Five Things You May Be Missing on Your Contact Page (and How They Can Improve Your Client On-boarding Process & Bottom Line)

One of the pages on a newly designed or redesigned website that often isn’t given as much thought as the essential about, services, or portfolio page is your contact page. The page that people land when they’re ready to reach out to you. Some web visitors will land here after spending time getting to know you either on your website or through social media or even in person. I believe there are five things that most online entrepreneurs miss out on when creating this page that can impact how you bring new clients into your process and can impact your bottom line in a positive way.

1. Starting your page with an invitation to your ideal client

I believe it’s important to include an introductory paragraph on the page that gets right to the heart of your ideal client’s struggle and how you help them solve it. Invite your web visitor into a mini experience of what it’s like working with you. It’s possible (gasp!) they didn’t spend time savouring each page of your website (yet). You may need to spell out for them how you best help your ideal clients. Are you unsure how you can accomplish this? No problem. You can do this by answering these three questions.

• What comes easy to you that seems hard or confusing to other people?
• How do you use that superpower you have to help the people you work best with?
• What do your most loved clients tell you time and time again about what it’s like working with you?

Weave the answers to those questions into a paragraph introducing yourself and your work. Would you like to see an example? Click through to my contact page right here to see how I introduced myself.

2. Opportunity to bottom line your investment

Tire kickers. The web visitors that don’t spend a whole lot of time reading your service/products. These are the contacts that come in and you spend more time than you ever imagined emailing back and forth regarding the opportunities that are available in working with you. You may even find yourself negotiating with them. I know, I know, this is an total energy drain and leaves you feeling undervalued. What you can do to prevent this is to bottom line the ways people can currently work with you. On your contact page, include a checkbox list with the services you provide and a corresponding ‘investment starting at $’. By ensuring that this a is required question to answer, you’ll guarantee that they have read over your options and will know in advance if they are comfortable with your rates.

3. Fact collecting

Get as much information up front as you can. If you take the time to develop a series of 3-5 open ended and powerful questions, you’ll be able to gather the facts you need that may be the deal breakers in helping you decide if this potential client is a definite yes, a yes with boundaries, or a kind yet confident no. The opportunity you have here is to use these questions and her answers to help you better understand the needs of this client and to decide if you are the BEST person to help her.

Think about the questions you normally ask after a client reaches out to you in that first (second, and third!) email. How can you add those to your contact form (and thus save you valuable time)?

4. Your Personality (in the form of your brand voice)

When people meet you in person, what do they experience? Are you friendly, playful, warm, elegant, rebelesque, inspiring, professional, honest, direct, savvy, engaging, or maybe easy-to-understand? Something else? Whenever you have the opportunity to interact with your ideal clients, think of it as a opportunity to highlight who you are and how your clients can expect to interact with you. You can use your personality to inform your clients what it’ll be like communicating with you.  It’s possible accomplish this through the tone of your copy, questions, and choice of images. All these things create an overall impression of what the experience is like when partnering with you. In the past you may have tried this by attempting to write like someone you admire in the online world (I mean, it clearly works for her, yes?) I know what your intentions are, but by assuming their brand voice, you’re actually undermining your own credibility. You’re not her. You’re you. It’s time to highlight you. Be intentional with your words (even on your contact page) and know that there are copywriters who can help you nail your brand voice if you find yourself in unfamiliar territory.  My best advice when getting to the heart of your personality is a quote by Steve Martin. “Be so you they can’t ignore you.”

5. Opportunity to be heard

I think it’s important to be mindful that even though part of your intention may be qualifying clients with your strategic and well planned contact form, there are two people who make a successful business relationship. Create the opportunity for your client to be heard as well. Give them space on your contact form to ask their own questions and allow them to give you extra information that may be a factor in deciding whether to work together. This is really about honouring the relationship you may be building before you connect for the first time.

As an example, last year I had a client reach out through my own contact form. In it, I initially didn’t get that intuitive feeling in my belly, that “wow, we will be able to create magic together” feeling. UNTIL, I got to to the place where I gave her the opportunity to have her own say. She had me at hello. Because she was able to be free with her own communication, she made a connection with me that endeared me to her. I reached out right away. And now, over a year past when we completed our work together, we still connect. Because we now have a friendship.  How lucky is that?

I believe if you finesse your contact page and incorporate these five suggestions, you’ll find yourself with better quality contacts, more of the information you need to decide if you want to pursue a working relationship with this potential client, and more time to serve your clients in the way you want and they deserve. What a great way to help your bottom line. 

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments :) If you have an example of a stellar contact page you’ve come across, please mention that too!