Cool Website Integrations (That Save You Time… Which Saves You Money)

February 11, 2022

UPDATED 12/14/2023

Today we are going to talk about solving problems using website integrations. 

At MayeCreate, we love solving problems. One we solve day after day for our clients is helping their businesses run smoother by implementing website integration tools to leverage their site to take some of the day to day heavy lifting off of their staff. 

We’re gonna go through six different challenges that we solve for people every day (with maybe some bonuses thrown in for fun).

1. Employment Applications
2. Appointment Scheduling 
3. Emails
4. Software Integration
5. Record Management
6. Online Payment Collection 

So let’s get to problem-solving. 

This is a problem we solve all the time for our construction companies. Now, I’m hearing more and more about it across the board in all different industries with everyone dealing with the Great Resignation, as they call it. 

And I’m not talking about letting people download a PDF to bring back in.

I’m solving this problem for people because not everyone has a home computer. Only four-in-ten adults with lower incomes do not have home broadband services (43%) or a desktop or laptop computer (41%). Many businesses are looking to hire within this demographic.

And let’s be real,  even if you DO have a home computer, you probably don’t have a printer that works. Because, let’s be honest, printers are the armpit of technology, they never work when you really need them to work. 

So those terribly formatted PDFs that you had to download, fill out, scan and send back. 

Then you can take it a step further and make it work for your HR department. 

It might be that you’re thinking, “Well, I don’t have to worry about this because I’ve got a form on my website, and it sends HR an email. Problem solved.”

Well, how does that email look?  It might not be formatted correctly, they may still have to  sign it, you might not be able to print it out very well, it may be a total mess that your HR department has to input by hand into their management software. 

All these things are challenges that your HR department may be facing, and they might just not have spoken to you about. Or maybe you hear about him every day. And you’re like, Okay, people come on, like stop beating me up about these employment forms here. 

Ultimately, when you integrate your online employment applications to your website, people should be able to fill out the application, submit the files you need and sign the application if it needs to be signed. I mean, for heaven’s sake, if you can do a mortgage loan without ever stepping foot into a building, you should be able to apply for a job.

It’s possible, people, it’s possible. 

We build our websites on WordPress and use an integration plugin called Formidable that allows us to build the application to look like the one you’re used to giving people. Then we use Form2PDF, which takes the stuff from the form and puts it into your PDF, formatted exactly the way your HR department wants it. It saves it as a PDF and emails it to them. 

Then you can even take it one step further.

You can use a system called Zapier and connect it to your Google Drive or your OneDrive or wherever your company houses their files, and rename it with the person’s name. Then all the forms and information you require are saved in a nice, neat little folder to retrieve at your leisure.

There are even versions of Google Drive that are HIPAA compliant. So you can save sensitive information in that system and not worry about it. 

Allow people to make appointments with you on your website, which saves a lot of time for your salespeople by removing the back and forth of scheduling. It also helps you qualify your leads because prospects normally do not make an appointment with you if they are not ready to move forward. 

More Robust Paid Option – Simple Schedule

The one that we use most often is a paid version called Simply Schedule. It integrates with Formidable (you know we are Formidable humans over here!) and our Google Calendar. Using these two plugins combined you can specialize your appointment intake forms.

Simply Schedule will text people reminders, send reminder emails and schedule out the emails based on the time of the appointment. So you can remind people an hour before the appointment starts or five minutes before the appointment starts. 

Having done it multiple times, Simply Schedule is more work to set up than Calendly. 

So, Simply Schedule is worth the set up investment if you plan on doing something over and over and over again, or if signup needs to be customized. There’s just so much more security and systems in place to make sure that people show up for your appointments. 

But, if you’re doing something that is a one-off or very simple, a free Calendly account will do you fine. Whichever one you go with, you can integrate it on a page on your website. 

IMPORTANT – I am just talking about appointments. 

We have quite a few other podcasts that talk specifically about event sign-up. We have one called Online Event Sign Up Application Evaluation Checklist that helps you plan out what type of event signup system you need. We also have one called Online Event Registration Solutions – From Simple to Robust, where we talk through different ways that people can integrate event registration in their website, from really simple, like an email form, all the way through to a robust event signup system that does everything. 

Back to appointments!

Calendly and Simply Schedule are both for meetings. Use them to schedule meetings with prospects or let clients schedule appointments with you. You will save so much time and so many headaches.

WEBSITE INTEGRATION #3

RSS Emails

We used to have an intern that only built emails. That was their whole job, to build emails for us. Now, we don’t have to do that because we have RSS-generated emails.

You also want RSS-generated emails. 

Why? Because they save you time. 

Creating a new email every single time you want to send one wastes so much time you could use to do other, important things. 

To set up RSS Emails you need to use an email marketing system. We usually use MailerLite or MailChimp. Both offer it as part of their free service package. Then you add the info to your website and the email marketing software makes the email and sends it…like magic.

What is RSS?

WEBSITE INTEGRATION #4

Third-Party Software

Integrate any other software you have and use daily into your website. Period.

It’s not always streamlined. It’s not always easy. It’s not always pretty. But it’s almost always worth it.

Example.

Two-way communication is trickier.

Sam’s does a terrible job of it. I’ll be shopping online, and they tell me they’re out of my eggs again. Then I’ll walk into the store, and there will be two pallets of eggs. It’s just bad communication between the two sysems. 

But it can be done! 

How can you apply this in your business or organization?

The types of integrations we handle most often are:

1. Integrating a CRM to intake information from your website and update or create user profiles in your system.
2. Integrating HR software with websites. 
3. Integrating website donation forms with donor management software.

Anytime you’re doing something that feels repetitive, time-consuming, or just daunting or demotivating, I want you to remember there is probably a better way. It can be solved. 

WEBSITE INTEGRATION #5

Record Management

If yes, you might need to create something on your website that can manage and automate this record keeping for you. It will certainly be an investment upfront but it can save you hours a month, even a week if set up properly.

We’ve created similar things for class signups for a yoga studio. They wanted to work in Google Sheets because that’s where they are most comfortable. 

A lot of small businesses run on spreadsheets, that’s OK. What’s not OK is having to manually duplicate records all over tarnation. That’s a recipe for human error. Automate it. 

WEBSITE INTEGRATION #6

Online Payment Collection

One of the simplest, most requested things that we do is help businesses and organizations collect online donations and payments. 

If you have to transfer your own money from whatever system you’re using to collect online payments, there’s a better way. 

If you’re processing checks, or it feels like it’s taking forever to get people to make their payments you can have them pay it online. Then it can be deposited directly into your bank account securely because it’s super important not to store credit cards on your website. (DO NOT DO THIS!) Yes, you will pay a processing fee. But you are also likely paying someone to make deposits and stalk people to make payments – so it could be an even trade.

Often we do this with Stripe. Stripe is a wonderful payment system that integrates right into your website. People don’t know that they’re not paying on your website because it keeps them on your site to process the payment. It doesn’t take them out to another website where they have to log in (*cough PayPal).

There are also more robust ways to accept payments online:

• QuickBooks Online has an online payment feature. 
• Several membership plugins or software can be integrated to allow online payments or accept donations. 
• Use a donation plugin on your website that integrates with a payment gateway like Stripe or PayPal (we like GiveWP).
• Use an online shopping cart integrated with a payment solution (we like WooCommerce).

Implementing one of these cool website integrations makes it more convenient for the end-user. And that’s what it’s all about.

There are only 1 million other ways on top of this 6+ to save time and money. 

The thing I want you to do every single day is ask yourself, 

“am I doing something repetitive? Is this demotivating?” If it is, then it can probably be solved through some type of technology. 

I’m not saying there’s no setup. I’m not saying you’re not going to have to learn how to do it. But I am saying you don’t have to feel that way anymore. 

There’s probably a better way.