Forms may not be the most exciting feature on your website, however, when it comes to gathering data and promoting user engagement, this basic tactic holds significant power. Forms make it easy to collect and manage user information, turn visitors into potential customers, track inquiries, and, importantly, provide helpful insights for businesses to understand the needs of their audiences.
Implementing even the most basic forms can be a game-changer for businesses just driving to your location or phone number. But there are so many more sophisticated ways to use forms for tracking and marketing automation and even securely collecting information.
Forms make it personal
Forms do more than just collect information from a user – they can provide valuable insights into who is visiting your website and how they are navigating through the experience. When integrated effectively, forms can help businesses customize content that fits the customer’s journey. Let’s take a loan inquiry form, for example. When a user completes the initial form, their future visits to the website can be personalized based on that form submission, allowing promos and relevant loan information to be the primary focus of their visit.
This feature provides the user with helpful and applicable information relevant to their needs as it allows businesses to enhance their engagement and market meaningfully.
Not only can forms work to personalize visits, but marketing automation can also be used to further target the user experience through customized e-mails and messages based on form submissions. Thanks to forms, personalizing the user experience and connecting with visitors has never been easier.
Forms ensure no valuable data is left behind
Data collected through forms is not only significant for personalizing the user experience, but it also provides businesses with valuable information about a form's performance. Businesses can use cross-domain tracking tools such as Google Analytics to track users as they navigate through the website and interact with third party forms, like a loan application, which, in turn, can identify areas of improvement and form-based trends. For those businesses with third party applications, cross-domain tracking is available and necessary to collect relevant data. This data can then be reviewed in Google Analytics, allowing businesses to pinpoint how visitors are interacting with forms, what tactics worked best to result in a form submission, where a fall off may have occurred, and more.
Integrating forms and a CRM
Businesses and organizations with a CRM can map forms directly to fields in the CRM so that information is instantly fed in and available for use. Likewise, it may be possible to push information from your CRM into your CMS to further personalize the digital experience. Defining requirements around how this data will be used is key to success.
Protect the User Journey
Security is obviously a big deal on any website, but especially for those in the financial space. Collecting PII (personally identifiable information) such as account information, social security numbers, or other personal data can be helpful when users are inquiring about account opening and products. However, it is equally important for any business to know how to store this information safely.
When collecting user information through forms, there are a few options to ensure that data is securely managed. At the most basic level, when forms are stored in your CMS, locking down access to only authorized administrators can be effective in managing collected data and who it is available to. It is important to note that while protecting access to CMS-housed forms is sufficient for basic contact information, increased security measures are required when handling PII. In addition, while an email can be sent to alert internal teams a form has been submitted, form data itself that may contain PII cannot be emailed to someone upon submission since email inherently isn’t secure. It’s also important to purge form data from the database periodically, as a best practice.
Form data is typically stored in the web content database, and database encryption is an added security measure that is a requirement for using forms collecting PII. Encryption happens on the server level – or is part of the third-party form offering. Having encrypted forms protects the information stored in the CMS database, helping to make sure that form-field information does not end up in the wrong hands.
Forms help your website and your team
Forms are helpful tools that, when implemented correctly, can enhance your ability to centrally collect information, drive user engagement, and make the website visit meaningful for users. By prioritizing security, using marketing features such as personalization and enabling analytics and third-party tracking, businesses can transform simple forms into meaningful conversion tools. Looking to learn more about how forms can benefit your business? Contact us!