#18 - 3 Simple Ways To Improve Form Completion

This is my series of 30 brief interactive marketing tips. I’m posting each business day at 8:30 a.m. EST. Catch them all by subscribing to my blog or bookmarking the site. All of the posts will be tagged “30 interactive marketing tips” and listed on this page.

#18 - 3 Simple Ways To Improve Form Completion

Forms of all sorts deserve special attention, because they often appear as part of a critical task on your site: checkout, newsletter registration, catalog request, etc.

1. Minimize Required Fields - Only ask for the information you really need. You can always get more information later, but if people abandon your forms to protect their information, they’re often lost forever.
2. Offer Reassurance About Privacy and Use - Clearly explain how you plan to use and share the information you gather. Reassure people at the point in form where they may wonder the most, e.g. next to or underneath the field for email addresses.
3. Accept Data In A Variety of Formats - People will enter data in ways you couldn’t imagine. Create fields that accept the data flexibly. For example, let people enter phone numbers with and without dashes.

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