Director Adina Zaiontz founded Napkin Marketing after working in the corporate marketing sector for several years. She built her career during the dot-com revolution, so she was exposed to many different approaches to web development. That exposure (which included using other form tools that didn't help with digital marketing efforts) led her to Formstack.

Zaiontz first used Formstack as a solution for small business clients who needed a simple data collection and payment processing tool on their websites. She was drawn to Formstack's ease-of-use and versatility, which to this day allow her team to develop customized online forms for diverse client needs. Using Formstack, Napkin Marketing helps its clients grow their website traffic, automate back-office processes, and get more leads.

"We try to bake Formstack into almost every new website proposal we receive because it has helped turn many of our client sites into lead generators for those businesses," Zaiontz said.

Challenge

When Napkin Marketing first started working with clients, the team discovered that small businesses were in need of certain website capabilities that used to be found only on enterprise sites. For example, many of these business sites required some sort of shopping cart or payment processing capability.

The problem? Most of the existing shopping cart tools were too complex and lacked the user-friendly qualities that Napkin Marketing's small business clients needed. Custom-coded contact lead forms often sent data to a "black hole," which led to lost sales because clients didn't know how to collect the lead information or the leads would get lost in the clients' inboxes. The digital marketing agency needed a simple, cost-effective forms tool that could be used across a number of client websites for both financial transactions and simple lead generation.

Enter Formstack.

Solution

Formstack is easy to implement and can be used for many purposes, so it was the perfect tool for Napkin Marketing. With dozens of integrations and adaptable online form features, Formstack gave Napkin Marketing the versatility and usability it needed to create custom forms that send auto-responses, accept payments, and more.

"Formstack provides a lot of important automation functionality right out of the box," Zaiontz said. "Plus, it really simplifies the development process and gets sites live faster because you can add these great capabilities—like calculations, Conditional Logic, customized auto-responses, and even payment processing—that often serve clients and website users better than a full-scale, traditional ecommerce shopping cart."

Combining Formstack's multipurpose online forms capabilities with Napkin Marketing's digital marketing expertise has been a winning formula for the agency's clients. Using Formstack, Napkin Marketing has helped boost business (significantly, in many cases) for a diverse group of companies.

"Formstack has been a game changer for almost every client site where we've installed it," Zaiontz said. "When combined with a smart content and marketing strategy, we've seen it make a difference turning client sites from basically static websites into true lead generators that convert visitors into buyers."

On top of allowing Napkin Marketing to create a variety of custom forms for clients, Formstack has also helped the agency keep its clients compliant with Canada's anti-spam legislation (CASL). The legislation requires all businesses in Canada to get people's consent before sending them promotional emails.

According to Zaiontz, online forms are the best way to get the necessary consent and stay in compliance with CASL. So Napkin Marketing uses Formstack to build email permission consent forms—like the one below—that integrate with Mailchimp and meet CASL requirements. Formstack's database provides an added benefit because it can serve as an audit trail for clients, which means they can quickly and easily show proof that the people on their email list have agreed to receive the company's communications.

Outcome

Napkin Marketing manages multiple clients with varied marketing needs, and Formstack offers features that have proven particularly useful for this type of agency model. For example, Formstack's WordPress plugin and dynamic Theme Editor allow the agency to create custom forms that can be embedded seamlessly on client websites. Additionally, Napkin Marketing is able to create unique share links for clients so they can easily view their form submissions.

"Formstack has been incredible for us to use as a tool on our clients' websites because it's so versatile. For the sites we manage, Formstack serves as everything from a standard contact information collection tool to a shopping cart to an alumni database," Zaiontz said. "It's allowed us to build truly customized sites that align with our client's business strategies. And we've been able to do that really cost-effectively and efficiently without needing heavy-duty programming resources."