Online marketers are concerned with conversions. You can bring visitors to your website with good SEO, keep them engaged with good design and content, but there is also that crucial step of converting that lead into a phone call, contact form submission or other desired action. When it comes to capturing leads your contact form is an important tool. With this in mind you should give the same attention(if not more) to the content and design on your contact form as the rest of your website.
Question #1 : Are they getting there?
You cannot get anyone to fill out a contact form if the never get to the page. As we mentioned above, if a visitor is on the website you have already done the “heavy lifting” through SEO or your other marketing efforts to get them there. Once they are on your site make sure you make it easy to access the contact form from every page. Also, you may want to consider including a “quick contact form” on every page to make it even easier for visitors to submit. Take for example this Orange County divorce attorney. He has a quick contact form found “above the fold” throughout the site.
Question #2: Are they staying?
You did it. You got a visitor to come to your website and they have navigated to the contact form. Here it is, the moment of truth. Will they or won’t they? If the answer seems to be “won’t” it might be time to take a look at why.
If you are looking at web metrics for your website, take a good look at the bounce rate on your “Contact Us” page. Are a lot of users getting there and leaving? And what can you do to reverse that trend? You need to ask whether your contact form is discouraging visitors from completing it. It is also useful to measure the visitors to your contact page who visit for more than 10 seconds against the number of form submissions you get. If that is a low percentage, your contact form may not be pulling its weight.
Question #3: Why aren’t they contacting you?
Right now, take a look at the form on your contact page. Look closely at every field and ask yourself, “Why must I have this piece of information about a potential client right now?” If it takes you more than three seconds to answer that question, or you cannot answer conclusively in one sentence, then you should strike it. If a contact form is too long, some visitors might decide it is not worth the effort and leave your site. Make only the most vital information “required” to submit the form.
If the visitor cannot understand why he or she needs to enter specific information or is hesitant to provide too much personal information up front, he or she may decide not to submit a form at all. These are potential clients you are missing out on not because of your service, but because of your execution. By going for brevity, you can make the most of your contact page and improve your conversions. The contact form is just that—for making contact. Once you have the connection, it is easier to obtain that second level of information from your client.
Finally, this seems like a given, but make sure that you test the functionality of your contact form periodically to make sure everything is in working order. How many times have you filled out a form online, only to get some type of error? Make sure you do not put any additional obstacles in the way of potential clients contacting you.
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