How can you make something seemingly dull fascinating to your audience?
Casper do it as a mattress company exceptionally well. So many marketers are put off flying their flag because they believe their product to be too dry. Their audience to niche.
Some, on the other hand, throw away the rule book. I love everything Typeform.com represent. Think about when you bought your car. When you completed the mortgage. The one thing that stood in your way? That freakin’ endless form. Nobody likes filling in forms. No marketer likes creating forms. They’re just a hinderance. Then Typeform appeared.
Does this look like a company that allows you to create online forms?
That’s just a little about the company culture. It sets the scene for the product itself.
Typeform are a company on a mission. One simple mission:
Isn’t simplicity sometimes the best approach to deliver and define our proposition?
It’s not your typical product backstory either :
At Typeform, we were inspired to simplify online forms by a movie that’s decidedly a blast from the past: the 1983 film WarGames, which centres around a student who remotely logs into a research computer and, through its terminal interface, nearly sparks a nuclear war. Its computers are hardly state of the art, yet the computers’ question-driven interface inspired us to reinvent forms. Instead of a list of questions, how much better would it be if forms presented one easy-to-answer question at a time?
The premise of Typeform is that questions are better than lists. Consumers engage better when they’re asked questions rather than presented with lengthy list to fill in.
Sometimes, as marketers, we embrace technology for the novelty factor. The popups, the overlays, remember the post-carrying email dog? Typeform is built upon user experience. They’ve changed the way we think about (and create) online forms. It’s their mission.
Think about functionality-driven advancement in form technology:
- The ability to send queries to more than one address
- The option to opt-in or opt-out
- The opportunity to split-test forms to see what works, what doesn’t
Features and benefits that add upon what the ‘standard’ offering is. Give what people expect and a little more. That’s the conventional route to differentiating a product. The snap, crackle and pop.
Typeform’s Barcelona-based founders David Okuniev and Robert Muñoz never concerned themselves with offering an alternative. Since 2010 they’ve embraced the idea of destroying the traditional form, “That’s what keeps us working on Typeform and what makes us excited to see new developments from others.”
DELIVER THE PROPOSITION
Surveys. Registration Forms. Contests. Landing Pages. We’re usually presented with a dry list of tick boxes, choices and input fields. No person (in their right mind) enjoys the process of filling the form. Up step Typeform. The level of interactivity, subtle difference in question presentation, use of imagery and question by question format is a strangely engaging process. You’re not sure what’s coming next. You’re not staring at stage one of an arduous 20 point list.
There’s intelligence built into the technology. If your answer doesn’t apply to the next question, you’re moved onto a question that is relevant. The form is always pertinent to the answers you’re providing. It’s a form that evolves question by question around the user’s requirements.
You don’t feel like you’re filling in a form. You feel like you’re engaging with a website.
For the marketer, the creation of the Typeform is so so simple. Yes, you need to have initial consideration for what response you’re looking to receive. Yes, you are forced to think differently. However. This is conversion optimisation 101. The form is usually a huge stumbling block.
KNOW THE PAIN POINT
Alleviating the customer’s frustration with form filling is straightforward with Typeform.
Their business succeeds by getting more marketers, more developers buying their product. Their objective is to spread the word of Typeform. To get us marketers thinking of new ways to ask questions of our audience. When one marketers sees Typeform in use on a website, they’ll need a Typeform account themselves.
The pain point is a tedious creation and presentation of the form. Just like Bellroy, who created the pain point of the bulky wallet, Typeform’s success is based upon creating awareness of the uninspiring nature of the traditional alternative.
Typeform have taken ownership of that pain point. They let their competitors focus on benefits and features attached to the traditional form, Typeform revolutionise the way marketers consider their forms.
BUYING INTO TYPEFORM
The recurring theme in the For Market Makers series is the delivery of a ‘buy into’ vs ‘buy from us’ proposition.
Typeform enable the buy-in through their ownership of the problem. Their purposeful positioning of a product that helps the marketer to convert more form fill-ins.
It’s crazy to think that we’d find ourselves in a position where we’d announce to our peers ‘Hey, check out the new form we’ve designed’. That’s the level the Typeform take their product to.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM TYPEFORM?
First and foremost, any product, any service, can be made sexy. The simplicity of the website. The quick and easy way to trial the form builder. The proposition built around what YOU can do rather than what WE offer….
Talking about ‘delight’ rather than listing elements of ‘functionality’. At the core is this tremendous belief in the product that resonates throughout their website and conversations in social media.
Just remember. We’re talking about website forms here.
Products that succeed are products that are made meaningful and presented with purpose in mind. This is what happens when you position your business at the very edge of your industry.
Wander through the Typeform website. Consider how they present the product. They’re selling the experience you provide your customer. They make you think. That’s the job of a smart marketer. That’s the role of a market maker.
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