Contact form open by default, not hidden: 1.16% to 1.65% conversion
Test run bySeer InteractiveCRO agency
Commentary byLiftArchiveOur analysis, not theirsShowing the product enquiry form open by default on the contact page, instead of hiding it behind a menu choice, lifted the sitewide conversion rate from 1.16% to 1.65% (+45.3%).
Seer Interactive made the change for an industrial water treatment company.
This was a before/after comparison of two periods, not a split test.
- Sitewide contact form conversion rate: 1.16% (February to April) to 1.65% (June to August), a 45.3% relative rise.
- Seer credits the change with 1,169 extra organic conversions.
- This compares two time periods, so other factors could have played a part.
The change
The product enquiry form is visible by default instead of hidden.
Simplified mockup drawn by LiftArchive from the shared screenshots.
Control
The main contact page held four forms, all hidden until the visitor picked a reason: buying a product, support, emergency support or other.
Variant
The product enquiry form was shown open by default, so visitors could start filling it in straight away.
Why it likely won
Our reading of the result, not the practitioner's claim.
- A hidden form gives no clear way to act. Visitors had to make a choice before they saw any fields.
- Most visitors arriving from product pages wanted to ask about buying. Opening that form matched the most common intent.
- Seer found the best-converting product pages already sent users to a form that was visible straight away.
Caveats: Before/after comparison of February to April against June to August, not a split test, so seasonality and other changes were not controlled. Seer notes summer is usually a weaker season for this industry, which if anything works against the result.
Who ran it
Seer Interactive ran this test for an industrial water treatment company and published the results (Seer Interactive case study). The numbers are theirs; the summary and commentary on this page are ours.
Read the original case study on Seer Interactive →
How to run this test on your site
- Hypothesis
- If we show the most-used contact form open by default instead of hiding it behind a reason picker, then more visitors will submit an enquiry because they can start typing straight away.
- Primary metric
- Contact form submissions per contact page visitor
- Guardrails
- Share of enquiries sent to the wrong team
- Support and emergency request volume
- Lead quality
- Who should test it
- B2B and lead-gen sites with one contact page serving several needs, where most visitors want the same thing. Run it as a split test if traffic allows. It fits less if each enquiry type needs very different fields.
Questions
Should a contact page use one form or several?
If most visitors share one need, show that form first.
Here, opening the product enquiry form by default came with a 45% rise in conversion rate.
Do 'select a reason' steps hurt contact form conversions?
They add a choice before visitors see anything to fill in.
In this case removing that step for the main use case came with more enquiries, though it was not a split test.
Is a before/after comparison reliable?
Less so than a split test, because season, traffic mix and other site changes can move results.
Treat it as a strong lead to test, not proof.