How Wow Digital Captures and Engages Leads with LinkedIn

Nonprofit organizations work to make the world a better place through education, community support, the arts, healthcare, or other endeavors. But they often have to focus solely on their purpose—instead of their marketing. Wow Digital Inc. is dedicated to helping as many people as possible by empowering nonprofits to grow, changing even more lives in the process.

Founded by David Pisarek, Wow Digital creates marketing, branding, web design, UX/UI design, accessibility, SEO, and more for nonprofit and charitable organizations. Their project-based B2B work has stretched across a variety of sectors with clients like Canadian Hearing Services, David Suzuki Foundation, University of Toronto, and International Federation on Ageing.

David produces blogs, podcasts, and webinars to help educate current customers (as well as potential and past ones) and to provide information about how Wow Digital can assist with their marketing efforts. “I'm about empowering our clients and our prospective clients, and giving them the information for them to make the right kind of decisions and to be more knowledgeable,” says David.

The agency went through many iterations since starting as a side gig in 2002, and then becoming fully incorporated in 2017. They’ve experienced exponential growth in the past years, with no signs of stopping, even with just a small, fully-distributed team of contractors. They started using Mailchimp for email in 2018, added Customer Journeys, and finally began using LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms in November of 2021.

The challenge: Growing quality leads

As with many growing B2B businesses, Wow Digital’s primary goal focuses on generating leads and getting new customers. Content marketing—including webinars—is one of their essential tactics to attract new business. By attending his webinar Optimizing Your Non-Profit & Charity Website For More Impact, Donations, and Traffic, guests are offered 1 credit to becoming a Certified Fund Raising Executive, a certification that can increase their value to current and prospective employers.

With David’s webinar on April 6, 2022, he needed a way to drive audience engagement, gain RSVPs, land conversions, and make sure users got what they came for quickly and easily—all while collecting new contact information and updating existing contact information.

The tools: LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms and Customer Journey Builder

David started advertising the webinar using LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms about 10 days before the event, driving users to RSVP. “The social [media platform] that we found we're able to really connect with people on, is LinkedIn,” David says.

With the LinkedIn integration, Lead Gen Forms automatically sync profile information to Wow Digital’s Mailchimp account when people RSVP. Attendees opt in from LinkedIn, and are also put into a nurture email series Wow Digital created through Mailchimp’s Customer Journey Builder. Over the next 2 weeks they receive automated emails containing info on Wow Digital services and their educational nonprofit marketing content.

After completing the nurture journey, contacts continue to receive emails with new content every week. David says that for B2B work, capturing email addresses can be one of the best ways to connect and stay top of mind. “We have a direct line into people's inboxes. It’s where they're going every day, all day.”

The result: New projects and high engagement

Since LinkedIn and Mailchimp are synced, David says that the Lead Gen Forms make it easier for contacts to RSVP to the webinar. The forms automatically pull the person's LinkedIn profile information—including email addresses—with fewer clicks than having them go to Wow Digital’s website and sign up there. It saves the contact’s time and makes it a seamless experience. It also saves David's time since he doesn’t have to update, import, or export anything manually.

With an average of 43% of webinar RSVPs coming from LinkedIn alone, the Lead Gen Forms provided a significant source of RSVPs, while website signups, other social channels, and weekly emails together generated the others. The email nurture series keeps those newly-RSVP’d contacts engaged, averaging a 31% click rate. And while usually more people RSVP than show up to the webinars, on average, Wow Digital achieves 1 new project per 5 webinar attendees.

Advice for business owners

“You want to start a mailing list if you haven't already gotten one,” he says. The ephemeral nature of social media means that everything is gone within seconds, and “getting an email address is, in my opinion, the best and easiest way to get directly connected with your audience.”

LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms and Mailchimp’s email and Customer Journey Builder together let David send out relevant content tailored to his audiences to encourage engagement—helping him meet his goals of empowering and educating nonprofits to get the most out of their marketing efforts. But even more important, he was able to drive leads and get conversions.