Over time I’ve tried various card scanners and integrated software that made them work with CRM applications, including Sage ACT! 2011 Premium. The current scanning solution I recommend is the Scan Shell 800NR from Card Scanning Solutions.

The 800NR hardware appears to be more reliable. With other solutions, I ended up sending the unit back for a replacement every year or so, even though covered under warranty was a pain and motivated me to look for another solution. Other products did not include the integration with ACT that I was looking for, as all I wanted to have to do was scan and review the contact information without any extra steps involved.

The Scan Shell captured most business cards, scanning them successfully, and if a duplicate entry was about to be created you are asked if you want to proceed. One thing I have noticed is that when some business cards do not scan successfully, it has to do with the graphics and font that were used — as a result I have to manually enter these cards. As a professional I would ensure that your business card is actually scannable as more and more people are using automating technology to save time and money.

Here is a link to the Scan Shell 800NR solution and enjoy!

If you have ACT! 2010 or 2011 and you’re not using the Web Info tab you are missing the banana boat as we say in Florida. And, if you haven’t figured out how to use the Web Info tab in conjunction with your favorite social networking sites, then you’re in for a treat.

You’ll find the Web Info tab in both the Contact and Company Detail views. The Web Info tab is actually a browser that displays information based on data in various fields on a contact or company record.  ACT! comes with a number of links to sites including Google Search, Google Maps and Weather.com so you can instantly scour the Net for more information or just see what the weather is like in your contact’s location.  You can also easily add new sites; for example, many of my clients like to create a link between their contacts and Twitter.

By far my favorite web link is the one to LinkedIn.  LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site mainly used for professional networking; as of the latest count LinkedIn had more than 80 million registered users. The beauty of sites like LinkedIn is that they offer you another way to stay in front of your contacts; any posts you make on your LinkedIn site are visible to all of your LinkedIn contacts.  And, in the event that a contact leaves his place of employment and changes his e-mail address, you’ll still be able to connect with him.

Here’s how you can start building your own LinkedIn network in 5 easy steps.

1. Start by logging in to your LinkedIn account.
2. Create a Lookup of the ACT! Contacts that you’d like to add to LinkedIn.
3. Click the Web Info tab on the Contacts Detail View and select the LinkedIn link that runs along the left-hand side of the Web Info tab.
4. LinkedIn will search its database for matches to the current contact record.  Click the Add to Network hyperlink on the Web Info tab to send a LinkedIn invitation to the current contact.
5. Advance to the next Contact record and repeat the process.

Many ACT! users start out by creating a Lookup of all their customers and connecting to them.  If you’ve recently joined a networking group or attended a trade show you might want to “link up” with those contacts. Eventually you might get into the habit of checking the status of any contact you’re currently working with.

Social networking is becoming an essential method of communication.  If you’re an ACT! user you can stay in touch with your important contacts at the touch of a button.

Karen Fredricks
blog@techbenders.com
www.techbenders.com

Last article I discussed creating a Facebook Page for your business - so now what?  The next step should be to get people to your company’s Facebook Page and start interacting with your visitors.  Some ideas to generate interest are to offer a special deal, a contest or better yet something for free.

Facebook Pages come with standard tabs (Wall, Info, Photos, etc…) and adding your special offer might get lost if you post it on one of these tabs.  By using an application (app) called Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language) you can add a custom tab just for your special offer.  To add the tab, log into Facebook and navigate to http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4949752878 (we also placed a link on our Facebook Page’s Favorite Pages area at www.facebook.com/ACTPLATINUM).  Click the ‘Add to my Page’ link on the left navigation bar below the Static FBML logo.  Once the app has been added click the ‘Edit Page’ link below your Company’s logo on your Page, then select  the ‘Edit’ link under the Static FBML app. You will be able to add a title to your tab and the content, formatting the content is similar to HTML and a good reference is located at:  http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Allowed_FBML_and_HTML_Tags

You can add a form to your FBML tab to request and capture information about your visitors.  If you are a Swiftpage or ACT! E-marketing customer you can embed a survey and to ask for specific data from your visitors, we have an example on our Facebook Page at:  http://www.facebook.com/ACTPLATINUM?v=app_4949752878
Once the visitor completes your survey you will receive their form data via email to let you know they are interested in your offer.

If you are a Pro or Team subscriber for Swiftpage or ACT! E-marketing you will have a powerful integration feature for your surveys and ACT! database.  You will be able to link your survey fields to your ACT! database fields and be able to download your survey responses as new contact records to your database.  Once in ACT! you will be able to segment the contacts for targeted sales and marketing efforts and use the Smart Tasks feature new to ACT! 2011.  List building made easy!

More and more businesses are incorporating Facebook into their social media portfolio as a communications and  marketing tool, capitalizing on Facebook’s traffic. It’s another point of presence for your business as Facebook Pages are public and search engines will display them in their results, best of all it’s free.

Facebook has Profiles and Pages, Profiles are used by individuals and Pages are for businesses.  One item to note is that you must have a Facebook Profile to create a Page for your business.  My company recently created a new Facebook Page for our business and we wanted to provide some tips to help avoid some of the pitfalls we discovered when we set up our original business Page. 

Creating a Page is easy, log in to Facebook and navigate to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.   You will need to select a category for your Page; “Local business”, “Brand, product, or organization” or “Artist, band or public figure”.  The selection you make here will determine what information about your business you will be able to display on the Info Tab of your Facebook Page.  When we created our first Page we chose “local business”. This selection has the limitation of only being able to display Website and Parking options for the Detailed Info on the Page’s Info Tab.  Once you make your category selection you cannot change it and why we chose to create a new business Page, this time selecting the “Brand, product, or organization” category.  With this selection we are able to display our Website, Company Overview, Mission, and Products details on the Page’s Info Tab – allowing you to enter a lot more information and searchable content.

Another important item is your Page Name. Unless you are a well known brand, you will want to use your company name and include a description of your products or services, for example ours is “ACTPLATINUM.com – ACT! by Sage CRM Consulting, Training and Software Sales”.  By doing this your Page will display on the Facebook search results for any of the words used in your Page Name.  Once you have at least 25 people “Like” your Page, you will be able to create a custom username to easily access your Facebook presence – for example ours is www.facebook.com/ACTPLATINUM.

Check the box stating you are the official representative and click the Create Official Page button – you have just created the Facebook Page for your business.  Now let everyone know.

The next step should be promoting your company’s Facebook Page and start interacting with your visitors.  Some ideas to generate interest are to offer a special deal, a contest or better yet something of value for free. 

“Like” us on Facebook  and you will receive a free Lookup Bad Email Addresses Utility for ACT! 2010 and ACT! 2009.  With more and more companies using e-mail marketing and with the introduction of ACT!’s new E-marketing feature powered by Swiftpage E-mail the email address field in your database is very important. This is a great tool to quickly clean up the email address field for ACT!.  Be sure to share your experience in using the utility with other ACT! users on our Facebook Page!

I love sports and I’m a sucker for Cinderella stories so I was pretty excited to see that Butler made it all the way to the NCAA Basketball Championship final this week.  After all, if my beloved Gators couldn’t be there I was glad to see that my dad’s alma mater was represented.  Maybe I’m prejudiced, but it seemed to me that most of the country was rooting for Butler.  Most of us like to cheer for the underdog and since many folks had never even heard of Butler until the Final Four they were indeed the underdogs against #1 Ranked Duke.

 Like it or not, unless you’re working for one of the Fortune 500 companies you too are an underdog when it comes to your business.  It’s an uphill battle to get your name to stand out against the competition.  Compounding the problem is some scary information that I read years ago that still reverberates.  It takes an average of 12 touches to convert a prospect into a customer.  And, 50% of sales people give up after the first effort; 90% give up after the second.

Wow!  With the odds so highly stacked against us it’s tempting to wave the white flag and admit defeat.  But like Butler, or Jimmy Conners who came back from a 1-6, 1-6 deficit to win Wimbledon in 1987, you have to focus on what you can do and not on what the other guy is doing.

 Here’s a few coaching tips that apply to both sports and, more importantly, your business.

1.  Act like a hero.  Think of the frustrations you’ve had when contacting large companies (don’t get me started on Comcast!) and then do the opposite when interacting with your customers and prospects.
2. Out-distance your competition.  I always said that if the other guy only tries to reach someone twice, I’d try to reach them three times.  If it takes twelve attempts to win a new customer then make those twelve attempts.
3. Use the proper equipment.  I doubt that Conners could have won Wimbledon with a broken racquet or holes in his tennis shoes.  If you’re going to resort to e-marketing use an ESP (e-mail service provider) to track your results.  And by all means use an effective database tool to help you focus on the correct audience.
4. If you can’t be bigger, be smarter.  Was it me or did the Butler guys look a heck of a lot smaller than the Duke players?  The fact that they almost won gives testament to the believe that brains can conquer brawn. 
5. Don’t think meat, just pitch.  In case you didn’t catch it, that’s a reference to what Kevin Costner told Tim Robbins in the baseball classic, Bull Durham.  He was trying to get “Nuke” to stop over-thinking everything and trust his mentor.  Trust your coach or, if you don’t have one and you’re struggling, hire a great coach or consultant to help you out.  It works for major class athletes and it will work for you.

 Let the games begin!

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!

Videos can be a great marketing tool to engage your prospects and customers. As examples, you can create videos that can capture your products or services in use, show off your amazing team, advantages over your competition, and provide testimonials of your business by your customers. With the widespread availability of video capturing tools, videos can be created on any budget size.

Using YouTube to host your videos will allow you to upload and share your videos, generating traffic to your website. YouTube is the leader in online video sharing sites and according to Alexa, the authority in website statistics, YouTube has the 3rd highest traffic rank for the entire web – capitalize on their traffic. YouTube is free and they also offer pay per click video promotion services.

Get Started – Sign up and create your YouTube account. As you enter the registration information keep in mind the most important item will be your User Name, this is used as your channel name. Be identifiable and make the User Name your company name, your brand or your website domain, for example our user name is ACTPLATINUM, our website domain, and our YouTube channel URL is www.youtube.com/ACTPLATINUM. (TIP: Use the same identifier for all of your social media pages.) Enter a Title for your channel, add tags – key words for people to find your channel, a profile description of your business, and your company website to link back and encourage visitors. You can upload your logo, change the background and use colors to match your business identity.

Upload Your Videos – Click the bright yellow Upload button, then optimize the video by entering the Title, Description and Tags loaded with key words that are important for searchers to find your videos and business. Place your company’s website somewhere in the beginning of the Description to generate traffic to your site. YouTube allows you to embed videos on other websites, so be sure to place a key video or two on your website’s homepage (we did on our homepage at www.actplatinum.com).

Join the Conversation – Start networking by subscribing to channels of your vendors, suppliers, associations, referral partners or customers and “Favorite” their videos that have relative content to your business. Your Favorites List can be displayed to your channel viewers. Link your Facebook and Twitter social media accounts with your channel that will send notifications to your Friends and Followers of new video uploads or favorites. We recently started our channel www.youtube.com/ACTPLATINUM featuring some of our great customers, add-ons for ACT! by Sage Software and Napkin Mike- please join the conversation!

A few years back I worked with a large cruise line company.  Although the cruise line spared no expensive when it came to onboard amenities, the CEO flatly refused to spend money on an ESP (e-mail service provider) to help send out his e-marketing campaign to his very large user base.  Within a very short period of time, he managed to get his entire company domain black-listed to the point where he could no longer send messages to even his own family members.

Once your e-mail address –or worse yet – your company’s domain – becomes black listed it can take you months or years to get the problem rectified.  And, even if you don’t get blacklisted, most spam filters will eat your message for lunch if you don’t follow a few e-mail best practices.

Here’s my short list of suggestions:

1. Scrub your database.  Make sure that you aren’t emailing to e-mail addresses that have bounced in the past or are just plain invalid.  Avoid sending your message to duplicate addresses or generic addresses that start with “info” or “webmaster”.
2. Make sure you’re spam compliant by following the Can-Spam law.  Basically you need to make sure you have procedures in place for users to easily opt-out of future mailings, and include a valid mailing address in your message.
3. Use an ESP (email service provider) that uses a valid form of e-mail authentication.  That basically means that your e-mail blast comes from an authorized source.  These folks spend lots of time – and money – making sure that their emails get through to the folks using the Big Three for their e-mail (Yahoo, AOL and Google).
4. Time the frequency of your mailings; sending out a monthly newsletter is much more appealing than sending out a daily special pricing offer.  Target your mailings so that you are not sending your message to folks who have absolutely no interest in your products.  
5. Make sure you know the difference between plain text and HTML e-mails.  If you want to include graphics in your e-mail blast you’ll need an HTML editor or risk having your message show up as a jumbled mess.
6. Avoid common spam triggers like exclamation points, red lettering and words like “sale.”   

If you’re new to the world of e-marketing you’ll want to consult with an expert for a while.   They’ll be able to help you master the process and avoid some serious blunders.

Karen Fredricks
blog@techbenders.com
www.techbenders.com

One of my clients recently sent me a one of his proposed e-marketing templates for my review.  He had spent quite a bit of time developing his message and was understandably quite proud of it.  What he had in mind was for me to review it, make a few suggestions and fix any typos I might find.  He was no doubt expecting a few words of praise, or, at the very least, a large smiley face.  What he got was a totally reworked piece that bore little resemblance to his original chef-d’oeuvre; I did, however, refrain from placing a large red “F” at the top.

As an author I’ve been critiqued by some of the best editors in the world and I know the process.  It’s not unusual for the early drafts of my books to return to me in the form of road kill.  As the daily recipient of dozens of pieces of spam I know which messages will make their way through – and which messages will take a permanent place in the Spam Folder.

My rule of thumb for writing a marketing piece is to pretend that I am writing to one of my buddies with a bit of friendly advice.  You might want to think about the following parts of your message before sending out your next blast:

1.        Subject line:  This is absolutely the most important part of your message because it will determine whether or not your e-mail is opened.  Take a look at your own Inbox and determine which message you opened and which you immediately marked as Spam.

2.       Length:  Do you have time to read a two page message from a stranger, or someone you barely know?  After you write your piece go back and remove any unnecessary verbiage. Keep you sentences brief and to the point.

3.       Tone:  Keep it simple and friendly.  Period.  Don’t lecture.  Don’t sell and/or come across like a carnival vendor. 

4.       Formatting:  If your message is clear you don’t need to resort to bold, underlined and red formatting, and avoid using ALL CAPS.  This type of formatting will make readers think you are shouting at them and will cause spam filters to gobble up your messages and spit out the pieces.

5.       Bullet points:  Yes, pithy little statements neatly arranged with bullets can be effective – but only if they are done extremely well.  In my client’s case his bullets had no symmetry; some started with sentences, others with verbs, some focused on his product and others on the customer. 

6.       Blatant sales pitches:  Granted, some of your product pricing might include a manufacturer’s discount or rebate that you’ll want to share with your recipients.  My client, however, offered a “3 day only” offer for his services knowing full well that he’d offer the same “deal” at any time.

7.       Closing:  This one should be simple.  Do you normally sign your emails with your own name or just that of your company? 

Put yourself in the shoes of your recipient, keep your message simple and you’ll find that writing great marketing pieces is easier than you think!

 Karen Fredricks
blog@techbenders.com
www.techbenders.com

If you don’t already have a Twitter Account you need to signup. You can’t search for people on Twitter without a Twitter account. The “Twitter UserName” link will be useful once you know a contact’s “Twitter Username”. I called my Web Info Tab link the “Twitter UserName”.  I also named the new Act Contact Field “Twitter UserName” field (no quotes), to be consistent with why I created the field. This link will automatically focus on the Tweets of your currently displayed Act Contact, by automatically inserting the “Twitter Username” into the Twitter URL link from the Act WebInfo Tab.

Adding Twitter UserName URL to the Web Info Tab in ACT! 2010  will take several steps. First, defining a new Act Contact Field, then editing your Contact Layout so you can view and use the new Act field. A very useful tutorial is provided in Act 2010, demonstrating creating a drop down list, creating a new Act field, and editing a contact layout. Please note, you will not need a drop down list for the TwitterUserName Field. If you have not customized your Act database or an Act Layout, now would be a good time to view the Customization Tour.  From the Act menu click Help, then Features Tour, and then Customization. The Customization Tour takes about 10 minutes to view.

Create a new Contact field called “Twitter UserName”.
Define a new Act Contact field called “Twitter UserName” (no quotes necessary), and then add the field to an Act Contact Layout so you can see the field. By the way you don’t have to name your Act Contact Field the same as mine, just trying to be consistent. After you create the new field, close the define fields window, a popup will ask if you want to add the new field to your Contact Layout, say yes. The Contact Layout is how the Act fields are displayed on your monitor.  After you have added the new Act field and customized the Act layout, go to you’re contact record(My Record), and insert your Twitter User Name in the new field. Stay on your contact record, and now proceed to creating the Web Info Tab Link below.

Create the “Twitter UserName” link on the Web Info Tab.
Start Act and click the Web Info tab. The Web Info Tab in Act 2010 has several default links that were automatically created when Act was installed. Some of the Act WebInfo Tab default links are for use with Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Maps, and Yahoo People, etc. Click the “Edit Links” button, your now viewing the “Edit Links Window”. Now click the “Add Button”.  In the “Site Name” box name the link “Twitter UserName”. Twitter URL is http://twitter.com . Click on the “Advanced Edit” button. Now your viewing the “Advanced Edit” window, which shows a list of the Act Contact Fields in your Act database. Scroll the list until you find the “Twitter UserName” field, or what ever you named your Twitter Field, left click to highlight. Click the Add button. Please observe the complete url will look like this http://twitter.com/{Contact.Twitter UserName} there will be an example value displaying the current Act contact’s TwitterUserName in your database. Please note the result URL field be automatically filled in also.PS – Don’t forget to populate your contact’s “Twitter UserName” field with data. No data nothing to pass to the “Twitter UserName” link. Click the link and you will be viewing Tweets from your current contact.