If you have a website, you need forms to generate new leads and to convert website visitors into customers. Luckily, you don't have to create them from scratch — the WPForms plugin streamlines the process of adding appealing, functional forms to your site quickly and easily.
Whether you're making a contact or order form, or a traditional survey, the WPForms plugin offers over 400 pre-made templates, so even beginners can craft high-converting forms.
Today, we'll dive into the most important features the WPForms plugin offers. You'll learn why this plugin stands out from the rest and how you can get started. Let's walk through how using this WordPress plugin can give your business a competitive edge.
- Why should you use the WPForms plugin?
- Key Features & Addons of the WPForms Plugin
- Use the WPForms Plugin today to begin adding forms to your site
Why should you use the WPForms Plugin?
You need a contact form regardless of which industry you're in or how much traffic your website sees.
Offering a contact form allows visitors to reach out with any questions quickly. Furthermore, once they do so, you'll have access to their contact information which you can use to continue communication and convert visitors into customers.
In addition to contact, WPForms can help you create other types of forms to boost leads and revenue. With the help of WPForms, you can build:
- Event registration forms
- Order or purchase forms
- Donation forms
- Newsletter signup forms
- Employment application forms
- Surveys and polls
Whether creating a simple contact form or something more complex, this plugin provides the resources necessary to make it happen. Now, let's discuss the key features of WPForms that make it the most comprehensive form builder for WordPress.
Key Features & Addons of the WPForms Plugin
We've gathered some helpful information about our favorite features and addons that make the WPForms plugin highly effective. Here are some of the critical elements that enable this plugin to shine.
Easy Drag-and-Drop Builder
The WPForms plugin scores major points for its ease of use. The intuitive drag-and-drop builder enables you to build any form within minutes, even if this is your first experience with the plugin. Therefore, if you don't have experience writing code, this plugin could be a good fit for your website.
From there, you have a couple of options: to start from scratch and create an entirely customized form or to start from a template. (Don't worry — if you choose the latter, there are still plenty of opportunities for personalization.)
Say you decide to start from scratch. First, you'll drag the fields you want your form to include from the left side and drop them onto your form on the right. Using the builder, select form fields such as email, phone number, checkboxes, multiple choice, reCAPTCHA, file upload, and more. Removing fields is just as easy — you can do so in a single click or drag them up and down to rearrange.
If your form features a field for visitors to add an address, WPForms has a smart geolocation feature to allow auto-complete functionality. There's also a map drop pin feature and the ability to view a user's location in the entries area. The WPForms plugin also allows you to customize one of its 400+ pre-made templates. These run the gamut from general intake forms to more specific options.
What we like: Thanks to customizable templates, it'll take minutes instead of hours to create beautiful, functional forms.
Payment Methods
Setting up an online store or shopping cart can prove time-consuming. However, if you're looking to collect payment through your site, these might prove unnecessary. Instead, you can accept payments directly through your forms.
Say you're the website owner of a nonprofit organization looking to accept donations. Creating a form that accepts payment is a simple, efficient way to garner donations. Alternatively, restaurant websites could benefit from using this form as a way for people to order takeout.
The best part of this is that you can choose to accept payments via Stripe, Square, PayPal, or Authorize.net. If you have a preference, you can choose to take only one payment method. You won't need to hire a developer to write code, and you can have your payment methods set up quickly.
What we like: Another way your website can put this form to good use is by setting up recurring payments for subscription products, membership sites, or installment plans.
Built-in Conditional Logic
One of WPForms' standout features is its built-in conditional logic. This allows you to hide and show form fields based on a user's previous answers. Your forms will be short-and-sweet, which guarantees that visitors will only have to answer questions that are relevant to them.
In addition to improving the user experience and boosting form conversations, conditional logic helps your company get the most relevant information from leads.
Think of it this way: using the WPForms plugin, an agency or consultant could create a form that will only reveal the following field if the visitor inputs a budget that is higher than a certain amount. Alternatively, a different question can display depending on if a visitor answers 'yes' or 'no.'
What we like: You'll score points with visitors by only asking them relevant questions. As a result, they'll be more likely to complete your form.
Conversational Forms
Conversational forms are a unique, interactive form layout. Instead of presenting users with 20 questions all at once, conversational forms show one question at a time. This format helps improve the user experience and makes completing the form feel more like a face-to-face conversation.
Because conversational forms present questions slowly, they're less overwhelming for users, which results in a higher form completion rate. While creating a conversational form seems complicated, it's simple with the help of the WPForms plugin. All you need to do is create your form and check the box to enable conversational form mode.
What we like: You can choose colors to match your brand, add your logo, and pick from different progress bar styles.
Surveys and Polls
There's no substitute for getting direct feedback from website visitors and customers. With WPForms' surveys and polls addon, collecting that information is a breeze. Use the drag-and-drop builder to create an engaging survey that's as complex or simple as you see fit. Because this addon is specifically designed for surveys, there are smart survey fields offered like the Likert scale, star ratings, and multiple-choice options.
The best part? WPForms has a real-time insights feature that automatically builds beautiful reports with the best visualizations for each question type, which makes survey results easy to digest. You then have the option to export these as a PDF or JPG, making it easy to share whether you're presenting them internally or sharing them publicly on a blog.
Alternatively, if you'd like to boost transparency with visitors, you can display results immediately to each user after they submit.
What we like: All you need to do is click a button to turn any existing form on your website into a survey form.
Form Abandonment
Imagine all the website visitors that start filling out your forms but never submit them. All of those potential leads are gone forever, right?
Not with WPForms. WPForms offers a ‘Form Abandonment’ addon that will unlock more leads by capturing partial entries. This addon works with any form, from 'request a quote' to support request forms and beyond.
With the ability to collect partial form entries, you can get in touch with potential customers that have expressed interest, even if they don't complete the whole form. You can even automate the process by emailing people who didn't finish the form.
What we like: On average, the form abandonment rate is 68%. Using this trick will help ensure you have access to the information potential leads supplied.
Save and Resume Option
Long forms are intimidating for users to complete. The WPForms plugin offers a ‘Save and Resume’ addon, so users can save their progress while they're filling out your form. Then, when they return to finish it, they can restore their entry with one click — saving valuable time, energy, and frustration.
You can add the Save and Resume option to any form on your site, even surveys. You can also email users the link to resume your form, which makes for a timely reminder. Additionally, the addon allows you to view, edit, or delete partial entries from the WordPress dashboard.
What we like: User privacy is a top priority, so the plugin won't store sensitive data such as credit card information and passwords in your database.
User Journey Mapping
Another valuable addon to use in conjunction with the WPForms plugin is ‘User Journey.’ Using the User Journey addon, you'll learn what content on your site encourages visitors to complete forms.
If that's not enough, the User Journey addon reveals the URL that referred them to your site, what they searched for, pages and posts they looked at, and UTM parameters from the marketing campaign they responded to. Thanks to these comprehensive insights, you can further optimize your site for more form conversions.
What we like: The user journey addon even provides a step-by-step breakdown of what visitors do on your website before they fill out a form.
Mobile-Friendly Forms
In the second quarter of 2022 alone, mobile devices — not including tablets — accounted for 58.99% of global web traffic. Your website itself, of course, needs to be mobile-friendly, but so do your forms. Luckily, WPForms is 100% mobile responsive, meaning it works seamlessly on desktop, mobile, or tablets alike.
Additionally, using the WPForms plugin allows you to craft forms that offer cross-browser functionality, so no matter how visitors arrive on your site, they'll be able to access your forms without worry.
What we like: Like creating for desktop, you won't need to do any coding when creating mobile-responsive forms.
Use the WPForms Plugin today to begin adding forms to your site
This is just the beginning of what you can do with WPForms. Once you get comfortable with the plugin, you can explore other helpful features such as form locking, geolocation data, and more.
Because forms are vital for collecting leads and data, investing in a form plugin like WPForms will prove invaluable.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in November 2021 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.