Formisimo Analytics for your web forms, an interview with Al Mackin

Formisimo is a powerful and easy to use analytics tool that shows you how visitors use the forms on your website, and how you can improve their experience and the conversion rate on your site, maximising the conversions from every form on your site.

Formisimo works for online, mobile and tablets browsers and basic installation takes just five minutes and a few lines of JavaScript. If you use web analytics software like Google Analytics then you’ll feel right at home.

Who is your startup aimed at?         

Almost all websites contain a form that stands between a visitor and some other goal, be it to submit an enquiry, buy a product, sign up for a newsletter or simply register with a website.

Formisimo can be used by anyone that has a form on their website, but will be particularly useful for e-commerce sites where cart abandonment is an issue, business to business websites where visitors have to fill in a form to register an interest in the service, websites that allow people to apply for jobs online and digital agencies that design and build websites for clients with the aim of maximising conversions.

How does your startup stand out against its competitors?

Formisimo has been developed specifically to track website forms. Google Analytics allows you to track form interactions, but it is complicated to set up and it does not give many form-specific metrics. Formisimo can be set up in a matter of minutes with a single snippet of javascript. Almost instantaneously users will start to receive information about form interactions, field drop-offs, time spent on each field and dozens of other form specific metrics.

Where did the idea for the startup come from?

Mainly from a frustration with how poorly some online forms are designed! Poorly designed, with little or no instructions, they are often too long, ask far more questions than you feel are necessary, and frequently wipe previously filled out fields if you make a mistake. It quickly became apparent that this was a systemic problem across lots of websites, whose forms simply did not match the quality of the rest of the website.

Their inadequacies clearly impact the bottom line for most companies too, but some companies may not even know that their forms are doing so badly, or why. Formisimo is an attempt to illuminate this part of the conversion process and help companies increase their bottom line with the same marketing spends.

What is your business background, and what got you interested in startups?

I was previously the head of e-commerce at Celltalk PLC, where I took the online properties of Celltalk from sales of forty per month up to sixteen hundred, which at peak was driving almost a quarter of all revenues within the group.

In 2006 I co-founded theEword, an SEO agency based in Manchester, UK. Since then I have seen the company grow from 2 to over 30 staff, and us work with some of the UKs leading brands. Creating a business from scratch is definitely my proudest achievement.

Start Ups and entrepreneurship has always been a passion of mine, and I have been lucky enough to find a great team that has helped me grow my business to where it is today. Encouraging and developing new talent is one of my passions. I am a mentor at Manchester University, a judge for the Manchester Masters program, and am involved with the North West Apprenticeship Company.

How long has the your startup been in the making, and who is the team behind the business?

For the last eighteen months a team of developers and designers from the E-word have been working on Formisimo, and we are delighted that it is now ready to Beta test.

If you would like to become a Beta tester, please apply by emailing bonjourno@formisimo.com, and reference this article!

What has been your biggest challenge so far as a startup owner?

Finding the right people who are excited and motivated by what we’re doing. In a startup you need more energy, commitment and love from your team, and finding individuals who excel technically and have those attributes can be hard. Don’t underestimate the power of energy and ideas; this project wouldn’t have been the same without some of the amazing input from the people around me.

In the coming year, what would you like to achieve with your business?

It is still early days for us at Formisimo, so in the short term we want to make sure the tool is as good and insightful as possible. We already have plans for new features and metrics to include, and we hope by the end of the year, Formismo will be a leading tool for those interested in CRO and analytics, and also for any website that hopes to improve their conversion rates. As this tool is not limited by geography, we hope to build a global user base!

Finally, If you could give one piece of advice to someone thinking about starting a business, what would it be?

When you’re approaching a big project or you hit an issue then “chunk things down”. Break the challenge down in to smaller steps, don’t get lost in the big picture, and take each step one at a time. When things get tough it can become a battle where you attack building-by-building, street-by-street, and as long as you’re gaining ground then you’re moving towards your goal.

To apply to be a Beta tester for Formisimo please apply by emailing bonjourno@formisimo.com. It will be great if you could reference this article in your email too!