A Look at "Contact Us" - Your Most Basic Call to Action

This week we've been talking a bit about calls to action you might use to turn casual visitors into active prospects. One of the most obvious calls to actions is a plain old "Contact Me" page on your website. Many times you might have linked to this throughout the site, but in any case you want a site visitor to be able to find this page right away when he or she visit your site. Putting the information in tiny type at the bottom of the page does not do the trick. Especially these days, when many wonderful online companies are virtually impossible to contact in person (i.e., Amazon.com), having your contact information as a top level navigational bar is very important. After all, do you want people to look at your pretty website or sell them a house?

In this internet age, people still like to communicate in different ways. Your contact page should give them that option. The means list a phone, maybe a cell phone, fax, and email address - even if you are putting that information on the top of a form where you are asking them for information. If you have an online chat option, list it there, even if you have repeated it throughout your site. By the way, if you have an online form for your visitors to fill out, make sure you respond quickly.

If your company is big enough to have different departments with different phone number, list them on your contact page. That same goes for email addresses. If you have 20 agents in your office, you don't want a long list on the page, but if want to direct email for Buyers, Sellers, Closings, etc. to the property place, listing a few is helpful. People feel more secure if they feel assured their correspondence is being directed to the right person or department.

Make sure you include your address, perhaps along with a link to directions to your business. Maybe this seems simplistic but including your location helps customers realize that you are right in their neighborhood. Even if you are part of a franchise, your address will distinguish you from your sister companies. This hardly seems like rocket science yet the address is hard to find on many sites.

These days, it is often possible to have your web leads feed right into your database. Make your sure to set up the form so it will be easy for information to land up in the right field while being customer friendly. For example, if you want your leads entered as "Ms. Margo Smith" (3 field), then have three boxes in your contact form. There will always be some visitors who don't want to reveal their identity so they will write "TUWXYZ" or "Margo" or "Minnie Mouse," (usually not in the right box!) but most visitors will comply.

Your webform should be simple, with a minimum of instructions, survey questions, or other things t o distract the visitor. It might include disclaimer that your will not sell or misuse the information. Of course, if you have some to send those who reply- i.e., Reply now for a free report on Selling Your Home High When the Market's Low - repeat the offer here.

Moving website visitors to buyers is what it's all about! Take a look at your website to make sure your contact page is easily accessible and inviting for visitors to fill out!

Commitment: I will start looking at my website to make sure it does its job.