Contact Forms

A contact form is a must have for every website. Corporate websites have it. Personal websites have it. As a matter of fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a website that does not have a contact form on it. All websites have it.

Ok, there may be exceptions. Some websites almost do away with the contact form. Almost. The contact form is still there, only it has been downsized to the bare minimum — an email link. Or a phone number. This, by the way, is not the right way to do it — more on this later.

Every website needs a contact form.

An online contact form — what’s it for?

It’s there so your website visitors can contact you. This is obvious. But there is more:

The presence of a contact from on a website indicates that there are real people behind it. This is important. As anonymity reigns on the Internet, it is very important for your website visitors to feel the humans behind the pages. Be it a corporate support department, online store sales team, blog author, or just you — the webmaster — the very presence of the ‘contact us’ form brings good feelings to your visitors.
A contact form on your website is a digital equivalent of a handshake. The point of first contact between you and your website visitors. Or your readers. Or your potential customers. It is important to get it right — there is only one chance to make a good first impression.
Websites with no contact form sure look like fraud. Not trustworthy.

Online contact forms done right

First of all, your online contact form needs to look modern and professional. Even if it says all the right things, asks for the right information, and even if the form itself is functional — it would not matter at all, if your contact form looks straight from the ‘90s. You know — small fonts, bold labels, inset borders, and everything. If your contact form gives a feeling of being untouched by a web designer for years, your visitors my assume that the website is dead. A modern contact form gives completely opposite impression.

Second, the contact form need to be brief and to the point. Asking your website visitors to disclose too much personal details is asking for trouble. No one will complete the form. Even if you decide to include some auxiliary fields into your contact form — please consider making these fields optional. Good contact form should not ask for more than a name, email address, reason for contact, and a brief message. Everything else should be optional.

Third. The contact form has to do the right thing. At the very minimum, the form needs to save the submitted information into your contacts database for future reference and send out two messages: confirmation to the person who submitted the form and notification — to you. This functional requirement disqualifies the simple email link, as mentioned earlier, from being considered a valid contact option. Besides, posting your email address on your website is a sure welcome sign to all the spammers in the world. Don’t do it.

Finally, your online contact form has to be secure. HTTPS, lock icon in the browser, and all. These days it is not even debatable — security is a must.

How to make an online contact form with Payformix

It can be done in a breeze. Payformix makes outstanding online forms, and contact forms are no exception. Online contact forms produced and hosted by Payformix satisfy all the requirements described above.

Check out this demo to see how a beautiful contact form can be created from scratch in about 30 seconds. Feel free to test the form afterwards. Of course, you can copy this contact form template for your own use — all Payformix forms are available in plain text — and customize it to your heart's content!

Create an online contact form for your website with Payformix — absolutely free.

Need assistance? Here is our own online contact form!