Contact forms are a key functional piece of every website, but there are many different opinions of where they should go, or how many you should use. In the post we will talk about the pros and cons of a few popular form types and placement options.
General Contact Form
This one is essential, you need a place for your website users to get in touch with you for general information and questions. Contact forms are best placed on a Contact page. A place where most users will expect to find a way to contact you.
The Quick Contact Form
These can be helpful, but they have also been perceived as pushy, so you should be careful when placing a quick contact form any place on your website. Scenarios where this is a good idea is when the content on the page asks the user to contact you for a specific reason. But you should not just put them in the sidebar on every page just because you want people to contact you.
Footer Opt-in Form
This is a great idea, most users will expect to see an opt-in form in the footer. Where they can sign to get updates about your products or services. If you have an email list, an opt-in form is a must.
Service Request Forms
These are great so long as you don’t make them too long. It can be really easy to add some many fields and options that users will get frustrated and not finish the form. It’s also important that they only appear on pages where you are directing your users to request a quote, not just everywhere in an attempt to get more submissions.
Homepage Hero Contact Forms
OK, so these forms are known for a high submission rate, but it can be double edged. You want users to contact you when they are ready, and when they have an idea of what they are looking for. Homepage Hero forms can end up being a FAQs catch all where users will just submit a form right away without looking for the answer themselves. If you have an action for your users to take right away, then this form placement is for you, but if you are just trying to generate more submissions this may not be the best way to get those.
Final Thoughts
It’s important that form types and placement make sense with the content on the page, and is the next logical step users should take in the sales funnel. You don’t want to bombard them with contact forms and just try to increase form fills for the sake of form fills, be intentional.