Forms are one of the most important elements of your inbound marketing campaign. From registration to sales calls, forms are put to a variety of use by businesses. The aim of forms is to collect important information from the users. Most businesses have the urge to collect as much information as possible from their users. It is a logical thing to do like the more information you have about a customer it allows you to run a targeted marketing campaign. But from a user’s point of view, they’d want to get done with the registration or other types of form filling without much effort. As a designer, the challenge is to collect maximum information and yet make the experience smooth and enriching for your clients.
As you set to design a form you’d obviously be in a state of dilemma regarding the choice between single-step form and multi-step forms. Which among this is better? The fact of the matter is that both these types of forms have their own pros and cons and you should choose one depending on your goals and the type of information you NEED to collect. Bear in mind we have emphasized the word need. For instance, if you aren’t selling a product for the users’ pets you can ignore asking them the pet’s name or age! Jokes apart, let us now look at how you can choose the right form type for your project.
Sign Up Form
Single-Step Forms
As the name suggests these forms require users to fill all the relevant details in a single form. They are widely used such as in case of Event Registrations, Newsletter Subscriptions, Requesting Support Services and Contact Us forms. Once the user is done filling the form they submit it and their request is registered with a confirmation message.
Single-page Form
When to use Single-Step Forms?
Single-Step forms are used best when you need basic information from your users to initiate the next course of action. For instance, if the user is interested in your product and requests for an agent to call them their NAP (name, address and phone number) should be enough. You can add an email address to it when you want.
When not to use Single-Step Forms?
Any form where you require more than basic information from the user single-step forms is counter-productive. They seem long and the user might just stay away from filling all the relevant details. In terms of numbers of fields, you shouldn’t go for a single-step form where there are more than four fields.
Multi-Step Forms
Multi-step forms are used when you require users to submit several details for an action to be performed. These are used in case of Product Registrations, Customer Enrolments, etc. where you break down the form into different sets instead of a long one. Users complete filling a step before moving into the next. These types of forms are known to increase conversion rates as compared to a long single-step form.
Multi-page Form
When to use Multi-Step Forms?
If your form requires users to fill up several fields, it is wise to break the form into smaller steps. You should try and group similar fields in order to give users a sense of the process rolling. State the number of steps they would need to take upfront as this will prevent users from abandoning the process mid-way.
When not to use Single-Step Forms?
You shouldn’t use multi-step forms when you are seeking basic information from the users or add irrelevant fields just to match your competition. It unnecessarily complicates things and denies them a good user experience.
To sum up, the use of a single-step and multi-step form should be based on the exact requirements and should choose your option judiciously.
How to Create Single Step/Multistep Forms in WordPress?
WordPress has plenty of form plugins. If you want to create forms then you can use Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, and WPForms. However, creating a plain-looking multi-step form won’t help you increase your conversions. Instead, you should design your forms so that their font sizes, line height, width, borders, etc all complement your site. This can be easily achieved by using any of the following plugins.
All the above addons design the various aspects of the forms with a live preview of all changes you make.
Please let us know in the comment section about which form plugin or service you use and why do you prefer it over others.
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