¡°You can create an effective online form that yields a high response rate and provides you with enough information to qualify your leads.¡±
Contact forms generate excellent sales leads from customers who are interested enough to fill out a form. You will sometimes be able to close a sale without ever speaking to the customer until it is time for payment and you might even be able to get around talking to them even then if you want (although, hopefully you want to talk to your customers).
Possibly the best advantage you have with leads from an online contact form is that you have a better chance to manage the timing and arrangement of the sell. With an effective form, you will have information about the customer that will allow you to qualify, prioritize, and plan your replies (always reply to 100% of your web leads even if you sell Portuguese chickens and the lead is requesting wedding china).
In other words, you get more control with contact form leads.
If you make the commitment to reply to inquiries from contact forms quickly ¨C say, within 24 hours, you will already be ahead of most sites on the web in terms of service. When was the last time you submitted a web form and received a timely response from a real person? Maybe never? I get responses daily thanking me for my fast response. I always make the commitment to respond to contact form leads within 24 hours and suggest all my clients do the same as well. If you are at your desk when a lead arrives to your email, answer it then! You will blow that customer away.
I have made sales to customers from internet leads within 10 minutes of their initial inquiry just because (according to them) they were amazed at the fast response. Your product or service might be complex but a fast response can make your process seem to the customer much more like a ¡°click-and-buy¡± transaction.
Getting great response rates from online contact forms can be difficult because many - perhaps most - people are still somewhat weary (and rightfully so) of providing information online. You can create an effective online form that generates numerous leads rate and provides you with enough information to qualify them. Here are my guidelines for an effective contact form:
- Know your customers
- Promise not to resell or redistribute any information ¨C and stand by it
- Know how you want to use the contact information
- Clearly state the purpose of the form
- Give the steps (e.g., fill out form, submit, get email response)
- Clearly label your fields ¨C and explain if needed
- Comment/Question box goes FIRST (1st)
- Only require the fields you absolutely need
- Keep it as short as possible
How you design your form will depend upon what you consider to be a successful lead. Some companies want any lead information that will put them in contact even the most remotely possible customer. Other companies want only highly qualified leads with more detailed information. Carefully consider what kind of leads you want. Typically, there is an inverse relationship between the amount of information you require and the number of leads you receive. That is, the more information you request, the fewer contact form leads you will receive - generally. There is a balance you will have to find through some experimentation. If your company is acutely focused on a specific niche or product you might find that requesting more detailed information brings you more qualified leads that will help you use your sales time more effectively.
Maximize the effectiveness of your form leads by beginning with the basic information you need to decide how well you can help your customer. If someone called you, what are the questions you would ask to make sure you can help them and should continue talking to them? Imagine that you sell custom drains for swimming pools and a visitor finds you by searching for ¡°drains¡± but this visitor needs a drain for an oil field application and contacts you through your online form. You do not have a product for him.
By asking the visitor to describe his project in your comments box, you will be able to quickly and politely respond with an email that will help you and him move forward onto qualified sales leads and finding the right product, respectively. If there was no description box, you would respond with questions, wait for a response, and respond again with the reply that you cannot help him (hopefully it would go that fast).
An well-designed contact form will allow you to save time and qualify leads effectively while still welcoming visitors within your niche to contact you.
¨CChris Denny
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