“Even if you’re not planning on selling online, a well-crafted site is essential for any business.”
Serial entrepreneur, Tim Knox, said this when asked about the importance of a website during an interview with Entrepreneur in 2004. Since then the need for a business website has only grown in value and importance.
Websites are a digital store front, even if your end goal is not to sell supplies or services online. Displaying the right information, in the right locations on your website, can benefit your business tremendously.
How can this be applied to fire protection websites?
In this article I will discuss the three things every business website, including your fire sprinkler inspection business website, must have to gain value and attract business.
These include:
- Easy to find contact information
- Clear and concise service offerings
- A simple and obvious lead form
1. Easy to find contact information
“Not every online visitor has the patience to click through every page on your website to find the contact information for your business,” says John Zhuang, of Web-design and SEO-optimization firm Winning Interactive.
Zhuang suggests you, ”include contact information in every page of the website – in the footer or side bar or even in top right corner of your website.” Providing multiple reference points only increases the likelihood of web visitors contacting your fire protection business.
Below is a sample footer from this very website – Inspect Point Insider. As you can see, our website footer provides visitors with multiple options for contacting us. No matter where a visitor lands on Inspect Point Insider, they are able to see our contact information and decide how they would like to contact us.
2. Clear and concise service offerings
Before web visitors decide whether to contact your fire protection business, they first need to know if you provide the services they are seeking. A great place for them to find this information is on your website.
Adding a services page to your website provides your visitors with a clear understanding of who you are and what you offer. By listing the fire protection services you offer, you eliminate unnecessary phone calls, emails, and form submissions.
As a business you have multiple options for displaying and listing your services. For example, Allstate Sprinkler Corp. provides a drop down of their services from the navigation bar, that expands into a full page explanation of that service.
Sirina Fire Protection Corp provides a list of services that each link to a longer description below the services list:
Even though the design and layout may differ between these two fire sprinkler inspection websites, both provide web visitors with a clear and concise message of what services they can provide to their customers.
3. A simple and obvious lead form
A well-formatted lead form provides visitors with an easy way to contact you quickly for additional information or a quote. This form commonly lives on the “contact us” page where your contact information is clearly displayed, or on it’s own landing page that can be accessed via a link on your website.
Whether you intend to collect information, or provide service quotes, the purpose of your lead form should be clearly stated to your web visitors. Below is a sample from the Kauffman Co. contact us page.
As you see, they clearly state they are offering product and service quotes via their lead form. Visitors know that by submitting this form, they will receive a quote from Kauffman, and not unsolicited emails.
In addition to clearly stating the intention of your lead form, it is important to ask for only the necessary information. You want to make the barrier of entry as easy as possible. Displaying 5 or required fields may deter a web visitor from submitting your lead form.
Here is a sample of our demo request lead form.
As you can see, we clearly identify the forms usage, and only require name, company, and email to be submitted. The form is short, easy to read, and allows the web visitor the option of submitting their phone number if they prefer to be contacted via the phone.
The fewer required form fields – the better.
CONCLUSION
How and what you display on your fire inspection website can make or break the impact your website will have on your fire sprinkler inspection business. It is important you:
- Prove there is a human behind the website by prominently displaying your contact information
- Let visitors know who you are and what you offer by clearly and concisely listing your fire sprinkler inspection services
- Remove barriers for contacting you by placing short and simple lead forms on your website.
- Implementing these three things can help you gain value and attract business in an increasingly competitive market.
Interested in learning more about Inspect Point? Contact us today to request your private 30 minute online demo.
