Having the ability to fluidly connect with your customers and employees will help keep your business organized and in sync. Well structured and integrated web forms align enquiries with products or services or help to initiate powerful advertising deals between companies. All too often there are stories of how a simple web form enquiry; out of the blue one day helped to forge business alliances that last generations.

So in most cases the online form is the very first stage in a emerging business relationship. Using custom online forms to connect with those potential audiences and relationships will help achieve those goals, as well as help you better manage those relationships over time.

Online form builders like JotForm and others for example, allow you to easily create customizable forms for a variety of business situations, and use pre-made templates across a handful of categories to get you started. Business owners can choose from hundreds of options to get them started, and begin reaping the benefits immediately.

The Different Types of Online Web Form

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A web form can be so much more than a simple contact enquiry. Every web site should have this kind of web form as an absolute minimum in order to track enquiries.

Here in this feature post we examine how online forms can help a blog or business web site prosper. Why those web properties that do not use the simple form are missing a valuable marketing opportunity.

Web Forms for WordPress

Caldera Forms WordPress

Caldera Forms WordPress: We use this WordPress form plugin on DesignBump and it works a treat.

If you run a WordPress blog then there are scores of WordPress plugins that offer advanced web form integrations. One of our favorite such plugins is Caldera forms, which we use on DesignBump. This web form plugin is free although there is a ‘Pro’ version with additional features. Caldera Forms not only captures each enquiry but stores them inside the WordPress Admin.

General Contact Form

Your contact form is one of the most important aspects of your website. This is where potential customers have the opportunity to get in touch with you.  Unfortunately, there are many businesses that just throw up a contact form page without putting much thought into it.

For example, most business owners will allow users to input a general contact form collecting information such as the name, email, and any relevant comments. This makes it complicated for businesses to collect the right information to service those potential clients.

Let’s say a potential client inquires about your web design services, and puts a load of information into the comments section regarding how they want their website to look. This would create a stream of conversation that can be hard to manage. You’ll find yourself bouncing between email threads, looking for information that’s pertinent to your services.

However, if you created a form that collected the right information and had a plugin or app that siphoned that information to the right place, it would be much easier to acquire clients and stay on top of new business. Many form builders come equipped with apps and plugins to make this process simple.

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Application Web Forms

Application forms are necessary for attracting the right people. Whether you’re hiring for your business, own a building and are using it for potential renters, or for students filling out scholarship information, your applications need to be highly customized and intuitive. How your application form looks also can insinuate how professional your company is. You want to appear as branded and cohesive as possible, and with a great application form, you can create a great first interaction.

Survey Web Forms

Surveys are a great way to collect information about your business or organization. Good online form platforms come equipped with survey and reporting tools for better organization. When you use surveys to better your business, you’re proving to your customers that you value their opinion. No company put the survey effort forward just because: they do so to make calculated, informed decisions about where to go next and what to improve.

You can use a survey to: glean marketing insights and find out what your audience likes and dislikes; track company performance to keep your customer service and operations in line; follow up with your customers; and better understand your customer graphics. Take a look at this list of survey questions for ideas on what to add to your survey form.  

Registration Forms

Event organizers everywhere are constantly looking for new ways to streamline the registration process and workload, and increase customer satisfaction along the way. Online registration forms make it easy to plan any type of event, whether it’s a conference, workshop, camp, summer program, classes, or private event invitations.

Users can fill out the registration form on mobile or web, and businesses will have information directly funneled to the right location for further planning. This makes it simple for all parties involved.

You can even build the registration form to have the same look and feel as your site, making the entire experience flow nicely. All your online data will be secure, and you’ll receive real-time updates about who’s attending your event, so you’ll never be confused on what to expect. This effectively eliminates all manual processes associated with registration, which can cause confusion and take much longer.

Wrapping Up

These are just examples of how you can use custom online forms to truly build out and develop the methods by which you communicate with a variety of different audiences. Forms can vary in complexity of course. That said every web site should at least have a working contact form in order to process basic public enquiries.

There are endless options for integrating different form types into a web site or application. Either custom code, commercial scripts or WordPress plugins. These are platform specific methods that make it easy to create forms of any type, no matter what niche you’re in or business type you run.

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