BUILDInG fUnCTIOnAL fORMS With landing pages, less is more. Companies that Follow best practices. Don’t just think about the number ask for more than a handful of data points in the of form fields; think about how they’re organized. Here first interaction with a visitor are encouraging form are some best practices for setting up and formatting abandonment. How can marketers use forms to collect your forms: prospect information without overwhelming their buyers? • If you have a short list of mutually exclusive options, use a radio button instead of a dropdown Decide what information to collect. One thing to keep menu. This helps users scan faster. in mind when it comes to forms: there is an inverse • Use checkboxes when users can select multiple relationship between the number of form fields and the values simultaneously or when giving a single form’s conversion rates. One of the biggest mistakes option that can be toggled on and off. that marketers make is asking too many questions on their forms. A general rule of thumb is to keep it to • When you need a single selection, but you have five fields or fewer, which means that you’ll need to more than a few options, use a dropdown menu. prioritize the most important information first. • Only select a default when you are confident that Because of the multi-touch nature of B2B sales, the vast majority of users will select that option, marketers shouldn’t panic if they can’t collect all of the and ensure it’s clearly labeled. information they want about a prospect during that first interaction. each touch point provides an opportunity • If your labels are beside your form fields, to collect more data and build up a prospect’s profile consider making them right-aligned for enhanced over time. If you have a marketing automation tool, you readability. If form length isn’t an issue, use top- can use progressive profiling to dynamically present alignment for even faster form-filling. users with new questions each time they access a form (while hiding fields that they’ve already completed). This lessens the burden on prospects, while still allowing you to collect the valuable information that the marketing and sales teams need to move forward. 7 / Pardot