-
Learn how to quickly create registration forms with SurveyMonkey. Collect information from respondents to organise your event plans.
Online registration forms are excellent tools for collecting information you’ll need for event hosting, student enrolment and patient information collection.
In this article, we’ll share how to create and send your own online registration forms with our expert-written templates. We’ll also explore a few tips and best practices for implementing a registration process that will save you time and boost your data management.
A registration form collects personal information from users who are interested in signing up for an event, membership or service. Businesses and organisations can utilise registration forms for a variety of use cases, including:
Whatever the application, the objective of registration forms is to gather and organise personal information from participants.
Your registration form’s appearance will often depend on the type of form you create and your specific business needs. Common elements include:
Let’s discuss beginner-friendly steps for creating an online form with SurveyMonkey Forms:
First, you’ll need to decide how long your form should be to meet your needs. Set a goal for your form and then only include relevant questions. Registrants are less likely to complete a form that asks too many questions, so keep it brief.
If you need to collect a lot of information, allow people to save and edit their responses so they can exit your form and return later.
Avoid jargon and use straightforward field descriptors that only collect specific information for each field. Provide examples to help people fill out your form accurately.
If you know what you want your form to be about but don’t want to write all the questions yourself, you can create a form using AI.
Log into your SurveyMonkey account. From the header menu, select Create survey, and then Build with AI. Type in a prompt and SurveyMonkey will generate a registration form example that you can customise.
To use the template, select Create survey from the header menu and then select Start from template. Select Forms from the dropdown menu to browse dozens of online form templates.
When you find an appropriate template, select Use this template to begin building your form.
Include a confirmation message at the end to let users know that the registration process is complete and what they can expect next. Your form's end-page experience should direct people to the URL of your choice or offer a simple thank you for completing the form. You should also automatically send a confirmation email to registrants.
Use a payment form to collect payments directly so people won’t have to navigate off the page to submit a payment. You can also include information about how your business protects people’s data privacy.
Add a payment page to the end of your registration form to accept payment. SurveyMonkey integrates with Stripe, a third-party payment processor to receive and manage payments securely.
To connect to Stripe, log in and visit My Account in SurveyMonkey. Select Stripe in the Linked Accounts section. Sign in to Stripe if you already have an account, or create a free one.
Finally, drag and drop Payment (Stripe) into your form after creating your form with the form builder.
Note: Payments are only accepted on some paid SurveyMonkey plans.
Your registration form should be mobile-friendly and accessible to users with disabilities. Make sure you’ve chosen a legible theme and use contrasting colours in your form design. Label all form fields properly for screen readers and don’t rely on placeholder text.
Provide descriptive alt text for all images and videos, and mark all required form fields with an asterisk.
Related reading: The internet is for everyone - creating accessible online forms
Embedding a question into an email can boost response rates by up to 22%. You can embed a registration form into your website or email with HTML to make it easier for people to get in touch with you and sign up quickly.
Here’s how it works:
To embed a form into a website, you will need access to your website’s source code and a basic understanding of HTML. Follow these steps to embed the online form:
You only need to add this code once. Any changes you make to your form will automatically show in the embedded form on your website.
Embedding an online registration form into an email is super simple. Just follow these four steps:
Select Create survey from the header menu and then Start from scratch. To add questions to your form, select Build and enter your text.
You can also search the Question Bank for pre-written questions to add to your form.
When building registration forms, avoid these beginner’s mistakes:
If you follow these tips and tricks, you will certainly be able to provide a seamless experience for people who are interested in using your registration form.
Related reading: Create more effective online forms - 8 tips for online form design
Get started with some of our expert-written registration templates:
If you’re welcoming new members to your church, you’ll want to get to know them. Use a church membership form to ask a potential member about:
A conference registration form lets businesses capture attendees’ details, preferences and session choices. These online forms work well when organising a professional event, workshop or seminar.
You can also add a payment page to collect conference fee payments directly from the registration form.
Simplify your event planning by collecting registrations online. Ask attendees for:
If you manage memberships for a gym or fitness centre, you may have to track each membership type and different payment plans. A gym membership form can help you stay organised by:
Make intake and medical records management easier by asking patients to register online. A patient registration form can:
If you’re hosting a seminar, use an online registration form to collect attendee details:
A virtual event registration form can collect participant data in exchange for a link to a webinar or conference. Alternatively, it can ask users for an email to forward information about accessing the event.
A workshop registration form allows businesses to host a professional development session, a creative workshop or another small-scale private event. These forms will streamline a host’s ability to collect information and effectively plan around attendance before an event.
A job fair registration form helps organisers collect information from people interested in attending an upcoming job fair. Efficiently manage job fair registrations with our flexible form template.
Educational establishment administrators can simplify enrolment with our school registration form for students. Students or parents can complete this easy form from anywhere to enhance the enrolment experience. Gather basic student information, including date of birth, student ID number, academic year/level and parent contact information.