You need these 5 things on your website’s contact page
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Ever land on someone’s contact page and all they have is a contact form that doesn’t really fit the kind of contact you need to make?
Were you concerned that they’d never reply?
Who would reply to you?
How often are those submissions checked?
Where does the form submission go?
How quickly could I get a response?
These are 1,000% valid questions and I’m here to make sure you don’t make that same mistake on your own contact page.
5 best practices for what to put on your contact page
Not necessarily in order of importance:
Your email address
Why? Not everyone likes filling out a static form. It feels like a disconnect for the person trying to contact you.
If you got one chance to contact Oprah Winfrey, would you rather fill out a form or email her directly? Um, duh… 😂
Don’t display an image of your typed out email address. Make it easily copy-and-paste-able so there is actually easy access to contact you. Or, if you do, make sure it links to your actual email address action, which is:
mailto:your@emailaddress.com
Don’t link some text or catchy phrase to your email address. If they can’t SEE the real address first, they may not realize it’s there & you could miss someone making that split decision to reach out to you.
I know you’ve probably heard about getting “tons of spam” from robots and random strangers asking you to link to their product or service, etc. –and yes you’ll probably get some of that. In my experience though, it’s not like a flood of spam into your inbox.
I’ve had my email address on my contact page for years and I don’t even get daily spam from that.
Plus, for Apple Mail users (though I’m sure Outlook users can too), you can create rules in Mail Preferences that can automatically move emails to your spam box for you if it contains a common theme that you can set, which you know your spammers use like I think “your audience would like” our product or would you “consider adding a link” to our post from your blog [insert link here]?"
Make it easy for someone to reach out to you for help when they are ready & on their terms.
Your office hours + your average response time
People move too quickly now. Especially if your response is what they’re waiting on to make a buying decision.
They need to know when you will respond to them before they contact you, or they may be less likely to try at all.
Since I have relatively set office hours, I list them on my contact page. Right underneath my email address, I also have a little disclaimer:
You can expect a response within 1-2 business days; serious inquiries only, please. I do not respond to spammy requests to link to products/services I don’t love or use myself.
That’s my fair warning to spammers that they shouldn’t expect a reply at all, while also setting the expectation for when potential clients and others can get a response from me.
Your lead capture form
Don’t make the form long. People don’t want to fill out a whole questionnaire at this stage, so keep it simple. Here are some great questions to ask here:
First & Last name
Email address
What service are you interested in?
Your website, if applicable (I ask for two reasons: 1) as a backup way to contact someone in case they typed their email address incorrectly and 2) to see where they are in their website journey in case that’s related to what they’re inquiring about.)
What kind of business do you have? There are certain types of industries I don’t work as well with so this is mostly to help me decide (especially if they don’t have a website yet) if they’d be a good fit for my expertise.
How did you hear about me? Be specific! I’ve found that you get more out of people when this is not a pre-defined answer in the form of a checkbox, dropdown menu, or a list of radio buttons. I literally ask them to be specific and I’ve really enjoyed seeing some of those answers!
Message. Make sure you give them the space to leave you an actual message if they want to.
If you got stuck on #6 because you’re a Dubsado user & you realized that NOT using pre-defined answers to pick from means that you have to manually input where that client came from, –you’re absolutely right. Dubsado does have a system where it can categorize your leads based on those answers if you have that field in your lead capture form WITH pre-defined categories.
I personally prefer to keep it a manual entry so that I can learn more about how people find me.
If I just ask whether they found me on Google or Pinterest, it does tell me which platform I might want to focus my attention on for my marketing efforts, but it doesn’t tell me WHAT they searched for in order to find me.
Whether you use Squarespace’s built-in forms for this or something like Dubsado’s lead capture forms, make sure you include it on your contact page. Give people a direct way to get the ball rolling if they’re ready to work with you, while simultaneously providing a way to weed out people who may not be a great fit.
One other thing I’d note here is that as long as the buttons are clearly labeled, don’t embed the form on your page in this case. Embedded forms slow down the load time of that page, and you don’t want to waste anyone’s time when they’re ready to reach out.
Instead, add a button that links to your lead capture form (for Dubsado or other CRM users) or use the Lightbox option for Squarespace forms. That keeps it condensed, clean, and as long as the buttons are clearly labeled, easy to find, and use.
For Dubsado users:
If you use a Lead Capture form, make sure you add some kind of Workflow so they get an immediate email reply automatically. In mine, I have basics about when to expect a reply, links to important information like pricing and what to expect, etc. That way, this person knows you got their inquiry.
Your photo
If you just cringed, I get it. I used to hate this too, especially because I don’t have many brand photoshoot pics to use and those I do have are old. Like my-hair-was-about-2-feet-longer-back-then old.
But this is important, especially if you don’t have many photos of yourself on your website. People want to know who they’re talking to and you can often tell a little about a person from their smile, so make sure you include yours.
Don’t have any brand photos? Here are a couple of tips for taking better selfies:
Fake cough or laugh. Yes, I mean it! Do it over and over until you actually start laughing and then take the picture to capture some candid happy expressions.
Edit your photos like a pro with a Lightroom app subscription for about $20/year and grab these affordable Lightroom presets to batch edit your photos and make them look extra professional.
Grab an affordable tripod for your phone and Bluetooth remote so you don’t have to take your selfies with arms out, holding the phone yourself. I have this one from Amazon and it works pretty well!
Your location & who you serve
Don’t share your address or anything, but tell people generally where you’re working from and what time zone you’re in and let them know who you want to work with.
That means no second-guessing on their part.
Bonus tip!
Do you tend to get the same types of questions over and over? Add a link to some FAQs or add a new section to the bottom of this page and place them there.
If you can provide a quick & easy answer to most of their questions right away, that’s a huge plus for you & their snap-judgment of your business.
No one really wants to ask if you accept returns, or how your process works, or what you charge for 1:1 services. These are all great things to put in your Frequently Asked Questions area.
