Money-Making Monday: Easy To Use Forms on Your Site

Welcome to another edition of Money-Making Monday, presented by WEB ROI.

Today’s topic asks two questions:

• •      1. When you see a complex form on a website, are you immediately turned off by it?
  •      2. Do you have easy-to-fill forms on your website?

If you don’t, there are multiple business reasons why you should have a form on your website (instead of just relying on an email link for customers to reach you).

Business reason #1: Contact forms can be directed to various sales departments

Imagine you’re an HVAC contractor and you’ve received 250 emails from people.

Someone is going to have to go through all 250 of them to determine things like:

And then, that person will need to forward those 250 emails to the right departments.

With someone fills a contact form, it can be automatically submitted to the correct people or departments.

Whoever receives it will instantly know what the customer is interested in, what questions they have, etc.

Lastly, you control the information that’s in your contact form. It can be customized to collect whatever data is important to your company.

Business reason #2: Contact forms reduce SPAM to your business email

As soon as your email address is listed on your website, SPAM robots will find it and start sending your business junk emails about things you don’t need.

General email inboxes for companies are usually flooded with SPAM email.

And just like business reason #1, somebody is going to have to go through that inbox and clean it up.

On the other hand, SPAM robots can’t click checkboxes, they can’t type in comments and they can’t submit a contact form.

Business reason #3: Contact forms can really help your sales efforts

Let’s say you’re a building and landscape supplier.

Not everyone who fills in a contact form wants the same information. For example, you may receive submissions from:

• A contractor looking for bulk product pricing
• A homeowner wanting advice on how to use a specific item
• A non-profit organization looking for donations
• A property manager researching delivery costs

Instead of sending a generic reply, you can provide a tailored email marketing or sales campaign for each customer:

• The contractor can get a bulk pricing guide
• The homeowner can receive a link to watch a video or download an instruction manual
• The non-profit organization can receive a one-on-one phone call
• The property manager can be given a map of your delivery area

They’ll appreciate the effort and personalized attention. And it goes a long way towards converting them into paying, long-term customers.

A contact form can help start that relationship in ways a simple “email us” link just can’t.

Business reason #4: Contact forms can help you identify really qualified leads

When done right, contact forms can be part of a multi-step process to help capture people who are really interested in your product or service.

Here’s how it would work:

• STEP 1: Customer fills out a simple form to watch a video about your product
• STEP 2: After they watch the video, they can fill out another form to watch a 2^nd video
• STEP 3: Once they’ve watched the 2^nd video, they can complete a small form to get a coupon

If the offer and information is valuable, people will fill out as many forms as necessary.

It’s like fishing: You can use a form to catch a lead with a small lure and then throwing a huge piece of bait to get them to take a bigger bite.

What makes a good form vs. a bad form?

A good contact form should only ask for vital, relevant information and nothing else.

So if it’s not important to collect a customer’s postal code, don’t ask for it.

More fields in your contact form mean more barriers for people to overcome.

Think about how many times you’ve avoided filling out a contact form, because it asks for more information than you’re comfortable sharing.

Here’s an example of a poor contact form. In addition to being laid out poorly, it asks for way too much information. Just look at some of the fields people must answer.

One more thing about forms

Once you have a great form in place, don’t just hide it on your contact us page.

Place that form on every page of your website.

Website visitors will be much more willing to fill out an appealing contact form if it’s right in front of their face instead of having to hunt for it.

In fact, according to a study by mysiteauditor, almost 50% of contact form submissions take place away from the contact us page.

The conclusion: When people are ready to contact you, give them the means to do so, no matter where they are on your site.

Not sure about your contact forms?

Having a properly designed contact form in key locations throughout your website can help your business grow by as much as 30% in just one year.

Getting started is easy:

• • • • Schedule a call for a later date (with our easy-to-fill form)
      • Call 1-877-7WEBROI (1-877-793-2764) right now
      • Download your FREE copy of 6 Guaranteed Ways to Drive More Qualified Leads.

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