BLOG

Have you ever tried to track down the mailing address of a business? How about a phone number? More and more often, I'm finding websites don't have any real detail on their Contact page, just a form to fill out. It bugs me to no end but when I queried one business owner about why he didn't include his postal address on his website, he said he didn't want to get junk mail. Really?

I was startled to hear this. Junk mail is almost obsolete. I've had my mailing address on my website for over two years. I can't think of a single piece of junk mail I've received. What I don't want to do is discourage someone from contacting me via the post if that's their preferred method. I want to encourage anyone to get in touch whatever way is the most convenient to them. Working on the principle of content marketing – and I hope you are – drawing people to your business is the hardest part. Once you've got them at your door, make sure someone answers their knock.

I've noticed other things businesses do to protect themselves from being contacted by the general public. Interestingly, the general public is full of prospective customers so what's the point in not being completely transparent about where to find you?

Unlisted phone number
If you're an A-list celebrity or get all your business through an agent, by all means make it difficult to find your phone number. Otherwise, put your phone number where people can find it one your website, in the telephone directories and in online business directories. Plenty of people still enjoy the immediacy of the phone. If they can't find your number, they'll move on to someone else.

Protected Twitter Account
Why any business sees the need to protect their Twitter account is beyond me. The whole idea of social media is to make it easy for people to find you and connect. When you protect your tweets so no one can see you or must get permission to join your exclusive ranks you're greatly reducing the likelihood of prospective customers finding you. You're likely eliminating one of the most amazing aspects of Twitter, total strangers helping you out.

Validation Services
I refuse to connect with anyone requiring a validation of my social media profile. It gets my back up to think I need to pass some sort of authentication before I can follow, connect or friend someone. What is the point? Are the bots and spammer so distasteful you're going to ask every single legitimate follower to jump through your little hoop?

Contact Forms
There's no disputing contact forms serve a purpose but they shouldn't be the only thing on your contact page. Put your phone number, email address, mailing address and social media IDs on your contact page, too. Make it super easy for people to find you.
SPAM, bots and crank calls are a fact of life. You can take steps to prevent these nuisances from reaching you but, in the process, you'll also be preventing potential customers and networking opportunities, too. By all means, use email filters, moderate the comments your blog post and make sure you've got anti-virus programs running on your computer. When it comes to contact details and social media profiles, let the masses find you. They might just want to spend some money at your company.

What things have you seen businesses do to inadvertently discourage business?

Subscribe
Subscribe here to have new posts from the Global Copywriting Blog delivered by email.

Image credit: Letters From Home Pen and Airmail Envelopes by Pink Sherbet Photography, on Flickr