How To Use And Optimize Wix Forms
Updated: Sep 19, 2019
One of the most powerful business tools in the entire Wix Ascend arsenal is the Wix Forms app.
Using this app allows you to create custom forms for your business, easily manage your data, create custom payment screens, allow users to upload files, and can be used in combination with other Wix apps to create efficient systems for your site.
Now, the app used to be free, then it was made as a freemium app, then it was bundled into the Ascend package so the features have become increasingly more expensive to use. This continues to be a main point of contention when using the app.
But that is because the features have become more desirable to use compared to the days when the app was completely free.
You can now add Wix Automations or Wix Tasks to every form submission to create an automated system for your business so you can spend less time managing your forms.
You can create your own forms that link to payment screens for membership models. You can create customized product pages where people can customize their order then immediately pay.
Because there are so many features and benefits there are several places you will want to familiarize yourself with in order to use the Wix Forms app.
In this article you will become comfortable using each of these sections and also learn more about how to use this in combination with other Wix apps to create powerful systems for your business!
Table of Contents
Accessing The Wix Form App
Editing Wix Forms In Your Editor
Managing Form Submissions In Your Dashboard
Upgrading The Form App
Creating Automatic Systems With The Form App
Conclusion
Accessing The Wix Form App
1. Sign in to your Wix account and select the site you will be working with.
2. Click on the "Site Actions" button in the middle of your screen
3. Choose the "Edit Site" option from the drop down
4. Click on the app marketplace icon on the left hand side menu
5. Type in Wix Forms into the search field and press enter.
6. Click on the "Add to site" button on the right side of your marketplace.
7. At this point you will be asked to use a template. Once you have chosen an option, click the "Choose" button on the bottom right. You will automatically see your template form on your page after hitting the "Choose" button.
This is how you will add a form to your site. Most sites already come with one form which is their contact form.
Once you have the Forms app on your site you will want to be able to manage all the submissions to your form.
You will be able to find your form submission in the Dashboard of your Wix site. I'll show you how to access this area below.
1. From your Wix Editor, move your mouse cursor over the "Settings" tab at the top of the editor and choose the "My Dashboard" option from the drop down.
2. Click on the "Customer Management" tab on the left-hand side menu.
3. Click on the "Form Submissions" tab on the left-hand side menu. This will take you to the Form Submission area of your Dashboard.
Now you know how to access the different areas of your Wix site in order to manage your forms and submissions but lets go over the details of each section so that you can properly edit what you need to in order to get the most out of your app.
Editing Wix Forms In Your Editor
After you have added a form in your editor, click on the form to bring up a list of options you have in order to edit and design the form the way you want.
From the right, you have options to access help articles, upgrade Ascend package, add animations, change the design, change the layout, add fields, manage fields, and access the form settings.
Most of the options on the far right will be standard for most elements on your site but where the form app begins to separate itself is in the add element "+" section.
Pulling up this setting option will allow you to add more fields to your form. The recommended fields that will come up by default are going to be automatically synced to your contact list.
What this means is that if you use these fields, you can add this info with every contact who fills out a form automatically.
You can even choose a specific section if you know what kind of info you are looking to get from your site visitor. Wix has even added a captcha option you can use for your forms.
You will also be able to manage all of your forms by clicking on the "Manage Fields" button.
This will allow you to edit individual fields on your forms, delete your forms, duplicate your forms, and even make them a required field that your visitor will need to fill out if they want to submit.
All of your required fields will have a star icon next to them.
In order to make your forms part of a bigger system, click on the "form settings" and you will see a list of options you can choose from.
In this area, you can head straight to the Form Submission area in your dashboard which we will cover below, set up an email notification when someone submits a form, choose contact labels for everyone who submits, change your success message, set up a payment, and even set up automatic emails and tasks when someone submits.
This is how the forms become a powerful tool for your business.
If you have a contact form set up on your site then you can create an Automation that automatically sends a thank you email. You can also set up an Automation for 2 days later asking them to subscribe to your email list. You can also set up an Automation for 4 days later that is a coupon for your service/product.
You can set all this up one time and then every single form submission will receive this email sequence. The time saved from doing this yourself is incredibly valuable!
I would also spend some time correctly labeling your form contacts. This means you can label everyone who submits this particular form as a certain category for your contacts list.
If you have a contact form on your site then your label might simply be "contacted me" but if you have a email subscription form then you may want to label these contacts "email sub".
You can then use these contact labels to correctly set up a Workflow system to create an excellent system to manage all your contacts for you automatically!
Now that you're familiar with editing your form in the editor let's cover the dashboard side of your app so you can manage all of the information and contacts that are coming in.
Managing Form Submissions In Your Dashboard
When you access the Form Submission area in your dashboard you will see a landing page with a system that has organized all of your forms for you.
Each form will have the title, the date created, and a button to "View Table" which will take you to see all of your form submissions. We will cover this in a second.
You will also see a small statement below your forms that inform you in order to see changes made to your forms when you edit them from this area in your dashboard, you will need to publish your site from your editor.
This is the same idea as making changes from your editor. You will always need to publish in order to see any changes and since the Dashboard does not currently have a place to publish your site, you will need to access the editor in order to do this.
On the top right of the page you will see two buttons. One labeled "+ New Form" that when clicked will automatically bring up your editor and take you to the app marketplace where you can add another form to your site.
Clicking on the "Upgrade" button will take you to the three pricing tiers of Wix Ascend and give you a list of benefits you will receive for upgrading.
After getting a layout of the screen, click on the "View Table" button located in the middle of the form container that we talked about earlier.
This is where all of your contact information for every single submission is located.
If this looks foreign to you then no need to worry because this area is basically a spreadsheet with some added features.
The main section of this screen is going to be all the info from your visitors. At the top you will see the headings for each field from your form. Below you will see the info that corresponds with that field.
You will be able to sort each field individually, pin, and hide each field.
You can also copy, delete, or duplicate each individual submission in your form by right clicking the row you want to edit or add a new submission manually by clicking on the "+" icon below.
Above the main section you will see a list of options to change how your info is being displayed.
You can filter the data depending on specific fields and that info from that field. This is used when you are needing to export certain information without needing every single submission. We will cover export/import in a second.
You can also sort the info by any field and any way you want. This is for quick looks into your data but serves no other functional purpose. Very similar to the filter function but does not interact with exporting or importing data.
You can also change what fields are being displayed in your submission table. Wix also creates mandatory fields that are automatically hidden but you can expose like created date, updated date, owner, and ID.
At the far right of these options are the Import and Export settings. This will allow you to take all the information being displayed in the table and export it to a CSV file. These files are used in spreadsheets like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.
You can also take a CSV file from your Google Sheet or Excel and import the information into your Wix Form Submission Table.
This will allow you to choose which information from your CSV you want to import.
By this point you should be feeling pretty comfortable using the Wix Form app on your site and navigating between your Dashboard and Editor in order to find what you need.
Let's talk about what you are going to actually be getting if you upgrade your Wix Ascend package to get more out of your app.
Upgrading The Form App
When you upgrade your Ascend package you are getting a lot more benefits than just the Form app but we are going to focus on this specific feature from Wix.
Taking a look at the picture above you will notice the left column is what will come with a premium Wix account. The column on the right will let you know what the starting benefits will be from upgrading.
The first row is referencing your form fields like name, email, phone number, etc. With your premium account you will be able to have 10 fields for EACH form. Any more per form and you will need to upgrade.
The next two rows are about allowing your visitors to upload their own files when submitting a form. If you were hoping a visitor could upload their own PDF or Word document then you will need to upgrade in order to do this.
Depending on which tier you have you will get more storage space for uploads.
Your premium account will also come with the ability to add 5 forms to your site. Anymore than this and you will need to upgrade.
If you site is getting a lot of traffic and you are getting more than 100 submissions to all of your forms a month, you will need to upgrade.
Since the form app pricing structure has changed since the beginning of its release it is highly recommended that you understand your limitations when using the Form app before developing your entire site and counting on it's accessibility and functionality.
To many entrepreneurs and small businesses found out after building their entire site that they will then need to upgrade their Ascend package in order to get the full benefits of the app.
Creating Automatic Systems Using The Form App
The real power behind using the Form app and any of the Ascend products is by combining them to create an automatic system for your business saving you time and energy.
If you set up a contact form on your site and someone submits a message to you, it is very important for your business to respond as soon as possible. With all of the progress in customer service, as consumers, we expect this kind of response immediately.
With your forms you can easily connect your Wix Automations so that you automatically send an email to every visitor who submits their message to you.
You set up the email one time, then every single submission gets an email immediately after they fill out your contact form.
You can also use the tasks and reminders app to automatically set up a task after every contact submission.
Let's say that every time someone submits your contact form that you want a reminder to automatically let you know you need to personally get back to them.
Set up an automation that automatically creates a task for you to remember to email them and sends a notification after 30 minutes of receiving the contact submission. You set it up one time and it does this for your for every single submission.
You want to also make sure that you are using your contact labels correctly for each form on your site.
Doing this will make sure that your Wix Workflow and Wix Contacts are being kept up for you automatically.
So that anytime someone fills out a contact form on your site they will be adding to your CRM as a "lead" and then you can move them across your workflow through the different parts of their journey.
This is the true power of upgrading your Wix Ascend package to use the combination of products to create huge time saving opportunities for you while you run your business.
Conclusion
Wix forms is one of the more powerful tools in your Ascend arsenal and you can use this to capture any visitor information by creating custom forms that match your business needs.
Very important that you become familiar with what comes with your Form app for free and what you will receive when you upgrade your Ascend. Don't build your whole site and then figure out you will need to pay even more to get what you want.
Using the app with other Ascend products is how you can make this tool especially powerful for your business. Keep this linked to your Automations, Tasks, and Contacts to get the full benefits.
Are you using forms on your site? Is there any advice you have for others that you could leave in the comments to help other entrepreneurs as they are discovering the app? Help out the community by sharing your knowledge and experience!
If you learned more about the Form app then please like and share the article so that others can know which articles are most useful for Wix users.
As always, I have free, 10-minute Wix Support Sessions available you can sign up for if you need any guidance around the Ascend products or anything Wix related because I know your business is a success and need your site to show it.