From Getting in Touch to Gathering Details: Customize a Contact Form in Creative Ways

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.”

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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.

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Do you learn better with video? Here’s a short tutorial:

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