Why a Contact Page with Just Contact Information is a Blown Opportunity

Most business owners and marketers view the Contact page as the easy page of the company website.

Phone number, business address, email address. Boom. Done.

Not so fast.

Think about where a prospect stands in the sales process if they’ve made it to your Contact page. At the very least, they’re considering contacting you to get more information.

Or they could be ready to make a purchase.

Either way, the rest of your website has done its job. Now it’s time for the Contact page to step up to the plate.

A Contact page with just contact information fails in three important ways:

If someone visits your Contact page, you can’t just take it for granted that they’ve already made the decision to contact you. In fact, this could very well be your last chance to convince them to do business with you before they leave your site.

Every component of your Contact page should be integrated into one cohesive call-to-action.

Yes, a Contact page with a phone number and email address implies that you want people to call or email you. But it doesn’t explain why.

Just like other pages on your website, your Contact page should have a headline.

That headline should not be something generic and meaningless like “what are you waiting for,” “look no further” or the always popular “contact us!”

Use the headline to remind people why they visited your website in the first place.

They were probably looking for a solution to a problem, so tell them, one last time, how you can make their lives better.

The content that follows should be direct and brief – two or three sentences max. There’s no need to rehash everything you said on the rest of your website, but you should take advantage of this opportunity to touch a pain point, overcome an obstacle, or concisely highlight what makes your company different from the competition.

Once you’ve persuaded them to take the next step, explain what that step should be.

Don’t just tell them to call, email or fill out a form. Do you want them to schedule a consultation? Request a quote? Visit your store? Take advantage of a special offer?

Tell them what specific action you want them to take and how they can benefit from taking that action.

Finally, provide all of the information people need to contact you.

Different people prefer to communicate in different ways, so don’t try to push them into your preferred or most convenient mode of communication.

I once had a client who only provided a contact form because he didn’t want to be “inundated with phone calls.” He actually said this.

A phone number, email address and contact form are obvious requirements for any Contact page. But could you be doing more to help someone take the next step?

Depending on the complexity of your company or organization, it may be helpful to provide phone numbers and email addresses for key personnel so website visitors can get what they need more quickly.

If you have a physical store or office, make sure the exact wording of the address you provide will be recognized by GPS. You can also include an interactive map and a photo of your building and signage so they know what to look for.

By the way, just because it’s your contact page, this isn’t the place to solicit social media fans and blog signups. If someone gets to my Contact page, my only goal is to get them to call or email me right now to discuss a project, not follow me on Twitter.

Don’t assume that someone who goes to your contact page has already made the decision to contact you. By integrating the components of your Contact page into one cohesive call-to-action, you can convert more visitors into customers.