The last year has been the biggest yet at GigSalad in terms of activity and growth. And our product updates were a huge part of that! Many things were happening behind the scenes that not many users knew about, so we wanted to take a minute to outline the biggest updates from 2022 with some insight into plans for 2023. 😁
In this update:
- Lead quality improvements
- Communication tools
- Payment updates
- Behind-the-scenes changes
- Learning from users
Lead quality remains a top priority
We know leads are the lifeblood of GigSalad and your businesses, so we are constantly brainstorming, testing, and implementing ways to make sure you get the best, most fitting gig opportunities.
Budget ranges
A lot of feedback we receive from members includes a desire for seeing the client’s budget with the lead information. In the past, we haven’t had a lot of success in collecting those details. We always have to make sure the things we add do not result in fewer leads and bookings for our members.
In 2022, we tried a new approach of letting event planners provide a minimum and/or maximum budget – the highest and lowest they are willing to pay. The question is optional, so it did not negatively affect the number of completed requests.
🔮 In the future, we hope to refine budget collection further to capture the most accurate information and deter planners away who do not have the budget for the service they want.
Category-specific details
Categories are not one-size-fits-all when it comes to the information needed for the lead. The details a violinist needs are not the same as what a caterer would need. Currently, we ask the same questions for all categories with some optional per-category questions after the first point of completion.
This year, we started testing per-category customization earlier in the request process. Our first test was with the costumed character category. We began collecting character information from our members and then started asking event planners to specify which specific character they wanted so we could provide better lead matches.
🔮 This test is still going, but we will be moving forward with more per-category customization in the future across many of our categories.
More accurate travel calculations
In 2021, we began collecting specific addresses or zip codes from our members, rather than just using city names. Using that information, we are now providing more precise travel estimations for where an event is in relation to the vendor’s location.
To further help this effort, we also tested and implemented an autocomplete feature in the quote request form that helps event planners find their specific event address when they start typing it or the venue name.
🔮 We are currently prototyping more customization for members to choose how they want travel calculated (driving time or travel distance) for each service they provide.
Better communication on all fronts
Communication is the key to any successful relationship. We want to make it easier for GigSalad to communicate with you and for you to communicate with clients.
Control panel messages
We’ve implemented a new feature that makes it easier for us to communicate with our members through their control panel. We’ve always displayed pop-ups when there are important updates to share, and this new system allows us to do that more effectively. We can also add helpful tooltips, walk you through new features, and display limited-time discounts.
🔮 As we implement more features, keep an eye out for these pop-ups in your control panel!
New shortcode
Our saved messages and saved quotes tools allow you to respond to leads with one click. To make those messages more unique to each potential client, you can use the shortcodes feature to plug in details specific to that event. We recently added a [day] shortcode to plug in the day of the week the event is on for further customization.
👉 If there are more shortcodes that would be helpful to you, we’re always open to suggestions. So, send them our way!
Bookings, payments, and taxes… oh my!
Our goal is always to make it as easy as possible to book through our platform. That means more booking and payment options for event planners, and making sure you’re set up for success when tax season rolls around.
More checkout options
After a long period of testing, we officially launched a PayPal Credit option for all event planners at the beginning of 2022. This allows your clients to pay you upfront through GigSalad but then make payments to PayPal in smaller installments. In the test, we found that event planners were more likely to book higher prices when given the PayPal Credit option.
🔮 We are also currently testing a regular PayPal checkout option so that planners can pay through PayPal instead of using a credit card or eCheck. We will implement this fully if it results in more bookings for our members.
W-9s and 1099-Ks
As a part of the American Rescue Plan, Congress lowered the earnings threshold from $20,000 to $600 beginning in 2022. That meant we had to begin collecting tax information for all U.S. members who receive direct deposit or check payments from us in order to issue 1099-Ks to the appropriate people in 2023.
To make that process as easy as possible, we built a secure W-9 form into the control panel. We also implemented several reminders and email campaigns to make sure we and our members would be prepared for the upcoming tax season.
🚨 UPDATE: On December 23, 2022, the IRS announced a delay of the $600 reporting threshold. We will continue collecting W9 information for future use, but will only be sending 1099-Ks to members who received over $20,000 in direct payments and 200 transactions in the 2022 tax year.
Subtle changes but big impacts
There are always countless things we are doing behind the scenes. They might not be noticeable or affect many members directly, but they can have significant ramifications on our marketplace as a whole.
SEO improvements
GigSalad has always aimed to show up high in search results on Google and other search engines, but the algorithm changes frequently and there’s consistently room for improvement. We spent a large portion of 2022 working to identify places where we could improve our search result rankings.
We’ve conducted several tests and made countless changes to the content on our category and regional listing pages to improve the user experience. As a result, we’ve seen an increase in traffic and encouraging search position changes!
🔮 We are going to keep improving our content and UX in an effort to continue climbing the ranks and securing our spot in search engine results.
Back-end upgrades
Staying on top of the changes in web development is essential for a successful website. We are constantly running updates to our system to make sure the site runs at peak performance.
We also implemented some additional tools that are helping us track how vendors and event planners use GigSalad. Analyzing this data lets us determine where improvements should be made and then how effective those improvements are.
Taking time to learn from users
The best way to grow any business is to listen and learn from those interacting with the service. That has always been important to us and 2022 was no different as we spent a lot of time surveying and learning from our users to answer some big questions that we’ll be addressing in 2023.
Question 1: Why don’t event planners book?
We are actively surveying a portion of event planners who request quotes from vendors but don’t book anyone within a certain time frame. We are trying to learn more about their experience: what did they expect and to how did they feel about the quotes and messages they received? This will help inform future projects to turn more requests into successful bookings.
Question 2: What and how should our members pay for our service?
We have been working with a third-party agency to do a series of surveys with some of our existing members. We’ve gained insight into how our members use GigSalad, what features are most important and what members are willing to pay for the services they get. This information is important in helping us create a membership model that is better suited for the wide variety of GigSalad users that we have.
🔮 This project is ongoing as there’s still more to learn. It will then be a lot of work to improve things once we decide how to move forward. We’ll be sure to announce any big changes well in advance.
Question 3: How can we improve our user experience?
From the design to the features to the interface, there are a lot of components that create a good experience for users. With the addition of a new product designer to the team as well as a new UX researcher, we’ve started digging into the data and interviewing members to gain further insight into the existing user experience and how we can improve it.
🔮 User interviews will remain a focus in 2023. If you’d like to be a part of this process, please schedule a call. You will be compensated for your time!
We are excited to see what’s to come in 2023. We’ve got a lot of great ideas cookin’! And as always, we couldn’t do it without you. Each and every piece of feedback we receive from our users is considered and discussed. That is how we grow, so keep the suggestions coming. Here’s to a happy and successful new year for all of us! 🎉
🎉 The future is here! See what we accomplished in 2023 and get a sneak peek at 2024 plans in our 2023 product update.
Heather is the Content Manager and a GigSalad veteran of 15+ years. She loves helping event planners create unforgettable celebrations and talent make a living doing what they love. When not at work, she enjoys reading romance and fantasy books, bingeing TV shows, playing board games, and spending time with friends.