Create Persuasive Online Forms

Persuasion is an important skill in internet marketing. Actually, it is an important skill in any kind of marketing. Persuasion is one of the most important aspects of conversion optimization. The marketing technique of conversion is technically just persuading visitors or casual traffic into becoming paying customers. The same idea is used here, only focused on a certain aspect of your website, namely Online Forms.

“When we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.” – Professor Robert B. Cialdini from the book: The Psychology of Persuasion

In this podcast, we have Creative Thirst‘s Bobby Hewitt take us through the process of how to create a persuasive online form. Online forms are one of the most effective Calls to Action. But getting your customers to go there can be difficult. Getting your customers to actually sign in or fill up the forms can be even more difficult. But this is where persuasion comes in. There are several ways to persuade your traffic into interaction.

Persuading People Online

In the real world, people usually interact with each other directly through talking because it is the best form of communication. But in the World Wide Web, what is the best way to interact with customers? Direct interaction is impossible – but having a means of communication with your users is very important. When it comes to online shopping, business owners need to dedicate their marketing campaign’s whole attention to customers. But when a potential customer visits your website, you don’t really have an interaction with him/ her. The user takes full control and decides which page of your website to open.

The best way to persuade potential customers is to share something they agree with. Share on X

How to Persuade Potential Customers

If the user doesn’t find what he were looking for, he’ll just leave from your website, because there isn’t anything that draws his attention. There isn’t a feeling like you are walking away from a person, so they won’t feel guilty at all. As a business owner you need to think about this carefully and consider creating persuasive online forms. But how can you do that?

Here’s an example: Put a form on your website that your potential customer needs to fill out. Ask only important questions which are related to your product. If you put other questions, the visitor may just walk away. According to an article by ConversionXL’s Peep Laja,

The power of influence is usually all that separates the successful from everyone else. These are some tactics, discovered through psychological research, that you have probably not yet heard about, but have the potential to increase your persuasive abilities.

Give them a Reason to Stay

If you imply the experiment mentioned above, you could really achieve good results, and one of the advantages is that your conversion rate will also improve. Always remember that you need to give your visitors a reason to fill out the contact form. For example when the visitor fills out the form, you send him/ her a few tips of how to use your product properly. The tips can contain:

• Pictures of the people who use your product
• Video tutorials
• Manual/written instructions

You should ask your visitors to write their private email address, but only to send them information related to your product. Most website owners make huge mistakes when they send junk mail. Nothing will scare visitors away faster than SPAM. The internet is full of people looking to spam, so your visitors know what it looks like and they know what to avoid. Make sure you say what you will be sending so you will not scare them away.

If not, your visitors might unsubscribe and stop receiving mails from you, or even worse; stop visiting your website entirely. Remember that you need to encourage users in a way that would persuade them to fill out the form. The best thing you can do  is to eliminate all those boring fields. Ask them only the relevant information. It is very important for your business to establish a good relationship with your customers. If you want to learn more about this, you can visit our conversion optimization blog at Convert.