You know your business… do you know your users?
Most clients want a say in their website, which makes total sense. It represents your business, so you want it to be the best reflection of who you are!
But being in the business often means you’re too close, making it harder to see your website through your clients’ eyes. What do they need? What are they expecting at each stage? And unless you live and breathe websites, you might not know the best practices.
This is exactly what we saw with a client earlier this year.
A rather successful contact form
While building this client’s site a while back, I suggested adding a contact form.
The client’s response was along the lines of, “I’ve never filled in a form like that myself. I’d rather call. No one fills in forms.” (And I get that. If something doesn’t suit your habits, it’s easy to assume it won’t work for others.)
But this year, I finally convinced them to give it a go: An additional feature couldn’t do any harm.
- Within one week: 5 enquiries
- On day 8: 2 more enquiries in
- Within 3 months: Over 50 enquiries
Sure, we can’t know how many of those would’ve reached out another way. But we do know this: over 50 people chose the form over the other available options.
Whether or not they would’ve called or emailed, we gave them a contact method they preferred, which made it easier for them to take action. In turn, this made the sale more likely to go through.
User-friendly websites get better results
One question should guide every website build: “Who is this website for?”
The answer should not be you, the company.
It should be your users. Your customers. Your potential clients.
That’s going to look different depending on your industry, and you might want to:
- Provide mental health advice to worried parents
- Sell skincare products through an online store
- Get new members to join your rugby club
- Get enquiries for your plumbing services
- Or enquiries for complex projects
Whatever your end goal is, your site should be optimised to support it. And that includes making it as easy as possible for someone to take action when they’re ready:
- Some people hate calling: if that’s the only option, they won’t make that call
- Others don’t have an email linked to their device, so if you only have an “Email me” button and don’t display your email address, that’s a real blocker
- And if your call button says “Call Now”, how can a desktop visitor call from their phone?
Always make life easy for your visitors.
“But contact forms and emails are so similar…”
Totally hear you.
But many people have no idea what to write in a blank email… They don’t know what to say, how much to write, or what even is too much.
That friction alone can be enough to stop them from hitting send altogether. Or they do send, and you sigh when you receive it because there’s no valuable information, or you just received an essay.
With a form, you can ask targeted questions and even use conditional logic to guide the user, asking follow-up questions based on their answers. It makes life easier for the user, and you get information to help you assess the lead’s quality and determine the next steps.
The moral of the story
Just because you do and like things a certain way, doesn’t mean everyone else agrees. Provide multiple options and remove friction wherever possible. Your clients will thank you, and so will your conversion rates.
There are many scenarios like the ones explained in this post, but you don’t have to think of them yourself: I already have the list in my head!
So get in touch today to see how we can take your website from zero to hero. You will have a few contact options, of course.
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