Higher education websites can become a maze of links leading key audiences to various calls to action — information requests, campus visits, and applications, to name a few. Too many of these calls to action dead end in the download of a PDF form that gets printed, emailed, or even faxed to ultimately complete the “action”.
Putting business processes online means more than putting a PDF on the website, but its easier said than done. Learn more about the challenges higher education faces putting forms online, and see some real world success stories of institutions using Formstack as an online forms solution.
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Let’s get started.
• Forms in Higher Ed
• Brand Problems
• Conversion Problems
• Form Solutions
• Examples
• Questions
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Form Usage
in Higher Ed
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Technology in web projects
• Content Management System
• Website search
• Web event calendaring
• Analytics
• Forms
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More PDFs, more Problems
• Paper, paper, and more paper (and faxes
and emails)
• Not really “online” forms
• Old forms are never removed from the
site
• Search results filled with PDFs instead
of web pages
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CMS Form Tools
• Work directly in the CMS
• Typically don’t have stellar ease of
use for content editors
• Form features are limited
• Work best for simple forms
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Custom Web Forms
• Require web development resources
• No access for content editors (unless you
build it)
• Often require back end solutions to work
with other databases/systems
• All features must be built from the ground
up
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Best of Breed Forms Tools
• Offer administration tools and utilities to
manage forms and data
• Provide options for how forms are hosted on
pages
• Are purpose-built to make form creation easy
for content editors
• Advanced features like integrations, custom
branding and analytics
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Key Decision Criteria
• Self service ability for content editors
• Technical support for form creation
• Increase in higher ed websites
hosted externally
• Cost versus capabilities
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Low utility for form
owners and users
• Confusing—”Is this the right place?”
• Uncertainty and low confidence
• Users more likely to abandon unbranded forms
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Field Bottlenecks
• Help you optimize your form
• Reveal trouble spots
• Minimize form abandonment
• Increase user satisfaction
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Form options
Custom web form
• Unlimited customization
possibilities
• Connect form directly to
Datatel export/import
process
• Use server-side code to
help deliver required
features
Custom Formstack
form
• Built-in administration
tools for form submission/
review/approval
• Ability to create additional
forms based on the theme
• Less code/more
configuration
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Solution Requirements
• The form needed to have multiple pages
• Ability to have conditional steps
• Must be mobile friendly
• Must have proper required fields to ensure valid
data
• Admissions needs an approval step to review
submitted applications
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Design Process
• Review of the existing PDF form
• Wireframe proposed new steps and
fields based on new website design
• Development of HTML/CSS for a theme
within Formstack
• Quality assurance with web team and
Admissions prior to launch
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Implementation
• Mapping of fields to Datatel Colleague
database
• Development of CSS and Javascript to
style and enable form elements
• Creation of application form steps in
Formstack
• Creation of a custom theme in Formstack
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Impact (so far)
• 481 Conversions (applications!) in the first
three months
• 21% conversion rate
• Additional forms created which inherit the
theme/styles:
• Request Information
• Schedule a Tour
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Takeaways
• Web forms are a core component of web
infrastructure
• There are three primary paths for implementing
forms:
• CMS forms
• Custom web forms
• Best of breed third party form tools
• Tools like Formstack provide highly customized,
highly useable solutions
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Thank You!
For more information about mStoner:
773-305-0537 | mStoner@mstoner.com
Want to work with us?
Contact Mallory Wood at 802-457-9234
mallory.wood@mstoner.com
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