Form field labels - does Marketo not support "best practices"?

[Anonymous]

Hi, everyone.

I have been tasked to research and implement form templates for my team based on best practices/empirical evidence (which I have). Some of my colleagues here believe that what Marketo has rolled out (Forms 2.0) is based on best practices and that since Marketo is a power player in the field, we just need to look to their form options/designs.

However - I have found numerous docs that state the best locations for form field labels are on the top or to the left. (Marketo offers those *and* inline form labels.)

In addition (and I saw another user asked this and got a response) although there is a solution, there is no apparent way to put a checkbox to the left of a form label while all of the other form fields (in this particualr form) have labels to the left.

My questions:

1. Is everything Marketo presents us to be taken as the first and last word on the subject?

2. Are some of Marketo's features based more on client desire than best practice (only offering form labels to the left or on top vs inside the form field)

(If anyone is interested in where I have found my best practices supporting documentation, I can supply that)

Thank you,

Jen

[SanfordWhiteman]

1. Is everything Marketo presents us to be taken as the first and last word on the subject?

Not in any way.  Marketo Forms 2.0 is a forms library that happens to have some built-in themes.  Its powers are its ready-to-roll integration with your Marketo database, its built-in awareness of Munchkin web tracking, and its extensibility (onValidation/onSubmit/onSuccess events) -- not its look-and-feel.  Customizing the styles does not mean you're drifting away from best marketing practices.

2. Are some of Marketo's features based more on client desire than best practice (only offering form labels to the left or on top vs inside the form field)

A combination of developer desire and client desire. I don't think it's worth reading into why the default styles are the way they are.

[Anonymous]

Wow. Thank you, Sanford for the quick reply. Very helpful!

Sincerely,

Jen

[Josh_Hill13]

I would also say here that your form and page designs should reflect what your audience would find helpful for taking the next step to fill out the form. You can look at whichtestwon.com or MarketingSherpa.com or dozens of sites for ideas on what MAY work well, but the only way to know is to try it out on your audience.

It will be faster to use the ready made version in Marketo, but if you have webdevs and designers, make it work for your audience.

[Anonymous]

Thank you, Josh.

I just realized that I used your table from the Marketo site that demonstrates the amount of information that should be asked (low, medium, high) for content, webinars, etc. Thanks for that as well.

-jen

[Anonymous]

Morning, Josh.

Would either you or Sanford like to take a look at what I put together? It would be interesting to get a quick opinion from the Marketo point of view?

Thanks,

Jen