Top 3 Affordable Website Design Features and Functionalities For Small Businesses

Security and Spam Reduction

There are primarily two ways to allow your audience to reach out to you via email. One way is to display the email address directly on the website, and the other way is to integrate it into a contact form, where you can set a designated email address to receive the inquiries made from it.

Email addresses that are visibly available on the website are a potential disaster as spammers and harvesters can easily obtain them. Imagine having to spend time and effort going through each email instead of focusing on the most important tasks at hand.

With a contact form, the email addresses are hidden from public view, and only you would know the exact email address to receive all inquiries. This, in turn, reduces spam and improves the quality of inquiries. Clients who spend time filling out a contact form are generally better than those who send brief inquiries.

Control of Received Information

A contact form allows you to specify and capture the exact information that you require from your customers.

This is not possible to control and manage on your end if your customers choose to email you directly, as there’s no way to know what they’re typing in their inquiries.

You should also pair the contact form with an FAQ page on your website, so that all frequently asked questions are addressed directly on the page itself. This reduces the manpower required to answer repetitive questions such as “Do you deliver to?” and “What are the prices for your services?”

Internal Email Notifications

Do you require a specific email address to capture different types of inquiries? In a contact form, you can provide drop-down options that allow your audience to select the type of inquiry, such as a sales or technical question.

It also enables you to set up multiple email notifications that can be sent to relevant departments such as sales, customer support, and technical support. If you list your email addresses directly on the website, the chances of emails being sent to the correct department are lower.

Having a contact form ensures that all inquiries are addressed and accounted for. For instance, the sales department may have forgotten to forward an email to the customer support department when they received an inquiry on customer support.

Convenience and Time-Saving

You would always want to keep your customers on your website without directing them elsewhere. If you allow them to send inquiries via their email software, it diverts their attention and focus, and it’s challenging to get them to come back.

For example, clicking on this link, enquiry@design-start.com, will open up their default mail client and take them away from your website. A contact form forces them to stay on your website, which improves both your bounce rate and session duration of each visit.