being £400+, this is not a viable option for a lot of companies.
What is the best way to build web forms? Well.....
Herein lies the frustration, none of these options feel like a win, they all have drawbacks. MAPs and CSMs treat forms like an afterthought and prove to be tedious to build and manage. On the other hand form builders excel in aesthetics but often lack the tailored marketing focus and robust tools needed for enterprise-level form management and data governance. As for the DIY approach, it’s a formidable task that proves too burdensome for most companies to entertain. This is exactly why we built GatedContent.com, the humble web form is finally getting the attention it deserves, here’s how…
The GateContent.com Approach
- GatedContent.com is the only form solution that gives control of form deployment and data governance to marketing teams.
- Forms are created using our Smart Templates that are actively connected to forms even after they are deployed to your website.
- Marketers can define their data capture standards and make ongoing tweaks to them even after forms are live.
- Forms are automatically monitored for performance and to log where they are being used in your site.
- Deploying forms into a site does not involve any technical skill or integration. Marketers embed forms into pages using a simple hyperlink.
- The system is packed with built-in no-code solutions for digital marketers such as pre-population, progressive profiling, dynamic fields, attribution capture, blind submits, geo-location, marketing consent and more.