The Enquiry That Starts With a Question

One action for four kinds of visitor

Most small business sites offer a single next step: get a quote, book a visit, or call now.

That serves the person who has decided and gives the other three groups nothing to do.

Somebody comparing options, somebody researching, and somebody who will need you in six months all leave without a trace.

Which means a site can be working well for people ready to buy and losing everybody who is not yet.

Lower-commitment things to offer

• Ask a question, with no obligation.
• A rough price by email.
• A written guide to the decision.
• A checklist for before you call anybody.
• Send us a photograph and we will tell you.

The last is unusually effective for trades. It costs the visitor almost nothing, it is a natural thing to want, and it produces exactly the information you would need to say something useful back.

A question is easier than a quote

Which is the whole mechanism.

Requesting a quote feels like starting something: it implies a visit, a decision, and a conversation about money.

Asking a question feels like nothing, and a person will do it at a stage where they would not have requested anything.

You then have somebody to reply to, which is where the actual selling happens for most small businesses.

A high proportion of those questions turn into work, because somebody with a question about your trade has a problem in your trade.

They convert more slowly and less often, which is the trade being made.

A worked example

A business had one form on every page headed request a quote, receiving about six enquiries a month.

They added a second, smaller option on their explanation pages: ask a question, two fields, no obligation stated explicitly.

Questions arrived at about eleven a month, of which perhaps three became jobs over the following months.

The quote form continued at the same rate, so nothing was cannibalised.

The questions also turned out to be the best source they had of what to write about next.

Two fields and a heading was the entire change.

Reply properly, which is the whole thing

Since a question form that produces a sales pitch teaches people not to ask.

Answer the question, genuinely and usefully, without requiring anything.

Then, at the end, say what you would do next if they wanted, in one sentence.

That reply is the most persuasive thing most small businesses ever send, because it demonstrates competence rather than describing it.

A business that answers questions helpfully gets remembered by people who were not ready, which is the point of the exercise.

Where a question needs a visit to answer, say so plainly and give the range.

Saying that you cannot answer it properly without seeing it is itself a useful answer, and it is more credible than a confident guess would be.

Put it where the early visitors are

Rather than everywhere.

Your explanation pages and your general articles are where research-stage visitors land.

Your service pages and your contact page are where decided visitors land, and those should keep the direct action.

Putting the low-commitment option on the wrong pages produces questions from people who were ready to book, which is a downgrade.

One action per page, matched to who arrives there, which is the same principle as everywhere else.

Track them separately

Since they behave differently and blending them hides both.

Count questions and quote requests as separate figures.

Questions convert at a lower rate over a longer period, so mixing them into one number makes your conversion rate look worse and your response time look better.

Watching them separately also tells you whether the addition is working, which is the question you will be asked.

And note how many questions become jobs after three months rather than after three weeks.

Follow up once, then stop

Which is the part that gets it wrong.

Somebody who asked a question and was answered has no obligation, and pursuing them repeatedly is what makes people avoid asking.

One follow-up, a fortnight later, asking whether that was useful and whether they want a quote, is proportionate.

After that, leave them alone unless they come back.

Offering to add them to a list, if you have one worth being on, is the appropriate place for that.

Reuse the answers

Since answering eleven questions a month is only worth it if the work compounds.

Every question you answer well is a paragraph you can put on a page, and every question that arrives twice is a page that should exist.

Keep the answers in one document, and once a quarter turn the three most common into a page apiece.

That converts the time spent replying into something that answers the same question for everybody who did not ask.

It also means the question form gradually reduces its own volume, since the site starts answering what people were writing in about.

The counter-case

This costs time.

Answering eleven questions a month properly is real work, and for a business already at capacity it is work with no immediate return.

Some of the questions come from people who will never hire anybody, including competitors, students, and people in other provinces entirely.

And a business whose problem is converting the enquiries it already has should fix that before generating more of a different kind.

Check your reply time and your follow-up first, since both cost nothing and both matter more than the volume arriving.

Add a two-field question option to your explanation pages, answer properly, track it separately, and follow up once.

What to do

1. Identify your early-stage pages.
2. Add a two-field question form.
3. Say there is no obligation.
4. Keep quotes on the service pages.
5. Answer properly, then offer next steps.
6. Count them separately.
7. Follow up once.

Step five is where the return actually comes from, since a genuinely useful answer is the most persuasive thing a small business sends and it costs nothing but the time to write it.

What happens to the ones you never see is covered in the enquiry that never arrived.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.