How to Write a Contact Us Page [Copywriter Tips]
A company’s “contact us” page should never be an afterthought or a place to simply dump phone numbers and a snail mail address. In this blog post, I’m going to discuss how to write a contact us page for your clients that will wow them—and actually work.
And by “work,” I mean the page copy will inspire people to fill out the form, email, or call.
How to write a contact us page: Don’t do it last.
When I tackle website writing projects for clients, I often start with the contact us page. Why? Well, the page copy itself tends to be shorter—and it’s also hyper-focused.
When you get ready to write this page, start by asking yourself some questions: Why would someone click on “contact us” and subsequently NOT take that action? What’s causing them to hesitate? And what can your words do to help them overcome that hesitation?
It’s a fun challenge. Put yourself in the prospect’s shoes.
- Are they worried about the cost? You could allay those fears by saying there’s no obligation or that the initial consult is free, for example.
- Are they worried they haven’t done enough due diligence? Contact pages are a great place to include one of the client’s most powerful testimonials. On other pages, like home pages, I usually encourage the client to have scrolling testimonials. The contact page is a different beast: Put your best one on there—the one that could help persuade that hesitant person to make the call.
- Are they looking for an email address, but you only give them a phone number or a form? Give people multiple ways to give in touch. Put them in charge. (I discuss this more below.)
Make sure you optimize your “contact us” page for a keyword phrase.
Like all pages on your website, you want to optimize it for a keyword phrase. Write a compelling headline around the phrase. Resist the temptation to simply have “Contact us.” That’s a wasted opportunity.
After the compelling headline, remind people, with a bit of inspiring copy, WHY someone should contact you.
This serves another purpose. You never know how people will enter your site. It’s possible they could enter your site via the contact page (especially if it’s optimized well). So by having a clear, compelling headline and good copy on “what’s in it for the prospect,” you’re helping to orient the new site visitor.
Make recommendations for the form fields . . . and give people a choice on how they want to make contact.
As the copywriter, you won’t be building the page or setting up the form. But you can share recommendations on what to include on the form. Different businesses will have different needs. And while longer forms do create friction, you’ll likely want to go longer than simply name, email, and phone number. Other landing pages on the site could have super-short forms. But contact us pages are places where you can ask for more details.
My next suggestion will require your client’s cooperation, but I always believe the prospect should be able to choose how they contact a business. If they prefer phone, great. But if they prefer sending an email or filling out a form, that should be allowed as well.
Here’s the challenge: many small businesses aren’t good about monitoring emails or contact forms. So offering choices will ONLY work if the client actually pays attention and monitors all the different modes of contact.
Make it easy for people to connect in other ways . . . and give them a reason to stick around.
For most business websites, the social media icons live in the footer or in the courtesy link area at the top of a website. But the “contact us” page is a great place to highlight them and encourage people to follow.
After someone submits a form, what happens? Ideally, they should receive confirmation that the form went through. From there, it’s a smart practice to include a link or two to helpful content—like an FAQs page—to encourage people to stick around the site.
Do I follow my own advice? YES.
I wouldn’t make recommendations that I don’t follow myself. In the video below, I walk through my contact us page. You can see how it stacks up against these suggestions. Or you can simply navigate to the contact page itself.
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