11 Ways to Design a “Contact Us” Page That Converts

Your website is one of the most important marketing and branding tools for your business, so devoting time and money making it gorgeous to look at and easy to use is a great investment.

However, all too often the contact page is a quick afterthought. Slap on a contact form and boom, it’s ready to rock. Right?

Wrong.

Contact pages are often the final piece of the puzzle that entices users to make the all-important conversion. They’re the gap between somebody being interested in your products and services, and somebody engaging with you. What’s more, they’re often one of the most-visited pages on your website.

If you haven’t given your contact page much thought recently, perhaps it’s time to revisit it and show it a little love.

Here are some essential tips for crafting the perfect contact page that converts.

1. Ensure it’s on Brand

Consistency breeds trust, so it’s imperative that your business has a consistent image across your website, marketing materials, social media platforms, etc. Your contact page is no different.

Your logo should be clearly visible at the top of the page, and the font, colors, and imagery should match your brand and reflect your personality.

As well as breeding trust, it helps users know they’re in the right place. When browsing online, many people have a number of tabs open comparing your products and services with your main competitors. So when they’re hopping from tab to tab, you want them to be able to tell, at a glance, that they’re contacting the right people.

2. Watch Your Language

Your contact page is the start of a real, human interaction between your customers and your business. It’s a means of establishing a dialogue and influencing people’s impression of your company.

So if your main text reads, “Contact us by filling in our form,” it’s quite likely they’ll think you’re dull and uninteresting.

Use warm, welcoming language. Summarize the essential information people want, and explain the benefits of getting in touch and doing business with you. Remember, your contact page shouldn’t form a barrier between your organization and potential customers; it should be the start of a conversation.

3. Keep it Minimal

Contact forms are a useful way of opening a dialogue and learning a little about what potential customers want. But don’t use this as an excuse to ask a load of questions.

People don’t have time to complete long, complicated forms, and will often hop off to find a better alternative. Only ask for the basics—the bare minimum of information you need. Keep each section relevant and make it clear which bits are interactive. There’s little more frustrating than finding a form won’t send, but being unable to work out why not.

4. Provide Sufficient Information

Brands and businesses often limit the amount of information they provide on their website, afraid that adding a telephone number will lead to a barrage of calls or an email address will lead to spam emails. But they’re missing a trick.

Withholding methods of communication, such as a telephone number or email address, gives the impression you have something to hide. That you’re holding back. That you don’t want to speak with your customers.

People want to know that if they have an urgent question, problem, or complaint, they’ll be heard. It’s another means of establishing trust.

In the case of providing an email address, it gives people the added security of having a copy of their original message so they can keep a record of all communication.

5. Add a Map

If you have a physical business, adding a map to your contact page is a no-brainer. You may be a little local business on a well-known street or have a prime location in a big city, but if your potential customer is from out of town or is unfamiliar with street names, how do you expect them to be able to find you?

Adding a Google map is invaluable. People can get directions to your premises, and it’ll help your credibility and trust factor, too.

6. Use Clear Navigation

Speaking of being easy to find, the appearance and content of your contact page will account for nothing if people can’t find it on your website. It needs to be visible when people land on your site, although not overbearing.

You can include it as part of your primary or sub-navigation, but avoid using a drop-down menu as this can be easily overlooked. Don’t get too creative with the page name either; people want to be able to find it quickly, so “contact,” “help,” or “support” will be the first words they look for.

7. Design it Beautifully

Your contact page may not be the most interesting page on your site, but that doesn’t mean you should neglect its appearance. Like the rest of your site, it should be seamlessly designed and user friendly. If it’s poorly designed, uninspiring to look at, and feels like an afterthought, people will hop off somewhere more welcoming without a second thought.

And for the love of all that’s holy, please make sure the page (like the rest of your website) is responsive. The number of people browsing the web from mobile devices is increasing daily—you don’t want them to have to fiddle with tiny form fields or pinch and scroll the page to find the information they require.

8. Check it Works

This may seem obvious, but it needs emphasizing. Whatever you do, check and double check that your contact form is functioning properly, make sure any links lead to the right place, and ensure all information is up to date. Otherwise you’ll look sloppy and careless. And who wants to do business with people who give the impression they couldn’t give a damn?

9. Don’t Leave Them Hanging

[twitter_link]Your contact page is the start of a dialogue, so make sure it gets off on the right foot.[/twitter_link] At the very least, “Message sent” should pop up when the form has been successfully sent.

But you can probably do better than that! Expand your message to thank them for contacting you and explain the average length of time they should expect for a reply. Alternatively, redirect them to a thank you page or ensure they receive an email to acknowledge their message.

10. Be Social

Today, most brands and businesses have some kind of social media presence. It’s increasingly common to include this information on your contact page. It adds another layer of credibility and trust to your business, and it encourages people to follow you, thereby giving you a useful marketing tool. Plus if you regularly monitor your social media or have a dedicated support presence there, it gives people a quick, easy method of getting in touch.

11. Include a Call to Action

Finally, as with all other pages on your website, your contact page needs a clear call to action. Think about the action you want people to take—get in touch, sign up to your newsletter, follow you on social media, visit other pages on your site—and encourage them to stay on your site by including relevant or interesting internal links.

[twitter_link]Your contact page is the bridge between your organization and your customers.[/twitter_link] It should be professional yet personal, informative but not boring, and above all, usability is your key to success.

What tips do you have for crafting the perfect contact form? Can you add anything to our list? Join in the conversation below.