Automating Contact & Lead Generation: A Case Study on BuildASign.com

BuildASign.com is a company that was founded in 2005 with the aim of simplifying the world of custom signage. The company offers a range of products, including party banners, magnets, vinyl decals, and sandwich boards. Since its inception, the company has grown significantly and now has over 350 employees. The company's clientele has also grown, leading to an increase in their workload, particularly in terms of leads. The company reached a point where they needed to find a smarter way to work, leading them to adopt automation tools to manage their growing number of leads and contacts.

BuildASign.com, a company specializing in custom signage, was facing a significant challenge in managing their growing number of leads and contacts. The marketing team was constantly requesting assistance from the company's developers to connect apps that lacked native integrations or to build custom reports and search tools. However, the developers were often unavailable as they were shared resources with the support and sales teams. The marketing team had to manually move leads and contacts from the generator to a customer relationship manager (CRM) or ActiveCampaign, which was a time-consuming and menial task. The workload was becoming overwhelming and was diverting resources away from more important tasks.

To address this challenge, BuildASign.com turned to Zapier, an app automation tool. The company started using Zapier to connect their lead generators to ActiveCampaign, thereby automating their workflows. This meant that the marketing team no longer had to manually move leads and contacts, saving them significant time each week. The company used two apps, Cognito Forms and Unbounce, to generate leads. When potential customers filled out a form on BuildASign.com, it triggered Zaps, which are automated workflows. Zapier then sent the information to ActiveCampaign, creating a contact and adding them to a list. Additionally, BuildASign.com created an orders review database in Google Sheets. When an order reached a certain stage, Zapier added that customer to a 'reviews' list in ActiveCampaign.

• The adoption of Zapier for automation has had significant operational benefits for BuildASign.com. It has not only saved time but also allowed the company to better utilize its resources. The marketing team no longer needs to rely on developers for assistance, freeing up the developers to focus on other priorities. The automation of workflows has also reduced the menial work for the marketing team, allowing them to focus on more strategic tasks. Furthermore, the time and money saved through automation have enabled BuildASign.com to provide free banners and signs for returning United States veterans and offer discounted rates for non-profits, thereby living up to their mission to simplify signs.

• Saved 5 hours every week by automating contact and lead generation

• Reduced the need for developer resources for marketing needs

• Automated the process of moving leads and contacts from the generator to CRM or ActiveCampaign