Website conversion is the lifeblood of any website. Conversion happens when a user completes an action on your website, like making a purchase. A contact form submission is a high-value website conversion and most websites have at least one form (usually found on the contact page – surprise!). But contact forms serve as the bridge between your website’s visitors and you, offering a streamlined and efficient way for your visitors to get in touch with you. Rather than displaying an email address or phone number, which can lead to spam and unsolicited messages, a contact form acts as a filter, allowing only relevant inquiries to reach you.
A well-designed contact form also adds a touch of professionalism to your website. It shows that you take your online presence seriously and are committed to providing a seamless user experience. By offering a structured and organized way for users to contact you, you create an impression of credibility and trustworthiness, which can positively impact how visitors and users perceive your brand.
There are two primary reasons to create forms:
- User Engagement: Contact forms provide a convenient way for users to get in touch with you, inquire about your products or services, or request assistance.
- Lead Generation: Contact forms enable you to collect valuable contact information from potential customers, allowing you to follow up with them and convert leads into sales and repeat purchases.
So, how can you encourage more people to fill out a contact form?
1) Make sure they work!
This might sound obvious; you would be surprised how often we find that a website has a contact form that doesn’t actually work!
2) Keep it simple!
Avoid overwhelming users with excessive fields or complex layouts by including only essential fields such as name, email, subject, message, and any specific options relevant to your purpose.
3) Clear and intuitive design:
Ensure that your contact form has a clear and intuitive design. Use labels, placeholders, drop downs and tooltips to guide users on what information to provide in each field.
And now, how to actually increase your contact form submissions
Create a better user experience:
One of the most common issues attributed to low contact form submissions is overly complicated forms that are difficult to understand and complete.
Contact forms are intended to enhance a user’s experience by simplifying the process of reaching out to you. Users shouldn’t have to switch to their email or copy-paste your email address, this is just tedious and, well, tacky.
A well-considered contact form ensures that users can easily input their information, type their message, and submit it with just a few clicks, enhancing their overall user satisfaction and encouraging them to engage with your website. And instilling faith in the fact that you will respond appropriately and timeously. (More on that in future blog; but honestly, having a contact form is great but ensuring there is an effective back-end response process is mission critical.)
Gather relevant information:
Contact forms allow you to gather specific information from the users, tailoring their queries to suit their needs. Depending on your requirements, you can include fields for name, email, phone number, subject, message, and even dropdown menus for specific inquiry types. This helps you filter and categorize inquiries efficiently, enabling faster responses and personalized customer service.
Lead generation and data collection:
A contact form can serve as a powerful lead generation tool. By capturing visitors’ contact details, you can build a database of potential customers for email marketing campaigns or follow-up communications. Additionally, you can gain valuable insights into your website’s performance, understanding what attracts visitors and what aspects might need improvement.
Useful error and required field messages:
It’s always a good idea to ensure you have ‘required’ fields on your form, such as phone numbers or email. These fields can be highlighted by an * or saying, “Required field”. Most people are now familiar with required fields, however, if a required field is missed, or not entered correctly (i.e., an email field which doesn’t have a correctly formatted email address), you need to make sure users can identify the issue and resolve it quickly. Make sure your forms don’t just show a generic; ‘There was an issue submitting your form”.
The best way to check this is to test your forms and purposefully leave things out before hitting the submit button.
Mobile-friendly and responsive:
Most websites now receive more than 50% of their traffic via mobile devices, if this is the case on your site, having a contact form that adapts to these platforms is essential to maintain a positive user experience and accessibility.
Common issues on mobile include:
- Form input boxes that are too small or are too close together.
- Form input labels that are hard to read or don’t display above the correct field.
- Validation or error messages that are hard to see.
- Functionality, like file uploads, buttons, checkboxes that doesn’t work correctly.
Thoroughly test your forms to test that the forms are easy to fill in and submit.
Call-to-Action (CTA):
Use a compelling CTA that encourages users to submit the form. Words like, “Get in Touch,” “Send Message,” or “Request a Quote” work effectively and encourage users on what you expect and that you are accessible to them.
Confirmation and Thank You:
After submission, display a confirmation message to let users know that their message was successfully sent. A polite “Thank you” page can go a long way in fostering positive user experiences.
Privacy and GDPR compliance:
If you collect personal data through your contact form, provide a clear privacy policy outlining how you will handle this information. Ensure compliance with relevant data protection regulations, such as GDPR.
Spam Prevention:
When your email address is displayed directly on your website, it becomes susceptible to spam bots that scrape websites for email addresses. With a contact form, you can implement various security measures, such as Google’s reCAPTCHA, to prevent automated spam submissions, ensuring that you only receive legitimate messages.
So now what?
Remember to regularly test and optimize your contact forms to ensure they remain effective and responsive to your visitors’ needs.
if you haven’t already, make sure to incorporate a user-friendly and functional contact form on your website and enjoy the positive impact it can have on your online presence and business growth.
If you have, following the steps above will ensure you are on track to get more enquiries from your website.
If you’re unsure of where to start or what to do next, we have the knowledge and expertise to help you. We provide a website audit service that allows us to identify and assess issues that that need to be fixed or enhanced to maximise the number of leads you get from your website.
About Us
Oryx+Crake is focused on delivering results-focused campaigns that are fuelled by data, which aim to grow clients’ brand awareness, improve their sales and nurture their growth. Our mission is to provide innovative and tailored digital marketing solutions while utilising data insights to drive decisions untainted by vanity metrics.
Reach out. We’d love to connect.
Connect with usYou can also find us
Here: https://oryxcrake.co.za/
Here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/oryx-crake/
And here: https://twitter.com/OryxCrakeSA
Oh, and here: info@oryxcrake.co.za
