SHANNON SMITH - SAGE CONTENT MARKETING
Jotform is the Go-To Solution for Creating Secure Online Forms and Collecting Data
This post contains affiliate links.
My client Michelle has a tall order.
She’s planning an event, the Old West Invitational Turkey Shoot, an exclusive fundraiser for the Greater Hulett Community Center and the Wyoming Wildlife Foundation. There are numerous forms needed for this turkey hunt, including forms requiring the hunters to provide an image of the front of their driver’s licenses in order to obtain a Wyoming hunting license.
The amount of paperwork is immense. Lots of back and forth with registrants. Then, she has to manually enter the data from all that paperwork into an Excel spreadsheet.
So when she calls me to begin planning the OWITS’s new website, she asks if it’s possible to create forms that the event participants can fill out online to speed up the registration process and cut down on the paperwork. The answer to her question is YES.
And I’m happy to share with her that not only do I have a solution to her paperwork problem, this same solution automatically creates the data she’s been spending hours sorting and recording manually, and that data can be exported to an Excel spreadsheet, a PDF, a CSV report, and more with the click of a button.
Branded Forms That Save Immense Amounts of Time
With Jotform, I’m able to create the different packets of registration forms needed for the turkey shoot in Hulett, Wyoming. On the old website, the event registrants had to download and print the forms appropriate to their situation: Wyoming resident, non-resident, sponsor, landowner, and hunt guide. Each participant also had to download and print the Waiver of Liability form, Proof of Residency form (if needed). It was difficult to tell who needed what forms and the event participants were often confused. I was also confused.
So I had Michelle put together packets for each type of entrant for the turkey hunt containing all the forms needed for each kind of registration. Then, I created these forms in Jotform. Once they were tested, I copied the link for each form packet that Jotform creates and pasted the links to the registration packet buttons on the new website.
No more guesswork for people registering for the turkey shoot.
The deadline for submitting the registration forms is March 15. We decided to offer a grace period and set the forms to automatically expire on March 22. After March 22, the forms are automatically no longer available online.
Not only are the forms functional, but they’re also branded with the Old West Invitational Turkey Shoots logos and color scheme.
I like beauty and functionality together.
Design Forms from Scratch or Choose from Thousands of Templates
I designed this sample form from scratch in less than 5 minutes:
From the left, you can click or drag whatever kind of field you need for your form: Name, Address, Phone, Email, etc. You can click to include fields for a signature that works on a mousepad or a touchscreen and to upload an image, form, video, or anything else needed for your data.
Then on the right, you brand the form with your color scheme either by choosing preset colors or using custom colors. Change the fonts if you like (they only have a few fonts) or use an image as the background. You can add a reCaptcha in three different forms to prevent bot submissions.
Click the button to try out my sample form!
Once the form is completed and submitted, the data is saved in a spreadsheet in Jotform having the same fields as the form.
Everything from the form is saved in one place.
The data can then be exported to Excel, PDF, CSV, and other data forms with the click of a button.
Data is secure on Jotform, which also serves healthcare providers by offering a secure and HIPPA compliant platform.
I haven’t tried it yet, but Jotform offers the ability to create an app that links to the forms created. I look forward to trying that feature in the future.
A Great Solution for Small Businesses Needing Online Forms
Payment submissions are possible through Jotform. It can be used for online stores, charities, events requiring payments, and integrated with numerous applications such as PayPal, Dropbox, Google Sheets, Mailchimp, and more.
For me, Jotform is intuitive and easy to learn. I was making forms in minutes.
If you need online forms for your website, sign up for Jotform. They have a free Starter version offering up to five forms all the way up to Gold level offering unlimited forms and HIPPA compliance.
Check out their pricing levels to see which one works for you. Nonprofit and education discounts are available.
Of course, I’m available to help your business or organization with creating forms and adding them to your website. Just get in touch with me!