What is the best way to greatly reduce the number of forms?

[Max-Wolters]

Hi folks,

My employer wants to move back to HubSpot. Currently we make use of way too many forms. In the legacy hubspot environment there are over 600 of them as well. I am tasked to look for a way to greatly recude the number of forms and then set up the new HubSpot that way.

The different forms could be split up into the next types of forms
- Newsletter sign-up
- Download (= brochure / e-book / whitepaper and more)

- Contact form

- (Marketing) event sign-up =  (webinar / workshop / round table)

We have 9 seperate business lines. Each business line has its own downloads and events. Currently all downloads are regularly updated, when this happens a new form is created. 

Now I am tasked to look for a way to reduce the forms drastically. Is it essential that we don't loose out on any data. So the source should be known, in which business line visitors are interested, what type of form it was, which exact brochure / whitepaper they would like to receive. Ideally i want to know the page where the form was submitted as well. But for the moment, webpages and landing pages are not hosted (yet) HubSpot. We place the form script in a iFrame in the current CMS.

So far I thought of a few options. One is to make one form for each type of submittable form. Let visitors choose which information they would like to receive with a newly created field in the form. 

Another option is to make use of UTMs and only host forms on landing pages. However UTMs will be used for both external as internal links, which isnt the best option for reporting.

Another option is to reduce the number of forms to the minimum and make seperate pages for every business lines download / registration. An important note is that for the moment, webpages and landing pages are not hosted (yet) HubSpot. 

Does anyone have an idea how to best reduce the number of forms and still collect the necessary information? Other suggestions are welcome as well. 

Best Regards,

Max

[jforte · Accepted solution]

Hey @Max-Wolters, hidden fields could sort that out and give you even new metrics to analyse performance.

When I've built this +5 years I had a challenge, it was quite easy to control channel performance (where they converted) but quite hard to analyze the performance of what made the prospect convert.

To solve that I've built a property called "Projects" that is set as hidden field and with the proper option selected so everytime someone converts I'll have an easy way to check on what they converted.

That way you'll don't need to build new forms for every new thing as soon they match the options you listed 🙂

Later I also use the property path to add the most recent info to a string in order to have an easy view on what was the path of that prospect. Something like:
Prospect X was acquired by Y Channel, turned into MQL by Z channel and on the path to customer converted on A; B; C projects

Check how does it look:

[Max-Wolters]

Hey @jforte, 

Thanks for the follow-up. I did some further digging myself too after seeing the above, so thanks. I suppose it will come down to a combination of hidden fields and a variety of pages that contain relevant URL parameters to make up what type of download was done and to what business line it belongs.