Four Ways a Specialized Contact Form Will Revolutionize Your Pipeline

When you’re launching a new business, thinking about your website’s contact form probably falls waaaay down on the list.

It’s easy to just plug in some fields, slap a half-baked line of copy as a CTA (“Let’s chat!” or “Reach out now!”), and call it done.

If you’ve been taking your contact form for granted – falling back on a template or simply including a calendar link for your prospects to nab a bit of your valuable time – I’m here to check your assumption and show you how a thoughtful contact form can rocket your business forward.

With a little time, effort, and thought, a specialized contact form has the ability to deepen the value you bring to your clients and transform your pipeline.

What the heck is a specialized contact form?

Most contact forms just capture a prospect’s name, phone, and email address. They often fade into the background because they don’t bring anything fresh to the table, and they don’t help either party get a deeper sense of the value a partnership could bring.

A specialized contact form changes up the generic template for a unique take that leaves an impression and begins a relationship.

This can be done by adding a few personal details, seamlessly integrating your visual design so the form feels fully part of your brand, and adding a few questions about what the prospect is looking for, their ideal timeline, and the pain points underlying their search for help.

These simple changes, when done well, yield outsized results.

Four reasons you NEED a specialized contact form

A specialized contact form will save you time and boost your credibility.

It nudges an additional investment on your prospect’s part to reach you or to book time with you, and by giving you insight into your prospect’s goals and challenges, it sets you up for success.

How does a specialized contact form work this magic?

1. It screens your clients.

   Along with stellar web design & copy that immediately showcases what’s particularly awesome about your business, a specialized contact form acts as an additional filter to winnow out web visitors who won’t be a great fit.

   Have you ever arrived at a meeting with a prospect only to find they had a 30-second question that disqualified them as a candidate? Or found out (after a 2-hour coffee date) that their budget was way below your project minimum?

   Asking clients to invest in answering a few questions before you meet with them will result in fewer inquiries, but the right ones will make it through.

   Bottom line: it saves you time and limits your focus to the clients that will truly benefit from your offer.

2. It increases the perceived value of their investment.

   Clients who choose to answer a few basic questions about their business begin investing in a partnership with you right away.

   This investment makes them more likely to:

   • Engage with you when you respond to them
   • Attend the consultation they booked
   • Generally show up ready to move forward
3. It sets you apart.

   Prospects who invest the time to articulate their needs & pain points will inevitably see greater value in your expertise and will therefore be more likely to enter a partnership with you.

   This investment on their part actually reinforces your position as the expert.

   It can also generate anticipation. If you ask great questions, they’ll get an immediate benefit from you and will be primed to expect more good things.

   When you offer a generic contact form, you run the risk of prospects arriving at that first meeting in a defensive posture, wanting you to prove yourself, and possibly looking for holes in your presentation.

   By contrast, asking a few well-chosen questions about their needs can inspire the beginnings of a healthy relationship. It implants the idea that you truly care about listening, partnering, and addressing their unique concerns.

   Kicking off with these positive associations starts the relationship on the right foot.

4. It prepares you to hit the ground running.

   By knowing more about a prospective customer’s business, struggles, questions, and needs, you can prepare your answers, recommendations, ballpark proposals, and follow-up questions before you even connect with them.

   This preparation not only saves you time on the backend, but it makes you look like a rock star. And it reminds the client that you’re listening.

   This saves THEM time, too, which boosts your value even further in their eyes.

Creating a specialized contact form doesn’t have to be an intimidating or heavy process! (Next month we’ll dig into a few best practices to get the most out of your investment. Stay tuned.)

I love helping my clients make small changes that breathe new life into an especially stale part of their website.

Check out my Project Start guide to see if we’d be a good fit.

Key Takeaways

1. If you’re using a boilerplate contact form, you’re missing a big opportunity to make a good impression.
2. A specialized contact form can yield tremendous results in saving time, weeding out poor-fit clients, and setting you up for success.
3. Creating a specialized contact form isn’t a huge undertaking, but it does require careful thought about your brand and what would position you to hit the ground running. It’s worth doing well.