PA from New York writes:
Which is the better option for my website? A ‘Contact Us’ form or including contact info (email and phone) on the site. Do I need to worry about spam?
Dear PA,
The answer to this question is not one-size-fits-all. The purpose of your site as a dental speaker and/or consultant is to attract meeting planners and potential consulting clients, engage them and encourage them to reach out to you. We need to make it easy for them to contact you.
BOTTOMLINE: I suggest including:
- Contact info (email/phone) at the top or bottom of each screen
- A ‘Contact Us’ menu option on each screen
- A contact form AND phone/email info on your Contact Us webpage (along with reCAPTCHA to reduce spam)
It’s important to note that many people are averse to the contact forms and will “move on” rather than fill out the form. To confirm my suspicions, I recently organized an impromptu survey through Facebook, to which 20 of our speaking/consulting colleagues responded. Overwhelmingly, respondents stated they prefer to see the phone number and email address over a contact form. Many respondents utilize BOTH on their sites.
Regarding spam, there are solutions available should you notice an increase in spam. Additionally, any quality hosting company will have spam filtering solutions available for their email accounts. All of our clients are using this mixed method (both contact form and contact information being provided). None have reported an issue with spam.
This is an issue that web developers are passionate about and they tend to encourage the website form only in an effort to avoid spam. We make it harder for the planner or customer to contact us by taking away the easy email address and phone number. Do yourself a favor and include BOTH the website form AND easy, repetitive access to the email address and phone number on your site.
Are you ready to increase your web presence and bring more exposure to your speaking presentations? View our portfolio for a sample of our customized speaker websites. To learn more, schedule your complimentary consult today! info@vanessaemerson.com
