Author Archives: Mike Gingerich

About Mike Gingerich

Author: Mike Gingerich, President of web firm Digital Hill, Co-Founder of TabSite . Digital and Social Media Marketer, Speaker, and Business Consultant. Part geek, part marketer, total digital junkie! Seeking to add value, make the complex simple, and leave a positive impact. Follow me on twitter: @mike_gingerich.

Visual Marketing: 6 Ways Marketers Can Use Images Online

Visual Marketing: 6 Ways Marketers Can Use Images Online

In our fast-paced digital world, delivering a message quickly and concisely is key to grabbing the attention of your audience and making a lasting impression. In fact, research shows that when people hear information, they remember only 10% of it three days later; if you pair that same information with an image, that number jumps up to 65% (source: Why Infographics Work).

Additional research from digital firm HubSpot found that posts with photos on Facebook generate 53% more likes and 104% more comments than those without (source: How to Craft Perfect Posts for Facebook, LinkedIn & Twitter), a trend that carries over to Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, and other platforms. With so much research proving the power of imagery for impact, it’s something every online marketer should master.

Here are 6 ways to use images to communicate with your audience more effectively, increase engagement, and drive future business.

Visual Marketing: 6 Ways Marketers Can Use Images Online

Start a conversation

Create an image that highlights a question and encourages your audience to respond in the comments section of Facebook or your blog, and then get involved in the conversation yourself. Another great way to start a conversation is to post an entertaining image with the text “Caption this!”  It’s about using an image to capture the attention merely than simply a text-based question that is easily skipped over.

Involve them in the process

Telling the story behind your brand with images is a powerful way to engage your audience by giving them a behind the scenes look at how your products are manufactured, the processes you use, what your office culture is like, etc.

Show photos from the shop floor, the assembly line, the packaging, etc.  Generally, we often only show, the finished product but the process can really capture attention as well.

Showcase your passion

What is your favorite part of your business? Speaking at an event? Creating your products? Whatever it is, take a picture of you doing it and write a short comment about why you love what you do.  This is another way to allow an image to convey a story and to speak deeper volumes.

Highlight a promotion or contest

Running contests on your website or social media is easy and a great way to engage your audience, create buzz and gain new followers. Create an image that highlights a discount, freebie, or another prize to the contest winner and post text that explains how to participate.

Recognize a customer

Without your customers you wouldn’t be in business, so be sure they know how much you appreciate them! Post an image that exemplifies how your product or service helped a customer solve a problem, include their image, and don’t forget to say “thank you.” This is a great way to get and showcase testimonials. Try tagging customers on social media to increase your reach and engage their circle of followers who may just be in the market for your products/services too!  As well, consider making an image of a brief testimonial.  You can include the message and it’s even better if you can include a photo of the person sharing.

Try tagging customers on social media to increase your reach and engage their circle of followers who may just be in the market for your products/services too!  As well, consider making an image of a brief testimonial.  You can include the message and it’s even better if you can include a photo of the person sharing.

Share helpful tips

Nobody knows your products/services like you do, and your customers will appreciate any extra information you can provide. You can use images and quick “how to” tips to grab their attention and then link to a longer explanation, list of steps, or more tips on your website or blog.

BONUS: Go beyond business

Use images to go beyond the business relationship and connect your customers with the people who make your business possible on a more personal level. For example, if the President of the company is an avid marathon runner, post a picture of him/her crossing the finish line of their most recent race with a little story about their training process or how they got started. Human interest stories help people connect with your team on a more human level.

At the end of the day people do business with other people, and using pictures to tell a story can help you create the type of connection that leads to long-term and memorable relationships. These are the kinds of relationships that will encourage repeat business, drive referrals, and keep you top of mind. As you can see there are many ways to do this, so start getting creative!

5 Ways to Use Waftio Lead Capture Features

5 Ways to Use Waftio Lead Capture Features

Your company website is probably the most powerful marketing tool you have. Unfortunately, too many business owners are underutilizing this power by not capturing leads on their site. This crucial mistake means that you’re not expanding your client base by collecting valuable customer data. The good news is that Waftio offers 5 fun and engaging ways to add lead capture features to your website.

1. Quick Contact Form

One of the simplest ways to use the Waftio lead capture feature is by adding a quick contact form to your website. This form should encourage your online visitors to provide you with vital contact information, such as first and last name, their email address and question or comment.

2. Contests

Contests have become extremely popular among online users. Businesses are using this enthusiasm not just to drive traffic to their website, but also as an effective lead generation tool. Every customer, or prospective customer, that enters your contest with hopes of winning the prize, also provides you with valuable contact information. You can use this data later for marketing purposes.
Create a quick “enter to win” sweepstakes contest and use the Waftio features to make it live, allow only 1 entry per email address, and even end the contest automatically at a set time!

3. eBooks

EBooks provide a great way to provide your customers or potential customers with valuable information, and portray your company as an industry leader. More importantly, eBooks are a great marketing tool for growing leads. As customers sign up to receive your eBook, gather their contact information for future use and email nurture marketing.

Waftio is integrated with Mailchimp, AWeber, and Infusionsoft for easy integration of emails captured into lists in those systems.

4. Webinar Sign-ups

Do you have something you want to teach your customers? Consider hosting a webinar.

This will give you a chance to engage directly with your clients and to promote your business. When hosting a webinar, be sure to use a registration form to collect names and emails. Not only will this allow you to send out email reminders about the webinar, but future emails, as well.

Waftio has direct integration with GotoWebinar, the leading webinar software tool.

5. Event Registration

Need a quick way to capture event registrations across your website?

Whether you are planning a special online event or an in-store special event, be sure to provide an online registration option. This will allow you to track the number of guests that plan to attend your event and gather vital customer information. Use this information to send out event reminders, event follow-up material, and future marketing emails.

With Waftio, these lead capture features can be added to your current website in a variety of ways, such as installing it as a widget pop-up or pop-up box, embedding it on your web page, or adding it directly on your landing page. Waftio’s features can be integrated with MailChimp, InfusionSoft, Aweber, and GoToWebinar. Start using your website to its fullest potential today, with the help of Waftio’s effective and engaging lead capture features.

WordPress Blog? Add Waftio to your WordPress Site

Yes, Waftio can easily be added to your WordPress site!

WordPress Blog? Add Waftio to your WordPress Site

What is Waftio?

Waftio is a powerful tool to help you grow leads and boost engagement on your website!
Your website is your key sales and marketing tool online.  As such, it’s important to have visitors stick around as long as possible.  A central way to do that is to engage them, and that’s where Waftio comes in.  Waftio allows you to create a lead magnet that can follow the user across your site.
Have them answer a survey question and share it with their social networks.

Allow them to enter a giveaway sweepstakes for a chance to win something (and a chance for you to grow your email list!)
Get key visitor feedback on items that matter most with a simple form on your site.  It’s simply a great way to grow leads and interact with your site visitors.

Why use Waftio?

Rather than a boring “contact us” or “Sign-up here box” waftio gives you a neat little form widget you can add to one page of your website or the entire website.  We collect the data captured and store it for you.  With integrations including Mailchimp, Aweber, InfusionSoft, and GoToWebinar, we make it seamless to add your sign-ups to your email and marketing services.

Add Waftio to your WordPress Site

There are instructions for adding a Pop-up form or a widget Tab to your site.

STEP 1: Download a plugin that allows you to add Scripts to your site.

In this example, we downloaded the “Tracking Script Manager” WordPress plugin by Red8 Interactive.   Other plugins that enable you to add a script code to a page can work as well.

When activated the Plugin appears in your WordPress left menu as “Tracking Script Manager”. Click it and this setup area displays:

WordPress Blog? Add Waftio to your WordPress Site

STEP 2:  Complete the quick setup.  I recommend adding the code to the FOOTER and then decide if the tracking code is global (across your site) or on a specific page.  If a specific page, you’ll get a drop down to select the page.

STEP 3:  Name the Script (just for your reference so you know what it is) and then paste the Waftio embed code in the Script Content area.  Finally, save by clicking Add Script.

Here is where you get the script in Waftio:

WordPress Blog? Add Waftio to your WordPress Site

THAT’S IT!  If it’s setup in Waftio, it will then show on your site!

For many other sites beyond WordPress, you can simply paste the code in the header or in the footer area (not body) and it will deploy.

To embed a form within a page, use the “In-line Embed Code” that is below the Pop-up Form code in the Embed area on Waftio.

With 70% of web visitors not returning to sites once they have visited, it’s so important to capture them the FIRST time they come.  Waftio helps capture their attention.  You simply offer them a resource of value and you can grow your list and increase sales!

Got questions on this setup or on waftio?  Leave them here!

Waftio use Ideas:

  • Grow your email list
  • offer a ebook
  • run a contest entry
  • register for webinars on your site
  • call out to contact you
  • offer a coupon
  • Get feedback on something

Four Ways Waftio Apps Can Be Used

Waftio offers four different ways to deploy an app on your website.

  • Widget Pop-up in bottom right of site (example)
  • Pop-up Box Example on trekwood.com (example)
  • Web Page Embed (example)
  • Landing Page (example)

Four Ways Waftio Apps Can Be Used

The Pop-up Widget

This is a safe and yet powerful way to capture attention on any page of your website.  Waftio apps can be added per page or across the entire site, the choice is yours!  The widget pop-up is in the lower right corner of the website.  It can be set to automatically open when desired (set in seconds after page load) and it can even do a little “shimmy shake” dance to capture the eye of the website visitor.

Shown below this website is offering a $25 Amazon Gift Card and a training video for those that complete the form.  A nice combination of value and resourcing offered!

Four Ways Waftio Apps Can Be Used

Pop-up widget is red/orange in bottom right of website.  Customize to any color.

 

Four Ways Waftio Apps Can Be Used

This view shows the pop-up form open. Set color of box, image or no image, text, and fields you want to capture!  The live version has a “shimmy shake” to capture attention of viewer.

There are also options to not show to the same visitor again for a certain duration of time or if they complete the form.  Lots of options I’m not evening covering!  One more option I will is that it can be set to open “on exit intent”, meaning that if a visitor navigates their mouse to the top of the page like they are going to leave the page, the pop-up widget can deploy.  It is also mobile friendly too.

The Pop-up Box

The Waftio Pop-up Box is a great lead capture tool that is more direct.  When activated it launches exactly what it say….a pop-up box on top of the web page and shadows out the rest of the web page making it the sole focus point.  It has all the Waftio options so you can have it deploy when and how you want.  Want it to launch 5 seconds after the viewer is on the site?  No problem!  10 seconds? Sure, whatever timing you want.  Or you can have it deploy on “exit intent” when they are readying to leave your site.

The pop-up box can also be set to not show to the same user for so many days or after they submit.  Lots of power you  can choose from!  Like all Waftio apps it has integrations to seamlessly move leads to Mailchimp, GotoWebinar, Sendy, InfusionSoft and Aweber right now, with more options to come.

Four Ways Waftio Apps Can Be Used

The Form Code Page Embed

Want to add a CTA to the end of your new blog post or the bottom of a product page?  The Inline Page Embed code allows you to do just that!  It’s your same app, simply this time just added to a page in the midst of your page copy.  It’s great for creating your own lead capture on a page in your website.

When a user submits the form you can either give them a message, offer them a link to a download or redirect them to another web page.  The survey app can be used this way to direct users to a specific on your website where they can complete a form.

What are potential uses?

  • Lead capture on a web page
  • Survey completion on your site
  • Email registration
  • Event registration
  • Webinar registration
  • Contact form submission
  • Support form submissions
  • and more!

The Landing Page

If you want a completely separate landing page apart from your website so there are no distractions but a clear and concise way to drive form submissions, using the Waftio Landing page feature can be a good solution.

The Landing Page option is available like each of the features above within any app.  Users can create a customized waftio URL for their business and landing page to use.  Add images, text copy, and a form with ease!

Four Ways Waftio Apps Can Be Used

The landing page is a great tool to use for registrations for events and webinars, or product launches and more.  Below is a screenshot of a landing page hosting a simple sweepstakes contest.

Four Ways Waftio Apps Can Be Used

The apps are setup by making a few selections in the app setup area within the Waftio manager.  These decisions guide the form fields and display options.  It’s possible to use one app and have it as a pop-up as well as embedded on a web page and used as a Landing Page, giving a business multiple means to capture leads.

It’s all about growing leads and making your website work for you, and Waftio makes that happen.  By setting up an app and adding the code to your website page or pages, it’s a lead capture magnet ready for action.

Why Website Lead Capture Matters

How is your website performing?

Is it generating leads for you?

Why Website Lead Capture Matters

Why Website Lead Capture Matters:

One of the biggest mistakes websites make today is the lack of a call-to-action or lead generator.

It’s just often times missing!

Your contact form is not a call-to-action.

Your “Products” page is not a lead generator.

You need to offer something of value that is related to your product or service that helps you move the user from visitor to a warm lead.  Online, we often define a lead as a email address.  It’s a definite communication piece by which you can reach the person again and again.

You want to grow more leads.

Your website should help you do that!

Waftio can help.

Waftio allows you to add simple lead capture form tools to your website or a specific web page that helps you obtain the key and valued email address.  Plus, it gives you the opportunity to engage with your audience.  To get them to interact with you a bit.

If it takes 7 contacts with a business before people feel comfortable buying from them, don’t you want to increase your touch points with them and move them along towards 7 positive connections with your business?

Waftio offers a simple footer form widget, a pop-up box, and a embeddable form tool to help you generate leads.  Offer a free resource that adds value to your visitors using the waftio apps, or even run a simple sweepstakes on your website with Waftio and grow that all-important email list.

Free resource ideas:

Have visitors sign-up to get a free ebook, to see a video, to download a buyer’s guide, or to get a coupon!

So take a look at your website.  Are you offering a value proposition?  Are you offering lead generators?

It’s as simple as setting up and dropping a bit of code on your site! Check out the Waftio app below to see how it works!

Website lead capture matters.  Be sure to add lead capture tools to your site today!