Chapter 5. Building Web Forms to Gather Visitor Data

Contents

Examining the Contact Form on the Trial Site 75 Accessing Form Data in the Dashboard of the Admin Console 77 Understanding Workflows 79 Editing Web Forms 82 Adding Web Forms to Web Pages in Dreamweaver 85 Using the Module Manager to Insert Web Form Module Tags 89 Creating Web Forms with the Web Form Builder 90 Adding Web Forms to Pages with the 1-Click Insert Menu 94 Overview of Working with Web Forms 96

Previously, you learned how the site’s database stores and displays dynamic data in modules. The creation and display of module data enables you to create interactive features and develop compelling websites.

In this chapter, you’ll take a look at how the Business Catalyst Platform gathers information submitted by visitors and stores it in the database. This is a powerful component of the online business, because the data obtained by interested visitors can be used in a variety of ways, including to:

• Generate an online community of like-minded people

• Track activities of specific customers to discover business trends

• Create recipient lists to send newsletters and e-mail campaigns

• Respond to product sales inquiries and schedule appointments

• Process online payment transactions

• Remind attendees about upcoming events and reservation bookings

• Enable registered visitors to log in to secure zones

• Send personalized anniversary greetings and annual service reminders

• Provide online help and manage customer support cases

Ultimately, these activities are used to convert visitors into customers.

Good communication is critical when interacting with potential customers. Web forms enable visitors to contact the business in a way that is more professional than simply providing an e-mail address. The user experience can include an online confirmation message and a personalized auto-reply e-mail message that is sent after each form submission.

The system makes it easy for your clients to access and track customer data, so that they can reply to inquiries in a timely manner. The Admin Console provides an overview of customer information in the Dashboard and includes an intuitive report system to locate specific records.

Web forms are completely customizable, facilitating the collection of data that is specific to a particular business. When you create a form for the site, you add the fields to define the data that is collected. You can add preconfigured fields, such as username, e-mail, and password. You can also make custom fields to tailor the input elements to match the theme of a site. Custom fields can capture data such as birth dates, gender, location, product models, and shoe sizes. Using reports, you can easily retrieve this information to learn more about your customers and their preferences. Businesses can use this specialized information to engage with their customers and connect with them on a more personal level.

You can also obtain feedback by including specific questions in your forms:

• Where did you hear about us?

• Would you like to subscribe to the newsletter?

• What time is most convenient to contact you?

When asking for personal data, it is a best practice to make the fields optional, rather than required, so that visitors do not feel overwhelmed. If you ask too many questions, they may decide not to submit the form at all.

All of the features in Business Catalyst, including web forms, are integrated into a single, centralized database. The data added to modules (as described in Chapter 4, “Configuring, Inserting, and Customizing Modules”) is stored along with the customer data so that all the details of the site are easy to retrieve in the Admin Console.

To get started, you’ll explore the trial site from the visitor’s perspective, to see how the customer data is submitted. The template for the trial site includes a prebuilt contact form that you’ll use in the next section to submit data and see how the system works.