After writing yesterday's Daily Golden Nugget about the importance of contact forms on your website, I think I should dive a little deeper into an idea on how you can use your website's contact form. You will probably need a web programmer to set up the features I'm suggesting today.
I'm giving you the best contact us form idea that I've see work over the years.
My favorite and perhaps the most universal feature is a form field for a registration code. Here are some ways to give out the registration code:
1. Put a code on your direct mail.
2. Put a code on your newspaper ad/insert.
3. Include the code in a radio ad.
Consumers with the code would go to your website and enter it on your Contact Us page. Naturally you need to tell them that they have to do this, and you will need to ethically bribe them to take this action.
One good ethical bribe is to say "For a 20% discount off your next purchase, please fill out our contact form on our website with this registration code."
You could also use this registration code as an actual registration for an in store event. On the direct mail you could say "To register for our Pandora Event please visit our website and fill out our Contact Us form using this registration code."
Those are just two examples that can spark your own creativity. But there's more to this registration code idea that I want to explain with an example...
Imagine you are doing a blanket mailing to 10,000 local homes. You might have your own large mailing list, or perhaps you are using the services of ValPak, Money Mailer, the local newspaper, or some other local bulk mail service. All of these are perfect mediums for the registration code feature.
For each of the towns your marketing reaches, you will need to have a different registration code. On your website you need the ability to track the different codes, which means more programming. After a few months of doing this, you will discover which towns have little or no response to your ads, and you can change your marketing accordingly.
Each of the registration codes should trigger a specific message, and confirmation email address. If code "1234" was only sent to households in Totowa, NJ then you can customize your screen message to include Totowa's town name.
I recommend sending a confirmation email to every person who fills out your contract form, whether they use a registration code or not. Using the registration code allows you to customize the email confirmation.
Here's how to pull all this together in a single ad to announce a special sale:
1. Your direct mailing will have different codes for each town reached.
2. The mailing needs to announce your sale with words like "Private sale for registered customers of our website. Go toperosijewelers.com and register on our contact page with the code 1234 to receive a 30% discount via email."
3. Capture the different registration codes somehow {I'm leaving this idea open for your programmer} and send the consumer the email with the 30% discount coupon in it.
There are several other add on things you can accomplish here, but this is the basics of favorite way to use your contact us form.
