portfolio & design blog of logo & identity designer, Graham Smith
No, it’s not really a misleading title. So don’t sue me for misrepresentation.
And double bonus, it doesn’t need a hugely long post to explain it.
Now it’s not a groundbreaking solution or a brand new idea, but it is one that I have only just implemented and been taken aback by the results.
The Answer?
Have a online quote form available on your website.
That’s it.
Since adopting a Wufoo form for ImJustCreative, the flow of quote requests has more than doubled. At least for me. Granted some of it could be just coincidence and good fortune. But ever since, I am receiving more direct approaches for work than I did. Granted, not all end in work, but it certainly helps with general confidence and state of mind if nothing else.
There is a very real benefit to have a quote form accessible in this way.
Initially I was dubious, personally I hate filling in lengthy forms, so just naively assumed that this would be same for a lot of people.
Seemingly not true. And I would suggest not something to sniff at either. If you don’t have a online form, and business is slow, then I can strongly recommend getting one fixed up pronto. Make it as easy and as accessible as possible for people to approach you or contact you. It is no myth that in today’s day and age of texting, instant messaging, emailing, facebooking, twittering, the use of the voice call comes a distant last place for many people.
Certainly I have experienced many time when I have suggested talking on the phone to a client or contact only to hear every conceivable alternative option to communicate. Seems we are becoming a generation adverse to vocal communication given the immediacy of instant messaging in its many guises.
So it’s then logical to assume that for potential clients, some who may not want to call for what ever reason, by not giving them option of the online quote form is potentially bad for new business.
So this is just a head’s up. Something to try if you are struggling to find new work.
But forms are tricky to make
I believe that many people, such as myself are daunted by the seemingly complex nature of more complex data forms, hence why many sites don’t offer them, apart from the standard contact form of which there are a myriad of WordPress plugins. But WuFoo is the answer you are looking for if you are technically challenged or even just don’t have time to code a form even if you could do it.
Wufoo makes it so easy to create any length of form with any combination of text fields you could possibly want. With numerous options to integrate said form into your website as a embedded page, as mine is, or off-site links, pop-ups etc. It it ultimately flexible.
It does take a little time to construct a form, and you must have a clear idea of the questions you want to include, certainly not something to try and make up on the go. Winging it is likely to result in confusion
You have control over the design of the form, using CSS if you feel the need. There are a number of set themes and of course you can brand the default themes with your own logo.
Yeah, it can cost
As you can see from the pic below there are a number of pricing plans with the defacto ‘free’ plan, which may just suit a purpose. But frankly, if you want a detailed form, then you will be restricted with the 10 field minimum.
This is my only grumble with WuFoo, the need for more than 10 fields is highly probably for most people, yet the only option up from the ‘free’ is the $9.95. May not seem much, but if you only need one form then it’s certainly overkill, unless you can share the package.
It’s not a cheap option by any means, but the flip side is that it’s super convenient. And if you opt for it, see positive results, it may just pay for itself, or you could then decided to have someone code you a custom form.
So look at Wufoo forms as a excellent primer, test bed for online quoting.
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Tagged: forms, online, Quotes, wufoo < Previous: Book Review – TypeStyle Finder – Type & Font Inspiration
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This is my only grumble with WuFoo; … the only option up from the âfreeâ is the $9.95. May not seem much, but …itâs certainly overkill…Itâs not a cheap option by any meansFunny, if you told me I could double my leads for $9.95 a month, I’d have kittens. But thankfully I expect most of Wufoo’s customers are closer to me than they are to this guy. (Note: if you are developing a SAAS, please don’t let yourself be persuaded to price targeting people who would complain that doubling their revenue did not justify $10 a month. Some people just don’t pay money for stuff — fix problems for the people who do.)
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Some people just don’t work well with numbers, whereas if his plan was priced relative to something he valued his perception might change e.g "Double your leads for less than a couple of pints."
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CorrectionWeb Forms Doubled this guy’s number of RFP(Request For Proposal)s
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Webforms Doubled this guy’s number of RFP(Request For Proposal)s
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I’m surprised anyone submits an RFP with a from that long. I prefer a simple name, email, and message field instead.
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Great post overall, but that last paragraph makes me scratch my head a bit.
You’re getting more leads than ever before thanks to Wufoo and you feel that $10 / month isn’t cheap? I’m a web developer, and at the rates I charge, I would need roughly one extra client every decade for this to be worth it…perhaps you’re not charging enough for your services :)
Great post overall, but that last paragraph makes me scratch my head a bit.
You’re getting more leads than ever before thanks to Wufoo and you feel that $10 / month isn’t cheap? I’m a web developer, and at the rates I charge, I would need roughly one extra client every decade for this to be worth it…perhaps you’re not charging enough for your services :)
Right, but then you’d be telling your Serious Business Clients (TM) "Please, don’t consider us an important vendor for your business, we’re too busy looking for table scraps from unemployed college students who price everything in terms of beer".If you have to rewrite your web copy to explain why $10 a month is cheap for a revenue-generating B2B application you have made a catastrophic error in your target selection.
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Ryan> The comment about the price is directed at thos that only need ONE form, as a one off for example. But cant use the free option as they need more than 10 fields. In this case, it is a pricey option.
But, if like me or you, you are using a number of forms and even offering them to clients as a service then it pays for itself time and time again.
Capiche?
Ryan> The comment about the price is directed at thos that only need ONE form, as a one off for example. But cant use the free option as they need more than 10 fields. In this case, it is a pricey option.
But, if like me or you, you are using a number of forms and even offering them to clients as a service then it pays for itself time and time again.
Capiche?
This looks great. Like most designers, I avoid the use of forms. But you’re right. Clients (and potential ones) like them. And they like knowing if they can even possibly afford you. Very nice find. Thanks fir sharing!
This looks great. Like most designers, I avoid the use of forms. But you’re right. Clients (and potential ones) like them. And they like knowing if they can even possibly afford you. Very nice find. Thanks fir sharing!
Yes, it’s important to note that the only previous way of getting a quote from him was directly contacting him. A lot of people don’t want this. Also the forms makes it explicit what his costs are and what he is capable of doing.
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Simple but effective. I like!
Simple but effective. I like!
Interesting you’re concerned about the cost. Does it not generate $9.95/mo in value for you versus what it would have cost you to either (a) do it yourself or (b) find an inferior and/or cheaper product?
Ultimately, they’re charging because they are a for-profit company and they want customers like you who are getting true and real value from their product (hence, the act of paying signifies that it indeed is making you more value than that which it cost, or saving you money instead).
Interesting you’re concerned about the cost. Does it not generate $9.95/mo in value for you versus what it would have cost you to either (a) do it yourself or (b) find an inferior and/or cheaper product?
Ultimately, they’re charging because they are a for-profit company and they want customers like you who are getting true and real value from their product (hence, the act of paying signifies that it indeed is making you more value than that which it cost, or saving you money instead).
Wasn’t suggesting to you’d write product schedule priced relative to beer (or anything else), but only that there are some who have difficulty connecting a figure with value delivered.You’ve led to another interesting point however, being that $10 per month is rarely a price point at which any but the smallest of clients would consider you an important vendor. Depending on your personal definition of Serious Business Clients (TM), you will likely encounter the somewhat complementary problem of such clients failing to connect value delivered with such a low price point (even at $199).
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Wasn’t suggesting to you’d actually write a product schedule priced relative to beer (or anything else), but only that there are some who have difficulty connecting a figure with value delivered. This is more common that you’d think.You’ve led to another interesting point however, being that $10 per month is rarely a price point at which any but the smallest of clients would consider you an important vendor. Depending on your personal definition of Serious Business Clients (TM), you will likely encounter the somewhat complementary problem of such clients failing to connect value delivered with such a low price point (even at $199).
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Wasn’t suggesting to you’d actually write a product schedule priced relative to beer (or anything else), but only that there are some who have difficulty connecting a figure with value delivered. This is more common than you’d think.You’ve led to another interesting point however, being that $10 per month is rarely a price point at which any but the smallest of clients would consider you an important vendor. Depending on your personal definition of Serious Business Clients (TM), you will likely encounter the somewhat complementary problem of such clients failing to connect value delivered with such a low price point (even at $199).
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Hey man, your form is messed up :)
imjustcreative.com/hire-me/
Hey man, your form is messed up :)
imjustcreative.com/hire-me/
He could double them again if he stopped asking for superfluous and lengthy information such as an address just to receive a quote…
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
I saw a ~7x jump in online enquiries when I added a simple contact form to the bottom of every single page of the e-commerce store I’ve been building. We went from about 2-3 online enquiries per week to 2-3 per day.I actually tried to use Wufoo because I like their back end and had heard great things, but for my UI I need to precisely control the form code on my site, and Wufoo insists on embedding an iFrame (you can’t use your own arbitrary form code to submit to their servers). So, I handle the submission with my own code.
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
All he needs is a single form that sends an email upon submission. It should cost him less than the equivalent of $10/month to learn how to do this himself.
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
That is the programmer way of looking at the world, particularly the not-paid-well-enough programmer way of looking at the world.You would, naturally, get the submission form right the first time:
1) you know that if you use an HTML hidden element with a hard coded email address you’ll be a spam proxy within 2 weeks
2) you can configure sendmail on your server of choice
3) you actually know what a server is
4) you don’t freeze up when I say the words "parse the query parameters"
5) you sanitized all that untrusted input to the form before you ran it through your mailing script so that it is impossible to overload the title and then inject arbitrary mail headers to CC the message to an unbounded recipient list
Now what is your level of confidence that someone making, oh, the princely sum of $20 an hour can learn all of the above before hour number six, when starting from the point "I can’t program and know nothing about email or security"?
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
A single form is free at Wufoo. Just sayin’…
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Wufoo insists on embedding an iFrame (you can’t use your own arbitrary form code to submit to their servers).I don’t think that’s accurate. I recall when I was joking with Chris about slamming them with thousands of requests a day, he suggested I look into using locally hosted forms, and just sending the post to them. Since I was joking (and was really only doing maybe a couple of forms per day), I never actually looked into that option. But, I’m definitely having a flashback to that conversation.
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Yes, the title is misleading. Simply having a form where none existed before doubled his RFPs. No reason to think there is anything magical about WuFoo forms, although it is a good service.
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
If you can find it, do let me know. I was just working on this a couple days ago and looked into it extensively.The only option they get which doesn’t involve an iframe comes with a warning, "It will NOT submit to our servers. Because of limited resources, we cannot provide any support for helping you connect these files to your backend." (I’d post the URL but it’s in a logged-in area of the site).
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
If you can find it, do let me know. I was just working on this a couple days ago and looked into it extensively.The only option they offer which doesn’t involve an iframe comes with a warning, "It will NOT submit to our servers. Because of limited resources, we cannot provide any support for helping you connect these files to your backend." (I’d post the URL but it’s in a logged-in area of the site).
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Only for less than 10 fields. In his case, it’s $10/month because he has more than that.(Though, seeing his massive form makes me want to close my browser window, let alone fill it out. He might see another jump in requests if he cut the fields down to 2… and then it would indeed be free.)
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
That’s true. It’s easy to forget how difficult this would be without experience.Still, $120/year to enable a single web contact form seems excessive (his isn’t free b/c it has more than 10 fields). You could embed a form from Google Docs for free.
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I guess I should pay closer attention. But, 10 fields ought to be enough for anybody. Or something.
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Kevin is an occasional contributor around these parts. I’ll ping him to mention that there’s a discussion going on about them. He might have something to say on the subject.
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
If you actually need to change the markup on the form, then your only option would be to use our API to submit the data to our servers. Joe is correct in that we do have embedded methods that reduce the load on our server and allow you to handle the initial page load, but we do not have a method that allows you to use your own HTML (but you can use your own CSS). Posting to our servers DOES work, but if there are errors on submission they would be shown to the user on the hosted version of your form.
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
I just started using Wufoo when I re-designed my freelance portfolio site and with my new contact form and a new quote/estimate form business has really picked up.
I just started using Wufoo when I re-designed my freelance portfolio site and with my new contact form and a new quote/estimate form business has really picked up.
why not use google forms?
http://www.mattsilverman.com/2008/10/introduction-to-google-forms.html
why not use google forms?
http://www.mattsilverman.com/2008/10/introduction-to-google-forms.html
OK. I didn’t see any mention of the API in the ‘Code Manager’ section and didn’t think to search specifically for it.In any case, it looks like it’s best if I stick with what I’ve got if I want to maintain error display… I have functionality in the form that’s not possible to add with CSS, I’m using jQuery to set up ajax form submission / error display, and XPertMailer sends my messages through a gmail account on the back end.
Thanks for the info though.
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Thanks for the great article.
Generating new revenue is always a great thing. Very informative.
Thanks for the great article.
Generating new revenue is always a great thing. Very informative.
Don> I just havnt got round to trying Google forms yet, so this is just based on my own experience rather than a comparison. Certainly will check out Google forms tho soon.
Jon> I agree, Im sure it’s not just Wufoo that makes the work come in, any forms would do the job. Wufoo is just the tool i use, same as you. The message really is just think about having a form of any kind to collect quote data.
Don> I just havnt got round to trying Google forms yet, so this is just based on my own experience rather than a comparison. Certainly will check out Google forms tho soon.
Jon> I agree, Im sure it’s not just Wufoo that makes the work come in, any forms would do the job. Wufoo is just the tool i use, same as you. The message really is just think about having a form of any kind to collect quote data.
Sean> As i pointed out in my earlier reply to Ryan, the cost isn’t a personal issue for me.
Im simply pointing out that if you only need one form, but more than 10 fields, then the only option is the first paid plan. Which then does look a little pricey, $10 a month for one form.
I have no personal problem with the cost, as you say, its a investment, and i need a good half dozen forms personally, and more for clients. So the ease of use, the simplicity in this case makes Wufoo a no brainer.
:)
Sean> As i pointed out in my earlier reply to Ryan, the cost isn’t a personal issue for me.
Im simply pointing out that if you only need one form, but more than 10 fields, then the only option is the first paid plan. Which then does look a little pricey, $10 a month for one form.
I have no personal problem with the cost, as you say, its a investment, and i need a good half dozen forms personally, and more for clients. So the ease of use, the simplicity in this case makes Wufoo a no brainer.
:)
Graham,
Nice article. Regardless of the pricing argument or which form tool to use, you develop up a good point. Typically, it is better to provide multiple options for prospects to reach you. You experimented and, so far, the experiment seems to be paying off. I would say that the people who would fill out a form versus picking up the phone will be less likely to buy. However, you at least have a better chance to make a transaction now that you have their requirements and contact information.
By the way, have you checked out FormAssembly.com? They have a $0.05 per response plan that may make more sense in your case.
Graham,
Nice article. Regardless of the pricing argument or which form tool to use, you develop up a good point. Typically, it is better to provide multiple options for prospects to reach you. You experimented and, so far, the experiment seems to be paying off. I would say that the people who would fill out a form versus picking up the phone will be less likely to buy. However, you at least have a better chance to make a transaction now that you have their requirements and contact information.
By the way, have you checked out FormAssembly.com? They have a $0.05 per response plan that may make more sense in your case.
I’m going to start doing this myself, as well as recommending it to clients. A quote form in Drupal is just a more-elaborate-than-normal cck type.
I’m going to start doing this myself, as well as recommending it to clients. A quote form in Drupal is just a more-elaborate-than-normal cck type.