Increase Website Enquiries and Referrals · 5 Powerful Techniques

Increase Referrals & Enquiries from your website · 5 Powerful Techniques

So, what's the main purpose of your website? Why, to generate enquiries or "referrals" of course! These go on to turn into signed contracts and revenue.

Most websites will rely on the humble "contact form" to provide many or most of their leads.

Use the below techniques to increase enquiries from your website contact form.

1. Make your website look more "alive"

The feeling or "presentness" and aliveness of a website will influence how much a customer will "trust" a contact form. Is the form just going to submit into the middle of nowhere and no-one will see it for days?

People need to know there is a "real live" business operating behind the website.

Consider using elements on your website that make it look "alive" and current.

For example:

Special offers with dates on them e.g. 10% off all web design in Edinburgh for October, 2010
Recent announcements e.g. Edinburgh Web Designs nominated best web designer in Edinburgh!
Invitations with links to "contact us" or "get a free quote"

Ask your web designer to install a Content Management System (CMS), so that you can make changes like this on a weekly basis by yourself, using only your web browser.

2. Make your forms easy to fill out

A form filled with asterisks indicating seemingly unnecessary information as mandatory runs the risk of having visitors hit their browser Back button immediately.

On the other hand, receiving an enquiry with limited information can increase the "to-ing and fro-ing" you have to do to get the information you need about the customers requirements.

A form which gives an error if something is filled incorrectly, but then allows all of the fields to be blanked will also scare people off. Consider having a checking mechanism installed on your form which warns them immediately if something is not right before the form is submitted.

It can be useful to see your contact form as a means of getting the customer to make first contact - perhaps only their email address and phone number will be mandatory.

Once they've got in touch and established a connection to you, you can direct them to a second form which takes their requirements in greater detail.

For example:

A "General" enquiry form encourages users to submit their email address, phone number and brief question or comment
A more advanced "questionnaire" form takes the customers full details for example their preferred cake flavours, website design preferences, bespoke furniture requirements etc.

3. Warn users to check their spam filters

If it's the first time you have emailed your customer, then more often than not, your carefully crafted reply will go straight into their spam filter.

Emails from your contact form are not generated by the customers email program. Instead they are generated by your website, where the form is based. Therefore, your contact email address will not be automatically placed in their contacts "whitelist", the list of contacts which will not be marked as spam.

So, on your form confirmation page which appears when the contact form is submitted, place some warning text, like the following:

"Important: Our replies often mistakenly go into people's email spam filters. Please check your spam filter (usually a folder in your email program or webmail called Junk, Spam or Bulk) for our reply, especially if you do not receive a reply within 1 business day."

4. Improve or add your email signature

These days, impatient web surfers conduct a Google search, then rapidly bounce in and out of websites, down the list of results, quickly gathering information and firing off enquiries, usually using website contact forms.

So, when you reply to the enquiry that's arrived in your inbox, remember will often have surveyed and submitted an enquiry to numerous Edinburgh web designers, Edinburgh self-caterers or Edinburgh cake makers - maybe more than 10 or so. They may barely remember visiting your website or what your company name is.

When your reply drops into their inbox, you need to make sure they make the connection between your reply and your quality website which showcases your products or services.

So, first lesson: include an informative email signature, something like:

--
Edinburgh Web Design - For all your web design needs in Edinburgh, Lothians and Scotland
Website: www.edinburghwebdesigns.co.uk
Email: info@edinburghwebdesigns.co.uk
--

On Windows, go to the Tools menu in your email program and choose Options, then choose the Signatures tab.
On Mac OS X, go to Preferences under the Apple menu, and choose the Signatures pane. Spend a few minutes thinking out a signature, place it there, and it will be included automatically in all your messages.

Now your potential customer knows who the email has come from and can jump back to your site to refresh their memory again and make the connection.

5. Follow up enquiries verbally

People procrastinate; they put things off - it's just human. Often they will develop a fit of interest in something, make enquiries, then let it sit on a back burner, especially if they're busy small business people.

They're still interested in your service (having a website developed, or a cake made or a table built) but for whatever reason they're not actively pursuing it quite yet.

This is a great chance to get in there and "backup-up" your email reply with a verbal phone call. In all likeliness, you'll be the only (or one of only a few) businesses to get back to their enquiry in such a hands-on way.

This can demonstrate your diligence and tip them over the edge into action.