Enquiry forms are the most frequently used digital method of collecting user information on a website and are widely used as a data collection method across various types of websites.
Whether you want customers to enquire about more information, place an order or anything in between, an enquiry form can be coded to collect the exact information that you are looking to gather from your customer base.
But how many questions should you ask before it becomes too much of a schlep for the customer to complete the form? With over 63% of businesses listing lead generation as their biggest challenge, it is time to make your website enquiry form work for you to generate as many leads as possible.
Let’s explore why an enquiry form is vital for growing your business.
- Let’s Reel those Leads In
Websites are used to improve your brand’s digital presence allowing your business to become visible to potential customers day in and day out. As such, you also become increasingly contactable.
By having an enquiry form, you can encourage customers to get in touch when their queries arise, i.e.: when the customer views a product or service and they are intrigued you have an increased period of lead generation opportunity.
Research reveals that businesses that have improved their enquiry forms have experienced up to a 10% increase in revenue in six to nine months which means that improvements on your enquiry form will pay off – literally!
- Get Rid of Spam
By making your business email address visible on your website you are making it open to the public and exposing yourself to potential spam issues which can quickly become intolerable.
With an enquiry form, customers are forced to either phone or complete the form to get in touch with a member of your team. This increases opportunity for lead generation while minimizing the potential for spam.
- Build a Remarketing List
If a customer has purchased a product from you before, or even just enquired about your brand, you now have the opportunity to remarket to them via the use of an email marketing list.
Weekly or monthly newsletters are great for advertising specials and should be used to encourage return customers and convince those who are on the fence to make a purchase.
This can easily be done by emailing those who initiated a business conversation with your brand by completing an enquiry form. Just be mindful that all information collected needs to be done in line with the POPI Act and covered by your website privacy policy.
Find out if your website is POPI compliant to ensure that your customers know how their information is being collected, stored and used. At the same time, if you are using email remarketing, then you need to give your customers the option to opt out of the newsletter.
Luckily recent studies revealed that 77% of consumers prefer to communicate via email instead of social media platforms as email is more professional and less intrusive to their personal downtime making email a great way to get in touch with customers.
- Get in Touch in your Own Time
Have you ever tried calling a business and no one answers? The usual response when this happens is to get in touch with a competitor instead which translates to a lost lead and potential sale.
Enquiry forms are a great way to get back to clients when you have the time to properly communicate with them to ensure that you do not lose that potential lead.
Research has revealed that 73% of customers prefer communicating via email than telephonically or face-to-face so this data ties in perfectly with your strategy to improve your enquiry forms.
How to Improve your Enquiry Form
Now that you understand how enquiry forms can be used to generate website leads, it is time to ensure that the questions being asked in the enquiry form are appropriate and are encouraging the customer to click ‘submit’.
- Easy to Read Questions
If your enquiry form is too lengthily or too complicated, customers will be less inclined to complete it. At the same time, if the form questions are monotonous you will also lose the attention of the customer resulting in a lost lead anyway.
Even if your questions are generic (name, email, contact number) be sure to ask them as though the customer is standing in front of you.
For example, instead of listing “name” ask “what is your name?” as this is more personal and allows you to start a connection with the customer albeit over the Internet.
When asked a question people feel more inclined to answer. Encourage your customers to offer more information. Instead of simply writing “message”, ask “how can we help you today?” as this is more natural.
- Use Required Fields
If you plan to use your enquiry form to generate specific leads, then make certain fields on your enquiry form required. This way you will prevent the form from being submitted without the information that you specifically need resulting in wasted time.
For example, if you want to gather leads for your email remarketing newsletters then there is no point in receiving a completed enquiry form without an email address that is contactable.
- Give Them Options
Think of forms that you have completed in the past – what is more likely to be submitted: a form with many open-ended questions that require a typed response or a form with many multiple choice questions that customers can click and quickly submit?
The less time that goes into completing an enquiry form, the more likely your customers are to submit them. Studies revealed that removing even one field from an enquiry form can increase the amount of submissions by 26%
Think about how you can incorporate more checkboxes to your enquiry form.
- What Happens After Submission?
It is only courteous to thank your customer after submitting an enquiry form but is a simple “thank you” enough? You have successfully grabbed the attention of your customer giving you the perfect opportunity to drive further interaction on your website.
If the customer enquired about a specific product, send them to your latest products page after the “thank you” page has displayed. Or send them to a blog / projects page for them to learn more about your service offerings. Customers can even be redirected to social media pages!
Think about what will work best for your brand.
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In conclusion, enquiry forms are the bread and butter of lead generation on your website and you want them to work as effectively as possible to ensure that you get as many leads from your enquiry form as possible.
With a few tweaks here and there you can make your enquiry forms generate more leads which translate into sales and increased revenue over time.
Your website doesn’t have an enquiry form?
The development team at Online Innovations is eager to help you get those leads rolling in. Call us on 041 365 4919, email sales@onlineinnovations.com, or visit our website at www.onlineinnovations.com to find out more.