Progressive profiling, what should we consider before implementing?

[Anonymous]

We've been working in Marketo for ~12months and are beginning to consider using progressive profiling. I've read the 'How To' Community Articles, but I'd like to understand if anyone who currently is using progressive profiling can share:

• How did you go about implementing progressive profiling? Was it an all or nothing approach or did you "test" with a couple forms first?
• Were there any gotcha's or major Ah-Ha's after you began using PP?
• Did you see the expected results, ie increase in downloads?
• Did you see an improvement in the quality of the information that you were receiving from the PP form fill out?
• Any other suggestions or best practices around implementing PP that we should take into consideration?

Thanks!

[Josh_Hill13]

I highly recommend that you clone your standard form and then start testing it with progressive settings. Here are some things to check:

• does it fit the page when the fields change?
• which fields do you REALLY need at a minimum?
• are you sending all leads to sales? (I hope not)
• you cannot control which fields appear; they are random after the Always Show fields.
• you do not need to set hidden fields to Always Show.
• Are you running any scripts which would interfere?

The problem with seeing increased "quality" of data is Progressive forms are to bring in better data over time, not on one fill out.

I also suggest using this for low info required offers, such as Webinars, certain WhitePapers, etc. Do not use this for Tradeshows, Live Event Registrations or high value offers.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

How did you go about implementing progressive profiling? Was it an all or nothing approach or did you "test" with a couple forms first?

I use a new form for every landing page, so it was easy to not only test, but on an ongoing basis decided whether a form uses progressive profiling.  We've agressively implemented PP, but still have some applications where it doesn't work.

Were there any gotcha's or major Ah-Ha's after you began using PP?

The biggest was the user experience with unusual combinations of fields--for example, if we had the name, but not the courtesy title, the user would see a dropdown for Mr./Mrs.Ms./Dr. etc, but no place for their name.  Similar if we had a street address but not a suite number.  We overcame by listing related fields as always-show when using them on a form.   

Did you see the expected results, ie increase in downloads?

Yes.  The shorter the form, the greter the conversion.  With enough data, you can get to one field forms.  We've done webinar signups with email only--because over time we've collected the rest of the information.  .  

Did you see an improvement in the quality of the information that you were receiving from the PP form fill out?

Not really--we got better response rates, but the tough fields to gather were still tough,  For example, getting accurate  employee size or company revenue data.  We've stopped asking (except in very broad ranges) because people don't know, don't want to state, or mismatches in perspective (single location vs. all locations; one division vs. corporate; etc).

Any other suggestions or best practices around implementing PP that we should take into consideration?

PP really works well with an investment in a data append provider (we used ReachForce)   Let them fill in company addresses, main phones, revenue, employee size, SIC code, etc.  Use your PP for qualfication questions.

[Anonymous]

Josh & Steve - thank you both for your answers, very helpful! I hope to begin implementing with our marketers next month and have no doubt I'll be reaching out with more questions:-)

Alli