Author: Jack Corrao iii

Sales and Marketing Automation…Let’s Work Together

marketing automation

You’ve heard it many times before and we’ll say it again now, Sales and Marketing need to be on the same page. Marketing automation makes the connection simple because both departments have a shared common database where marketing insight is provided to the Sales team. Thus, making it easier for them to coexist efficiently. This will then allow them focus on more important tasks, like prospect conversion, instead of each other. Sales isn’t worried about unqualified leads because the marketing automation system is only handing them off when they are qualified.

Tracking data through marketing automation has never been easier. With that data you can determine the strengths and weaknesses in your sales funnel, allowing you to make any necessary changes for the better.  You can also track team member efforts within the sales and marketing departments…(hello incentive to do better).

The data you’ve collected (email clicks, content downloads, website visits) gives you insight into what the prospect/customer is thinking and ultimately what interests them. Knowing what they like and dislike gives you the upper hand to customize everything to them, creating a superior experience. In most cases, a customers mind sees experience > price.

With that being said, marketing automation helps sales by bringing them only qualified prospects and marketing will be able to attract new prospects. Win-Win for both departments. If you would like to learn more about marketing automation, please visit our Salesforce page.

Better Experience = More Loyal Customers

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Pardot’s Shortcuts!

Taken from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a shortcut is considered ” a method or means of doing something more directly and quickly than and often not so thoroughly as by ordinary procedure.” Based upon that definition, why wouldn’t you use shortcuts? With Pardot shortcuts, you will be able to navigate through the tools a lot easier!

So let’s get to it.

In Pardot, hold down the Shift button and press the “?” key and the following window will pop up:pardot shortcuts

Memorize these and impress your fellow associates!

If you would like to learn more about Pardot, please visit our Salesforce page.


The Benefits of Lead Nurturing

lead nurturing

Why Should I Nurture My Leads?

Lead nurturing requires thoughtful communications, not the copying and pasting of generic sales emails in attempt to receive a reply back. When a lead nurturing program is functional, your prospects are receiving targeted content based upon their actual activities and interests, which ultimately provides them with what they want to see. If a prospect has visited a specific product page of yours for about 5-10 minutes, why shouldn’t an email automatically be sent to that prospect with further information and a notification go out to a sales rep? 

The statistics

26% of today’s marketers receive a 10% – 20% greater response from their lead nurturing campaigns than those who use standardized email campaigns. On top of that, more than a quarter of marketers receive a 20% – 30% greater increase in responses using automatic lead nurturing campaigns in comparison to marketers who do not use a nurturing campaign. (Demand Gen Report, 2015)

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How to Export your Salesforce Leads & Contacts to Import into Pardot

Once your Salesforce connector is enabled in Pardot, the existing Salesforce leads and contacts do NOT automatically sync to Pardot. You will need to export your existing leads and contacts from Salesforce into a .CSV file.

Upon importing Contacts and Leads, Pardot will sync the prospect record with the existing Salesforce lead or contact record. If Pardot and Salesforce values differ when a data sync occurs, the value of the field in Salesforce will overwrite the value of the field in Pardot, unless you set field sync to “Use Pardot Value” on the individual field. 

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4 Easy Marketing Strategies to Attract the Millennial Generation

millennial marketing

Millennial marketing is an art of its own. Have you been wondering how to market to the millennial generation? Here are our top 4 tips for creating an effective marketing strategy that attracts millennials!

1. Utilize the Social Network Dynamic

Millennials = digital generation. Millennials consume content across multiple channels; utilize this by putting your content on their most active platforms.

2. Make Them Feel Like an Individual

No one likes being labeled as #basic. Recognize your millennial customer for what makes them stand out! Repost their photos with your product and why it makes them stand out from the regular consumer.

3. Don’t Forget About Word-of-Mouth

 “A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is—it is what consumers tell each other it is”– Scott Cook, the founder and CEO of Intuit.

If you trust someone, you will generally listen to them and the advice they give you. Create dialogue with market influencers because this will create more talk between them and potentially millennial customers.

4. Talk to Them!

Have you ever talked to a wall? It’s not fun. Don’t let those who want to engage with your brand talk to a wall, talk back to them! Interacting with millennials via social media about your content and their thoughts creates more trust, which gets you one step closer to a brand-loyal customer.

To learn more about marketing strategies, please visit our website.

Goals: Marketing Automation | SMART Framework

marketing goals

Before you finish reading about how to set your Marketing Automation goals for the year, block out some time on your Calendar because it’s time to set goals. Really, you should block out time.  Are you busy this weekend?

It happens all the time. You set time aside for your team to set goals for the week, month, year, etc. but when that time comes around, there’s always something that is a higher priority and the goals meeting gets pushed back. Although there’s nothing wrong with that, it means business is going great! It does becomes a problem when it’s mid February and you don’t have your yearly goals set. 

Once your goal setting meeting begins, where do you start? Do you have a personal goal-setting model? Have you been using a proven model that the organization has been using for decades? Are you just “winging it?” (If it’s the last option, you should probably block out your whole next week). 

One of the more popular, proven models that work for a wide range of companies is the SMART Goal Setting Framework Model. We’d like you to hear about this framework from our favorite Marketing Automation System, Pardot: Setting Marketing Automation Goals. If you would like to learn more about marketing automation, please visit our Salesforce page.

Pardot Accelerates Everything

Pardot automation should no longer be known as solely a marketing automation system, because it’s an everything automation system.

“We didn’t purchase Pardot, we hired it. We pay a virtual assistant $.34 per hour.”

As certified Salesforce and Pardot partners, as well as everyday power users, Corrao Group has gained insight unlike anyone else in discovering how to use Pardot and Salesforce to their maximum potential across your complete company.

Our brand new product, EZ-AR, automates your entire Accounts Receivable process from invoice generation to track invoice deliveries, openings, and payments easily. The advanced reporting provides real time visibility to payment engagement and aging follow-up. EZ-AR has cut down DSO by 50%.

Pardot automation does not stop there.

Pardot automation can also be applied to  Project Management, Sales Automation, Sales Operations and more.

To learn how Pardot can automate everything, please visit the Customer Success Alliance.

pardot automationpardot automationpardot automationpardot automationpardot automation

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5 Steps to Take Before your Salesforce Implementation

Not sure where to start when it comes to your Salesforce implementation? We have curated a list of the 5 most important steps to take before your Salesforce implementation.

1

Boost Implementation Support

Group projects are difficult when you’re doing it alone, get your organization on board with the implementation. Start at the top with the CEO, COO, etc. and work your way down. Once the top levels show enthusiasm and support, others will follow.

2

Acknowledge all Sectors in the Sales Cycle

The sales department is not the only division recognized in the Salesforce cycle. Make sure to identify all departments and know how to support them before and after the implementation.

3

Clean your Data before the Implementation

Cleansing your data prior to implementation will save you a lot of time and distress after the process is complete. Would your Sales team trust the system if the last two  contacts they called were the wrong number? Just imagine if the first name is incorrect…

4

Implement the System in Phases

“You can’t build a great building on a weak foundation. You must have a solid foundation if you’re going to have a strong superstructure.” -Gordon B. Hinckley

Salesforce is not a pool you want to jump right into. With so many different capabilities to manage, it is easy for users to feel lost. Take on the implementation in phases so that you can build on a foundation and not get overwhelmed.

5

Get a Professional

Salesforce can do wonders for you, it just needs to be setup correctly. Ask for professional consultation from certified Salesforce partners who have been implementing the product for years. Implementing Salesforce should not be taken lightly, it needs to be done right. 

Pardot New Feature Roundup – August 2016

Check out what’s new in Pardot this month!

Monthly Inactive Automation Report

This new email notification will automatically provide you with easy visibility into automations in your account that have been inactive during the past 30 days. These automations include Drip Programs/Engagement Studios, Dynamic Lists, and Automation Rules.

Email A/B Toggling

Enabling A/B testing has just gotten easier. From the email creation window, toggle A/B testing on and off, all the while deciding on which version you should keep for future campaigns.

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Updated Form reCAPTCHA

By default, Pardot has built-in bot protection using a hidden method called honeypot. Due to spam improving, Pardot has increased their efforts for spam prevention. If the visitor’s IP address is a known spammer, Pardot will display a CAPTCHA that once filled out, rejects the submission.

Email Click API Documentation

Learn more about Querying email clicks here.

[Early Access] Customizable Prospects Table

Fill out this form to apply for the early access feature, customizable prospects table. Be a part of helping Pardot become even more user friendly! This feature allows you to rearrange columns and display what you want to see in your prospect table.

To view all these updates and more, check out Pardot’s new features. If you’re not familiar with these tools mentioned above, would like some help getting started, or would like to leverage our digital marketing agency to run them for you, please fill out this form on our website.

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Use Pardot Dynamic Content to Boost ROI

Using Pardot Dynamic Content is one of the easiest ways to customize and personalize your prospect’s experience. Using what you know about your prospects,you can display to them relevant content based on their specific needs and criteria.

Say you want to send out a mass email but you want it to speak to all the recipients on a personal level. Easy. You have the ability to create different variations of the email’s content that will only be seen by prospects that fit within specified categories. For example, you can send one email to a list of 5,000 prospects and the content will be different based upon their Job title. Job title is only 1 of many criteria examples that you can use.

Now your prospect thinks you took the time to send them personal content when in reality all you did was click a few buttons. Just about 74% of people get flustered when content sent to them is irrelevant to their interests. Make it easy on your prospects by giving them exactly what they want thus making it easier for you to turn that prospect into a customer. If you need help setting this up, please visit our Salesforce page to learn more.

Paying customers = ROI

pardot dynamic content

^ Your prospect when they open their custom email ^

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