You may or may not be aware of the benefits of using a contact form as opposed to merely providing an email address for your visitors. A contact form is an element of your website that lets visitors enter details under a number of fields. A typical contact form might have fields for the user to enter their name, email, phone number and query, then they click a button or link that submits this information to you. You've probably seen a form like this on a website and the good news is their they're easy to setup - I'll get to that in a moment.
First, lets look at why you MUST have a contact form on your website. They offer a number of advantages over merely offering your telephone number or email address to visitors. Your visitors are inherently lazy; many will be put off your website and your services at the smallest hurdle. Whilst it's true many clients like to discuss matters over the phone, not offering email communication is a big mistake. By the time Joe Bloggs has got his phone and dialied your number, he might well have decided to look elsewhere for a service similar to yours. Offering email is of course good, but similarily, by the time a visitor has opened their email client, they might decide they'd rather look elsewhere than type out an email to you. A contact form included within your website generates the highest response rate and eliminates these worries: a visitor is much more likely to enter their name and a brief enquiry from within the browser than they are to write you an email or pick up the phone. You've removed several "barriers" between their experience on your website, and them getting in touch. They don't have to open any software or think too much. Even if their enquiry is very limited (a name and an email for instance) you have their contact details, you know they're interested and you're in a good position to follow up and reel them in.
There are other advantages, too. Bots regularly scour the internet, picking up email addresses to spam. You can disguise your email address on your website by adding in spaces, but this can confuse some of your less computer savy visitors. With a CAPTCHA feature, you don't have to worry about spam with your contact form. Adding this functionality to your website is easy enough, and if you like, it's free: there is a service called Form Assembly - it offers a great service that lets you create forms with no scripting knowledge, and they also deliver form results to your email address. They also have a paid option which is extremely cheap and offers advanced functionality.
