#8 - 3 More Tips for Better Form Completion Results

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.

#8 - 3 More Tips for Better Form Completion Results

Following up on my 3 tips to improve form completion, here are 3 more basic tips to increase the number of users who fill out and submit data in your forms:

1. Required Fields - Clearly delineate between required and option fields (usually achieved with an asterisk and a note of * Required Field).
2. Write People Friendly Error Messages - No matter how clear your instructions or fields, people will enter the data wrong one way or another. Chances are your tech guy wrote your error messages.Take a fresh look at error messages and replace any tech speak with plain language copy that is people friendly. Error messages should appear about the top of the page and next to the actual field that caused the error.
3. Pre-populate Data Where You Can - Never ask people to do something on your site where you can do it for them. If you have their information from registration, pre-populate it. If they came from a marketing tactic that allows you to fill in some data, such as their state, do so. The fewer steps you require, the few opportunities to abandon.

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