As day two of our landing page blog series, we’ll learn why it’s important to keep your contact form simple and to always have a strong call-to-action.  One of the more common occurrences we notice on a majority of landing pages is the lack of emphasis people put on their contact forms and call-to-action.  I’ll begin with the contact form.

Contact form: The contact form is typically the gateway to allow people to submit their information to a company.  This is the gateway for the consumer to initiate a conversion with your company. You need to keep your contact form simple. Keeping it simple will allow for minimal perceived risk to the end user.  Follow the KISS rule, (keep it simple stupid). Risk to the end user could be the time it takes to fill out a long form. They could also be questioning whether they are going to get a phone call or email as well as when they’ll get a response. If the user feels uncomfortable with these unknowns, that is a perceived risk.

If you do the opposite, and have a long contact form with each field required, the user will/can get worried that it would take too much time to fill out the contact form and not get anything in return, or not know exactly what they’re getting in return.  A good contact form will allow a user feel there is no risk in submitting their information.

Have only the absolutely needed fields be required. You can add a few more fields into your contact form to help quality or send certain requests to the correct person. But your contact form should never exceed the length of your browser. In other words, keep it above the fold.

My other tip on contact forms, don’t just say, “Fill out our contact form for a free quote

Tell people when, how, what to expect once they fill out the contact form. Will they get a call, an email, a package in the mail, what? That also reduces the risk a user may feel if they know how they’re going to be contacted and when.

Call-to-Action:  We’ve said it over and over again, a strong call-to-action is one of the most important elements of your landing page. Why? You’re likely going to have a lot of great content on your landing page. Make it easy for your users to get to the end goal by calling out what you want them to do loud and clear.

A strong call-to-action is always located above the fold, but typically below the form. The button or link should be a strong color so people can see it easily. A strong call to action can help motivate customers from contact you.

Call to action examples:

• Call Now
• Order Now
• Buy Now
• Click Here
• Checkout
• Free Demo
• Click Here to Sign up
• Sign up today
• Free download
• Get Your Free Quote
• See all Products
• View all Product
• Click here to submit
• More Info Here
• Learn More Here

In conclusion, when you pair a simple contact form with a great call to action that is clear and defined, you’re well on your way to a higher converting landing page. Don’t forget to test your call to actions. Since some people react different to certain phrases, always test to see which one works best for your users.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Increasing Conversion Rates, Landing Pages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.