Are you asking for too much information?

In our continuing series on landing page design sins we next talk about asking too much information on forms. A lot of times too much information is being asked for that although may be valuable for you, have no value what-so-ever to the visitor who is asking, “Is this information necessary”? For example asking the visitor, “How did you hear about us” would seem very valuable for you but to the visitor has no bearing to them.

Think of it this way, if you were letting your visitors download something what would the minimum amount of information you would think would be needed to allow them to do this? Most would say their email address. When in truth nothing is needed you can just allow the visitor to download immediately. But if you do wish to gather that information do not ask for anything further like zip code or something like that. In the visitors mind they are thinking at this time what have they gotten of value in exchange for giving out that information. Another issue informs that i have seen is asking for information out of sequence or asking for inappropriate or information that is too personal.

Below is an example of a form asking for too much  information. This form is for gathering leads which they are drawing from pay-per-click advertising. This example is asking for way too much information like name, address, home phone, cell phone, best times to call, and more. Now as i mentioned this form is being used to gather leads that will be called upon to follow up. In this case asking for this much information was not needed and the form looks very imposing to the visitor. Next to this image to the right is a revised version of the form , along with some simple page layout changes as well, asking only for the absolutely required information needed to complete the transaction. This change has been recorded to raise the conversion rate of the form by 51%.

So what fixes can we do to better ensure conversion on your forms:

• Ask only for the required information
• Collect additional information at a later date
• Shorten labels and unclutter form layout

Requesting long detailed information is imposing to the visitor. Think about what is absolutely necessary to complete the transaction. Now this may make it more difficult on you and your staff in gathering that information later, but this also makes it easier and less imposing to the visitor.