How To Write A Good Contact Us Page
Contact forms are one of those invisible bits of a site. You create the Contact Us page, you add a shortcode for your contact form. Done. Then you take it away when you get spammed.
That’s if you’re stupid like me.
In reality, your contact page should be a highlight of your website. After all, people who are trying to contact you are very much in the interested portion of your audience. They either think you know something they need to know and so are actively seeking you out, or they have clicked through to your contact page via a call to action.
Either way, you’ve got them captivated and looking to take the next step, and so the worst thing you can do is give them a blank page and a contact form (or tell them they can’t contact you because there’s too much spam.)
Here are a few ideas that you can do instead.
What Could You Put On Your Contact Us Page?
As always, we refer to the mystical tome yet-to-be written, Copywriting 101.
Copywriting 101 states that everybody is waiting to perform an action. When given too much choice, people lose their minds.
The above could be a gateway to a philosophical tangent, but let’s keep this about contacting you.
If you tell people, “Hey… I provide a web design service. Contact me for a quote” and then you push them to an empty page with a plain contact form, what do you think is going to happen?
I’ll tell you: They are going to leave. You’ve given them too much work to do and haven’t provided them a direction to go in.
Your contact page is a point where people are looking for more direction than the average reader.
Here’s a list of things you could do instead of the bland, empty contact us page:
- FAQ (For people who are confused or need to know more.)
- Sign up for the email list (you give loads of good advice there… so why wouldn’t they?)
- Check out recommended products (a LOT of people ask this and hey… you make money here. Win/win.)
- a contact form which you pimp out (more on this in a later post)
- a link to a survey (data is data, data is king)
- a link to your consulting services if you offer them (Because some questions are urgent, complicated and some people want to pay you)
I would write more about each of those things, but they’re pretty explanatory.
Why Would You Do This? / Final Thoughts
You do this because having a blank contact page is the equivalent of dropping the ball at the last moment. In sales page/copywriter terms, it’s like not having a call to action. When somebody is taking the time to seek you out, they’re engaged and looking to take the next step into your funnel. Above are plenty of options for getting people onto the next step, but you HAVE to provide steps for them. A blank page is not a next step, and neither is a, “Put your name, email and question in here.” It’s weak.
So instead, present a ton of options. Contact Us pages are internet real estate that pretty much everyone has. Designing them to be nice and useful is an easy win.