This article is part of the school of coworking course through Archie. Make sure to check out the other articles to learn more about how to start a coworking space business.
Contact pages are usually left unnoticed and uncared for by many businesses. Many feel that just adding a contact form is sufficient in gaining interest and response. In reality, there is so much you can do to optimize your contact page on your coworking space website. You can make a few changes that are guaranteed to increase conversion.
Step 1: Reflect on what you already have
The first step to bettering your contact page is reflecting on your current one. Think about what it adds to your website. Is it a constant page that only asks for information and gives nothing in return? Does it ask for too much information? Is it captivating enough?
A good way to analyze it is to put yourself in the shoes of someone who is visiting your website. Would they want to fill in the information based on the page you provided? If not, ask yourself what could be improved. Perhaps it’s too straightforward and doesn’t give anything in return, or perhaps it lacks a little bit of character.
The purpose of a contact page is for someone to be able to contact you. Do you provide the basics of this? If so, how does that look? It’s good to find a balance between doing too much and doing too little. A good idea is to treat your contact page as one of the leading pages on your website. Personalizing it as much as possible can help give it some personality and increase traffic and brand awareness.
Once you’ve figured out what your contact page lacks or has too much of, the next step is building trust with it.
Step 2: Build trust
Imagine someone asking you for your information without actually giving them a reason to trust them. Would you provide them with your info? Probably not. The same idea goes with the contact page on your coworking page website. You want to make sure you provide all your visitors with a good reason for them to trust you. Here’s how you can do that:
1. Add information about your space and yourself
The worst thing you can do is just have a contact form that visitors have to fill in to be able to contact you. While it may seem convenient for you, it will actually deter people from contacting you.
A good solution to this is simply to simplify the contact form and place all your information on the page, allowing people to be able to contact you whenever and however they would like. Whether it be through a phone call, email, or contacting you on various social media platforms.
Instead of having an “about us” page, consider merging it with a contact page. This way, all your information about your space such as location, history, contacts, and so on are all on there, allowing people to know about your space as well as the freedom to contact you however they wish.
2. Add photos
According to studies, the human brain is hard-wired to respond to faces over all forms of communication. This means that adding photos of the people behind the coworking space (such as yourself) will create a positive impact on how people view your space. If they are able to associate a face with your brand, they are also more likely to trust you.
Consider adding a few portraits of yourself and your team on the about page and writing a little description. This way, most people will feel more comfortable contacting you and trusting your coworking space.
3. Add testimonials about your space
The other great way to build trust is to add testimonials to the contact page. What better way for people to gain trust in your coworking space and brand, than by allowing them to see what other people think about it.
Get a few members that you already have to write a testimonial about your coworking space. If that is challenging, then try turning to your Google reviews about your space and adding them to your page. This will allow people to see that others have had positive experiences in your coworking space and will be more likely to want to contact you for further information.
Step 3: Limit the amount of information you require
Many studies have proven that people respond better when less information is required of them. This goes along with contact pages. If you have a contact page that requires visitors to fill out heaps of information on themselves before they get to contact you then you have a problem. Most of them will be likely to change their minds about contacting you.
Instead of asking them for their phone number, address, age, occupation and so on right off the bat, hold out for a while and only require them to fill out the most necessary information for you to be able to contact them back, such as an email and name.
Everything else is unnecessary and will make your visitors uncomfortable with the idea of sharing so much information about themselves right away. Another benefit of only asking for the minimum information is that it will take a lot less time and effort to fill out, which most people will find appealing.
Step 4: Add unique and creative elements
Many unique and creative elements can be added to your contact page to look more attractive to new visitors. A few ways to do this are:
Personalization
Make sure your contact page isn’t boring. If the other pages of your website have a theme and some character, don’t leave out the contact page. Instead, opt to make it as unique and as interesting as possible.
You want to make sure that your contact page is in the same style as the other pages. Pay attention to the colours, font, layout and so on. If you make it too different it may feel out of place.
Some things you can do for personalization:
- Add nice graphics: You can add fun graphic designs to put on your website and catch the eyes of visitors. If you have a mascot or a theme go with that. If you don’t, consider creating one.
- Add text: This is your opportunity to be creative and capture your visitors through words. You don’t want to add too much that it overwhelms them, but you want to make sure you have something that catches people and makes them interested in contacting you.
- Add a layout that makes sense: Depending on how much you have on your page and what other elements you added, a good thing to remember is that the layout needs to be clean, organized, and has to make sense to the visitor. Don’t just put everything together in hopes that people will figure it out, instead have a structure and stick to it. Look at all your elements and see what would be the best way to organize them all.
Mobile friendly option
A good idea is to make sure that your contact page is optimized for mobile use. So many people nowadays are using their phones more and more to conduct business and visit websites, with more than 50% of website traffic coming from mobile usage. The great thing about smartphones is the fact that they are super convenient. You have to keep that in mind when creating your website as a whole, especially when it comes to your contact page.
A good idea is to keep your contact form in a single column, as that will be optimized a lot easier on the contact form. You also want to make sure that the “submit” button is clear and extremely visible. Whether that means making it a bright colour or larger in font is up to you.
Live chat
If possible, try adding a live chat option to your contact page. The benefit of this feature is to allow people to gain information right away if they have questions that they want to be answered but would prefer not to call.
Another benefit is that it can help free up the time of the employees who have to answer the phone calls or other emails, by simply answering quickly online. They will also be able to manage more requests at once.
Clearly, this is not for everyone, so if you don’t have the resources or people to take care of your live chat that is okay. Focus on the other aspects of your contact page and everything will become easier.
Step 5: Add an FAQs section
The last step is to add a section on your contact page concerning Frequently Asked Questions. If someone is coming to your website to inquire about something and you know that question can be easily answered but takes time from you or your employees, a simple solution is to have an FAQ.
This can help streamline your operations and can point people in the right direction quickly and efficiently. To do this, gather all the questions that you have found are asked the most frequently, make a list, and write down the answers as precisely and as simple as possible.
You can add a section on your contact page regarding FAQ and point everyone there first before they contact you with a question that is not on there. Once you’ve done that, your work will be made a lot simpler and you’ll have more time for more important things.
Conclusion
Most businesses miss the mark when it comes to creating the best version of contact pages for their websites. You now know the importance of them and the difference a well-optimized one can make. By putting a little more effort into your contact page, you will be able to increase the conversion rates for your coworking space.
Still, have questions or something you wish to discuss? Join our Facebook Group and enter the conversation on everything coworking.
