# Multi-step consulting enquiry form: 0.96% to 8.1% conversion

- Outcome: Won
- Page type: Lead form (Lead-gen)
- Elements: Form layout, Multi step form
- Date shared: 2016-08
- Test run by: [Venture Harbour](https://liftarchive.com/practitioners/venture-harbour/)
- Commentary by: LiftArchive (our analysis, not theirs)
- Original source: https://ventureharbour.com/multi-step-lead-forms-get-300-conversions/
- Page: https://liftarchive.com/test/venture-harbour-multistep-enquiry-form/

Swapping a basic single-page contact form for a multi-step enquiry form took Venture Harbour's consulting enquiry conversion rate from 0.96% to 8.1%. Venture Harbour (Marcus Taylor) reported the change on its own blog. This is a before-and-after comparison, not a split test.

## Result

**0.96% to 8.1% conversion**

- Enquiry conversion rate: 0.96% before, 8.1% after, which the source describes as a 743% rise in leads.
- This compares two periods, not two groups at the same time, so traffic mix and seasonality may account for part of the change.
- Lead quality and sample size were not shared.

## Control

A standard single-page WordPress contact form for consulting enquiries, with all fields shown at once.

## Variant

A multi-step enquiry form that asked one or two questions per step, which the team kept refining using form analytics.

## Why it likely won (our reading)

- Showing one or two questions at a time makes the form look short, so more people start it.
- Once visitors answer the first easy questions, they are more likely to finish.
- Contact details can be asked for last, after the visitor has already put in effort.
- Ongoing tweaks based on form analytics likely added to the lift over time.

## Caveats

This is a before-and-after result built up over years of iteration, not a single A/B test. Venture Harbour later sold a multi-step form tool (Leadformly), so the publisher had a stake in the outcome.

## How to run this test

- Hypothesis: If we split our enquiry form into short steps that start with an easy question, then more visitors will submit it because the first view feels less demanding.
- Primary metric: Enquiry form submissions per visitor
- Guardrail: Share of leads that qualify as sales opportunities
- Guardrail: Form start-to-finish drop-off by step
- Who should test it: Service businesses and B2B firms whose enquiry forms ask several questions. If your form is already two or three fields, a multi-step layout has less to fix.

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Credit: Venture Harbour ran this test and owns the result. Summary and commentary by LiftArchive (https://liftarchive.com/test/venture-harbour-multistep-enquiry-form/).
Usage: Free to use, quote and build on, with credit and a link: name the practitioner or organization that ran the test and link to its LiftArchive page. The results belong to the practitioners who ran and shared them; the summaries and commentary are LiftArchive's.