Overcoming Form Paralysis with A/B Testing and Best Practices

Form paralysis. It can happen to the best of us.

It’s that moment when you’re called to create a high converting landing page and form, but find yourself trapped in overthinking.

The form field dilemma

Remember the last time you were fired up to drive marketing qualified leads (MQLs) through your latest gated white paper, or a new offer? Your energy was high, rocking a 10 on the enthusiasm scale. New landing page? No problem. Impactful copy, clean layout, and a perfect image to elicit an emotional response.

And then the form.

Suddenly your enthusiasm was overshadowed by doubt.

• What if my audience doesn’t like answering so many questions?

• Can I get by without asking for a last name?

• What if they don’t want to enter their company?

• Should I change the CTA to something other than “submit”?

Down the rabbit hole you went, right to form paralysis. This unfortunate affliction causes project delays, may induce hives, and of course, does NOT convert.

There are ways to avoid this. Those include A/B testing, and using best practices.

Overcome form paralysis with testing

There is one solution that can immediately alleviate all that stress.

A/B test.

Each industry is slightly different, as are the audiences you speak to. Taking the time to fully understand them, and what will perform best for them, is worth the effort.

Create one landing page with a form containing the fields you would prefer to include, and a second option with the form pared down to as few fields as possible. Don’t forget to experiment with making only certain fields required. Then test them simultaneously (HubSpot makes this easy).

The duration of your test will depend on how large and active your audience is. You’ll know which form converted more successfully once your testing period is finished. The top performing version can then be posted going forward.

You may want to try additional A/B testing landing page variations of:

• Headline

• Content

• Images

Testing one aspect at a time is best. List your ideas and approach them in an organized manner for best results (and easier tracking).

While A/B testing landing pages and forms can more accurately identify a high performing version, there is more you can do.

Let’s take a step back, shall we?

Overcome form paralysis by using best practices

You’ll want to stay on top of industry best practices for high converting landing pages and forms. That information will ensure you create and build from a strong foundation BEFORE you test your creations.

Best practices for creating optimized forms anticipate the psychology of your audience and perceptions of how difficult it will be to complete the form.

A few examples include:

1. Only ask for necessary information

Your form field wish list may have many things. After all, a more complete picture of your MQL would be ideal. However, conversion rates have been shown to drop when there are more than 7 fields on a landing page form. The more fields there are, the more difficult the process appears to your audience. Make it less complicated.

2. Use one column for your form

A single column appears easier to complete. Staggered fields may unfortunately give the impression of a time-consuming chore, resulting in your audience bouncing out.

3. Align text/fields to the left

Aligning your form to the left with text above each field follows our natural reading cadence. It also lowers the amount of time needed to complete the form because your audience will read it faster.

4. Don’t ask for phone numbers

Include the phone number form field only if it’s critical. Downloading a white paper, signing up for newsletters, or even some information inquiries do not require a phone number from your audience. Asking for a phone number may feel invasive and spammy to them. Eliminating the phone number field can reduce your form abandonment rate.

5. Ask the easy questions first

Present the easy questions first, and save the more difficult questions or more sensitive personal information fields for last. It makes the form feel less intimidating to your end user. By the time they get to those fields, they’ll be near the end and more likely committed to finishing.

6. Name your form with a clear description

Reinforce why your audience is on the page and why they should complete the form. State very clearly what the form is for, such as “Sign up for our newsletter,” or “Download the white paper.” People are more likely to abandon form completion if it is not immediately clear what they are signing up for.

7. Make your form mobile friendly

Verify your form will display properly and be easy to fill out on mobile devices AND across different browsers. Any extra energy required from your audience to figure things out increases the likelihood that they will never fill out that form.

8. Expand your CTA beyond “submit”

Every CTA button used to say “submit.” But that word is not very descriptive, and can have negative associations. Try more pleasant copy that aligns with your offer, such as “Sign up now” or “Watch the video” or “Download infographic.” Using “submit” is still acceptable if nothing else seems to work, but give your best creative effort to identify alternatives before using it.

Once you become comfortable with best practices and testing your forms, you’ll acquire a deeper understanding of how your audience prefers to engage with your offers. That will mitigate form paralysis on your part, and allow you to move confidently forward to drive more successful conversions.

Read more on successfully converting sign ups for your email lists.

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