We see a lot of contact forms out in the wild: they’re an effective way for your readers to get in touch with you privately, and also for you to generate leads. When you add a contact form to your site, it displays four predefined fields: name, email, website, and comment. But you can do much more with this form — let’s take a look at how some businesses and freelancers use it.
Ask questions to gather client details
Add a contact form: When editing a page or post, click +Add, then Contact form.
Roses & Mint is a wedding florist run by Kira Mulvany in the St. Louis, Missouri, area. On Kira’s Check Your Date page, prospective clients can inquire about availability and pricing.
Kira uses the “Text” Field Type to insert additional fields that collect details about a couple’s wedding date, venue, color palette, and wedding team.
If you’re on the WordPress.com Premium or Business plan, use Simple Payments to receive money securely.
With customized text fields like these, you can gather all kinds of information from readers and potential customers — emailed directly to you. But remember that email is not secure: don’t use a contact form to collect sensitive information like credit card numbers.
Collect feedback on your performance for testimonials
Learn more about displaying testimonials.
Freelance photographer Alex Pallett photographs children, families, and weddings in the Ballarat and Daylesford area of Victoria, Australia. While she has a standard contact page for people to get in touch, she also uses a form to collect feedback about her work, which is then displayed as a testimonial on her Client Feedback page.
Tweak the form to fit your needs: crowdsource writing or recipe tips for an upcoming post, ask for post ideas from your readers, or collect data to inform a decision. So many possibilities!
Use dropdown menus to offer more options
Here’s another technique from Alex: she uses the “Dropdown” Field Type to create multiple dropdown menus, which pulls specific information that she needs from an inquiry. In a post promoting a Valentine’s Day photoshoot deal in January, Alex offered a rate with unlimited photos for $199, with access to special pricing for various styles of canvas images. Note her customized dropdown menus under “Valentine’s Photo Shoot Canvas Selection” and “Canvas Style.”
Use radio buttons to capture specific information
At JetSetPilot Travel, husband-and-wife team Brian and Kristie Podvia offer a personalized travel planning service. On their Contact Us page, they use the “Radio Button” Field Type to display a list of trip types that travelers can select from (Honeymoon/Romantic, Destination Wedding, Corporate, etc.). Depending on your preference, radio buttons are just another way to compile details from your site visitors.
Do you learn better with video? Here’s a short tutorial:
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This is super-helpful! Thanks for the tips 😁
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Absolutely fantastic article. Thank you.
LikeLiked by 9 people
Love the article❤
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Great article as always! Thank you! ❤
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Thank you!
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Thank you for the tips, but do you know anything about why the gravatars sometimes appear with a virtual hole punched in them?
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Is is possible for you to link to a screenshot of what you’re seeing? I’m not sure I’ve seen this before.
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Yes, I will try to capture a screenshot next time I see this…notice it happening quite frequently actually.
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This should show you one example of what we’re talking about here…
https://postimg.org/image/6yu361pj7/
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How strange! For reference, this is what I see when I view a post in the Reader by this same user:
http://cld.wthms.co/BLx0Vp
The “hole” you mention is where the user’s profile photo appears. Do you see this “hole” on the posts of other users, too? I’ve never seen this before so I’m not sure what the issue is, but if you see this in other places I wonder if something is preventing you/your computer from seeing these images.
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I only see these “holes” appear on the wordpress “gravatars” never on any other image ever…
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I’ll see if I can find out why this is happening… thanks for reporting!
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Very informative.
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Ohh, never thought this way. I am sure conversion rate must be awesome with this kind of personalization. Thanks a lot.
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Nice post👌
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I love your posts & pages. I am new to this blogging life. Any tips&tricks on recieving more readers?
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Here are resources for growing your blog, traffic, and readership:
A free ebook on growing your traffic and building your blog: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/postaday/ebook-grow-traffic/ (There are three common formats there that you can download.)
A free email course in which we send you daily emails for 10 days on the topics of branding and growth: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/blogging-university/#branding-growth
A list of previous posts on The Daily Post that covers traffic, growth, finding your audience, social media, and more: https://wordpress.com/dailypost/category/traffic-growth/
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Cool tips! I’ll be sure to try them out in the future!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Helpful. Thanks.
LikeLiked by 7 people
Superb article….
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Really helpful tips… Will surely try them!
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