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A contact form is a must-have for any site, whether it’s a blog or a business site. It is that page that allows visitors to get in touch with you. Unlike social media, it involves private interactions, which increases the level of trust and contributes to the completion of the sale.
However, the WordPress platform does not come with a predefined contact page. To create a contact form you need a plugin and then add the form on the contact page of the site.
There are several dedicated plugins to choose from: WP Forms, Contact Form 7, WP Forms Lite, Gravity Forms or Ninja Forms.
(This post contains some affiliate links. Should you click an affiliate link and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.)
And by the way, in this article we talked about WordPress plugins that you need to use, including the most famous of them for installing a contact form.
Despite its importance, the contact form is often neglected. Many just hastily add it to the site and then forget about it. So, don’t be surprised if you find that it doesn’t bring you who knows what conversions.
But, you can improve the efficiency of the contact form by following a few tips.
How to have an effective contact form?
Make sure the contact form works
Have you ever been sent a message via the contact form and not been answered forever? Me too. And it’s extremely unpleasant.
In most cases, however, the lack of response cannot be attributed to the administrator’s negligence, but rather to the functioning problems of the contact form. Improper configuration of the plugin’s email features will prevent messages from being sent.
So, be careful! Especially if the contact form is installed with the help of a free plugin. Unlike the pro version, in this case you won’t even realize that the contact form doesn’t work.
The solution? Test.
Without unnecessary fields
In principle, you can add as many fields to your contact form. But that doesn’t mean you have to. Just think that a complex and crowded contact form can be extremely discouraging for users, as it would take them too long to complete it.
Thank you, motivate
Think of your contact form as an invitation to visitors. You don’t want your invitation to be extremely dry, do you? So give people reasons to get in touch with you and thank them for their interest in contacting you.
It offers alternatives
Even if the contact form is a direct and easy way to get in touch with someone, it may not be the best for everyone. Or the most effective, if we think it might not work properly.
For safety, don’t just limit yourself to the contact form, but offer alternatives so that everyone can choose according to their preference. Add email address, phone number or WhatsApp.
But don’t forget the social buttons: Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.
Add a map
For psychological comfort and increased user confidence, add the exact address and an interactive map to the contact page.
If you have multiple locations, add each one separately.
And FAQ
Many of the questions you will be asked through the contact form will be similar. Make visitors’ lives easier by adding a FAQ section directly to the contact page or at least a link to it.
Optimize the thank you page
Once the contact form has been used to send a message, there are two possibilities: either a confirmation message is displayed to the sender, or it is redirected to another page.
The latter option can be extremely useful when you want to share other useful information, so that the path of the user who sent you the message to continue on your site. This page is called the Thank You Page and can be useful if you want to monitor conversions (form completions) by setting a goal on Google Analytics.
Gather new subscribers with contact form
When they fill out your contact form, users will also enter their email address. Take advantage of the moment and ask them to subscribe to your newsletter as well by simply adding a checkbox.
Customize the contact form
Add a photo with you or your customer to make the page more personal and friendly. You show that there are real people behind your contact form, ready to offer help and additional information.
If the space on the contact page does not allow you, then it is okay to add an image with you or your team on the thank you page. There you can even add a video, which would be a pleasant surprise for the person who filled in your form.
Be creative
The contact form should be simple, but not too simple. Get out of the ordinary, be creative in terms of design and even text content. Add beautiful pictures and make it look good. Again, think of this page as an invitation.
A multitude of premium WordPress themes are helpful in this regard, which come with more creative versions of the contact form. You can also customize them yourself using a dedicated plugin.
Bonus: Reduces the impact of abandonment
The idea of a contact form is to be simple and attractive enough. However, if for some reason you need a more complex one, there are solutions to make it efficient even if the user does not complete it in full.
Some plugins, such as Formidable Forms or WP Ninjas, allow you to capture even partial information entered by users. However, the most popular remains Contact Form 7.
As we said at the beginning, the contact form is a must-have not only for a business site, but also for a blog. So, if you already have one or are about to launch it, the next article will be very useful for you to find out how to make money from blogging.
