Contact forms are something that we all have on our sites, but it is something we don’t give much time and attention to. I know I used to think very little of them until I boosted my conversion rate on NeilPatel.com by 26% just from removing 1 form field.
I know a 26% boost in conversions doesn’t seem too big, but it will impact the site’s revenue well into the 6 figures each year.
For that very reason, I thought it would be fun to create an infographic that not only explains how you can boost your conversions by modifying your form fields, but also shows you the results well known companies achieved through a/b testing their forms.
Click on the image below to see a larger view:
Click here to view an enlarged version of this infographic.
Conclusion
As marketers and business owners you probably spend the majority of your marketing efforts driving traffic to your site. But you shouldn’t just focus on the top of funnel because the greater opportunity may lie with boost your conversion rates. And if you are able to boost your conversion rates, it will open up more opportunities for traffic acquisition channels that you once couldn’t afford.
Do you know of any other ways you can boost your contact form conversion rates?
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Excellent info graphic Neil. I think the form is often one of the most over looked items that can result in huge conversion rate increases for a site. Such small tweaks can often result in huge gains!
Your reveal page didn’t let me click through to get your report.
Outside of that, this is FANTASTIC info! Thanks!
Weird… what browser and operating system are you using?
I do agree that contct forms are one of the overlooked function in a blog or site. We have to admit that if we put things that are not really necessary into optional, we can get more visits or submissions rather than very long contact forms with things you won’t need for your product or service.
Yep, you have got it.
Thanks Chris, glad you liked it.
Great Post Neil. Conversions in any form on the site is most welcome. Getting the contact details of the users does play an important role for a business. More contact forms filled, more data to contact and helps a lot in customer acquisition and hence retention.
Definitely, thanks for sharing your thoughts on the matter.
Hey Neil, I am getting a 404 error message when trying to view the info graphic.
Kevin, I got it to work by going to http://www.quicksprout.com/images/howtooptimizecontactforms.png
Thanks for chiming in Chris.
It should be fixed now.
Great info, I was just thinking of working on my hire me landing page and I’m going to use this info.
Great, let me know if you have any questions as you go.
WOW! Yet another power packed post. Thank you Neil. This is awesome stuff. I’ve noticed the increase in signups as I reduced the number of fields on my signup forms on different websites. It does work.
And the infographics… absolutely fabulous! Enjoyed your post, as usual.
Regards,
Kumar
Awesome, glad to hear it worked for you.
Neil,
The wide image link doesn’t work. Would you please fix it?
And also, Expedia case study needs more detail:
If a visitor checked the “company” field on the form, they had to answer many other questions. Indead, Expedia removed the entire filed with subsidiaries.
Nader
@coldadco
Just cleared the server cache… should work now.
I will look into adding more info on Expedia.
Amazing! I never knew that conversions in contact forms are so targeted. I usually use 4 fields which is default in many wp contact us plugins. May be this is the reason they use 4 as the default. And people are very lazy to fill in all the fields themselves. So short and simple will really work out well.
Yep, it is all about keeping in simple and quick.
I’ve always tried to keep Forms less than 3 fields
It’s amazing HOW MUCH conversion you lose when you add that 4th+ field.
My forms usually look like this:
Name
Email
CUSTOM FIELD
{Click here button}
I’ve got to switch to aweber from MailChimp thought, I hear that it’s worth the switch
Awesome, thanks for sharing with everyone.
I was able to increase the conversion rate for one of the form by just changing the color of the “Join Now” button.
It’s really interesting to see how these small tweaks makes such a huge difference.
Happy to hear it has worked for you. These small tweaks really can make a difference.
Neil,
This is great, very surprising to see just how much you can improve conversions for contact forms.
Did you run any split testing on your contact form?
I got a 26% increase in conversions from removing 1 form field.
Great stuffs. Taking cues from this and will be removing 1 field from Sprout Geek’s existing contact form – Subject. Don’t see it serve any specific purpose since I read most of my emails anyway. Thank you for coming up with the infographic.
Cool, let me know how it works out for you.
Nice infographic! It is a bit ironic that the contact form on your own blog doesn’t work
LOL it is. The damn server won’t send out emails for some weird reason.
Neil,
Have you seen anything on infield labels on forms? Im sure you know, but this is basically when the label is inside the field and disappears when you add your input.
Also, any possibility we could get a notification via email when you/someone responds to comments on your blog?
- Jay
I haven’t found any data on that.
I used to do the email notification, but I got a lot of spam complaints… even though people selected that option.
Another great post from a genius
Thanks Ramesh, appreciate it.
This is a very good post bringing to light an area on my site I never think of yet i should be.
Great post Neil
Thanks, hope it helps.
This is very interesting information Neil.
Your infographic is easy to read and understand, and not crowded.
Nice going.
Thanks, appreciate it.
Good tips. I’m actually working on exactly this right now.
Does making the bulk of the fields non-required have the same effect as removing them? IE, if I made only 3 fields required, but have about 8 or so on my form, will it scare off users?
Usually removing them, even the ones that aren’t required, boosts conversions… or at least that is what I have seen.
More fields scare people, even when they are not required.
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1) I am totally sharing this. 2) Obviously, these are wonderful graphics and numbers that every business with a website should see. Improve 3% just by removing age fields. This is truly gold. Well done.
Thank you, please do share.
Awesome, thanks Neil.
I have been paying attention to this for a while now, because one of my results metrics with clients is how many prospects contact through the site.
Good, glad to hear it.
Hey Neil,
This is one of the most beautiful info-graphic you had compile all your research for us. Thanks for most generous by giving us the chance to embed the code with lovely information in my site.
I never know the more gap between name and email can increase the sign up if i don’t read this.
Thanks, I appreciate the kind words. Glad this post was helpful to you!
Nice infographic Neil. Misspelled one of the words though
Thanks for letting me know.
Great points Neil..Thank You.
The visitor “experience” is so critical in a number of ways and the humble Contact Form is so commonplace that its often overlooked..
I wrote a post on my blog after you inspired me and used the infographic (with credit and a link of course)
I will be scrutinising Contact Forms as a result and testing …
I also noted that the old Sales Funnel and data fields/Clicks need to be similarly examined ALL the time ,as Google continues to put more emphasis on that visitor experience!
Love your work.
Cheers
Maggie
Thank you Maggie,
Would love for you to come back and share your findings.
Hi Neil,
Some very good info – thanks for that. 1 small comment: I found the colors of the infographic made it hard to read the text.
I manage all the online lead gen for a loans company here in Australia, and recently did some form testing of my own, for all the above reasons.
Some interesting stats came out of that.
1) I reduced the loan quote request form from 15 fields (!) to 5. Of those 15, 1 was optional & another was a captcha field.
2) The form conversion rates almost doubled overnight
3) The quality of the leads with the new short form were TERRIBLE! A heap of tyre kickers we could not get in contact with, etc. Lots of fake entries as well.
Long version short, we went back to the long form (with a few minor tweaks) and our lead quality rate shot back up again, even though the conversion rate went down.
So, it just goes to show that a short form isn’t always the best option. Hence the need to test and measure everything before making wholesale changes to your forms.
Sometimes a long form with “tough” questions helps pre-qualify the QUALITY of your leads, and saves you time & money following up poor quality leads.
Keep up the good work. I always enjoy your posts.
Eran
Yep, you have to test things out. Sometimes things work out and other times they don’t.
Thanks for sharing the data… and the key point for anyone here to take away is conversion rates aren’t the only thing that matter.
Quality over quantity is always preferred.
Your unique style of blogging with a full-size image is amazing, fun-learning experience for us as readers, but I wonder how search engines look at those images. Or are you following Google’s principle- “Do it for your audience, not for search engines.”
And you are so simple and brilliant! Proud to see third Gujarati ever rocking not a country, but the the world.
Don’t ever dare change this style. Now welcome me as your new, regular and die-hard fan! Love you Neil.
Thank you Jignesh,
My blogging style is definitely all for my readers. Glad to now have you as one of them.
Once again a great article. Yes, contact forms are the most neglected parts on our blogs/sites.
True, too many fields asking for too many personal data just drive a potential subscriber.
For specific business needs, how about contact forms on different pages addressing to specific requirements of the visitors?
e.g – I provide services for different SEO related work – guest posting services, ghostwriting, keyword analysis, WordPress blog creation and the like.. So, I created different contact forms for different needs of the visitors when then contact me – like those who wish to contact me for ghostwriting I serve a specific contact form to them which have fields required for ghostwriting related queries only and a similar followup thank you page. How about this plan Neil? Hope my words make sense here..
Content forms on different pages for different reasons is a good idea. I’ve seen this help boost the quality of the leads.
26% is an amazing jump. Cool how you manage to make these changes and follow them through. A simple thing like the contact form also can play a big role in seo and traffic is what I am taking home from this article.
As always amazing graphs and a god article. Keep it up.
Thanks Nitesh, glad you found this post useful.
I always try and keep the # of fields as small as possible. Most forms for getting leads have fared much better when they are short because customers don’t want to give you all their personal information if they haven’t committed to you yet. Also, I don’t like to harass customers once I have their info because it just feels slimy. I know I hate it and have actually gotten rid of services that do that to me because I got called multiple times per day. I usually reach out once in the very beginning using tracking software to see if they opened the message if they if they did or didn’t I will give 1 more try. If they still didn’t open it on the second attempt I try a new headline on one last attempt. (Non-subscription type leads)
Thanks Ryan for sharing with everyone what you do that works for you.
Great info Neil..loved it.. integrated Pinterest with Youtube..
Thanks!!
Thanks, glad to hear it.
Very interesting article. Many websites do not pay attention to contact forms and honestly I am one of them. But 26% I think is big enough.
It definitely is worth it.
Very good info on this infographic. Just one little feedback: the readability is pretty bad because of the low contrast between text and background.
Thanks for the feedback, appreciate it.
Another great way to increase conversion is by using social proof. Whether that means testimonials (with pictures), recent press, or the number of subscribers, it’s proven to help boost your conversion rate.
Definitely, that works as well.
Very useful to know. Thank you.
Less is more, applies here, as the readers do not seem to be keen on spending much time of giving their personal data in the contact blocks.
Yep, you have got it.
Many websites do not pay attention to contact forms and honestly I am one of them. But 26% I think is big enough. Great infographic also, do you make your own?
I use SingleGrain for my infographics.
Great infographic! Something as silly as a contact form is often overmissed as a way to increase conversions, thanks for teaching me something new, I’m going to look at our site and see where we have opportunities to not only improve our contact form, but other areas as well. Cheers
Thanks Shannon, happy I could help.
Thanks so much! I’ve been trying to increase email signup for a while, just incorporated “click here” instead of “subscribe”!!
Great, let me know how it works for you.
And I never thought contact forms are so important as mostly people use it to spam you.
Yep, sometimes that does happen.
This is very good post for contact form optimization. I have never thought of that it can tried for SEO.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it,
Such a simple and overlooked thing but such a significant impact on profit. Awesome post!
Yep, it certainly can make a difference.
Another thing that would probably help is like what you’ve done with your subscription form, Neil. Add just a line about what they can expect by filling in the form, e.g. how soon you can get back to them, preferred/alternative choice of contact other than the form.
Yep, that could work as well.
Amazing Neil. You seem to read my mind on what I need to optimize. Nice work. As always.
Thanks, I appreciate it.
Amazing post. Keep up the great work!!
Thanks Andrew, I will do my best!
I guess this means I should make a contact form for my site right about now. My sites still fairly new though. It’s nice knowing that the fewer the text fields the better! It makes our job easier. Thanks for the info.
-S
Yep, the easier the better!
nice post neil,
and the info-graphic is awesome, contact forms can help us in getting more conversions. it lets the readers interact with your site and this can be really helpful in getting more and more details about the reader. and these details later, can be converted into more sales. thanks for this post
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it.
I have a suggestion of adding FAQ in contact page. This will surely reduce the requests you do receive.
And I would like to make point here what if websites is selling through payment gateway? Don’t you think contact forum will only be used by a customer if he is looking for answer of some query? And I say it will be better to FAQ place in Contact Us Page.
~ Alastair Brian
That’s a smart idea. I will have to test it.
I am not 100% sure as I haven’t had that issue yet.
I usually follow your blog. Every time you write is pure gold. Thanks a lot for a great info once again Neil.
Thank you for the kind words.
Hi Neil !
You have the right issue and we may not concern on Contact Page but your ideas is nice for the attention.
Hello Neil,
I thought that the contact form was not so important to optimize your site but when I read your article my mind was getting curious regarding on the topic and It was really good for sharing this details.
Thank you
Having a good, fundamental form can be the difference! This is too often overlooked. Good post
Hey Neil,
Thanks for posting all these statistics. I have always thought that less is more. It seems like it would be common sense but your statistical data supports it as factual.
One thing I didn’t consider was the language used in the “submit” button on the form. I never looked at it that way, although I rarely ever used SUBMIT and prefer things like download or get it now etc.
This is my first time to your site here, I like it.
~Jacqueline Waters
Excellent post. I think that if you place contact forms in the right side of your website on every page then you can get your maximum conversions.
Thank you
What a great topic! It is definitely something that kind of slips off the grid, thanks for bringing it back on!
This is a great post and loved reading it. these tips are extremely good and are the basic ones for any online marketing. Thanks for the share.
Great post like it seo means optimizing every page of your site and you are converting from it.. Good informative article really give much help to webmasters.
I love how you advocate spreading your attention beyond the top of the funnel Neil.
What you’re talking about here reminds me of something I learned from the Business Buddha Dean Jackson.
At his I Love Marketing conference he talked about how the Inquiry Handling Service is one of the largest lead conversion companies.
This company manages the inquiries that come in from magazines, trade shows, etc. and what they found after handling millions of leads over multiple industries is that 50% of the people who inquire will actually buy what they inquired about within 18 months.
About half of the people will do what the business seeking the lead ultimately wanted them to do – buy something – but they don’t always do so immediately.
You know that leads are going to either buy or not buy. But what most people never give attention to is whether they’re going to buy now or later.
If someone isn’t going to buy now or later, they don’t matter to you. This is where getting a volume of leads is encouraging because if you get one lead from an ad you ran and they don’t buy, this sucks, but if you get a hundred leads it’s safe to say that around 50 of those people are going to buy at sometime.
The other stat that’s important to keep in mind is that only around 15% of the leads you get are going to buy within the first 90 days and the remaining 85% take longer than 90 days to finally be tipped off the fence to buy.
So if you like to have favorable odds, you’d naturally bet that most of the leads that come into your pipeline aren’t going to give you the instant gratification you most desire by buying immediately and this is why educating and motivating people is the most important thing you can be doing when it comes to lead generation.
And what better way to begin this relationship than through the contact form where you can massive market intelligence via answering questions that are keeping people from buying.
Thank you Neil for the awesome insights into a topic I haven’t been paying very close attention to.
Neil,
Does your company provide lead form optimization services? If not…anyone you recommend?
Hi Neil !!
You have made a unique Brand ”Neil Patel”. Because you deserver the professional blogging quality. So that you can sell everything by sharing yor professional ideas. I have been reading your blog for two years and i have been getting unique content. Your contents includes: testimonials, case study, research base data and your own blogging experience.
Your content presentation is always unique compare with other blog. so that you have technical and academic knowlege.
Thank you for your contribution.
Googma, glad I could provide some help and guidance. Thanks for reading