Integrity Marketing moved into new offices on June 1st. This beautiful, historic building is across the street from the Johnson County Kansas courthouse. The finishes in this building are incredible -- gorgeous oak crown moulding, beautiful oak doors and a two-story lobby with gorgeous tiled floors.
Not only that, but you couldn't toss a coin without landing on the doorstep of a law office. Not to mention the free parking, friendly property manager, quiet atmosphere and incredibly reasonable rent.
We are, quite frankly, overjoyed to have found such a nice suite of well-located offices for our sales and account management staff and video studio. We spent several months looking for space. We drove around and looked for signs. We wrote down phone numbers. We scoured online listings. And we consistently discovered a marketing mistake -- one that our clients sometimes make as well.
You see, we were serious, qualified buyers. We wanted new office space, we had a budget and a location in mind, and we were ready to sign a lease. But 90 percent of the phone numbers we called went to voice mail, where no one bothered to return our phone calls. I'd say 100 percent of the "contact us" web forms that we filled out were a waste of time. No one EVER contacted us from those -- not one. At least not until Friday, June 10th -- nearly two weeks after we had moved into our new offices.
Yes, someone finally called me in response to one of the website forms I had completed. They seemed disappointed when I told them we had already signed a lease elsewhere.In today's market, with offices sitting empty all over the city, I bet they were disappointed indeed to lose out on leasing to a well-established, credit-worthy tenant.
We found our new office space on Craigslist. When we shot the property manager an email, she quickly responded with a phone call. We went to see the property that morning and were signing the lease agreement by mid-afternoon. It went that quickly.
So what happened to all those other inquiries?
I have a good guess. Those other companies may have done something that you have considered doing as well. I am guessing their web form results do not go directly to someone's regular email inbox. I bet some marketing person said, "We need to be able to track these results, we need to know where they are coming from. So let's set up a a special email, and let's call it something like [email protected]. This way, we'll know that any email showing up there is coming from our website."
Then, they set those results to forward to their own email, and maybe one other person.
Then, they didn't put any security on the form and their [email protected] box got filled up with spam.
Then, the marketing person got fired (average longevity of a marketing director at a law firm is less than 18 months!). And the "other person" got sick and tired of receiving spam, so they quit checking that email box.
So ... while the email box filled up with spam (and perhaps got "full" with spam, bouncing inquiries back to the server instead of delivering them at all) ... serious inquiries went un-noticed.The truth is, if someone bothers to find you on the internet, complete an online contact form, and ask you to please call them -- well, that's a pretty qualified buyer who is ready to move, and you don't want to miss them!
If you are going to use a website contact form, here are some best practices to follow to ensure you do not miss qualified inquiries.
- Use a real email address and have results delivered to a qualified, committed person who is not a short-timer. Usually this is not your marketing person (sad to say, but true).
- Put security on your email form, so you don't get flooded with spam.
- Establish a protocol to check this email box at least three times a day - first thing in the morning, at the noon hour, and last thing in the evening.
- Establish a follow-up protocol. What will you do when you receive an email inquiry? You should figure this out before the first one hits your inbox.
- Fill the form out yourself at least a couple of times a month, just to make sure it's still working (things do seem to spontaneously "break" on the internet!).
It's really not that hard. If you are not going to follow these best practices, then it's probably best not to use an on-site contact form at all. Put your phone number on your website and make people call you. And then, of course, you'll have to check your voice mail and get back to them. My experience shows that if you return phone calls at all, you'll be WAY ahead of your competition!