Forms Tip 1
You already know how to create a Google form, but why aren't many people responding? In this video, I'm going to show you seven simple things you can do
to increase the chances of people submitting your form and also allowing you to gather more valuable information.
Tip number one, let's make sure that we use this description field at the top of the form, and what I recommend is using a combination of gratitude but also a time estimate.
So in this example, instead of giving them a description of what the survey is, I'm going to say thank you for taking just two minutes to fill out this quick survey. This plays on two psychological factors.
One is gratitude. I'm thanking them in advance for taking the time, which always makes that individual feel better. But number two, I'm also emphasizing that it's only going to take a few minutes of their time.
I've said two minutes and I've also emphasized with other words such as just and quick, so that they know that this isn't going to be very time consuming. If someone clicks on your form and they assume it's going to take them 10 or 15 minutes to complete, they may close it immediately.
But if you can tell them upfront how painless this is going to be, they are much more likely to continue filling out the form.
Forms Tip 2
Tip number two is to get them engaged early on with two very quick and simple questions. Never ever start your form with a long form answer.
I recommend that you start with something very, very basic such as name, email address, or maybe a very simple multiple choice such as a two or three option multiple choice question. The theory here is the sooner you can get them engaged and actually filling out the form,
they are much more likely to complete and submit that form. So make sure that those first two questions are as easy and as painless as possible. Once someone has started, they are much more likely to say I've come this far, I might as well finish this form. So make those first two questions as easy and as simple as possible.
Forms Tip 3
Now our third tip has to do with making your form as readable and easy to use as possible. Sometimes when we're creating our Google forms, we often forget that we can change the font and the text size for almost everything here on screen. We don't have to be stuck with the defaults. If I come up here to the top right hand corner
and select customized theme, we can customize our header, our questions, and our text. So for example, maybe I want the question text to stand out that much more.
First off, I'm going to make it a little bit larger, but then I'm also going to come down here and choose a different font. And for many of the fonts listed, you can also choose if you want to bold them as well. So not only am I changing the font,
I'm going to make it extra bold so it stands out that much more. And don't forget, these theme changes will also apply to the mobile view of your form. And since more and more of us are filling out and will be accessing your form on a phone or a small device, having your fonts and your text a little larger or a little more pronounced can go a long way.
Forms Tip 4
Now the fourth tip on our list has less to do with making it easier for your viewers,
but more about getting the most valuable and unbiased information. And that has to do with randomizing your multiple choice questions. In this example, I'm asking what is their favorite social media platform? And here you can see I have it listed with YouTube as the first option and Twitter as the last option.
Countless studies have shown that we show bias to the first option available to us and we are less likely to choose the last one on the list even if it happens to be true for us. So depending on your multiple choice question, I recommend that you shuffle the order.
By selecting this multiple choice option, I can come down to the lower right hand corner, select more options, and then select shuffle option order. Now, nothing is going to change here in the editing mode of my form, but if I select the preview button, here you can see now Twitter is listed first followed by YouTube.
And if I open up the form a second time, this time Facebook is presented first, followed by Instagram. So each and every time that this survey is presented, these four options will always be shuffled.
Remember, as a form creator, the goal is to get the most valuable and most accurate data possible. So for most of your multiple choice options, consider shuffling that option. And if you want to turn it off, you can come down here and select it again, which will uncheck that selection.
Forms Tip 5
Now the next tip on our list I think is the most common problem that I see, and could be the number one reason why you are not getting as many responses as you'd like,
and that is making too many of your questions required. Of course, here in Google Forum, this little red asterisk indicates a required field, meaning that the user will not be able to submit the form unless they put in an answer.
However, if you include too many required questions people may not fill out your form at all or get halfway through and then come to a question that they don't feel comfortable answering. And even though that they've answered something earlier on, you won't get any of those responses.
Now of course, as a form creator we think that all of our questions deserve to be answered and we would love to hear our respondent's answers. But isn't half of a form completed better than no completion at all? So in this case,
pay special attention to what actually needs to be required. In the bottom right hand corner of all of your questions, you can select the required toggle. So in this example,
maybe the only thing that I really want is that email address and I'm going to make everything else optional because even if they don't provide detailed feedback or suggestions, just knowing what their favorite social media platform and also collecting their email address is going to be valuable to me. So pay special attention
as to how often you use the required fields.
Forms Tip 6
Now another reason why people may be ignoring your form or not completing the submission process is that they think that it is too long. And a great way to get around this is to break up your form into multiple pages.
And Google forms makes this a lot easier than you think. Often, users will open up a form and quickly scroll to the bottom of the form before answering a single question to determine how long this is going to take. And if it looks like it's going to be a very lengthy survey, they may never even start with the process.
But what we can do is break things into chunks.
So here, I would like to have the user just have the first three questions displayed
and then have the last two questions displayed on a separate page. So what I'm going to do is select this multiple choice question, this is my third question, and I'm going to add a section below it.
Remember, wherever your question is selected, indicated by that highlight on the left hand side, the section will be added below it. So I'm going to select add a section. Here you can see I have my section two of two, and at the top, it's telling me this is my section one of two.
Now you may want to give this new section a title. I'm going to say new section in this case. And now when I hit that preview button, you can see that all they are presented with are these first three questions.
Let me just put in a dummy email address for our example. I'm going to hit next. And now we're presented with our new section. So we can break this up into two, three, or as many pages as you like, but this often makes it a lot easier for the user to complete a lengthy form.
Now an important tip to keep in mind when it comes to using sections. If you decide that you want to remove this section, all you need to do is come over here select the more option, and hit delete section. But be forewarned.
Google form will let us know that by deleting this section, we are also going to be deleting all of the questions and responses within that section. So the better option, especially if you're wanting to keep those questions and responses, is to merge the section up.
I'm going to select cancel in this case, I'm going to go back to more and say merge with above. Now I'm returned to my original form without any sections
but I've preserved my questions down below.
Forms Tip 7
Now for our seventh and final tip, we want to make sure that we thank our user
for filling out the form, but also perhaps direct them to a next step or maybe a particular webpage. And for that, we're going to come up here and select settings.
Under settings, we want to expand the presentation area and we're going to scroll down about halfway down to the confirmation message and we can select edit.
Now by default, Google Forms will usually include something like this. Thanks so much for giving us feedback. But of course, you can fill out whatever you want in here.
If you want to be a lot more specific, such as thank you for participating in this year's walkathon, or maybe something particular to your business. Keep in mind that although Google Forms does not allow us to redirect to a specific webpage, we can also include webpages into this message.
So in this example, I'm going to invite the user to click here to learn more about our services.
And all I've done is included the domain name of my website. I'm going to select save. And now when I go back to my preview and select submit, I'm brought to my thank you page but I also have a clickable link. So I'm redirecting them back to someplace where I want them to go.
And if you want to get even more out of Google forms, be sure to click on this video next where I show you five bonus tips that every form's user should know.
