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By Monte Enbysk, Microsoft
Office Live Small
Business This article is written
about us,
not by us! Many thanks to Microsoft's Monte
Enbysk for permission to
reprint. One
of the hardest-working but most underrated
pages of any Web site is the
"Contact Us" page. It hangs in the background,
behind more glamorous
pages, ready to impart the most basic but
essential of information
about a business.
"Done right, it’s a
pretty modest page, without a lot of marketing
or content," notes Leslie O’Flahavan, a partner
at E-WRITE,
a Silver Spring, MD-based company that trains
and consults about
writing for the Web. "But it’s a stalwart page.
You put it up, leave it
in its place, and let it do its
job."
Some believe that "Contact
Us" information can be merged onto other pages
of a site. Not
O’Flahavan. She argues that even though the
Contact Us page should be
among the briefest of pages on your site, it
deserves its own space and
a left-nav or top-of-page link. (Office Live
Small Business writer
Christopher Elliott lists it No. 1 in his
article, "7
pages every business Web site must
have.")
So what makes an effective
Contact Us page?
It
should, O’Flahavan says, answer two key
questions: How people can
contact your business and why they should want
to contact your
business. Here are hers and others’ tips on how
to address those
questions.
How to contact
you
Many
small-business owners struggle with how much
contact information to
share. For example, is a land-line phone number
enough or should you
include a cell-phone number? What about
publishing the street address
of your home business? These are decisions each
business must make
individually, but O’Flahavan says it's better
to be more open than
closed: "You can’t really build your business
by guarding your
location." Here are
specifics.
- Always list a physical address or
(snail) mailing address.
It's popular today for businesses to suggest
they’re reachable only
online—that is, they have an e-mail address and
that's all you need to
know. Bad idea, say O’Flahavan and others. Even
if you don’t have a
store or office where customers visit you
directly, there are likely
service providers, vendors, and others who
should know your physical
location. By listing a phone and physical
address, you also appear more
"legitimate" as a real
business.
Beyond
that, many people prefer to do business locally
and look online for
companies in their region, O’Flahavan notes.
That can also work against
you if you aren’t local. A company based in
Vermont, for example, may
not get many customers from Texas. Still, the
opportunity to secure
local customers makes it worthwhile, she
says.If you don’t want to list
a physical address for security reasons,
provide a P.O. box number and
hometown where people, if necessary, can
snail-mail
items.
- List all appropriate phone
numbers.
At the very least, list your business phone and
a fax number. Consider
including any alternate business numbers (such
as for departments), and
a cell-phone number if you feel comfortable
doing so. Also, mention
where and how someone can leave a voice-mail
message for you after
hours. Not listing a phone number at all
suggests you’re understaffed
or not
customer-friendly.
- List at least one e-mail address
that is checked regularly.
You may get spam. But e-mail communication is a
business requirement
today, and is a convenient way for customers to
reach your business
after hours. O’Flahavan recommends having your
e-mail address be “hot,”
so that users can instantly open the link in
their own e-mail programs
to send you a message. Creating an e-mail link
is similar to creating a
URL link; simply replace
"http://www.yourbusiness.com" with
"mailto:johndoe@yourbusiness.com."
- Use an embedded e-mail submission
form if necessary.
Web site e-mail forms can be ponderous,
particularly if one simply
needs to ask a question. "They put up a
suspicion that my e-mail is
going to be stored," O’Flahavan adds. But she
concedes a form may be
necessary if your company needs information for
taking product orders,
or collects subscriber information for
newsletters or white
papers.
In
a MarketingSherpa article (login required),
Linnea Johnson, director of
consumer services for Unilever, argues that an
e-mail submission form
is better than merely providing your contact
e-mail address. "The
latter can result in multiple messages and
wasted time," she writes.
For businesses receiving high volumes of
e-mail, she may be right.
If you plan to retain the customer information,
Johnson advises that
your form require users to provide their full
name, mailing address,
e-mail address, and age—the latter so you know
if you are dealing with
kids, in which case you cannot legally retain
their information. If you
retain customer info, you also need a privacy
policy that you can
display to customers. (See the Microsoft Office
Live article, "7
steps to developing a privacy policy with
teeth.")
E-WRITE note: Take a look at
Unilever’s
Contact Us page; it has everything a
customer might
want!
- Include a photo of your business
and/or directions. These
are much less important if you don’t have a
store or a reason for
customers to visit. Even so, directions are
worthwhile if service
providers and vendors are likely to need them,
O’Flahavan says. If your
business depends on getting people to visit,
you may want to consider a
separate "Directions" page. A picture of your
signage or storefront may
help some people find you more
easily.
- If relevant, link to your blog or
social-networking site page.
“Contact Us” means being reachable through Web
2.0 channels too,
O’Flahavan says. If you write a blog related to
your business, or have
a LinkedIn or Facebook page that you’d like to
expose to customers and
prospects, include links to them. But make sure
the fit is right, or
your customers may become confused. For
example, if your business sells
handmade chocolates but your blog is about
hiking, you probably should
omit the link.
- List events you attend or
promote.
If you are active in organizations or causes
related to your business,
and would like to meet customers through them,
list information and
links about the upcoming events along with your
role. This is a smart
way to market yourself and your business,
O’Flahavan says. The
downside: Your Contact Us page will require
more frequent upkeep. Many
business owners prefer a static Contact Us
page.
Why
people should contact you
In
subtle ways, guide people on why they should
contact you, without a lot of
verbiage.
- Offer simple instructions on using
your contact information.
Example: "Please call us or e-mail us to order
handmade chocolates, or
visit our store to taste free samples."
Another: "Call us for a free
quote or visit our office for a free
consultation."
- Provide related page links for more
information.
Where appropriate, include links to your
products or services pages,
customer service or technical support, your
newsletter sign-up page,
and/or your FAQ page. Example: "To learn more
about industry news and
trends, sign up for our monthly
newsletter."
"You
can do a little bit of marketing on Contact Us,
but not too much,"
O’Flahavan says. "Doing a lot of marketing on
this page comes across as
cheesy. So don’t drift too
far."
Additional
tips
- Use images only if they add
editorial value.
A photo of your staff or your storefront may
add warmth and
personality, as well as help customers locate
your business. But clip
art of a telephone or a mailbox adds no value.
"The art should support
the message of the page," O’Flahavan says,
adding, "and the message of
the page should be, 'We’re easy to contact and
worth
contacting.'"
- Make it easy to find and
skim.
List your Contact Us page prominently in your
site navigation, and
design it with minimal text and excellent
organization. Text should be
in a sans serif font, with phone numbers and
addresses set off and
easily distinguishable from other text. The
contrast on the page should
be high, preferably black text on a white
background.
Ready to publish? Then put it up and
let the page do its job.
This
article is reprinted with permission from
Microsoft
Office Live Small
Business.
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