Low cost, high impact web tools that deliver results…
We live in an exciting time where the marketplace is creating new tools almost daily and they all seem to have one thing in common: they’re cheap! Now, we will be the first ones to say that cheaper almost always does not mean better. In this case, it really depends on your needs and these solutions scale in cost as they become a bigger part of your business. What we really like about these products is that they are easily added to your current site with little or no trouble, so the barrier to get started is easily hurdled.
1. FormStack
This is probably the favorite product on the list. One reason is because it is pre-integrated with all if the other products listed! At AM, we still build many custom online forms and sometimes that is the best solution. For all the other times, this solution is amazing. You simply create the online form of your dreams and then choose the third party products that you need to integrate with. We used FormStack for a recent project and now a single online form pushes data to add the user to a custom email marketing list, other data to SalesForce for complete constituent management, and credit card information to Authorize.net. Amazing! The other really great thing about this solution is that all form data is stored online in separate databases for each form so that you can use the data as needed and see which forms are performing and which ones need some attention.
2. SalesForce.com
Let’s begin this one with a disclaimer: You must be willing to truly commit to using a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution to be successful with SalesForce or any other CRM. Adoption of a CRM will mean transparency, accountability and real action. If you can commit, this one is a game changer. AM worked with a start-up non-profit organization who made the decision to start with the right processes in place to increase their chances of success in this difficult marketplace. They worked with a company in Austin who customized a version of SalesForce to meet their needs related to workflows, custom field mapping and campaign management. The customization costs were minimal, the integration costs for AM to connect the solution were also minimal and the ongoing license costs are very manageable. Also, there are no servers to manage because SalesForce is a cloud solution. The result is a completely integrated, low-cost solution that will meet their needs for years to come. Now when a donor comes to their site to sponsor a project, makes a donation or submit an inquiry, the system captures their data in SalesForce, custom workflows are initiated and effective opportunity tracking becomes a reality. And by the way, SalesForce will grant most non-profits up to ten free user licenses of their software.
3. MailChimp
Oftentimes the litmus test for a great tool is how easy it is for a someone to figure it out the first time. Now we have heard great things about MailChimp from developers because they are the ones who feel the pain when they have to integrate with a bad API. After using the program for a even a brief time, we love MailChimp! There, I said it. Recently, I was helping a small non-profit get started on MailChimp so I decided to do the work myself to gain some valuable experience. Seriously, in about ten minutes, I was able to create some custom lists for various parts of their project, create a simple HTML email template and tie this all into a FormStack online form. Keep in mind that there are many tools in the marketplace that will fill the basic need of managing marketing lists and sending outbound email, so do your research. Some tools are very specialized for certain types of clients. There are also solutions that are pre-integrated with leading platforms like SalesForce.com and so that may be an important consideration.
4. YouTube/Vimeo
www.youtube.com / www.vimeo.com
Many people know about both YouTube and Vimeo for video playback integration. Both of these sites give you the advantage of offloading your bandwidth from your account to their’s. This has the potential of decreasing the cost of your hosting while maintain high quality video offerings. The hidden gem in hosting your videos on one of these services is their mobile compatability. The mobile phone is increasing in popularity as a media consuming device, and these sites both make the transition seamlessly. Each site has a different benefit when it comes to branding. Vimeo allows you to remove the Vimeo logo, but YouTube on the other hand allows you to customize the look and feel, but keeps their logo in the video.
5. Flickr
Flickr is a great way to integrate photo libraries into your site. It is a free service that is easily integrated into your site’s CMS. The advantage to using Flickr is the fact that they have a standard image size upload, so there is no need to resize images. Upload your photos on the go with their iPhone and Blackberry apps, or upload by email using your unique address from any mobile device.
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In the same way that heavy whipping cream tastes pretty bad by itself, these tools taste a lot better if you have the right solution to plug them into. A poorly designed email template is going to be ineffective even in MailChimp so allow us to protect you from yourself! One thing is for sure, these solutions and others will help lower the overall costs of a complete solution for your business or cause and we can all use a little extra ‘do-re-mi’, right?
This a great list. It is not often that a design firm gives away free tools that potentially take business away. That is the sign of a confident firm that understands their client base! Thanks….I am going to try Mail Chimp today!
Rick, great post man!
Youtube now allows for removal of their logo. Also, after months of deliberating and comparing / contrasting all of the feature benefits of wufoo vs. formstack, I use wufoo. Main reasons: 1) cost 2) removal of background w/o having to hack css.