My web site offers three ways for prospective customers to contact me: telephone number, e-mail address and a contact form.
I thought that most people would use the e-mail link. My assumption was that people would prefer and trust their own e-mail software more than a plain web-page contact form.
Over the past three years, 5% of potential customers used the telephone number, 30% used the e-mail address and 65% used the contact form.
Forms can capture not only the person’s name and e-mail address but also any other information you might need. However, asking too many questions risks turning a simple contact form into an interrogation and frighten customers away.
Contact forms are easy to implement. Web hosts usually include CGI-based e-mail forms. Blog software either has contact forms built-in or there’s a free plugin available. There are a few third-party-hosted form services.
Contact forms do attract spammers and there are ways to minimize this nusiance. But any spam that does come through a contact form is far outweighed by the benefits of having such a form on your web site.
