![\"Online](\"https:\/\/www.gravityforms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Online-Infrastructure.jpg\")
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During the last few months, many businesses have been feeling the strain, seeing contracts and sales affected. However, if you are finding that business is quiet, now is a good time to make all those improvements you\u2019ve been meaning to do for ages – especially upgrading your online infrastructure.<\/p>\n
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In this article, we look at a number of ways you can enhance your website, software, and processes. From boosting the performance of your site, to improving customer experience by upgrading your theme, contact form, email marketing provider, and customer service software, there is much you can do to ensure your business is ready to thrive once the pandemic is over. Let\u2019s get started…<\/p>\n
![\"StudioPress](\"https:\/\/www.gravityforms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Studio-Press-Themes.jpg\")
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If you created your WordPress website years ago and haven\u2019t touched it since, now is a good time to consider giving it a revamp, starting with your theme.<\/p>\n
A modern, stylish theme will engage your visitors, and enable them to easily navigate your website. Look for a minimal theme that will give your website a professional edge and help it stand out from the competition.<\/p>\n
Points to consider when choosing a new theme include\u2026<\/p>\n
For anyone looking to buy a premium theme, check out ThemeForest<\/a>, Elegant Themes<\/a>, or StudioPress<\/a>. Equally, there are a wide assortment of high-quality free themes in the WordPress repository<\/a>.<\/p>\n Keeping on top of website security should be an on-going task, but one that is often pushed to the bottom of the list. If business is slow, this is a perfect time to ensure your website is safe, secure, and backed up.<\/p>\n Here are some recommendations to protect your site:<\/p>\n If your website is running slowly, then often the culprit is your hosting provider. Many businesses start off on budget hosting, but as their online presence grows they overlook upgrading their hosting plan. With an increased number of visitors, many websites struggle to load quickly, which can lose them customers and ultimately revenue.<\/p>\n To check your website\u2019s speed, simply enter your URL into Pingdom\u2019s Website Speed Test <\/a>tool. Pingdom is an online monitoring platform, which will test the speed of your website from servers around the world, giving you an idea of the load times your users are experiencing.<\/p>\n If you are looking to switch hosting providers, WPEngine<\/a> offers high-end managed WordPress hosting that is fast, reliable, and secure. A step up from budget hosting, WP Engine offers great value for money for small businesses and agencies to large global corporations.<\/p>\n If you are running a services business, you need a professional and accessible contact form on your website to help you collect submissions. Your contact form should be adept at capturing client\u2019s data, engaging with potential customers, and providing leads for possible future work. Therefore, ensuring your contact form is attractive, user-friendly, and personalized to your visitors, is a must.<\/p>\n Gravity Forms allows users to create advanced forms that are not only unique, but also tailored to the needs of their business and audience. Gravity Forms offers over 30 ready to use and easily customizable form fields, including drop down buttons, checkboxes, and radio buttons. You can create multi-step forms, add images, and use conditional logic, helping to create truly unique and relevant forms.<\/p>\n Here is an example of conditional logic in action\u2026<\/p>\n As you can see, form fields will be displayed or hidden depending on the options a user has selected…<\/p>\n The example above shows how conditional logic can be used to collect the exact information needed to make further contact with anyone who completes the form.<\/p>\n Gravity Forms also integrates with a wide assortment of add-ons<\/a>, including email marketing providers, CRMs, and payment processors, enabling you to add further functionality to your form.<\/p>\n For other examples of how you can use Gravity Forms to help support your business during this pandemic, check out these articles\u2026<\/p>\n Keeping in contact with your mailing list, and sending them interesting, varied, and personalized content is an effective way to encourage your target audience back to your site and convert against your goals. Therefore, during this time of quiet, organizing your mailing list should be a priority.<\/p>\n Selecting the right email marketing service will go a long way to help you manage your list. Find a marketing provider that is user-friendly, has features relevant to your needs, and can integrate with your website and contact form.<\/p>\n As mentioned, Gravity Forms integrates with numerous email marketing providers, including\u2026<\/p>\n To help you pick the right email marketing service for your business, have a read of this article, The 8 Best Email Plugins for WordPress in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once you have chosen the right email marketing service for your business, here are some easy quick wins you can implement\u2026<\/p>\n Customer service is a tricky business to get right, and if you receive multiple emails a day it can be hard to keep on top of them all. Due to COVID most businesses are also finding that face-to-face service is not currently an option – therefore, now might be a good time to invest in some powerful customer service software.<\/p>\n Help Scout<\/a> is a popular customer service platform that integrates with Gravity Forms. This means that a business can accept a customer query on their website through a customer support form, and then easily filter and manage each submission within Help Scout.<\/p>\n Features include\u2026<\/p>\n To find out more about how Help Scout integrates with Gravity Forms, check out this the Help Scout Add-On<\/a> page.<\/p>\n Over the last couple of months, it has become clear that effective online software and processes are crucial to helping businesses survive. So while business is quiet, take this time to improve your infrastructure so your business and customers are supported whatever the future brings.<\/p>\n Have you got any top tips for improving business infrastructure that you\u2019d like to share with the Gravity Forms community? If so, please comment below…<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\nTighten Up Your Security<\/h2>\n
![\"Wordfence](\"https:\/\/www.gravityforms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Wordfence-Security.jpg\")
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Switch Hosting Providers<\/h2>\n
![\"WPEngine](\"https:\/\/www.gravityforms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/WPEngine.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Pingdom\"](\"https:\/\/www.gravityforms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Pingdom.jpg\")
<\/p>\nUpgrade your Contact Form<\/h2>\n
![\"Advanced](\"https:\/\/www.gravityforms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Advanced-Contact-Form.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Conditional](\"https:\/\/www.gravityforms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Conditional-Logic-Example-1.jpg\")
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Organize Your Mailing List<\/h2>\n
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Improve Your Customer Service<\/h2>\n
![\"Help](\"https:\/\/www.gravityforms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Help-Scout.jpg\")
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Final Thoughts on How to Upgrade your Online Infrastructure<\/h2>\n
![\"Gravity](\"https:\/\/www.gravityforms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Gravity-Forms-Newsletter-1.png\")
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