Websites are great to publish and promote information about your organization and the products or services it provides. But more importantly, websites are a critical tool for people to find you and to be able to pick up the phone and call for an inquiry or better yet, an appointment.
We frequently come across websites that make it quite difficult for visitors to find updated contact details about them. Whether this is done deliberately or otherwise, the outcome is the same; these website enjoy less conversions than they should.
This particular phenomenon really baffles us sometimes. Do these brands not want to be reached? You really don’t want to loose a potential customer after all the effort you put into your website. Here are a few tips we recommend so anyone who’s interest in talking to you can do so easily and conveniently.
Visibility throughout all Pages
Your contact details must be accessible throughout all pages on your website. The easiest way to accomplish this is to have the link “contact us” in your website’s header or footer. This way, it’ll be always visible and readily available once visitors decide to reach out to you, which is after all what you want for each visit to end up becoming; a face-to-face interaction in order to close a sale.
Be thorough
You need to include a phone number that’s always answered during regular business hours, a working fax number (yes, some people still use faxes), and an email address they can write down. If you would like to include an e-mail form, fine. But also include your email address, which you can display in an image format so robots won’t grab it and start sending you junk mail. Also include your working hours and time zone as well in case someone across the planet needs to call. And don’t forget to include your mailing and physical addresses.
After-hour Phone Numbers
For some businesses, it may be important to be reachable 24/7. If this applies to you, get a dedicated after-hour mobile number and display that for customers who might for example require technical support in the middle of the night, and you have that as part of the service you signed them up for. But keep in mind, if you choose to offer this option for one reason or another, you also have to dedicate someone from your team who will answer calls in the middle of the night and practice that superb customer service you’ve been bragging about during the sales process.
Check your Messages diligently
Many people are reluctant to leave voice mail or send emails to info addresses because they assume that those are rarely checked. Make a statement on your “contact us” page indicating the approximate time frame in which someone may expect to hear back from you, and then fulfill your promise. A 24-hour period is quite reasonable. This will demonstrate to your customers and leads that your are diligent and really care.
A lost Call is a lost Opportunity
Many organizations chose to install one of these automated attendances that give the caller endless menus and options to choose from. In our opinion, no matter how large your organization is, your switchboard should always be answered by someone real. By that, we mean a human being, not a machine. Think about it; how many times do you just hang up once you hear a computer offering a run-down of options you can chose from?
Include Directions
Whether you embed your location using Google maps or write down driving directions, it’ll not only help people get to your location but also relieves your receptionist from having to provide directions over the phone again and again. Plus, it gives your marketing people some additional content for social media marketing activities.
Get registered with Business Directories
This is not only important for people wanting to find you, but will also generate great search engine listings. Because these directories are indexed more frequently than individual websites, you shouldn’t be surprised if your company’s name pops up under these listings in search results more prominently than your very own URL. Just imagine what you achieve if your company name occupies the top half of the first results-page on Google or Bing.
Promote your Contact Details
The phrase “contact us for more information” should be embedded throughout all of your website’s text. This is one of the most important conversions, and you can’t entice people to call you often enough. And if you don’t want to include this phrase all that often, at the very least make sure you hyperlink the word “contact” to the page on your website that has all of the above nicely listed and presented.
As a rule of thumb, there is no such thing as “too much information” when it comes to your contact details. The easier you make it for people to contact you, the more they will do so. By observing all of the above, you demonstrate that you really care about anyone who wants to reach out to your organization, whether that is a customer or otherwise. People will as such perceive you as a reliable and attentive business partner and prefer to work with you over others.
PS. If your require a quick audit of your website in this aspect, give us a call. We’ll do a quick review and provide you with a professional opinion about how “contact-friendly” your website really is.
About the Author
Pinnacle Business & Marketing Consulting is a results-driven boutique consulting firm that specializes in providing clients with practical and pragmatic solutions to their business and marketing challenges.
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