Whether it's collecting inquiries, t-shirt sizes, or event registrations, online forms for schools have become an indispensable tool for marketing and communication offices and their inbound marketing strategies.

In fact, 50% of marketers say using marketing tools, like online forms, are their primary source of leads, and while 74% of companies use web forms for lead generation, nearly 50% report online forms are the highest converting lead generation tool.

With an embedded form on your school's website, your team can collect information, can generate leads, solicit donations, support your brand AND make your work life easier.

A branded form can be easily drag-and-dropped onto your site, and the efficiency it offers is priceless. Think about it — forms can:

•         Help to reduce incoming calls and emails
•         Create consistency and accuracy of the information collected
•         Centralize data in an aggregated, easy-to-access location that's privileged to certain users
•         Streamline your overall project management

While easy to implement, forms still require a good amount of forethought. Follow these eight tips to ensure your school's forms are encouraging users to engage and convert — AKA, inquire, apply, or give.

1. Make it accessible

It's amazing how many schools make their users search for the "inquire" or "donate" buttons on their sites. The access points to the most important conversion forms on your site should be prominent, and available on every page a user might visit.

In general, you have two different types of site visitors: those who know what they want to do when they get to your site, and those who are just perusing.

For the users who already know what they are looking for, you shouldn't make them dig around for it because they will become frustrated and lose interest fast. For those who are just browsing (as most are), you should make it easy to learn more about your offerings by providing the option to 'inquire' once they are sufficiently compelled to take action.

By adding Inquire or Donate buttons to your navigation — either your main menu, footer, or the functional navigation —they are universally displayed at all times for easy access.

For example, Trinity Preparatory School in Florida consistently uses its footer as a place to dock the calls to action: Inquire, Apply, and Give.​

In just a click, users are brought to an embedded giving form directly on its "make a gift" page which allows users to easily support the school.

2. Create a clear call to action that leads to your form

Calls to actions give site visitors direction, and you want yours to stand out from the rest of your site. Use bold colors or unique fonts to draw attention. This is one element on your site that you don't want users to overlook, so make sure these essential site items *pop.*

Chartwell School makes it easy to find its forms — with simple, yet clear icons, the CTAs lead to more information about how to apply, tour the campus, and proceeded to its giving form — it's especially easy to use on a mobile device, too!

3. Keep it one click away

When a user clicks a call to action, make sure they get to the page or form they wanted immediately upon clicking. Do not try to feed them more information and force them to click further. They might lose interest.

With one click, users can access the "inquire" CTA in Grauer School's sticky navigation and access its inquiry form. It's a great strategy for engaging users mid-page, no matter where they are on the site.

4. Style it with your school's branding

It's true: appearance matters, even when it comes to web forms.

You want your form to be simple, neat, and styled so that it fits the look and feel of your site and your school's brand. Use consistent fonts and color treatments to create a visually appealing user experience. Consider putting the form labels inside the form fields for a better use of space and to keep the form clean.

Laurence School's giving page is a great example of a nicely styled form. By incorporating the school's greens and purples, its branding comes together to form a simple and clean interface.

5. Keep it short...but not too short

Did you know that reducing the number of form fields to four could result in a 120% increase in conversions? Fewer form fields lead to a higher conversion rate, but you also don't want to miss out on obtaining key information.

If you want to capture qualified prospective students, you will need to collect more detailed information to better address these users with follow-up communication. A good balance is to get more than just the basic info, but don't go overboard with trying to gather too much personal information through the contact forms.

For example, St. Mary's Hall is a great example of a nicely styled form being used for its viewbook. By asking for just a few form fields to be completed, the school can start engaging with prospective families without asking for detailed information — extra helpful for putting your best foot forward on admission pages.

6. Make it mobile-friendly

Since more than half of users will be using a mobile device, you'll want to ensure your form is easy to access and use on a smart device, like an iPhone or an Android.

When users are reading the recent news and campus updates on The Woods Academy's news page, readers can subscribe to "Window on The Woods" and be the first to know about school news and stories from its community. A three-form field is all they need — short and simple!

7. Sync it with your CMS, SIS, or enrollment management system

There's no point in collecting all these great leads or info if they're not integrated with your content management system, student information system, or online admissions software. This way, you can segment future communications by location, interest, enrollment year, etc — simplifying the work on your end, while personalizing the process on their end.

Elgin Academy uses a top-of-the-funnel inbound form for families to schedule a personal conversation with its admissions team. Contacts are synced with their enrollment management system (EMS) and the school can start to nurture the leads. 

Keep Reading: Learn how Elgin Academy uses Finalsite Enrollment to manage a 40% increase in inquiries and a 20% boost in new student enrollment.

8. Make it secure

If you're collecting monetary donations through a form, make sure your users know that it will be a secure transaction, which can help solidify the donation by erasing any doubt.

With Finalsite Forms and Composer, users can create separate folders, each with their own permissions to ensure admins only access form submissions and collect data that pertain to them. Through a secure checkout, you can even enable CAPTCHA to reduce spam submissions any time you use a form to collect payments.

Key takeaway

Simple, branded, mobile-friendly forms that are secure and easy to find can make all the difference in user engagement. Follow these tips to ensure your school's forms are encouraging users to engage and take the next steps!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Connor has spent the last decade within the field of marketing and communications, working with independent schools and colleges throughout New England. As Finalsite’s Senior Content Marketing Manager, Connor plans and executes marketing strategies and digital content across the web. A former photojournalist, he has a passion for digital media, storytelling, coffee, and creating content that connects.