An online form is an important tool to gather the required information from your customers, website audience, or users.
Some forms use answer boxes to be checked, while others permit written responses. But how can you get this information by asking the necessary questions? This is where an online form builder comes in.
An online form builder is a web application software that creates and manages online forms. Online form builders are also known as online form generators or website form builders.
For example, Mailchimp’s online form builder provides businesses with the information needed to make data-driven marketing decisions.
How should you design an online form?
Online forms can be pop-ups or links that encourage users to take an action, whether it’s joining a mailing list, signing up for a newsletter, or subscribing to notifications.
When creating an online form with an online form builder, you want to ensure it encourages users to take action. With that said, online forms should be short, concise, and engaging.
In the example above, you’ll see an online form that encourages readers to join a mailing list. The title text is direct and educates readers on what the form is for, which is joining a mailing list, and has clear, distinct lines that explain the action readers should take, which is inputting their first and last name, as well as their email address.
Once their information is added, there’s a button that details the action, which is subscribing to the email list.
Types of online forms you can create
Online form builders give you the flexibility to create different types of forms depending on what you need from your audience.
Whether you're looking to gather contact information, collect feedback, or register attendees for an event, there's a form type that fits your needs. Here are some of the most common types of forms you can build:
Contact forms
These forms let visitors reach out to you directly from your website. They typically ask for basic information like name, email address, and have a message field where people can explain what they need or ask questions.
Signup forms
Use these forms to grow your email list and build your audience. Signup forms collect contact details from people who want to receive your newsletters, updates, or special offers, making them great tools for turning visitors into subscribers.
Surveys and polls
When you need to gather opinions or feedback from your audience, surveys and polls are the way to go. These forms can include multiple-choice questions, rating scales, or open-ended responses that help you understand what your customers think.
Feedback and review forms
These forms give your customers a place to share their experiences. Collecting reviews and feedback helps you improve your offerings while building trust with potential customers who read those reviews.
Registration forms
These forms help you manage event signups, class enrollments, or program registrations. They collect the information you need from participants while keeping everything organized in one place.
Payment forms
Forms help you accept payments on your website. Payment forms let you collect money for products, services, or donations. These forms integrate with payment processors so customers can complete transactions without leaving your site.
Why should you use form builders?
Online form builders have several key benefits that can help your business. With contact form design tips, you can collect important details about your website visitors and convert them into leads.
You can also select from attractive templates and themes and add pictures, videos, animations, and colors for a better user experience. With the necessary resources, you’ll quickly develop your form customization skills.
Collect data
Form builders are used for collecting different kinds of data, from general information to more precise and personal details. Some of the data that can be collected includes contact details, opinions, confirmations, customer feedback, and product reviews.
In addition to reducing expenses, Mailchimp form builder software improves data collection accuracy and efficiency. It assists you in gathering the data you require to accomplish your specified objectives.
Organize user responses
A form builder with a reports and analysis feature helps you organize user responses to make informed decisions. This feature also gives you the ability to develop your campaigns to appear less invasive and more natural.
Easy to deploy
It's very simple to use our online form builder for your business. Without writing a single line of code, forms can be quickly generated using the form's drag-and-drop capabilities. For example, it’s easy to create forms from scratch with Mailchimp’s pre-built templates.
Build your network
Your website's visitors are your potential customers, and you need to establish a rapport with them before they leave your landing page. With website form builders, you can easily design a form for content downloads, subscriptions, event registrations, or opinion polls.
In addition, you can integrate form builder software into your landing pages to create pop-up forms to collect your visitors' details. This helps you to build connections, strengthen relationships, and interact with website visitors.
What are the features of an online form builder?
An online form builder possesses features to gather information in a modern way and convert leads into customers during the nurturing process. Here are some of the best features you should look for in a form generator software.
Theme and template options
For a rich user experience, you need an attractive user interface. That's where templates and themes play an important role. Online form builders come with a variety of templates and themes that can be used for various scenarios.
By learning how to design sign-up forms, you can create forms that are consistent with your brand and engage your users. Additionally, built-in themes for email newsletters and campaigns help you enhance the visual aspect of your form and improve user engagement.
Drag and dropping
It is important for an online form generator to have drag-and-drop capabilities so that users can quickly develop interactive forms. Gain instant access to powerful, intuitive tools you can use to quickly complete customized forms.
As a business owner or the owner of a website, you might not have the time to code or create custom forms when you need to. By looking for online form builders with drag-and-drop capabilities, you can create one-of-a-kind custom forms in seconds.
Easy to distribute
After you create forms, the next hurdle might be sharing them with the right audience. Our online form builder makes distribution easier.
In addition, the form generator ensures that the URLs of the forms are short. You can decide on which platforms you would like to distribute the forms. You can use several social media channels to expose the form to a wider audience. Finally, you can distribute them using customers' emails.
Analytics tools
Form analytics is the study and analysis of how users interact with the forms on your website. For example, you can monitor how many people view your form compared to those who actually fill it out, as well as where they get stuck.
With the use of this information, you can precisely determine problem areas that may need to be remedied. From there, you can use customer insights to further develop your online forms to ensure they’re easy for users to complete and drive results.
Third-party integrations
Third-party integrations let you add endless functionality native to third-party solutions such as OneDrive, Google Docs, Google Drive, online signature tools, and other platforms that help you create dynamic and interactive online forms.
Through third-party integrations, you can make more interactive forms that engage users and encourage them to take your desired action, which is filling out your form.
How to choose the right online form builder
Finding the right form builder for your business doesn't have to be complicated. However, it's important to understand what you need and make sure that the tool you choose can deliver on those requirements. Here's what to think about when you're comparing options:
Consider your goals and audience
Ask yourself what you want to accomplish with your forms and who will be filling them out. If you need unlimited forms for different campaigns, look for a simple form builder that won't limit how many you can create.
Think about whether you need advanced features like conditional logic that shows or hides questions based on previous answers, or if basic registration forms will do the job.
Compare features and pricing
Take a close look at what each form builder offers and what it costs. Some platforms advertise themselves as a free form builder but charge extra for features like accepting online payments or creating order forms.
Make sure the pricing matches up with the features you actually need, whether that's payment forms for selling products or integration with Google Sheets for organizing form submissions.
Check for integrations with your existing tools
Your form builder should work well with the other tools you're already using. Look for options that connect with your email marketing platform, CRM, or spreadsheet software.
Most form builders offer some level of integration, but you'll want to confirm they support the specific apps you rely on every day.
Evaluate ease of use
Test out the interface to see if it's straightforward and doesn't require a manual to figure out basic tasks.
You should be able to create professional-looking forms quickly, and the platform should make it easy to collect and manage form submissions without a lot of technical hassle.
What are the benefits of online form builders?
Having the best online form builder can be a great enhancement for your business in multiple ways. Explore some of the top benefits of using online form builders below.
Generate leads
Lead generation grows consumer interest for your products or services to make a sale. This involves collecting visitors' contact information using online forms for digital marketing.
Using a website form builder makes the lead generation process easier. This is because the integration of a website form builder into your website simplifies the collection of visitors' details at different times.
You can use the data to advertise your products, communicate with visitors, and build them until they become your customers. Our website form builder offers you the necessary solutions for your online forms, from lead generation to improved conversion rates.
Lower your bounce rate
Bounce rate is a term that is used in website traffic analysis to describe visitors leaving a website after viewing the first page. It also refers to those who neglect an action without completion.
For example, if you create a survey for your customers, and three users out of ten did not complete the survey, you have a 3% bounce rate.
By understanding and analyzing the bounce rate of your online forms, you can make adjustments to improve your bounce rate and get more completions.
When you use a website form builder, you are more likely to have forms that your audience is satisfied with. This can reduce your bounce rate and increase your conversions.
A/B testing
Another great benefit of using online form builders is A/B testing. Split testing, another name for A/B testing, is the process of randomly evaluating two or more versions of a variable.
When using a form builder, you can compare two (or more) versions of your forms to see which will get more positive feedback from your target market. It's possible that Form A has characteristics that make it more preferable to Form B.
Additionally, you can use online form builders to create questionnaires that your test participants can fill out to provide feedback on the products if you are conducting A/B testing for your products or services. This facilitates speedy analysis and decision-making.
Customization features
Having the option to modify your forms is one of the key advantages of using form builders. With various themes that you can customize to suit your tastes, you can ensure your forms align with your brand and messaging.
At Mailchimp, you can use our creative assistant to create designs that drive engagement and boost your brand.
When designing an online form, you can request a customer's name, phone number, home address, email address, and any other information you choose to include.
Then you can modify your online form builder to meet the needs of your users. For instance, you can design forms so users can skip over pointless questions.
You can also select themes and add animations, pictures, videos, fonts, and colors. This customization improves the user experience for your users and strengthens your connection to your target market.
No coding required
Many people believe that using form generators necessitates knowledge of many computer languages. But when using an online form generator, the procedure is simple and doesn't call for any programming expertise.
Even if you don't know how to program, you can create forms with a form generator, as they have drag-and-drop functions that allow you to easily create forms for the information you need to collect.
This makes it a suitable option for clients and businesses that lack the coding know-how necessary to create their own forms.
Save time
Online form builders also save time and are cost-effective when compared to using paper to store data from your customers. The old way of storing data can be costly and hard to organize.
Previously, you had to compile several sheets of paper and file them away to check them when needed. This process of checking through can be extremely time-consuming, and information can get lost anytime.
Online form builders eliminate the need for paper and ink. Your data can be stored digitally in one location and accessed freely, so you can access important information whenever and wherever.
Create forms with Mailchimp
Mailchimp's intuitive form builder gives you everything you need to create professional forms without any technical skills.
With drag-and-drop functionality, you can quickly build sign-up forms, questionnaires, opinion polls, product reviews, and customer feedback forms that match your brand.
Our platform includes form templates to help you get started fast, plus customization options that let you adjust colors, fonts, and layouts to fit your style.
What makes Mailchimp the go-to form builder for many businesses is how it handles form submissions and integrates with your other marketing tools. You can embed forms directly into your website, share them on social media, or send them through email campaigns.
Unlike other form builders that make you juggle multiple platforms, Mailchimp keeps your forms and marketing efforts in one place, with user management and third-party integrations that connect to the tools you already use.
Learn more about how our form builder works to get started.
Key Takeaways
- Online form builders let you create different types of forms without coding, from contact and signup forms to surveys, payment forms, and registration forms that collect the information you need from your audience.
- The right form builder should match your goals and budget, with features like drag-and-drop functionality, form templates, and integrations that connect with your existing marketing tools and platforms.
- Form builders help you generate leads, lower bounce rates, and customize forms to match your brand while giving you analytics to track how people interact with your forms.
- Mailchimp's form builder combines an intuitive interface with marketing integrations, making it easy to create professional forms and manage submissions alongside your other campaigns.