What is a web form?
Web forms are designated areas on websites that allow for the collection of various data. The primary purpose is to enable visitors to get in touch with the company or organization that owns the site. They are also widely used in marketing to gather information about potential customers, for example, by signing them up for a newsletter or providing access to specific types of content, such as white papers, discount codes, webinars, etc.
Web forms are presented in the form of text boxes for filling out fields, checkboxes, file uploads, etc. A plethora of data needs to be collected for effective processing later on.
Webflow is our favorite website creation tool, partly because it allows us to create beautiful websites. Here’s what a contact form might look like in Webflow 👉 Digidop form
A tip for having an effective contact form: it should be simple and quick! We don’t have time to waste, so let’s get straight to the point! Simplify your forms to make it easier for visitors to contact you.
Types of web forms
Connecting web forms to your tools is a way to boost productivity. There are many types of web forms, and it’s common to find several forms on the same site. There are dozens of web forms that cater to various needs:
- Order form
- Registration form
- Event registration form
- Job application form
- Contact form
- Payment form
- Survey form
- Evaluation form
- etc.
These diverse data types need to be processed correctly for reuse.
Webflow Forms at Digidop
At Digidop, we use five different forms:
Contact Form
This contact form allows individuals to reach out to us directly from our website. This simplified form consists of four text fields:
- First and last name
- Email address
- Subject of the inquiry
- Detailed message if needed
To give visitors maximum choice, we have added additional contact methods besides this form:
- Phone number
- Social media
- Mailing address
Promo Code Form
We have a dedicated promo code form for sending promotions on the best no-code tools. This form consists of two fields:
- Text field for entering an email
- Multiple selector for choosing a no-code tool
Blog Signup Form
The blog signup form is useful for informing the Digidop community about the release of our latest no-code articles.
Job Application Form
The job application form used to be essential for recruiting our future Digidopers ⚡ Here, we use an Airtable embed to simplify the application process.
Digital Diagnosis Form
The digital diagnosis form allows us to offer companies a free digital maturity test. We use JotForm for this type of form, but other solutions such as TypeForm also exist.
The data we collect from these web forms may not necessarily be the same. A simple email address for the promo code and blog signup forms, and more detailed information for the contact form.
Tips 💡 A good contact form should be simple and quick.
The question now is how to manage all these forms and the information we receive. Here’s how to handle data from multiple Webflow forms to connect them to the best tools.
Why manage multiple forms?
The challenge when having multiple forms is to dissociate the data received and transmitted via the webhook. Indeed, if you use one module for different forms, your automations will fail each time a new type of data is received.
Example of a multi-form situation
Your form 1 requests an email and a first name, while your form 2 requests a phone number. When form 1 is filled out, the Webflow webhook will successfully receive an email and a first name, which it will then transmit to the subsequent modules.
However, when form 2 is filled out, the webhook will receive a phone number. This phone number being a piece of data that had not been configured in the other modules, the webhook will be unable to pass it along the chain, causing your automation to stop.
How to manage multiple web forms?
There are several solutions to manage data from different Webflow forms:
Use Integromat
Make (Integromat) and Zapier are very useful automation tools to help you manage your website by connecting it to your no-code tools. This way, you can easily handle multiple forms on your Webflow site: formulas, filters, modules, etc. At Digidop, we primarily use Integromat's filtering system to differentiate our forms and the associated data. For effective filter usage, it's important to properly rename your forms in Webflow for easy identification in Integromat.
Use embeds
Many form creation tools offer embeds to easily integrate your forms into your Webflow site:
- Airtable Embed
- Typeform Embed
- Jotform Embed
Use web links
You can directly integrate links into the "call to action" buttons that lead to web forms like Jotform, Typeform, or Airtable.
Why automate your web form with your tools?
Automating your web form is a real time-saver for your teams. For example, when a person fills out a new form on your site, here’s what happens:
😢 For a non-connected form: a simple email notification is sent
😍 For an automated form: notifications are sent to dedicated teams or individuals, filtering systems are employed, connections to your instant messaging like Slack are established, data is transmitted to your CRM, automated emails are sent, and individuals are added to mailing campaigns, etc.
Time savings, productivity gains, better tracking, automatic updates, and sending to the right people— the benefits of form automation are numerous.
Learn how to change the names of forms in Webflow!
