With nearly 75% of companies using web forms for lead generation, it seems silly that you’d have to sell the value of them at all. But you may still need to convince your C-suite of the value that a new form solution brings your organization.
The Big C-Suite Questions
First, your executive team is going to want to know the basics, the big questions that impact the bottom line, such as:
- What’s the value to our company?
- How much does it cost?
- What makes your choice the best one compared to others?
They rightfully keep an eye on business costs, so these are fair questions. Fortunately, when it comes to online forms, there are plenty of benefits right out of the gate.
Benefits of Online Forms
From the get-go, online forms offer a myriad of positives that can help you take your conversion opportunities to the next level.
You get full control of what you’re asking
Online forms allow you or your company to build the form fields you need completed. And better yet, you can adjust or alter those fields if you find they’re not getting the information you need. This puts you in the driver seat to iterate and build forms that are usable and conversion-friendly for your audiences.
You’ll save time, money, and the trees
Eco-friendliness is one major benefit of online forms because you’re using less paper, which reduces waste and cost.
But aside from that, you’ll save on envelopes and stamps, printing fees, and the cost of paper itself by using online forms. You’ll also have an automatic repository of the form data that’s submitted versus having to scan or input the form data by hand.
You’ll increase conversion opportunities
These days, many everyday tasks are moving online. From ordering pizzas to scheduling doctor’s appointments, people like being a click away from checking things off their to-do lists.
With online forms, you’ll have an easier route to conversion. You can use online forms anywhere on your site such as:
- Account log-ins
- Appointment or consultation requests
- Contact or assistance requests
- Event registration
- Online payments
- Subscriptions, such as email or retail
- Surveys
The information you get from these forms allows you to customize your communication with consumers, too.
You’ll track success (and failures) with ease
Form solutions often come with analytics and the ability to see completion and abandonment rates, but you can also utilize tools like Google Analytics to track the conversion path and journey of users on your website to see how well your funnel is working.
As you monitor your analytics and see trends of what’s working and what’s not, you’ll have the opportunity to adjust fields, simplify forms, and apply other content and design methods to make your forms more conversion-friendly.
Create a Form Feature & Cost Matrix
Obviously, identifying the cost of any form solution you’re considering is important, especially to your executives.
The best way to start is to consider creating a matrix of comparison between the solutions you’ve found.
Break down information including:
- Name of solution
- Subscription costs and tiers (if tiers available)
- Number of forms allowed
- Administrator access or team size allowed
- Security of forms , including SSL, HIPAA, or financial security of forms
- Email routing options and limits
- Domain usage or limits
- Types of forms allowed, including event registrations or payment processing forms
- Customer support options
- Any other features or options that are on your “must have” list
As you compare the features and costs, consider having a conversation with your executive team about the priorities they have from a business standpoint. While the number of administrators allowed might be important to you, it may not be as vital to the bottom line (or for their approval).
Tie Business Goals to Your Ideal Solution
After you’ve completed your matrix, start building a case for your top choices. Ideally, you’ll be able to whittle it down to two or three options that make the best sense for your organization.
Whether it’s a conversation, sharing your matrix, or a full-fledged slideshow presentation, think about your organization’s business goals first and tie those to the solutions you’re defending.
For example, if keeping teams efficient and making sure customers get the information they need in a timely manner, response routing might be an important consideration. Likewise, if you’re hoping to build interaction across multiple websites or microsites, domain limitations might come into play.
Schedule Demos
With the approval from your teammates and executives on your choices, get ready to start contacting companies for demos, if possible. By walking through the software in real-time, you may notice things that weren’t obvious from the initial research phase.
Demos help you see how the software works, not only the user interface (UI) and design, but the functionality for administrators. Come with questions, asking about the ease or efficiency of completing certain tasks as an administrator, so you can see what it looks like and make your final choice confidently.
Reach Out to Formulate
If you’re interested in Formulate as your form solution, don’t hesitate to reach out for a demo or pricing information. We’re happy to show you everything it can do and how it can support your business.