Demandbase Forms Enrichment enables you to provide form fills to visitors to your site with minimal effort from them. Whenever available, we append information about visitors, making minimal effort from your accounts more valuable.
Here are some of the features of Demandbase Form Enrichment that make it more useful to you. Form enrichment begins with API calls that are transparent to the visitor to your site, associating known information with the visitor.
API Priority
As explained in Understanding Forms Visitor Identification, Demandbase returns firmographic information using three APIs:
- IP-API (identification based on IP address and a cookie)
- Domain API (identification based on email address domains)
- Company Autocomplete API
The Company Profile that Demandbase returns to the Form Connector, however, chooses only one of the API return values. The Form Connector's API priority order determines the the Company Profile value.
The default API priority order is:
Domain API -> IP-API -> Company Autocomplete API
This means that if all three APIs identify the visitor, the Demandbase Forms Connector uses the information returned by the Domain API. Likewise, if the IP-API and Company Autocomplete API return data, but the Domain API does not, the Forms Enrichment uses the information returned by the IP-API.
Example
Demo form using API priority: Example Form.
Any data within the object Demandbase.Connectors.WebForm.CompanyProfile is the data the Forms Connector has currently selected. Demandbase.Connectors.WebForm.dataSource indicates the API source of the data (domain, ip, and company.)
Autocomplete Drop-Down List
The Demandbase Autocomplete drop-down list is the visual representation of the Company Autocomplete API. The drop-down list allows the user to search for company names and select them from the drop-down list. If a company was already identified by the Domain API or the IP-API, then those companies appear at the top. If both API calls identified a company, the company identified by the Domain API appears above the company identified by the IP-API.
The rest of the companies that appear in the autocomplete drop-down list are based on:
- The text entered into the search field.
- The IP address's geolocation (as identified by the public IP registry.)
This means that the rest of the companies will be in a geographic location near the user. For instance, if a user located in Buffalo, New York enters Apple into the search field, Apple's headquarter office in Cupertino doesn't appear in the drop-down list. Rather, you may see Applebee's locations in Buffalo, New York.
Important: Reach out to your CSM or account manager to enable the autocomplete drop-down list feature.
Data Append
Once your Demandbase Tag executes an API call to our servers, it attempts to append the data from the API response into your form fields. Every form page integrated with Demandbase MUST have the correct field configuration for the data to append properly. This means that the name or id attributes of your form fields must match the configuration specified in the design reference during the implementation process.
If you no longer have a copy of your form design reference, you may ask your CSM for a copy. It is important to make sure your form template matches the configuration specified in the design reference because your Demandbase Tag was configured to match the design reference. If your form page has misspelled or missing input fields, the data will not append properly to the correct fields.
Hidden Form Fields
Hidden form fields allow you to attach non-visible data to a form before submission. Sending data underneath a form is useful for a variety of reasons, but it is primarily valued for being discreet. To enable this feature, add hidden input fields to your form and then inform your Demandbase representative of the data mapping that you would like applied to these fields. The data mapping would need to relate the name or id attribute of the HTML input field to the firmographic information that you are looking to receive from Demandbase.
What Are Toggle Fields?
When using Demandbase Forms Enrichment, you can define form fields to hide at first and then show if Demandbase does not populate them with data. These are known as Toggle Fields. (For your Web developer: These elements are not typically the input fields themselves, but rather the wrapper divs that also contains the field labels.)
If the Toggle Fields are not populated after all three Demandbase API calls, then we show the fields to the user.
Why can't I make Toggle Fields required?
Forms Enrichment cannot be submitted if a required field is left blank. Hiding a required field goes against best practice, as it presents a small amount of risk that a required field could remain hidden unintentionally.
Should this occur, your visitor would be unable to submit the form due to the blank and invisible required field.
Growing Forms: Auto-Show Hidden Fields
Growing forms is a feature that automatically shows the normally hidden form fields that remain unfilled or empty after the Demandbase APIs have been exhausted from the user's input. This last resort serves to make form submission seamless and provides the visitor a chance to identify crucial lead-routing data such as zip or country.
For example, the visitor remains unidentified after exhausting all APIs because:
- The IP address is non-company or residential
- The email address is non-company