Contact Forms Vs Email Enquiries

[SoundinTheory]

This is a usability question more than SEO but I thought this community would be the one to ask.

Are completed conversion rates generally higher for contact forms or email enquiries?

I try to encourage our clients to have short contact forms where possible to ensure the first contact (ask questions later).

Personally an email seems like a giant daunting and potentially irrelevant enquiry that could get lost in the plethora of spam emails flying around. Also half the time I start the email and then give up.

[William.Lau]

This can be different for every industry. I'd try using split testing the two and see which one converts better.

You can try full forms, short forms, email only forms.

Try using Google's website optimizer or other split testing tools to try out the different methods.

[KevinBudzynski]

Are completed conversion rates generally higher for contact forms or email enquiries?

I agree with William. I think industry, type of form and many factors impact this. Personally, I like contact forms (because I'm to impatient to wait the two seconds for my email client to come up) and move on to email later. However, if it's a general contact form and I have an email to customer service (and need that department) I would just send to the email address.

[EGOL]

Talk to the clients to find out what essential pieces of information should be gathered to  respond to the client properly..... or essential information to weed out the time wasters....

..... but some people have a different style and just like  to get them on the phone.

Talk to the client about this.  You will get a different answer every time.  Some of them might have never thought of information gathering or weeding.

[SoundinTheory]

For the specific client I had in mind, although the enquiries have doubled in the past year they still only get less than 70 a month which I don't think warrants the weeding. 100+ and I completely agree. The phone number is the most prominent, as the only method of contact featured in the page header.

[EGOL]

The phone number is the most prominent...

Right... slap their face with what you want them to do.