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Contact forms are increasingly important in websites, even though the traditional contact form in the ‘contact us’ section has largely been on the decline. Nowadays, that’s not the only form of contact forms – sometimes, they appear as a small tab at the bottom of the webpage, sometimes they appear if you click on a small button on the side of the page, and sometimes they appear asking for feedback after you go through a service or buy a product. It is important to learn why contact forms are such a crucial part of every website, and what’s the easiest way of including them in your own.
What Makes Contact Forms so Popular?
Describing all the pros of contact forms will probably need its own article, but it is important to still know the most important benefits having contact forms can get you:
- Getting potential clients’ emails: large companies pay thousands of dollars to get their hands on a list of potential customers’ emails. Being able to reach out to them on their email to announce new products/services, discounts, events, etc. is invaluable and can be better than a lot of paid advertizement. Having a contact form where you let potential clients contact you by entering their name and email is a great way to get access to a bunch of interested people’s emails so you can outreach to later on.
- Reducing spam: as your website grows, you’ll be receiving more and more emails – it is important to minimize spam so you can get a better handle on the genuine emails and reply to your clients/followers as soon as possible. Using a contact form instead of outright putting your website’s email up gives you more control over who contacts you. You can, for example, require people to complete a captcha before being able to send their message, which reduces automated spam almost completely. Even if you don’t see the need for these now, it is a great idea to have them as an option for when someone wants to spam your website, etc.
- Quicker for your customers: while some people have a dedicated mailing application on their computer and when they click your email, it’ll automatically open up, most people don’t have it set up and only use their email through the browser. This means it’ll take about a minute for them to start composing an email to you. With a contact form, however, they can start writing the content of the message as soon as they write their name and email – this is quite quicker than the traditional method. This extra speed might encourage a few more people to register their email and send you constructive feedback.
What’s the Easiest Way to Implement It in WordPress?
Now that you’ve learned about some of its advantages, it is time to learn how to easily implement it in WordPress. For anyone who has been using WordPress for an extended period of time, the suggestion that you should install a plugin to handle it shouldn’t come at a surprise. It has multiple advantages:
- Using plugins to implement contact forms is very easy: to use most contact form plugins you’ll need to go to the plugin marketplace, search for the plugin, click on install, and use the contact form element in your page. It is extremely easy and extremely fast. You’ll be able to add a fully functional and stylish contact form in a matter of minutes.
- They have a lot of features: the most popular contact form plugins include hundreds of features and customization options that will allow you to fully utilize the contact form for your particular purpose. They are much more flexible and easier to manage than trying to create a contact form with vanilla WordPress.
- They are secure: the top plugins, even though are mostly third-party developed, go through extensive testing and are used by millions of websites. Contact forms were one of the primary ways websites were attacked in the past, but thankfully, using these plugins ensures they are, and your website, is secure.
Of course, contact forms aren’t the only thing your website needs, and if you’re not sure about your technical skills, you might want to hire an agency to take care of the technical side of your website. For example, if you have created a fully-fledged design in Photoshop, you can an inexpensive and professional PSD to WP service to turn it into a modern, responsive, and functional WordPress website.
