I was reading Jared Spool’s article, The $300 Million Button I realized how reminiscent this topic was in my experiences. There is a point in every development where we sit down to discuss forms and the collection of data. Most customers expect to collect enough data to run a credit report on every single visitor that accesses their site. So, of course, we begin the process of talking them down from that particular ledge.
As Spool reiterates:
As one shopper told us, “I’m not here to enter into a relationship. I just want to buy something.”…
Without even knowing what was involved in registration, all the users that clicked on the button did so with a sense of despair. Many vocalized how the retailer only wanted their information to pester them with marketing messages they didn’t want. Some imagined other nefarious purposes of the obvious attempt to invade privacy.
A Lead Generation Tool
Within the context of a general marketing site users will perceive the collection of their data as intrusive. Requesting, or even requiring, data other than basic contact information on a “Contact Us” form will likely be construed as contextually inappropriate and will be utilized less often than a simplified form. Often name, telephone, and email address are enough to begin a fruitful conversation with a potential customer.
Generally what we will recommend is to approach these basic contact forms as lead generation tools. This has been an effective strategy for us here at Pleth over the last few years, it has worked very well. In fact, we have an impending site redesign that will include a further simplification of our first-line contact forms.
