Never underestimate the importance of a form. Here’s how to create a really effective one to get conversions and new contacts.
A contact form can be the most valuable resource for finding new customers.
When users are looking for a professional, they often rely on online research to create their list of potential consultants. And this is where the contact form comes into play. Unlike being a simple landing page, if created correctly, this form-based page allows you to capture potential customers interested in your business, while optimizing the process of verifying and prioritizing these users.
What is the contact form
The contact page (or contact form) is a simple web page that presents a lead acquisition form (and therefore of customers). These are fairly common “tricks” on websites, mostly added without much consideration about their purpose or impact.
Although the contact forms give potential customers the opportunity to contact a professional or an agency, they are often not engaging or intuitive enough . And here the user is discouraged from filling them. If he is convinced, then, in all probability he will receive a vague answer to his request.
Why doesn’t such a strategy work? Because it is not correct and it is not advantageous to devote the same amount of time to each potential contact that passes through a website. A thoughtful response can take hours, or even days of communication, before fully understanding the request and understanding whether the user who the post can actually translate into a customer / supplier / collaborator.
Instead of opting for the status quo , we therefore need to create a contact form that is elegantly designed to extract the most relevant information from the potential customer. This collection of information allows you to make a thoughtful decision about how to work with him, avoiding wasting time writing proposals or attending introductory meetings.
Having a consolidated process may seem overwhelming to some, but it can be exceptionally beneficial if you are a longtime freelancer or if you work in an agency that receives a significant amount of leads through the site.
To better create the contact form and encourage mailings , we must therefore aim to reduce the amount of time and effort (actual or perceived) necessary to complete the form. At the same time, the form must also collect enough information to qualify potential customers. The balance between these two needs can be difficult, but it is not impossible.
But what should you consider when creating a contact form? Let’s find out together.
Provide context for the form
It is important to provide context to site visitors whenever you want them to act. If you want a potential customer to fill out the form, you need to convince them. How? Some of the best contact pages include a smart example of how to fill out the form in order to entice visitors to take action.
This part of the contact page is often overlooked, but it is a bad decision. Providing the context around the contact form will help establish expectations with the prospect and help overcome any perceived friction or risk associated with the form. But what should be included?
- A gesture of appreciation , to thank you for your interest and to let you know that you are thrilled to have caught the attention of those who are writing;
- An explanation of the purpose of the form , which describes why filling out the form is important for the customer’s onboarding process. From the customer’s perspective, it must be made clear that this detailed module will simplify the collaboration process, and provide sufficient information to be truly useful for their business;
- An expectation of their investment in terms of time , which gives an indication of how long it will take to complete the form before starting.
Ask the right questions
Usually the contact form is composed of “name, email, subject” . A very basic choice, made up of data that does not provide enough details about the potential customer.
Instead, it is important to think strategically about the form’s questions, as if it were the beginning of a project or a design brief. Every business and freelancer needs to acquire enough details to have a basic understanding of the request, but not so many to scare.
A good rule of thumb is to include one to three requests from each of the following sections:
Contact information: It is mandatory for any contact form with fields such as name, email address and telephone number.
Commercial information: Allow you to better understand who you are dealing with. Examples of these fields include corporate website design , offer and primary contact.
Project information: It is the most important part of the contact form, as it provides the details necessary to qualify the project and to determine if it is the right solution. Examples of these fields could include the type of project, the estimated budget, the expected time to complete and even the business problem that is being attempted to solve.
Although it is important to be strategic about which questions to ask, it is equally important to consider how to present them. This can directly affect the likelihood that a site visitor will fill out the contact form: including too many open questions in the form can in fact cause potential customers to spend more time thinking about their answers than giving them. If they end up wasting too much effort on planning their response, they are more likely to come out without giving one.
To prevent this from happening on your contact form, it is necessary to simplify the thought process by replacing some open questions with drop-down menus or with option buttons that present a series of variables. This will make it easier for a potential customer to fill out the form quickly.
The length of the contact form
So far we have focused on the content of the form and the impact it has on the overall effectiveness of the contact page, but the way you design the form is also important.
One of the biggest decisions is about length . The shorter the form, the easier it is to complete and the more potential customers can get there. If you are new to the industry, it may make sense to opt for a shorter form with fewer questions. A smaller module size will eliminate many obstacles from the submission process and help to get more customer acquisition prospects.
Obviously you need to include the essential contact information section, as well as some qualifying questions from the business / project sections in order to get some information to evaluate the customer. If, on the other hand, you are expert and known, you can apply a longer and more detailed contact form.
The length of the mode will help eliminate users who are not serious about working with us, and at the same time get enough information to qualify potential customers before deciding to continue the conversation.
If you opt for the longer form, the advice is to split the process into steps and include a progress bar to show potential customers how far they are while completing the form. By dividing the questions, the long form will appear much more manageable, which will reduce the amount of necessary effort perceived.
The importance of being clear
No contacts are obtained unless users are given a clear direction. The worst contact pages are those that do not give the user any direction as to why they should contact the company / professional.
Establishing clear reasons and expectations for the user is fundamental as well as saying that filling in can be used to obtain a quote or similar. To do this you don’t have to use too many fields and – above all – you have to highlight the errors that occur , so that users don’t have to guess where their presentation went wrong. This saves time and reduces the likelihood of them leaving the site before conversion.
The location of the contact form and the A / B test
The contact form is completely useless if people don’t see it. It must be placed in a prominent position on the site and on its page, so that it is more likely to receive traffic.
Placing a form at the bottom of a hard-to-find page is a sure way to significantly limit conversions. Some reckless design trends have included placing giant maps at the top of the contact page. You have to think about the main purpose of the contact page. It’s for getting contacts, right? So you have to simplify .
Finally, it is advisable to do some tests to understand if the contact form is working or not. It may be useful to receive a notification upon completion of a form and that the user is also notified that it has been sent. Bringing the user to a thank you page and sending him a copy of the completed form is another solution that is often used and always appreciated.
Not leaving users in the dark is important, so you need to plan a follow-up process that effectively advances the conversion of the website into a sale. Finally, it is advisable to test the A / B form to see what works and what does not so as to understand how to create the perfect contact form.