Get more form fill-outs by breaking them into bite-sized chunks. With multi-step forms, create several linked pages.
Home > Ontraport for marketing > Forms > Multi-step forms
Multi-step forms
Course Instructor
- What built out pages and forms look like in Ontraport
- How to link those forms together
- How to test your multi-step form
- The value of breaking up your long form into smaller, linked forms
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Transcript
Sometimes, you need to collect a lot of information from your visitors. But if you give them a long list of fields to fill out, they might feel intimidated and abandon the form altogether — and we don't want that.
One way to avoid this is by creating a form with multiple steps. By breaking up your form into bite-sized chunks, they’ll be more likely to complete it.
What we'll do is create several pages, and each page will have one step of your form on it, and each step may have a few fields.
So, for example, the first step might ask for their name and the second step can ask them for their job title . At some point, make sure to get their email address, too.
But there's a trick to making multi-step forms work. The key is that you have to make sure that when someone fills it out, the same contact record gets updated with each new bit of data. What you don't want is to create a new contact record from each form. Making sure we get this right is what this video is about.
Fortunately, it's super easy in Ontraport.
We'll do it in 3 steps: First we'll create a page for each step of our form. Next, we'll link the forms together and check one special setting. And then we'll test our work.
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Build your forms
The first step is to build our pages with the forms on them. Since we've got other videos that explain all this, we're going to just show you what we've done here. Three pages, three forms. Boom.
Onward.
Step 2: Link forms together
Next, we've got to link our forms together. So, go to the first form in your series, get yourself to the form settings, and find the 'send contacts here' section. What you want to do is select the second form in your series here, click save and publish and you're done.
The second one needs to be a little different though, so let's check that one out.
So we'll go to “Form Settings” on the second form and in the “Send contacts here” section, select your third page. That part's the same, but now we have one more setting to make.
Scroll down to the advanced settings section and check the box for “Overwrite email address merge with cookie data”. Click “Save” and “Publish” again.
Now, you'll do the same thing for each step in your form, making sure to check that advanced setting for every form except the first one.
That's the box that's going to make the magic happen to make sure all these forms add data to the same record.
And that's all there is to it.
You can also do the same thing with pop-up Ontraforms, using the same method. Just make a form for each step and set the same settings.
Step 3: test your work
Before we crack open the champagne, we'll run a quick test to make sure it’s working right.
And we're done. Now, you know how to make a Multi-step Form.
If you have any questions about this setup, make sure to watch our video on “Updating Existing Records with Forms” — the setup is very similar. You can also learn more about advanced form settings in the “Form Settings and Advanced Features” video.
Next, let’s tackle Multi-Object Forms.
Sometimes, you need to collect a lot of information from your contacts. But if you give them a long list of fields to fill out, they might feel intimidated or off-put and abandon the form altogether — ultimately lowering your conversion rates.
One way to avoid this is by creating a form with multiple steps. By having your contacts complete a form in small, bite-sized chunks, they’ll be more likely to fill out the rest of it.
Setting up Multi-step Forms with Ontraport is super easy. We’ll show you how to do it, step by step.
But before we begin, a quick note: With Multi-step Forms, it’s important to ensure that when your contacts fill them out, the same contact record gets updated with each new piece of data, rather than create new contact records out of each form.
Let’s get started. Each page of your form will have a single step on it. For example, the first step might have contacts fill out their first and last name while the second step asks them to write in their job title [show an example of this]. For your third step, you might want to collect their email address [show an example of this].
So let’s create our own Multi-step Form. [Step 1: Select your form] Hover over the “Contacts” tab and click “Forms.” Select the form that you want to turn into a Multi-step Form [show demonstrator selecting a form].
[Step 2: Select second page in settings] Now, go to “Form Settings” on the first page of your form and in the “Send contacts here” section, select your second page [show]. Click “Save” and “Publish” [show].
[Step 3: Configure advanced form settings] On each of the pages after the first, click the “Overwrite email address merge with cookie data” checkbox in the advanced form settings [show]. Click “Save” and “Publish” once more [show].
Note that you can also create a pop-up form for this using our Ontraform builder. In that case, you would just make a form for each step.
After that, you’re done! Now, just test your Multi-step Form to make sure it’s working properly.
That’s all there is to it! Now, you know how to make a Multi-step Form.
If you have any questions about this setup, make sure to watch our video on “Updating Existing Records with Forms” — the setup is very similar. You can also check out more information about advanced form settings in our “Form Settings and Advanced Features” video.
If you’re up for it, let’s tackle Multi-Object Forms.
One way to avoid this is by creating a form with multiple steps. By breaking up your form into bite-sized chunks, they’ll be more likely to complete it.
What we'll do is create several pages, and each page will have one step of your form on it, and each step may have a few fields.
So, for example, the first step might ask for their name and the second step can ask them for their job title . At some point, make sure to get their email address, too.
But there's a trick to making multi-step forms work. The key is that you have to make sure that when someone fills it out, the same contact record gets updated with each new bit of data. What you don't want is to create a new contact record from each form. Making sure we get this right is what this video is about.
Fortunately, it's super easy in Ontraport.
We'll do it in 3 steps: First we'll create a page for each step of our form. Next, we'll link the forms together and check one special setting. And then we'll test our work.
Let’s get started.
Step 1: Build your forms
The first step is to build our pages with the forms on them. Since we've got other videos that explain all this, we're going to just show you what we've done here. Three pages, three forms. Boom.
Onward.
Step 2: Link forms together
Next, we've got to link our forms together. So, go to the first form in your series, get yourself to the form settings, and find the 'send contacts here' section. What you want to do is select the second form in your series here, click save and publish and you're done.
The second one needs to be a little different though, so let's check that one out.
So we'll go to “Form Settings” on the second form and in the “Send contacts here” section, select your third page. That part's the same, but now we have one more setting to make.
Scroll down to the advanced settings section and check the box for “Overwrite email address merge with cookie data”. Click “Save” and “Publish” again.
Now, you'll do the same thing for each step in your form, making sure to check that advanced setting for every form except the first one.
That's the box that's going to make the magic happen to make sure all these forms add data to the same record.
And that's all there is to it.
You can also do the same thing with pop-up Ontraforms, using the same method. Just make a form for each step and set the same settings.
Step 3: test your work
Before we crack open the champagne, we'll run a quick test to make sure it’s working right.
And we're done. Now, you know how to make a Multi-step Form.
If you have any questions about this setup, make sure to watch our video on “Updating Existing Records with Forms” — the setup is very similar. You can also learn more about advanced form settings in the “Form Settings and Advanced Features” video.
Next, let’s tackle Multi-Object Forms.
Sometimes, you need to collect a lot of information from your contacts. But if you give them a long list of fields to fill out, they might feel intimidated or off-put and abandon the form altogether — ultimately lowering your conversion rates.
One way to avoid this is by creating a form with multiple steps. By having your contacts complete a form in small, bite-sized chunks, they’ll be more likely to fill out the rest of it.
Setting up Multi-step Forms with Ontraport is super easy. We’ll show you how to do it, step by step.
But before we begin, a quick note: With Multi-step Forms, it’s important to ensure that when your contacts fill them out, the same contact record gets updated with each new piece of data, rather than create new contact records out of each form.
Let’s get started. Each page of your form will have a single step on it. For example, the first step might have contacts fill out their first and last name while the second step asks them to write in their job title [show an example of this]. For your third step, you might want to collect their email address [show an example of this].
So let’s create our own Multi-step Form. [Step 1: Select your form] Hover over the “Contacts” tab and click “Forms.” Select the form that you want to turn into a Multi-step Form [show demonstrator selecting a form].
[Step 2: Select second page in settings] Now, go to “Form Settings” on the first page of your form and in the “Send contacts here” section, select your second page [show]. Click “Save” and “Publish” [show].
[Step 3: Configure advanced form settings] On each of the pages after the first, click the “Overwrite email address merge with cookie data” checkbox in the advanced form settings [show]. Click “Save” and “Publish” once more [show].
Note that you can also create a pop-up form for this using our Ontraform builder. In that case, you would just make a form for each step.
After that, you’re done! Now, just test your Multi-step Form to make sure it’s working properly.
That’s all there is to it! Now, you know how to make a Multi-step Form.
If you have any questions about this setup, make sure to watch our video on “Updating Existing Records with Forms” — the setup is very similar. You can also check out more information about advanced form settings in our “Form Settings and Advanced Features” video.
If you’re up for it, let’s tackle Multi-Object Forms.
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