Title: Seattle Sage ACT! 2011 Roadshow – October 13
Location: Lynnwood Convention Center (North Seattle)
Link out: Click here
Description: Signup and Agenda: http://www.actplatinum.com/event.html

If you are finding your sales and marketing efforts fizzling instead of sizzling – come to our \”When Opportunity Knocks – ACT! Rocks!\” seminar. This no-cost seminar is designed for every business that could use more business. We will show you that by making connections and using the great tools found in ACT! (the #1 Contact Management program) will allow you to make the most of every opportunity and convert your leads into more closed sales. Plus with the release of ACT! 2011 you will see the new enhancements that will save you time and money.

Inviting business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals to an afternoon packed with information and tips that you can use right away. This seminar is ideal for current owners of ACT! software or if your business is needing a CRM solution.

We look forward to seeing you October 13th!

Bridgette Boyle & the Platinum CRM Consulting Team

http://www.actplatinum.com

Start Time: 13:30
Date: 2010-10-13
End Time: 16:45

Title: Seattle Sage ACT! 2011 Roadshow
Location: Lynnwood Convention Center (North Seattle)
Link out: Click here
Description: Parking: Free
Signup and Agenda: http://www.actplatinum.com/event.html

If you are finding your sales and marketing efforts fizzling instead of sizzling – come to our \”When Opportunity Knocks – ACT! Rocks!\” seminar. This no-cost seminar is designed for every business that could use more business. We will show you that by making connections and using the great tools found in ACT! (the #1 Contact Management program) will allow you to make the most of every opportunity and convert your leads into more closed sales. Plus with the release of ACT! 2011 you will see the new enhancements that will save you time and money.

Inviting business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals to an afternoon packed with information and tips that you can use right away. This seminar is ideal for current owners of ACT! software or if you business is needing a CRM solution.

We look forward to seeing you October 13th!

Bridgette Boyle & the Platinum CRM Consulting Team

http://www.actplatinum.com

Start Time: 1:30 PM
Date: 2010-10-13
End Time: 4:45 PM

My company is a member of several local chambers of commerce and there seems to be a chamber sponsored networking event every day. Since time and money are limited resources we have to be selective in the events to participate in.  As a B-to-B business, we find that the chamber’s annual tradeshows to be the best investment in that they have high attendance and lots of business owners.  Exhibiting in a trade show is an excellent opportunity for our company to gain exposure and connect with decision makers to generate new business.  

Through trial and error we’ve learned that a successful trade show takes lots and lots of preparation.  Using ACT! helps us in organizing our trade show activities and marketing the event to our Customers and Prospects.  We make sure to engage our contacts before, during and after any event.
 
Before the Show – Generate the BUZZ
A trade show is a great way to introduce a new product or service, or to demonstrate how existing products or services will benefit an attendee’s business.  Invitations are sent to our contacts encouraging them to attend the event, we always provide show-only promotions as a thank you.  We create a custom Drip Marketing campaign to provide information about the show using our ACT! program and incorporate a variety of communication methods.
 
 -> Create Custom Letter, Postcard and/or E-mail Templates and personalize the invitations and announcements
 -> Send ACT E-marketing and track the interest level (opens & clicks) of the recipients with the built in reporting feature
 -> Make Phone Calls either from a list from ACT! or a Call List created from an ACT E-Marketing and personally invite our contacts to the show
 -> Social Media Updates post announcements on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or other channels
 
During the Show - Build Your Database
We draw attendees to our booth by having a live demonstration of ACT! software in action.  Our WOW factor is showing  that ACT! is more than just a place to keep your contacts, it can help you understand your business and solve business problems.  I love to have engaging conversations and share information, I will make it a point to jot down a short comment on what idea, problem or question was the topic of conversation so I can respond to any opportunities.  Knowing that everyone likes to win a prize we incorporate a business card drawing for free software and no-one walks away empty handed as we provide free 30 day trials and other helpful materials as reminders of our business, products and services.  

After the Show – FOLLOW-UP
We always feel great after a show; meet lots of people, have dynamic conversations and receive all of that positive feedback.  However, the show isn’t a success unless we dedicate time to immediately follow-up.  First we take all of those business cards gathered at the show and use ScanIT to import the contacts into our database – what a time saver!  Next is generating the BUZZ after the show by placing phone calls and sending Letter, Postcard and/or Emails to those who attended and those who couldn’t attend the show.  Based on interest level we place the contact in one of our post-show drip marketing campaigns to send reminders of how we can help their business.  Follow-up is a must and an ongoing process for relationship building.

So go showcase your business at your chamber’s next trade show, get involved in your local community. If you’re new to trade show marketing, as ACT! Marketing Experts and Swiftpage Gold Drip Marketing Certified Consultant we can help you with generating your BUZZ.  If you can’t exhibit then attend, we would love you to come to our next tradeshow - stop by and say hello.  You may even catch us sending twitter updates while at the show!

Your brand is your company’s face to the world; it starts with your business name, your logo and the colors used that represent you business identity.  This imagery is your first impression to potential customers and like it or not, you are either attracting or repelling them on visual representation alone.  A strong brand and what it stands for (you) is invaluable as the battle for customers intensifies in this challenging economy.

If your branding is good, it will separate you from your competitors. Some elements to consider when evolving your brand’s identity are:

• Is your business name identifiable and memorable? 
• Does your company logo reflect your business name, products or services? 
• Your logo is the visual component for your business, is your logo design and colors appealing?
• Does the font types, sizes and colors you use in your communications reflective of your business identity?

Once you have identified the elements of your brand you will want to place them into action.  From your website to your marketing materials (web, print, social media and advertising), everything needs to incorporate your brand elements.  Brand consistency enhances credibility and builds trust with current and potential clients. Otherwise, to deter from your brand identity will dilute your brand and confuse your intended audience.

Interacting with your customers and prospects, every business can use ACT! Software.  It’s a dynamic CRM system ideal for tracking sales, marketing endeavors, customer service and support, and daily business operations – key components to the success of any business. The program is customizable and you will save time by modifying your communication templates to incorporate your brand identify.   These templates can be shared among employees, increasing the consistentacy with communicating your brand.  You can modify:

1)     Document templates – When reaching out to your targeted audience through traditional marketing, easily customize your letters and customer documents with your logo, fonts and colors.

 2)     E-mail Templates – ACT! enables you to deliver your information consistently and successfully using the same word processing templates.  Or modify your existing templates to include hyperlinks and/or modify your graphics to accommodate e-mail size limits.

 3)     Quote Template – Customize the ACT! Opportunities Quote template with your branding for your sales staff, reinforcing your corporate identity into their sales endeavors.  

 4)     Report Templates – Customizing Reports with your branding for both internal and external communications helps keep the information simple and consistent.

Being consistent is not a difficult task; it is just one that needs focus and attention.  Once your customizations are complete, you are ready to show the world who you are and what you have to offer.

It happened again…we received a phone call from a company who experienced a hardware failure which meant their server was out of commission.  They needed to restore their server and ACT! database as soon as possible to prevent further impact to business operations.

Prior to calling us, their IT guy said “no problem”, “we backup the server nightly so we’ll just conduct a restore and you’ll be back in business”.  Well, there was a problem, their backup system wasn’t properly backing up the ACT! database files.  Neither the company nor the IT guy ever thought of testing a restore prior to this emergency.

This is a call that is dreaded by all in our line of work – we feel the customer’s pain.  Losing data can have a disastrous impact on any business.  It is imperative to have a database recovery process in place and to test this process. 

Every database recovery process should include using the ACT! scheduler.  All ACT! 2009 products come with a scheduler where the utility can perform unattended database backups and maintenance.  Any ACT! administrator or manager user can create a regular schedule for creating database backups.

What files are included in an ACT! backup?

Database
Attached Documents
Layouts
Document Templates
Report Templates
Saved Queries
ACT! 2009 now has the option to reduce the size of backup files by excluding attachments from ACT! database backups, allowing backups to complete more quickly, particularly if you have a large number of attached documents.

Now that you have your backup, test your recovery process by restoring the backup to ensure it opens and operates as expected.  Having a tested database recovery process is your insurance policy against a business disaster.

So don’t delay and start your ACT! Scheduler service today!