Call To Action: 6 Powerful "Contact Us" Alternatives for Architecture Websites

Websites can be time-consuming to maintain and expensive to update.

And it’s easy to forget why you even have a website in the first place.

Here’s the deal:

• A website is not meant to be a portfolio.

• Or to show prospective clients how you work.

• Or to bring legitimacy to your firm.

Those are all aspects that might support the main goal of your website but let’s not forget what you want your website to do.

The primary purpose of your website is to create opportunities with your ideal client.

If your website isn’t doing that, then what’s the point? If it’s not creating opportunities, then it’s just a museum of beautiful work and artifacts that hungry prospects can think about but not touch or access.

CTA

This morning, I want to give you a very easy thing that you can do right now to create more opportunities from your website.

The Call To Action (CTA) is the gatekeeper of opportunity.

It’s exactly what it sounds like - a call to your website visitors that encourages them to take a specific action. When done well, the CTA is the most obvious, attention-grabbing button on your website.

And what’s the best action that your ideal client could take upon visiting your website?

To book a meeting with you!

There are 4 components to a powerful CTA:

1. Design/Aesthetic: You want it to visually pop off the page and grab your attention. The easiest way to do this is typically with a color fill.

2. Messaging: What does the button say? What do you want your visitors to do?

3. Destination: What happens when someone clicks the button and takes the action? Where do they go? Ideally, you want them book a meeting with you or schedule a phone call rather than send an email. (You can use a tool like Calendly to allow prospects to schedule time on your calendar.)

4. Context: How does the rest of your website look, feel, and read? Ideally, you want the context to be supporting your CTA.

Contact Us? No thanks.

The softest, lowest converting, most “meh” CTA that has ever been created is “Contact Us”.

• It doesn’t get a visitor excited to click the button.

• It doesn’t set any expectations - what will happen after they contact you?

• And it elongates the process of creating opportunities for your firm by (most often) requiring a series of emails to evaluate the viability of a project.

If you’re using a soft “Contact Us” CTA, then don’t feel bad - everyone is doing it. Even some of the world’s most well-known firms are using soft “Contact Us” CTAs:

• Olsun Kundig has a “Contact” page with a basic form.

• Gluck+ has a “Contact” action that simply includes and email or phone number.

• Foster + Partners asks you to send an email to a partner if you’re interested in new work.

• Dillers Scofidio + Renfro lists an email for prospective clients to reach out to.

Basically, less prospects will contact you because of the reasons above and the prospects that do contact you through a “Contact Us” will probably be low-quality.

Replacing “Contact Us”

Alright, Tyler, we get it. You hate the “Contact Us” CTA. So what do you want us to do about it?

I hear you! Instead, let me share some different messaging that you can use that will (1) increase clicks and conversions (2) from higher-quality prospects on your website.

Here are 6 alternatives:

• BOOK A CALL

• MEET WITH US

Tell a visitor exactly what is going to happen.

This will remove low-quality leads because they won’t want to spend their own time on something that they know they aren’t actually ready to begin.

(Note - sending an email is easy to do even if you don’t intend on moving forward anytime soon. Another reason “Contact Us” doesn’t work well.)

• START YOUR PROJECT

• GET STARTED

Want to limit leads to those that are ready to start right now? Here you go.

Even better, they’re going to be more inclined to click on “START YOUR PROJECT” or “GET STARTED” because, spoiler alert, that’s actually what they want to do.

• JOIN OUR WAITLIST

• JOIN 100+ HAPPY CLIENTS

A waitlist?! Wow they must be good.

That’s what every visitor will think when they see that CTA. It’s a great one to use if you’re already busy but want to keep an eye out for great projects in the future.

Whether it’s a waitlist or a community of other happy clients, people love to feel part of something.

TL;DR

The primary purpose of your website is to create opportunities with ideal clients.

“Contact Us” is a low-quality CTA that works against your mission.

Instead, use a CTA that will attract high-quality clients. Try:

1. BOOK A CALL

2. MEET WITH US

3. START YOUR PROJECT

4. GET STARTED

5. JOIN OUR WAITLIST

6. JOIN 100+ HAPPY CLIENTS