The AWS Blog

How much information should your web visitors have to enter into a form to download a product information pdf?

I’m willing to bet that in most organizations this desicion is made by someone in the sales department, rather then someone with web usability experience. In many instances, too much information is demanded from the user before they’ve even been qualified as a decent customer.

After reading an article in a web industry publication last night, I went online to research a piece of software that was mentioned. With very little information available about the product on the company’s website, I was forced to “Download a PDF.” Unfortunately, the form that stood between me and some high-level information about the product, was demanding a relatively large amount of personal information from me.

The Solution

Compare two possible forms for this request. The first requires Name, Company, and Email Address; the second requires Name, Company, Title, Email Address, Mailing Address, City, State, Zip, Phone, Fax. These forms need to be viewed as a risk versus reward scenario from the user’s perspective, with the highest risk being time invested (second highest would be privacy, in my opinion).

The first form would provide for a far higher conversion rate (the number of people who filled out the form, divided by the total number of people who saw the form), and would still allow the company to continue to market to the potential customer via email.

The second form will most likely turn many visitors away (who may or may not be high quality customers) because of the time commitment required and possible privacy implications.
I ended up poking around the web for a while, then returning to the company’s site to fill out the form. How many other visitors to this company’s website didn’t return?
The bottom line: I’ve only expressed slight interest in the product, why not give me more information if I want it?

For an example of a good form, check out the AWS site; I think we do a decent job.