Website & Form Builders

 

1. What is a website form builder?

Having a detailed understanding of customers’ choices do wonders for businesses. Businesses always need form this information to design campaigns and serve them what they would like to consume. This not only helps in selling products or services but also develops a meaningful relationship with your customers.

But how can you get this information by asking relevant questions? That’s where form-building software comes into existence. Form building software helps create visually appealing forms that can help businesses collect important information about visitors and converting them into leads to nurture them in a way that they would become customers

2. What are the benefits of using a website form builder?

Businesses are embracing digital tools and techniques to make their work processes more efficient, especially post Covid-19. 

Online forms, also called web forms, allow businesses to accumulate and manage user input easily. This valuable data allows you to take crucial business decisions based on accurate facts. 

In this article, we’ve put together some benefits of an online form builder that you should know about. Whether you operate a retail or SaaS business, online forms are an excellent way to manage your requests for support queries, tickets, product requests or any work requests. 

So, let’s dig deeper and find out more about what is an online form builder and how your business stands to benefit from using it in various ways.

“Throw out messy inboxes. Bring in organized forms. Book your free demo now.”

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What Is An Online Form Builder?

An online form builder is an interactive web page that allows users to enter relevant data. These forms act as an efficient communication link between businesses and website visitors through which both sides can exchange information. 

One of the significant benefits of online form builder is that it allows you to create different types of forms for users as well as internal team members. You can easily configure, share, and manage forms, and use them to capture leads, build an email list, create marketing campaigns, gather feedback from customers, etc. 

ProofHub Form

There are many online form builder software available today, but only a handful of them offer more functionality. ProofHub is one such application software that offers a wide range of features (including Forms) so you can manage various aspects of work without switching between various applications. 

Pro Tip IconPro Tip: Manage requests for work the easier way with ProofHub.

What Are The Benefits Of An Online Form Builder? 

There are several benefits of online form builder on your website. A large number of businesses utilize online forms because these easily allow them to capture useful data. 

Here are a few crucial benefits. 

Eliminate missing out on work requests and cluttered email inboxes.

Using an online form building tool, you can avoid missing out on important work requests and messy email inboxes. For example, ProofHub’s forms feature allows users to add requests directly to the website. You simply can paste the link of request form anywhere you want on your website, and get all kinds of requests ranging from support queries to tickets to any type of work requests, directly added to ProofHub.  

Lead generation. 

65% of businesses say that creating traffic and leads is their biggest marketing challenge. Using an online form builder helps businesses to acquire and differentiate leads based on the data input leads provide themselves. Leads’ contact information is accumulated through online forms and you can use it to promote products, communicate with visitors, and influence them to make a purchase. 

Ease of usage. 

One of the main benefits of online form builder tools, like that of ProofHub, is that it is very simple to use. The drag-and-drop functionality of the form allows users to quickly create forms without writing any code. You can add labels of your choice to different forms to differentiate them and give them a more professional look. 

Market research. 

You’ve got to understand your target audience’s expectations, interests, expectations, etc, to create a product that resonates with their specific needs. Online form builder software solutions can help businesses create customized surveys to collect information pertaining to your target audience. The collected data provides you valuable insights, which you can use to identify scope of improvement in your product/services, make well-researched decisions, and stay updated on latest market trends.  

Smart management of requests. 

You can smartly manage forms in your online form builder provided your chosen tool offers this functionality. Let’s say you are using ProofHub for managing requests, you can easily enable/disable form requests at the click of a button. In case the wrong user receives a link to your form by mistake, you can generate a new link to ensure that any person with a previous link will not be able to access it. You can label your forms for easier management.  

“Collect accurate data through forms to make informed decisions. Use ProofHub. Start your free trial today.”

Customizable.

When you use an online form builder to manage work requests and other things, you can easily customize them to add specific details (annual income, marital status, ) you want apart from standard fields (name, age, occupation). You can also customize your form builder to allow your website visitors to choose questions/fields that are relevant and skip irrelevant content. 

Reduces manual work.

One of the most significant benefits of using an online form builder software product is that it can seamlessly integrate with other apps. This means you don’t need to invest in other tools, thus resulting in saving valuable money for your company. Also, these tools eliminate the usage of using traditional pen-and-paper forms, which is a time consuming as well as tedious process. Online form builders allow data to be collected, organized, accessed, and shared digitally. 

Budget-friendly. 

While not all online form builder software are cost-effective, there are apps like ProofHub that offer you this useful functionality at the most affordable pricing plans you can hope to get. ProofHub offers flat-rate, fixed pricing plans, which allow you to add as many members to your account without worrying about rising costs.  

3. What are the types of website form builders available?

5. What are the different types of form builders available

1) Newsletter Signup

Newsletters are extraordinary compared to other ways to produce and dig leads towards constancy. It makes users get drew in with your brand and keep it top-of-mind when purchase decisions are to be made.

These forms are simple, where users are required to submit one or two fields. Newsletter forms establish marketing communication as giving users a chance to express their desire to consume a brand’s content on regular basis.

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2) Sales Contact

It’s important to grab the opportunity when a prospect reaches the stage where sale is to happen. Here, your Sales Form can play an important role collecting your users’ info and driving them specifically to your sales team as quickly as possible.

The form requests for sales-particular information and helps you leverage the chance that the prospects are prepared to make a purchase.

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3) Event Registration

If you have a better form design, better are the chances to increase attendee registration. In spite of the fact that you have put a great deal of thought, time, and exertion into arranging your event, it’s time to come up with an online form focused on dealing with your attendees. It should effortlessly convey event-specific information like time, venue, event schedule, etc.

Building an effective event registration form is important and you need a good form design that keeps registrants moving towards the ‘Submit’ button without much thought or effort.

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4) Customer Feedback

Customer feedback forms/surveys come to use after your customers have gotten products or services. Here, you might want to know how satisfied are they with the offering; how satisfied are they with the sales process; how did they come to know about your brand; etc.

When there is a good form design, users tend to give information and it is useful in deciding your business/brand’ next steps in performance assessment.

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5) Online Order and Payments

By including an online order and payment form on your site for prompt sales conversions, you give your prospects the choice to buy at their convenience.

It’s smarter to make the buying process as simple and advantageous as possible, as opposed to making your customers wait before they can pay you. It just appears to be outlandish.

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6) Account Signup

Take an example of any of the Social Media websites, users can’t get engaged with these platforms unless they create an account.

For sort of businesses that require memberships, this form is needed. The form helps set up marketing communications and drives prospect towards a purchase decision without putting any pressure.

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7) Contest Registration

These forms allow users to register for a contest entry and contests as known are highly-engaging strategies helping marketers build brand awareness.

Though the form gets submitted mainly for the possibility of winning a prize and nothing more, it can help you further in converting those users from contestants to sales leads.

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4. What are the different features of different website form builders?

1. Offer the Powerful Drag-and-drop Feature

There is so much information we want to acquire in a single form. These fields need to be organized with the comfort of the respondent in mind. The intuitive flow of questions and fields ensures the client doesn’t get irritated or have an incoherent train of thought.

The drag and drop function is easy to use for the creator. It gives creative freedom to experiment with different outcomes in a form. As opposed to coding, this feature breaks the monotony of boring forms with no extra expense.

2. Custom Fields

A perfect form builder or survey builder should allow you to customize each field to fit your imagined vision. The template of your choice will have some fields you don’t need and leave out others. A Customizing feature will add personality and brand swagger to your forms. Custom fields are also a differentiating factor for different designers within your firm. They give the space for detailed and practical creative execution.

3. A Form Builder Should Have an Effective Email Auto-responder

Annual forms are simple transactions. Issue form, direct the respondent on how they fill out the form, and finally receive the basic information given for analysis. A builder that lacks an email responder typically withdraws the last step. Knowing when a form has been successfully filled is crucial for targeted campaigns. The volume of forms filled indicates the quality of traffic your site receives and how committed the readers are to your brand.

4. Responsive to Multiple Devices

Ensure that your forms are mobile-friendly and work on all devices Your customer pool is widely variant. People from all walks of life and different choices in information mediums. A perfect form builder should be responsive to all devices available on the market.

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Losing out on mobile users is a death wish for any business. Convenience is the name of the game. If you miss out on mobile users, you need to upgrade your form builder software or form maker.

5. Easy to Embed

The forms you create need to embed into your site. This means that it should appear synonymous with what you started on the form creator site. However, this does not mess up your site theme; everything blends in together when properly embedded.

form creator

6. Accept Payments

I believe you have encountered payment forms on your mobile apps. A form builder that works for your business should have in its payment systems. It takes a lot to create your product, market and sell it to your customers. It only makes sense to have a smooth payment system when the client makes the decision. It is the goal! Well, a form builder that supports payment facilitates subscription services, pre-order services, and similar models of sales conversions.

7. Integrates with Many Apps

We are living in a diverse world where there are thousands of applications. You need a form designer app that is not restrictive and one that is compatible with the many applications out there without the need for custom coding.

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With a diverse clientele, it is extremely necessary to have multiple channels to provide your services. Your form builder needs to bring together rather than diverge your business components.

8. Multi-Page Form Builders

This is often overlooked in choosing a form builder. Split your forms into multiple pages using wizard form and display completion progress bars. In this way, one does not have to get stuck in one question yet there is sufficient information for the questions ahead.

9. Save and Resume Later

Sometimes you are in a hurry to go somewhere or your form creation task may get interrupted - this is why you need a form builder app that auto-saves your work so that you can resume later without losing it.

6. How do you choose the right website form builder?

Criteria for Our Best Website Builder Review

We have helped over 400,000+ users start a website, and over the last two decades have tested just about every website builder on the market.

We look at several different criteria when reviewing the best website builder picks for each use-case, but our top five elements are:

Ease of Use – We want to ensure that the website builder is easy to use for absolute beginners (non-techy users). It must come with a customizable drag-and-drop builder, powerful editing tools, and other design customization options.

Pricing – Since it’s a competitive space, we look at which website builder offers the most value for the price. We ask questions like does it offer a free domain, free SSL, free business email, free eCommerce features, etc. If not, then how much would a small business owner has to spend on additional extras / hidden costs.

Design & Features – We want to ensure that the website builder offers a good selection of professional website templates along with flexibility to add additional features like Google Analytics, CRM, third-party marketing tools, etc.

Customer Support – While we expect website builder software to offer an intuitive user-friendly interface, we want to make sure that 24/7 customer support is available when needed.

Data ownership & portability – Often beginners don’t think about this, but being in the industry for over two decades, we pay extra attention to terms of service and privacy policy to ensure that you own your data, and it’s portable should you need to switch.

8. What are the different types of form fields available in a website form builder?

Common Fields

These are common field types which are used in many types of form.

1. Date field - A field which allows the user to either enter or select a date using a date picker.
2. Electronic signature - A field which allow the user to electronically "sign" the form by typing their name to generate a signature image, or by drawing a signature using a mouse, trackpad, touchscreen or other pointing device where available.
3. Email address - A field which allows the user to enter an email address.  This is validated to ensure that it is in a valid format for an email address, but not that the address itself is valid.
4. File upload – A field which allows attachments to be uploaded and attached to the form.
5. Number - A field which allows the user to enter a number.  This is validated to ensure that only numbers can be entered.
6. Text area - multiple line - A multiple line text box, allowing the user to enter long-form text. 
7. Text box  - single line - A single line text box, allowing the user to enter short-form text.

Custom Value Fields

These fields allow the user to choose from a list of pre-determined custom values when completing the form.  In each case, the values the user can choose from are determined by entering a comma-separated list in the "Values" field in the form builder.

1. Checkboxes - Each item in the "values" field produces a checkbox.  The checkboxes are displayed in a continuous horizontal line, wrapping at the edge of the screen.  The user can check multiple checkboxes when completing the form. 
2. Checkboxes - one per line - As above, except each checkbox appears on its own line.
3. Multi select dropdown - A multiple-select dropdown populated with the values from the "values" list.  The user can choose multiple items from the dropdown.
4. Radio boxes - Each item in the "values" field produces a radio button.  The radio buttons are displayed in a continuous horizontal line, wrapping at the edge of the screen.  The user can choose just one from the list of available radio buttons.
5. Radio boxes - one per line - As above, except each radio button appears on its own line. 
6. Select dropdown - A drop-down list populated with the values from the "values" list.  The user can choose one item from the dropdown.

Pre-Built Fields

These fields offer some common options with the "values" already defined.

1. 1 to 5 - A dropdown list pre-populated with numbers 1 to 5.
2. 1 to 10 - A dropdown list pre-populated with numbers 1 to 10.
3. Score 1 to 10 - A dropdown list populated with numbers 1 to 10, used specifically for scoring purposes.
4. Score 1 to 5 - A dropdown list populated with numbers 1 to 5 used specifically for scoring purposes.
5. Happiness scale – A graphical scale including three "faces" which the user can click to indicate a level of "happiness" on a scale of 1 to 5.
6. Yes and No - A dropdown list pre-populated with Yes and No.
7. Not Given, Yes and No - A dropdown list pre-populated with the values Not Given, Yes and No.

Assigned Employee

This section contains just one field type which should be used on all forms of type "Other" or "Performance Review" to ensure that the form is correctly associated with the employee to whom it refers.

1. Assigned employee (use once per form) - This is a drop-down field containing a list of employees in your environment.  This field must be used in "Other" or "Performance Review" forms to assign a form to a specific employee.  This field should be used only once per form and is often (but not necessarily) used as the first field on each form.
   
   

Lists

These field types produce drop-down boxes containing data from your Natural HR environment. 

1. Other employees list - A drop-down list of all of your current, active employees.  Note that this differs from the Assigned employee field above in that it does not assign the form to an employee - it simply allows you to select an employee name.
2. Managers list - A drop-down list of all of your current, active managers.  To appear in this list the manager must have both a manager level user account and a manager level job role.
3. Job roles list - A drop-down list of all the Job Roles in your environment, populated from the list maintained under Admin > HR > Data Management > Job Roles.
4. Job status list - A drop-down list of all of the Job Statuses in your environment, populated from the list maintained under Admin > HR > Data Management > Job Status.
5. Employee status list - A drop-down list of all of the Employee Statuses in your environment, populated from the list maintained under Admin > HR > Data Management > Employee Status.
6. Headcount classifications list - A drop-down list of all of the Headcount Classifications in your environment, populated from the list maintained under Admin > HR > Data Management > Headcount Classifications
7. Departments list - A drop-down list of all of the Departments in your environment, populated from the list maintained under Admin > HR > Data Management > Departments.
8. Divisions list - A drop-down list of all of the Divisions in your environment, populated from the list maintained under Admin > HR > Data Management > Divisions.
9. Companies list - A drop-down list of all of the Companies in your environment, populated from the list maintained under Admin > HR > Data Management > Companies.
10. Sites list - A drop-down list of all of the Sites in your environment, populated from the list maintained under Admin > HR > Data Management > Sites.
11. Regions list - A drop-down list of all of the Regions in your environment, populated from the list maintained under Admin > HR > Data Management > Regions.
12. Cost centres list - A drop-down list of all of the Cost Centres in your environment, populated from the list maintained under Admin > HR > Data Management > Cost Centres.
13. Business units list - A drop-down list of all of the Business Units in your environment, populated from the list maintained under Admin > HR > Data Management > Business Units.
14. Job grades list - A drop-down list of all of the Job Grades in your environment, populated from the list maintained under Admin > HR > Data Management > Job Grades.
    
    

Lists (Application Forms)

There are also several list fields that appear for use only on Application Forms.  These list fields can be used in conjunction with the Field Mapping feature on Application Forms so that, for example, data entered in an Ethnicities List field is mapped to the Ethnicity field on the candidate's file.  If a mapped field is chosen in the "Candidate Field" drop-down, the appropriate list field type is automatically chosen.  So, if you map a field in your application form to Ethnicity, the Ethnicities List field is used automatically.

The available fields of this type are:

1. Ethnicities List
2. Genders List
3. Marital status List
4. Nationalities List
5. Religions List

Populated Fields

This group of fields can be used to pre-populate the form with information related to the employee to whom the form is assigned, based on the "Assigned Employee" field.  The information is drawn from the employee's Job Role, and is taken from the information entered in Admin > HR > Data Management > Job Roles.  These are commonly used in Performance Review forms.

1. Populated - employee job description - This field populates the employee's job description.
2. Populated - employee job responsibilities - This field populates the employee's job responsibilities.
3. Populated - employee job qualifications - This field populates the employee's job qualifications.
4. Populated - employee job competencies - This field populates the employee's job competencies.
5. Populated - employee job experience - This field populates the employee's job experience.
6. Populated - employee job generic description - This field populates the employee's generic job description.
   
   

Formatting

These fields can be used to apply formatting to your form.

1. Heading - Allows you to add headings to your form.
2. Horizontal spacer - A horizontal dividing line which can be used to separate different sections of a form.
3. HTML - The HTML field allows you to add formatted text as well as other items such as images, tables, embedded video etc.
4. Accordion - The accordion element allows you to show a section which is "closed" initially, appearing as a heading, but can be "expanded" to show further information.
5. Image - This allows you to add an image to the form.
   
   

Layout

The fields in this section can be used to divide the form into separate pages or sections, or include "Clone" sections which allow the user to "Clone" a set of fields so that multiple sets of information can be added.

1. Page - start - This is used to start a new page in a form.  The text in the "Values" field will be used as a page heading and as a navigational aid that the user can use to navigate between the pages in a form.
2. Page - end - This is used to mark the end of a page and must be used in conjunction with a Page - start field. 
3. Section - start - This is used to start a new section in a form.  The text in the "Values" field will be used as the section heading.
4. Section - end - This is used to mark the end of a section and must be used in conjunction with a Section - start field.
5. Clone - start - This is used to mark the start of a "Clone Section".  Clone sections allow the user to "duplicate" a set of fields in a form by clicking a button when completing the form.  Any field placed between the Clone - start and Clone - end field is included in these duplicated fields.  Clone fields are further described in the following article: Clone Fields.
6. Clone - end - This is used to mark the end of a "Clone Section".
   
   

Grid

These fields are used in Performance Review forms to populate the 9 box grid.  Further information about 9 box grids are available in the following knowledgebase article: Natural HR - 9 Box Grid.

1. 9 box grid - performance (standard) - A drop-down list pre-populated with Low, Moderate and High which is used to populate the performance element of the standard 9 box grid.
2. 9 box grid - potential (standard) - A drop-down list populated with Low, Moderate and High which is used to populate the potential element of the standard 9 box grid. 
3. 9 box grid - performance (custom) - A drop-down list populated with your custom values (entered in the values field) for the x axis of a custom 9 box grid. 
4. 9 box grid - potential (custom) - A drop-down list populated with your custom values for the y axis of a custom 9 box grid.

Completed

Completed fields are used in forms to mark the completion of a section or of a whole form.  They can also be used to progress workflows when the form is used as part of a workflow.  They take the form of a drop-down containing the values "Yes" and "No".

1. Completed - When set to "Yes" this marks the form as a whole as completed.  This type of completed field should only be used in a form when only one party needs to complete the form, and it is also not part of a workflow.  This will mark the form as completed and lock the responses.
2. Employee completed - Commonly used in Performance Review forms.  When set to "Yes" this marks the form as completed from the Employee's point of view.  This will lock any fields that the employee (only) is able to complete.
3. Manager completed –  Commonly used in Performance Review forms.  When set to "Yes" this marks the form as completed from the Manager's point of view.  This will lock any fields that the manager (only) is able to complete.
4. Workflow step completed - When set to "Yes" this will cause the workflow to continue on to the next "On Last Action" step.  There are 5 of these workflow step completed fields which can be used in sequence to provide a form/workflow process with multiple steps.  For example, the employee fills out a section of the form and marks Workflow step completed as Yes.  The workflow then sends the form to the manger.  The manager completes their section for the form and marks Workflow step completed 2 to "Yes".  The workflow can continue in such a manner using Workflow step completed 3, Workflow step completed 4 and Workflow step completed 5.

Further notes on Completed fields

Completed, Employee Completed and Manager Completed fields within a form have an impact on the ability for certain user groups to make changes to the content of a form.

For example, if you have a Performance Review form and the Employee fills in the first part - once they set Employee Completed to "Yes" they cannot then return and edit the form.  Likewise, once Manager Completed is set to "Yes" then neither the employee nor manager can edit the form.

In all three cases, these fields (when the form is embedded within a workflow) can also serve as the method of updating the workflow to notify that the task is completed.

If you have a situation where you have a form in the workflow but the permissions are such that using the three above completed fields would stop the workflow from functioning as you need (for example: if you needed the form to move from employee to manager and then back to employee) then you can use the Workflow step completed fields as described above - this does not have any impact on permissions or ability to edit the form and simply is used to tell the workflow that the step is completed and can progress to the next step.