UPDATE VERSION – AUGUST 2021

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August’s newest version is up and running, with improvements and innovations that will add some extra help, order, and lightness to the system since we could always use more of those.

Shortening the process of updating names and titles

It is now much easier and faster to update the names of campaigns, contact groups, pages and forms on your account. Just click on the name and update (Inline).

Update version - Inline text

The names and titles can be updates out of the editor itself during the work process.

Update version - Inline text - 2

All the help you need on the go

We’ve added a link to tutorials and guides that will assist you in the various stages and actions during the work process in the system. Just click on the question mark icon wherever you are in the system. The help menu and relevant guides are waiting for you there.

 

What else?

Bug fixes and additional improvements

We would love to hear about your experience with the new version – contact us and tell us.

How Apple’s Ios- 15 Affects Email Marketing

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For the purpose of improving the privacy of the clients using its platforms, Apple enables its users to block tracking of applications and hiding their IP addresses.

How will this update affect Apple’s email software?

  • Receiving an indication of opening an email even if the contact did not open it at all.
  • The precise date of opening the email and as a result, sending emails on the optimal timing will no longer be possible – regarding the emails scheduled to be sent exactly when the contact usually opens the email he receives.
  • No indication will be given as to the type of device on which the email was opened.
  • The geographical location of the contact when opening the email will no longer be available
  • Disturbing the campaign analytics process.

What can be done?

Even before Apple’s update, it was recommended to refer to the campaign execution analytics according to clicks on email links and not according to their opening.
In order to properly prepare, we’ve developed an email sending feature in an optimal timing based on the calculation of clicking on links (instead of according to the opening of emails).

This update is currently only relevant to Apple’s email software users and not relevant to the other email applications and software (such as the Gmail app on the iPhone).

FROM ZERO TO ONE: THE YEAR DIGITAL TRASNFORMATION BECAME A MUST

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Year 2020 is behind us. But the dramatic changes it has brought to our lives are still very relevant, even after the years’ digits changed from 0 to 1. 

One of the key changes for businesses was the need to be digital to stay in the game. If prior to the global Covid pandemic crisis, a business who chose to provide its customers and/or employees digital tools and solutions enjoyed a list of benefits, now that the rules have changed digitalizing businesses is no longer a good idea. It is a must.

The process of business digitalizing is called digital transformation. 

After reading the lines below you will have a clear understanding as to what digital transformation includes, where it starts and where it doesn’t necessarily end, and what are the key advantages of leading a digital business. 

Digitalization does not end with website or Facebook page

Digital transformation does not boil down to digital presence (i.e. website, social media, and additional digital elements your business may already use). Digital transformation refers to developing innovative digital solutions and services for your customers and employees. Let’s begin with your customers.

 

Enhanced and upgraded customer experience

One of the key advantages to digital transformation is enhancing customer experience. This means that your customers enjoy a streamlined, clear, and pleasant experience every time they interact with your business, use its services, or purchase its products. Some examples and advantages to help better understand what it all means in practice? You got it!

  • Customers can choose their preferred means of performing actions and communication with your business, whether it’s Whatsapp, SMS text messages, email, or phone.
  • All communication is documented for a streamlined and monitored process. 
  • Customers can receive newsletter updates via email and/or phone SMS text message.
  • When there is need to send personal files (i.e. invoices, policies etc.), customers can easily and conveniently get them directly via email. 
  • Newsletters are sent to customers at different times depending on the specific day and times they each tend to open and read them. 
  • Blocking distribution of newsletters at sensitive dates and times like memorial days is optional. 

Innovative & streamlined work environment that “gets things done”

Employees are no less important than customers to a business. That is why digital transformation provides employees with a customer experience that is as good as that of customers, with key advantages like digital access to employees, internal organization communication keeping employees UpToDate, event and activity registration via forms, and more.
Bettering daily work using friendly and easy to use systems making more streamlined work and saving valuable time.
Creating a smart, fast, and innovative work environment using digital tools and solutions unblocking bottlenecks and work “traffic jams”, allowing independent work free from the need to wait for response and assistance from IT, graphic designers etc. 

Streamlining without getting lost in the process

Digital tools can achieve significant streamlining of the business activity. There are countless tools and solutions for various needs available in the market. One of the most important things to remember is to use systems integrating as many tools and solutions as possible under. Such systems are called integrative systems. They allow streamlining without getting lost in the process, preventing confusion and discrepancies that may result from working with several systems, each responsible for different elements. 

Automation: solutions that do the work for you

One of the key examples delivering enhanced customer experience and streamlined processes is automation. When you digitalize your business using an integrative system a whole new world of automation opens, automating as many business processes as you wish. It allows, for example, to easily create customer journeys automatically responding to customers’ actions. Customer journeys are an innovative streamline way to create sales, increase engagement, involvement, positive dialogue, and enthusiasm of customers. 

 

In summary, if your business is not using integrative systems using digital tools to enhance customers’ and employees experience, streamline work and internal organization communication, automate sales and marketing, there is no better time than now to ensure your business stays in the game under year 2021’s new rules. 

 

 

 

LEAD NURTURE WITH SALESFORCE

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Converting leads into customers is one of the company’s top marketing challenges. Lead conversion is not a straightforward process. Lead nurturing is a critical process of converting your leads. 48% of businesses say leads require ‘long cycle’ nurturing to successfully convert them into customers.

Leads come from various ways as we discussed in our previous article. You have used all the methods described in the article to capture the leads successfully, and now what? What are you going to do with those contact lists? What will be your next steps? How will you build strong relationships with them and make them your customers? Here are our recommendations on how to nurture the leads to convert them.

Lead Nurture

Leads showing interest do not mean they’re ready to purchase your product. They have only shown interest and would like to know more about your product before they pull out the money. That’s why it is important to nurture the leads instead of hard selling straightaway. So, how would you nurture the leads?

Strategize

Do not just send an ad-hoc sales pitch to the leads. Put together a plan to be in touch with the leads and to showcase your products. Plan a lead nurture journey where they receive your communications over some time learning more about your products and services. Automate the marketing communication which helps in reducing the marketing team’s efforts during the lead nurturing phase.

Segmentation

It is very important to segment the leads correctly before you reach out to them via different communication channels. To send each lead the right message with the solution, segmentation becomes the key. Instead of sending the same campaign to all your leads, use dynamic content to customize and display the content based on its relevance to your leads.

Build

Whether the lead comes from your website or social media or any other source, your whole purpose is to not only sell them but also educate them about the product you offer.
Use Process Builder of Salesforce to design the journey flow and to incorporate the leads into the lead nurture process. Based on the lead source and segmentation of your business needs, allow the leads to enter different paths in the flow and receive timely communication.

Track

Monitor the progress of the leads. Track the open rate and click rate of each individual email, build reports and dashboards in Salesforce that help you to understand whether the lead nurture process is giving the results you expect. Tweak the flow and the communication content if needed after tracking for at least a couple of weeks.

Conclusion

Understand that not all leads convert. There are different types of lead nurturing campaigns as well, but email marketing automation is one of the most popular. The idea here is to carefully nurture your leads and not oversell.

 

LEVERAGE DIGITAL MARKETING THROUGH SALESFORCE DURING THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK

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With Coronavirus is forcing many of us to work from our home offices, including our clients,
a large number of people are consuming much more screen time on websites, social media and other apps. There has never been a better time than now to invest in the digital transformation of your sales and marketing processes.

keeping in touch and communicating with your customers is always important, especially at a time when the physical distance is greater than ever. With a direct marketing cloud, you can maintain customer relationships. However, if you have Salesforce, you have the right tool to do it well and ease.

Here are a few tips for boosting business relationships by communicating with your customers:

Talk with your customers directly from Salesforce

SMS is a great way to communicate with your contacts in a fast and efficient way. Before you send the messages please note:

  • Send messages only if you have something useful to say, special offer, updates or information which is important for your contact.
  • Keep it short and simple. If you want to expand the content, insert a responsive link to a landing page.
  • Include personalization – when customers get messages that are tailored specifically to them, they’re more likely to pay attention and take action.
  • Choose the right time – SMS lands directly into customers’ hands so you must consider the times of day when it is most appropriate to send it.
  • Frequency is important – don’t bombard customers with messages.

Send designed newsletters & email campaigns to your contacts

They can cover a variety of topics around new offerings, products and services you may be able to provide. It’s important to pay attention to:

  • Communicate more often, but send only genuinely useful content and updates.
  • Use sensitive language and avoid discount codes or promotional sales related to the crisis (for example don’t use COVID19 for 19% off).
  • Change the subject – customer fatigue is real. During an emergency, it is time to use new subject lines, change it up in a way that is thoughtful and helpful.

Take a look at old projects that were previously pushed aside

Such as effective marketing processes that take a lot of time to design and build. Also, review your current material and push for continued enhancements, such as personalized customer journeys.

 

In the end, we all really are in this together. This is a situation none of us have ever experienced before. One thing is for certain: COVID-19 has surely created a turbulent environment with a lot of uncertainty. In the midst of all of this, your customers need to hear from you. While it’s unknown when you may be able to work with your customers face to face, you can still have a positive impact on your company and continue to build your brand.

CUSTOMER JOURNEYS IN SALESFORCE

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The whole idea behind a CRM system is to understand the customer effectively throughout the process and manage him accordingly to ensure maximum customer satisfaction.
Sometimes when there’s a drop in customer retention, companies wonder what went wrong when they thought they handled their customer relations well using their CRM. This is where the power of customer journeys comes in. Customer journeys are the building blocks of a good CRM system.

Lead Management

Customer journeys are the process of managing the touchpoints and milestones for a customer throughout the lifecycle. Customer Journey, in simple words, can be defined as all the interactions that a customer goes through with your company’s brands, products, and services across the channels throughout the customer lifecycle.

A few benefits of adopting customer journeys:

  • It helps in providing a personalized experience to customers throughout the interactions.
  • Provides a 360-degree view of customers to the sales and support teams
  • Presents opportunities to keep the user engaged throughout the lifecycle.

Salesforce being one of the best CRM’s of the world provides excellent capabilities to create and execute customer journeys. Not only in marketing but across the whole customer lifecycle, Salesforce provides capabilities to record all interactions, gather more information about the customer with each interaction, add relevant insights based on the data and provide a 360º view of the customer to your sales and other teams. At different stages of the customer lifecycle, Salesforce provides various modules to drive customer journeys.

A few processes where customer journeys can be implemented:

Marketing/Campaign Management

Salesforce supports customer journeys during this initial engagement stage where we plan to make customers aware of our company and enable them to engage. Salesforce tools like process builder and campaign management support in designing customer journeys. All the basic information of the customer is captured in this process and a Lead is created.

Example: A standard marketing journey would include a landing page to capture lead information and more importantly get ‘market consent’ from the lead to send promotional offers in the future. This page can be made accessible to customers visiting stores via QR code or can also be used in different promotional events the company conducts.

Marketing-Campaign Management

Lead Management

This process is usually supported by multiple modules of Salesforce. During this process, all the additional details of the customers are captured along with the interactions done with the customers. In terms of the customer journey, multiple touchpoints supporting Lead nurturing and opportunity creation are covered in this stage with the help of tools like process builder, journey builder, and others.

 

Opportunity to Order Management

This process of customer engagement is usually supported by Sales Cloud and Salesforce CPQ where with the help of multiple interactions with customers, his requirements are captured and in the end, an order is generated.

Opportunity to Order Management

Post Sales Service

Once a sale gets completed, then comes a critical portion where you need to satisfy the customer on his queries along with looking for cross-selling opportunities. In such scenarios, Salesforce Service Cloud provides a 360 view of the customer to the agents providing them the ability to resolve customer issues in minimum time. This 360 view is supported by the data gathered throughout the customer journey by other modules and hence also provides cross-selling opportunities. There are opportunities for engaging customers post-sales via different journeys like re-engagement journey, reactivation journey and others.

Post Sales Service

Customer Journeys are hence an important aspect of customer engagement as they provide you the opportunity to track the interactions happening and help to define an optimized experience for the customer and Salesforce supports customer journeys throughout the customer lifecycle.

HOW TO GET BETTER RESULTS BY SENDING AN EMAIL CAMPAIGN THROUGH SALESFORCE

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Email is still the most preferred and profitable communication channel for companies to run their marketing campaigns. Salesforce as a CRM tool for your business has all the customer data, customer communication preferences, customers interests, etc. Having the right data is important but the point lies in how you use it and design your email campaigns. In this article, we will be looking at how to improve emails and get better results out of the email campaigns that are sent through Salesforce.

For that let’s have a broad look at how the email goes through different hands. An email designed in Salesforce once sent goes through the ISP (Internet Service Providers) which checks for spam conditions, then delivers it to the customer’s email inbox. Based on the Email From Name (branding) and the attractiveness of the email subject and the email design, the customer decides to act on the email. And you track the results of the email engagement to know the results of your email campaign. So, to get better results out of an email campaign, every step in this process need to be improved i.e., the email design & content, the deliverability, and tracking.

Email Design

  • Build a responsive email design so the mobile users enjoy a great user experience. Use email templates and make them mobile responsive.
  • Also, make sure the emails render well in most of the email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, etc), web browsers(Chrome, Mozilla, etc), and mobile devices (iOS, Android, etc).
  • Maintain consistent branding and layout throughout all your emails with a header and footer that characterizes your brand style.

Email Content

  • Subject lines are the most crucial. Your subject lines have to be interesting for the customer to open the email. A non-impressive subject line takes down all the efforts you put in to build the entire email content.
  • The key thing in email content is “personalization”. Try to use personalization not only in the email body but also in the Subject lines. In the email include personalized offers, personalized recommended products, and related products based on their preferences. The data you have in Salesforce lists helps in personalization, targeting the right customers with the right message at the right time.
  • Have a clear call-to-action (CTA) button defined in your email.

In short make the email impressive, interesting, and beautiful.

Deliverability

There are certain rules to be followed in the emails so the ISPs do not treat your email as Spam. Failure to do so will result in your emails being marked as spam and eventually your email domain. It will impact your IP reputation.

  • Do not forget to include a mechanism for customers to opt out from your campaigns. You must process opt-out request promptly within 10 days. And the unsubscribe mechanism must be in place for at least 30 days after the mailing.
  • Most importantly have a consent (opt-in) from the customer.
  • Include your physical mailing address to give a sense of existence to your customers.
  • Make sure the From Name and From email address are correct and reflect your brand.

Tracking

Track the open rate and click rate of each individual email. Store them back in Salesforce to do your analysis – identifying what kind of campaigns are your customers interested in, which is the best and least performing campaigns. Track the key metrics as these factors help in designing your future campaigns as well. It is imperative to listen to customers, capture their preferences and use it to personalize the email messages which helps in getting better results from the email campaigns.

Email marketing is still the best communication channel in terms of ROI for companies. To get better results from an email campaign, every step in the email flow demands to be improved – right from email design, the actual email content, the deliverability of the email, the way emails are tracked and how the tracking details are put to use to design your future campaigns.

HOW MARKETING AUTOMATION CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS?

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We recently launched an innovative and very significantly capable – “marketing automation”. Automation, for those who don’t know, makes it possible to create behavior scenarios in advance. The system works like an autopilot – it listens to what is going on, decides how to react and then takes the necessary course of action. All of this depends on the scenarios you’ve set up in advance. However, the result is a more sophisticated and personalized reference and marketing activity for your customers – all automatically carried out.

A lot of hard work has gone down in creating this amazing sophisticated automation system, but we believe, it’s more important to make you understand how the system could be beneficial for you.
The real question still remains, Is marketing automation suitable for your business?

We’ve collected a few examples from different fields that might inspire you with your next automated marketing activity:

A jewelry designer who markets limited edition of work

This example explores a jewelry artist who enables online ordering and personal service in the business of unique and prestigious jewelry. From time to time, the store owner sends out mailings which includes photographs of the jewelry. These jewelry are sold in a limited edition. This enables the buyer to “save” the right to purchase the jewelry for a period of three days.
When a customer clicks on the “Save for me” button, they are invited to confirm the request on a landing page (Limited to a number of fillers). This is further confirmed by an incoming email that ensures that the product is indeed reserved for him/her. After exactly 3 days, if the customer has not exercised their right to purchase, they receive a personal SMS message that the product is no longer saved for them.

A company for Drinking water filters

Every year, the company sends out a reminder mail to its customers to replace the filter. Each client receives the reminder about 30 days before the renewal date of the previous year. By synchronizing the system with the company’s CRM software and integrating the automation system, the system checks whether a new filter has already been ordered. If an order has not been made yet, move towards a more direct method of marketing, the SMS.

“Abandoned cart” on an e-commerce site

An e-commerce site for toilet products uses an “abandoned cart” mechanism that identifies those customers who have added products to the cart but have not completed a purchase and are, therefore, considered “defectors”.
The marketing manager laid forward an automated email procedure for this. Two hours after the cart is left abandoned, an e-mail is sent to he client, with a reminder to complete the purchase. In case there is no activity for 48 hours, a sale coupon is sent to the relevant e-mail address to encourage the purchase.

Subscribe to a contact list via SMS

A Tel Aviv restaurant decided to encourage its customers to subscribe to the contact list. How to register? In the physical store, the customer sends an SMS with the “Join” code to a phone number and … that’s it. From that moment on, the user receives an SMS confirmation of the joining + an exclusive and tasty benefit that can be realized on the spot.

What else can you do? You can also ask the customer to send the email address so that it can be sent to both the SMS number and the E-mail address (we tell you that with inwise, there is support for this option too).

Identifying potential customers in a technological company in the B2B market

A B2B company in the field of information security technology sends a monthly newsletter to its customers. The newsletter contains 5-6 links to articles and news in various fields related to the company’s products. Almost every month, one of the items is aimed at a very limited audience.This is so marginal that the sales manager wants to be notified of each potential customer who is interested.
For this purpose, the company defined an automation that defines a click on a specific link as a trigger that triggers an email operation to the sales manager, which informs about the interest of a specific potential customer in the product.

These examples highlight that marketing automation is gaining a more central place as the “brain” of digital marketing. If this is a bit new to you and you want to learn some more about it, or if you need us to help you get it done, simply contact us (there is a “Contact” button above) and we will be happy to move with you to a smarter marketing era.

 

WAYS TO INCREASE YOUR CONTACT LIST THROUGH SALESFORCE

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Growing your email contact list is not an easy task. There are many ways to do it both organic and through paid advertising. First, you need to understand your target audience, do market research and understand where do your potential customers exist. Provide them with multiple opt-in chances at different places. Have a specific CTA everywhere for the visitors. In this article lets look at how to increase your contact list through Salesforce.

Website

The first place you need to look out to increase your contact list is your website. Here are a few ways of making your website visitors get into your contact list.

  • Popups: Popups are a very common way to ask visitors to subscribe to your newsletter. Offer incentives, sign up bonuses, discounts and your content for free be it weekly, monthly, quarterly newsletters or your product features. This is a great way to be in touch with them. But do not overdo with popups on every page. Offer popup messages only if the visitor has stayed on your page for a good amount of time. It shows that they are really interested in your product/services. They are more likely to subscribe to you.
  • Contact Pages & Other Landing Pages: The contact us page on your website should also be linked to your email contact list with a consent checkbox. Other landing pages like ‘sign up for the newsletter, blog updates’ are also a great way to increase your contact list.

It is also important to keep your website fresh with new content so your customers visit the site more often. Use Search engine optimization (SEO) other methods to make your website appear on the first page on search engines.

Social Media

After you have covered your website bases, its time to look beyond that i.e., into Social media.

  • Content: Publish and share your posts consistently. Interact with your viewers, comment, value their time and effort in interacting with you. New and informational content pulls in new visitors and potential customers. Add the signup landing page with every post to provide them an immediate action item to subscribe. New content will also improve your website to appear in search engines too.
  • Advertise: Before you start doing paid advertising, as mentioned earlier in the post, it is utmost important to understand your existing customers or your target audience – what are their demographics (age and gender), their interests, and locations. Without knowing these you won’t be able to target your advertisements to the right people. Use Salesforce marketing cloud’s advertising audience feature to advertise to your customers on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Use lookalike features of Facebook to find customers similar to your Top customers.
  • Others: You can also be active in a variety of online forums, groups like your users from the Salesforce community cloud. Conduct webinars to generate awareness for your brand, providing them with valuable information while collecting consent from them to add them to your contact list.

It is important to inform and be clear in what value proposition your customers get by subscribing to your email list. No matter how hard you try with different strategies or put in a lot of money and effort into advertising, they will be reluctant to sign up without knowing the value they get from this. have a master list of contacts in Salesforce where all these contacts from different sources would end up in – a single customer view. In this process, try to capture some of the basic customer profile details like DOB, gender, interests, location, etc which assists in creating data segmentations within Salesforce and in turn creating personalized communication with them.

INWISE & GDPR

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On May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which replaced the EU privacy protection provisions of 1995, came into effect. The purpose of this regulation (GDRP) is to ensure that the individual’s personal information is protected in accordance with the modern technological innovation, regardless of where it is stored or processed.
One of the major catalysts in implementing the regulation is the administrative fines (without the need for court approval) that are expected from members who violate the regulations – up to 4% of the annual (global) turnover of the business or company, or a fine of 20 million euros). Contrary to past regulations, which differed from one country to another, these regulations apply equally to all Union companies.

Since we at inwise provide services and technology in areas that include personal information, we bring you the information to help you familiarize yourself with the regulation, prepare for its implementation, as well as the company and inquiry’s reference to the regulations.

Note: The purpose of this post is for informational purposes only and should in no way be considered a piece of legal advice. We recommend that you consult with relevant legal experts and experts in the field to obtain qualified opinions.

What is personal information?

Personal information is any information by which a particular person is identified or identifiable. In fact, personal information comprises almost every detail (e.g. name, contact address, phone number, e-mail address, employ details, credit card details, etc.)

Highlights of regulation

The purpose of collecting personal information should be “logical”. For instance, if you market tennis equipment, there is no reason for you to ask a client for his or her genotype. This creates a suspicion that you intend to trade information, and that is why explicit consent is required. Hence, be sure to request only the necessary details for operations and marketing purposes, and announce what you intend to do with the information gathered.

  • The purpose of retaining the information should be specific to what you do with it: If you want to make further use of the user’s information beyond what you have stated, you will need to seek the client’s consent again. Maintaining confidentiality and information security: This is necessary for information leaks and information security against external threats.
  • The right to access information: Every person whose information you have has the right to know what information is stored about him/her. Report to local authority and users about information security breaches as early as possible
  • The right to be forgotten: Any entity about whom you have existing information has the right to “forget” (i.e. delete) all existing information about it.
  • The right to return you from an agreement that has already been granted: If consent has been given for any use of information, the customer can always change his mind and return it with his consent

The GDPR and inwise

Since its inception, inwise has been committed to respecting privacy and maintaining strict information security. As part of the company’s GDPR implementation assessments, we review and update internal procedures and documents in the field of information security and privacy, as well as update our privacy statement and terms of use.

How inwise system help you meet regulatory requirements

  • Registration forms and landing pages allow you to collect new registrants including a timestamp and an IP address. We recommend that you use an unmarked checkbox that confirms receiving mailings.
  • Proper disclosure of the purpose of collecting information is recommended.
  • Allow removal: inwise system automatically adds a removal option at the bottom of each mail.
  • Information updates and preference changes: You can do this for your customers at any time on your own, and you can also use a detailed update form that will allow your contacts to do it themselves.
  • Deleting Information: When contacting inwise support department, you can request the permanent deletion of your customer information. The full GDPR regulatory requirements document can be found here:
    https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2016.119.01.0001.01.ENG