Free trials are awesome, and not just when you score some little samples at the store. We at Formstack love when people sign up for our free 14-day trial because we get a chance to demonstrate all of the things that make our product stand out from the crowd. When you are using Formstack on a free trial, be sure to check out these options to make sure you are getting a full view of all our features. You don’t take a car on a test drive and keep it in first gear the whole time, so put the pedal to the metal on your Formstack trial!
Create as Many Forms as Possible
The first step to a successful trial is to make a bunch of forms, so jump in and play around with our drag-and-drop form builder. You don’t even have to make “serious” forms at first—make a survey of who in your office has the best-looking pet, create a lunch order form, or build an RSVP for the party you’re hosting this weekend. You can even use our field guide for templates and ready-made forms. Once you see how easy it is to create a form, you can build the ones that you need for your business, whether they are online applications or lead generation forms.
Set up an Integration
Do you use an email marketing platform, online payment processor, or CRM? Formstack works with dozens of web apps to make your work easier. During your free trial, set up an integration to see how simple it is to collect data and actually put it to use. Create a payment form and connect it to your PayPal account. Make a lead generation form and integrate it with ConstantContact or MailChimp. Formstack’s integrations ensure that you’re not just collecting data and never acting on it—you’re weaving it into the fabric of what your business is already doing.
Send Confirmation/Notification Emails
Confirmation emails can be sent to people when they fill out a form and can be customized to say anything. You can use them for different purposes—to act as a receipt, to extend coupons or offers, or to invite to connect on social media. Try using the email logic feature with confirmation emails—you can set up customized responses based on how your customers fill out your form. It’s a great way to create a personalized touchpoint.
You can set up notification emails to help you to stay on top of the data that is coming in. Try setting up different options, including routing logic, to send different emails to people on your teams. If a customer selects that they have a question about sales, for example, you can have an email sent directly to your sales team.
Try Approval Workflow
Approval Workflow is a great feature to check out during your free trial. This feature allows submissions to be approved or denied by multiple people. Take a job application as an example—an applicant submits it, the hiring team is notified by email, and each person can approve or deny the applicant. Formstack makes it easier to work well with others and avoid the backlog that can occur when multiple people are involved in a task.
Play with Analytics
After you’ve been collecting data with your forms, you will want to check out the ability you have for data analysis. This is where it gets good: pie charts! Bar graphs! You can run different reports under the “Submissions” tab and see how users are filling out your form. Try exporting data into Excel or sharing it with colleagues. An additional option, the analytics plug-in, shows you data such as unique views vs. submissions, the abandonment rate, and which fields people are viewing on the form. This gives you a bigger picture of how your users are interacting with the form, which can help you to create more effective forms.
Enjoy Your Test Drive
As you go through your free trial, remember to take advantage of as many features as you can. That way, you can see how Formstack will help you to streamline data collection and save you time. And if you find yourself with questions, just ask our support team! They are happy to help you.
Ready to sign up for a free trial of your own? Click here to start your free trial!
