While you probably realize that trying to sell a snow blower to a Floridian is a waste of company time and money, a lot of companies are making similar mistakes every day.  Most companies create one marketing piece or ad and send it out to their entire customer list, forgetting that while one segment of their client base may be excited to receive the latest savings on dog toys and treats (for example), their cat lovers are underwhelmed and frustrated by another meaningless ad in their inbox. The ad simply isn't relevant to the cat lover's needs.

One of the most crucial elements in marketing is to deliver relevant marketing campaigns - marketing ads and promotional pieces that directly relate to what the recipient wants or needs. Using Sage E-Marketing for ACT! (SEMA), you can easily create a highly-professional, graphic-rich ad announcing the newest dog toy on the market and another ad informing cat owners of the upcoming cat food sale. You can use SEMA to create a variety of relevant marketing pieces designed to cross-sell, up-sell, and promote your latest company news and offerings.

Then using ACT!, you can segment your customer list into various marketing campaign groups. Last week, we discussed stratifying your clients to track and analyze the different clients you have. Stratification is just one way that we can start to segment our clients and improve our marketing efforts. Similar to the stratification field, you can create a 'marketing campaign/group' field to designate groups(s) that each of your customers belongs to, ie. Dog Lover, Cat Lover, etc. Once you've designed your marketing template for a particular group, it is extremely easy to perform a lookup of all customers belonging to that group and send your relevant message to them.

Not only will relevant email marketing separate you from other companies, but your customers will understand and appreciate that you value their interests. And that's a great way to earn customer loyalty!

Interested in learning more about email marketing best practices? Visit our ACT! White Papers and Articles page.

How have you used ACT! to market to your customers/clients? Let us know in the Comments below!

February is often equated with its most romantic holiday, Valentine’s Day, and in particular, with showering your loved ones with tokens of your affection.  Along this vein, we started wondering how often we, as small businesses (and really anyone else who works closely with their clients) make it a point to reciprocate the love we get from amazing clients.  When clients come back to us time and again, they are letting us know they appreciate what we do.  This Valentine’s Day, we want to talk about how to return that kindness.

The first question you would want to ask yourself, would be, “how can I tell who really likes us?”  Of course off the top of your head, you probably can name quite a few people who you do regular business with or those who sing your praises.  But if you can set up ACT! to tell you who is interacting with you and when, then you can get a clear picture of who your best clients are.

And what a best client is to you will vary.  Do you want to thank clients who buy a lot in dollar amount?  Or is it the clients who are consistent return customers?  Or do you have clients who always make contact with you around the holidays?  All of these things can be tracked in ACT!.

Once you decide what your criteria is, you can set up ACT! to stratify your clients.  Having a field called “prospect level” or “client level,” gives you a place to track what kind of client you have.  You can then choose a method of tracking them.  You could go with a hierarchical classification, like assigning clients “A” through “D” status, or you can use descriptors, like “frequent customer,” or “loyal promoter.”  Once you have these labels on your contacts, it is easy to run a search for everyone who is an “A” level client, or anyone who is a “frequent customer.”

From there, it is up to you how you thank your customers.  Whether you want to provide them with free, valuable white papers, or send them hand-written thank you notes, making the effort is a guaranteed way to make sure you are letting the clients who like you know that the feeling is mutual.

In order to keep your stratification records current, we recommend updating them monthly.  If you would like to set up a report with complex stratification criteria, we can help!  Contact us for information on custom reports at 847-520-0860, or info@kristismith.com!

Valentine’s Day was first associated with romantic love by poet Geoffrey Chaucer in the late 1300’s, and since that time its focus on relationships and a’mour has continued to grow. So we figured this is the perfect time to highlight a newer ACT! feature, aptly named, the Relationship tab.

The Relationship tab allows you to create and document existing influential relationships between contacts in your database based on criteria, such as family relationships, contacts belonging to the same professional association, etc. Instead of creating separate groups for small-member associations consider using the Relationship tool to link the members.

Creating a New Relationship

1.  From your contact's record, click on the Relationships tab and click Relate Contact in the top left corner of the tab. The Relate Contact dialog box appears.
2.  Choose the contact(s) to relate to your current contact, by selecting them from the dropdown in the ‘Relate (contact) to’ box.
3.  Under the Define Relationship section, first choose the relationship of your contact to the contact(s) you are linking them to. Then choose that contact's relationship to your current contact. Note: The relationship-type list contains pre-defined relationship types, but you may change or add to these values by clicking Edit List Values at the bottom of the list. You may also just type the relationship description directly into the field.
4.  You can type in any notes or details regarding this relationship in the Details section.
5.  Click OK when finished.

Managing Relationships

Once you have created a relationship, you can edit them as needed and use the links to quickly go to the related contacts. Under the Relationships tab for your contact, you will see a list a related contacts. You can quickly go to that contact by clicking on their hyper-linked name. You can also edit the relationship by double-clicking on the line item for that relationship, or highlighting it and clicking Edit Relationship. By right-clicking on a related contact, you will find options to relate, edit, or remove relationships, create lookups and more.

** The Relationship feature is available only in ACT! 2009 and later versions. 

Have you used the ACT! relationship tab yet? Tell us your thoughts.

_
January, as we’ve discussed, is a great time of year to make changes to your processes and revamp the way you approach your CRM.  So with the end of the month upon us, we thought we'd leave you with one last tip to clean up your ACT! (clearly that pun is unavoidable).

One really great way to get the most out of ACT!, is to standardize your company’s usage.  Do you have data entry standards?  Here’s a great way to set some:

1)     Toss the empties
Empty fields just tempt users to stow away data that doesn’t seem to have a home.  Then the data, sitting in a mislabeled field, is report resistant—it isn’t organized so it won’t come up in a field search, and can’t be pulled into a report for analysis.

2)      House the homeless
Look around your database.  Just sift through some entries.  Do you see a pattern in the data that is being tossed into “catch-all” fields?  Create new fields to accommodate data you want to collect regularly, and move  the data into the properly labeled fields where they belong.

3)      Consult the staff
You may think you know what needs to go and what should stay, but maybe your staff thinks differently.  Have a quick meeting about your current ACT! usage, what people are using, what they aren’t, and what they wish they could do differently.  You should decide who is responsible for filling out which fields, and set up a standard by which people assign tasks to each other to facilitate smooth workflow.

4)      Idiot-proof it
Where possible, consider setting up activity series to encourage the steps in a workflow plan.  Every time someone adds a new prospect, does that mean your salesperson should make a call?  Or if every time a support contract has an expiration date, should a renewal request call be made 8 months later?  Set it up so ACT! asks you to schedule these things.

There are a number of ways to get your data to work for you--do you have any suggestions for keeping a clean database?  Tell us about it in the comments!

_ As a business, setting goals for the new year is a must for annual growth.  Often we reach for new products and services to point us in that right direction, but have you looked at trying to get more out of what you already have?  Have you thought about what else ACT! could do to help you reach your goals?  This month we will be offering you suggestions for getting the most out of ACT! to help you grow your business.

Put Your Dashboard to Work
How often do you use your Dashboard?  Do you know what it can do?  Your Dashboard has the ability to serve as a place in ACT! where powerful reporting info is all aggregated on one page, based on what will be most useful to you.  It can be a way to focus on your most important goals, every day when you first open ACT!.

To set up a Dashboard for optimum usefulness, think about what kind of data you should be looking at everyday in terms of reaching your goals.  Are you looking to get more hands-on with your Salespeople this year?  You can set up your Dashboard to track their activities and opportunities and have the information displayed in graphs and charts.  Or perhaps you are a sales person, and you want to track your goals.  You can likewise display your activities and opportunities via your Dashboard, and set up graphs that will give you a visual idea of how productive you have been thus far, and more importantly, how much more you need to do to reach your targets.

You can learn how to edit a preexisting Dashboard here.  Or learn how to create new ones here.

Don’t Lose an Opportunity
Are you currently using Opportunities?  Do you use them to track products and services your company sells, or do you also use them to actually track when you have an opportunity to sell products and services?  Tracking a prospect’s interest in what you offer will help keep you organized as you go through the sales process.  Marking your opportunities by stages, means you have a quick way to tell what needs to happen next.  You can pull up your opportunities list, and filter them by sales stages for easy follow-up.  Did someone express interest in getting services from you, but said they didn’t have budget?  Reevaluating your opportunities means you may be able to breath life into deals you thought were closed or stagnant.

And to get even more power out of ACT!, you can create a recurring activity on your calendar to “Evaluate ACT! use” once a year.  And of course if you find there is something you would like ACT! to do for you that it isn’t, please give us a call!

How are you working with ACT! differently this year?  How will ACT! help you reach your goals?

We have heard more and more from clients who are looking for flexibility in the way they work—hence our new Zebken Forum dedicated to flexible work discussion.   In particular, we are finding our clients want to be able to take ACT! with them wherever they go.  In order to better serve you, we’ve decided to compile a list of possibilities for you to take ACT! with you when you leave your desktop.

1. Remote databases
Use your ACT! database from anywhere, even when you have no internet connection (in your car, on a plane, on a train, underwater, etc). A copy of the entire database, or just your territory, can be set up on your laptop for anywhere access. The laptop will then synchronize changes with your main database when you return to the office, or via internet connection.

2. Smartphone Sync
Clients who are looking for an easy way to have ACT! on their favorite mobile device may be interested in setting up subscription based smartphone sync.  This option allows you to select a limited number of contacts and contact fields to sync over to your phone along with your ACT! calendar.  This option gives you true freedom from your computer by giving you the ability to access your most valuable ACT! info through your phone.

3. ACT! for Web
ACT! for web is an option that allows you to get to ACT! from an internet browser.  All you need to do is install ACT! Premium for Web locally on one computer and configure it to be accessed via browser.  ACT! for web users enjoy being able to access their ACT! data from PCs and Macs everywhere.

4. ACT! for Web—in the cloud
This option has become popular with many of our clients.  Utilizing a remote server, you can host your ACT! database from the cloud.  With no installation necessary, you can use your ACT! for Web database from a browser on any computer.  This saves you space on your computer and gives you plenty of flexibility when accessing your data.

5. Local ACT! installation—in the cloud
This option is generally used when a client is interested in using several applications but doesn’t want any of those applications to live on their computer.  Server space can be rented where you can install your programs and access them via a remote desktop connection.  This option works really well for remote teams looking to share real time data.

6. Sage ACT! Connect
Users of subscription based Sage ACT! Connect can access their ACT! data from almost anywhere.  Like ACT! for web, Sage ACT! Connect has a web portal where you can log in and access database content through a browser.  You can also configure Sage ACT! Connect so that your data syncs with most mobile devices-- meaning you can have your contacts and activities in the palm of your hand. 

Are you thinking of making your ACT! more mobile?  Please call us at 847-520-0860 for more details, and be sure to check out Zebken.com to join the Flexwork discussion.

Do you wish you could work from home?  Do you often visit clients and find yourself wishing you had a better way to access your desktop computer from the road?  Or maybe you run a business that you think could benefit from better cloud computing technology.  Either way, we have a place for you!

Zebken is a brand new community in which workers, employers, and tech people can discuss their current work needs, their hopes, and ideas for new ways to work better, and we would love to have your input.

Zebken.com is a community dedicated to helping the work world shift toward a more flexible attitude.  Working holistically, or prioritizing your work-life balance, is important to living a happy and healthy life and key to producing your best work.  Finding the tools to accomplish flexible working can be a challenge, and there are more methods and tools being created everyday to improve working from home, your car, or anywhere in the world.   We want to talk about these options and your new ideas, which is why we invite you to join us!

Come check out our forums at www.Zebken.com and join the discussion!

Are you looking to add to your staff? We are building a job board with reasonable advertising rates - please e-mail info@zebken.com to find your ideal candidate.

As a kind gesture to friends, networking partners, and clients, holiday cards are a nice way for a company to say they are thinking about the people who make their business possible.  And organizing your database ahead of time can make the holiday card send out a much easier task.

What are the best ways to prep your database?  A few months before you want to send out your greeting cards, assess who you would like to include in your mailing—are you sending cards to networking contacts and gift baskets to clients?  Think about who you would like included in your mailing, and mark them in your database.

How should you mark them?  This is up to you.  We recommend creating a group in ACT! called “Holiday cards 2011” (or similar) to make things easy.  Once you have your list of persons receiving cards complete, it is a good idea to verify that you have their correct mailing info.

Updating records is a smart move everyone should do periodically.  An easy way to accomplish this is to send out a mail merged email template asking clients if the address listed is their current mailing address, and asking them to reply with up to date information only if it is not current (Swiftpage users should note that we offer a premade template in a bundle that does just that.  Click here for details).

Verifying addresses before your holiday mailing means you save money on cards that may otherwise have been returned to sender.  Once you have a list made up, you may choose to send a mailed greeting card or maybe a Swiftpage email template.  If you choose the former, you can set up your labels for printing in advance.  If you choose the latter, you won’t have much more work to do—Swiftpage makes it easy to send out email blasts to large groups of people with only a few clicks.

Prepping your database in advance of the holidays can save you time and money—making it an administrative priority can help.

Do you have any tips for seamless holiday mailings?  Share with us in the comments.

Are you interested in ACT! 2012 and want to do some product scoping?  Here are a few places you can rely on to get the skinny on 2012:

1)  Call our office
Kristi is always happy to talk to you about what ACT! does best.  Feel free to call our office to have a conversation about the new ACT! 2012 features and whether they are right for you.  We can be reached at 847-520-0860. And if you are in need of an ACT! feature that hasn't been incorporated into ACT! yet, let us know that too. We may be able to create it for you through our customization work, or there may be an add-on product that can add that feature to your database.

2)  Check out our website
Our website has been updated with plenty of specs for the new features included in 2012.  Read about it here.

3)  Sign up for a free webinar demo
Kristi is giving complimentary web demos of ACT! 2012.  You can log on and simply watch, or you can ask questions for Kristi to answer in real time as she walks you through the new product.  Upcoming demo dates include:

Thursday, Sept. 8th 1:00pm Central
Tuesday, Sept. 20th 11:00am Central
Tuesday, Oct. 4th 1:00pm Central
Thursday, Oct. 20th 11:00am Central

Click here to register!

Have you ever noticed this icon in your Windows System Tray? Or maybe you know you sent a client an email, but it isn’t showing up in the client’s history record and you don’t know why?

The envelope with the red X icon is an alert informing you that the ACT! Quick Attach process has failed for one or more emails; meaning, you have Outlook emails that failed to attach to a contact record in ACT!.

At times, ACT! is unsuccessful in attaching an email message to an ACT! contact record  - perhaps your network connection was lost or the contact does not exist in your ACT! database or maybe it is a new email address for one of your current contacts.

Unsure of what action to take next, ACT! will hold the e-mails for a period of time allowing you to decide how to best handle them.

To review and clear the Quick Attach alerts:

1. Double-click the Quick Attach Failed icon (envelope with a red X) in the system tray to open the Outlook Quick Attach portal window.
2. Click the ‘Not Attached Messages’ tab at the top of the window.
3. Select the unattached message(s) and choose the action you’d like performed from the toolbar options:
   Retry Attach – The program will try once again to attach to the appropriate contact record.
   Attach to ACT! Contact – Opens the Attach Email to Contacts window where you can manually enter the contact record you’d like the email attached to.
   Attach to New Contact – Opens a New Contact window where you can create a new contact record and have the email attached to that record.
   Remove – Deletes the email message from the list without attaching it to a record.
4. When you are finished, click Close.

If you don’t see the icon in your system tray, then you don’t have any recent messages that failed to attach.