VerticalResponse for AppExchange Blog

Non-Profits Mail "On the House"

If you're currently enjoying the 10 free Enterprise licenses you get with Salesforce as a non-profit, get ready for something really great.

VerticalResponse has had great success with our business, and always strives to make a difference, whether participating in local volunteer programs, or the non-profit discount we started over a year ago.  We understand how tough it can be to keep a small organization running, especially on a tight budget, so we didn't want to stop there.

So, last week during our Spring Marketing Conference, CEO Janine Popick announced that non-profits now email for free!

Here's How It All Works...

• All approved 501(c)3 non-profit organizations qualify for this program

• You'll be able to email up to 10,000 emails per month for free


• Any unused credits expire at the end of the month, but never fear, your account will be replenished with 10,000 new email credits at the beginning of each new month

• If you need to email more than 10,000 each month, you'll still receive that 15% discount on your your purchase of email credits that you know and love

Ready to Sign Up?

Just fax us the application form; we'll check to make sure you're not fibbing about our 501(c)3 status, and then we'll flip the switch.

If you've already signed up with VerticalResponse to receive the 15% non-profit discount,  shoot us an email at nonprofits@verticalresponse.com with your username to let us know you want to take advantage of emailing for free.

Click here for complete details!

-Chris Carpio, Product Manager

When Competitors Stretch the Truth

We got word from a customer that reps from another email marketing company have been saying a few things while selling against VerticalResponse that were, well, just not true.  The company will remain nameless, but let's just say their company shares the same initials as a certain big-headed alien with a sweet tooth for Reese's Pieces.  So, we thought we'd shine a light on some of the misinformation they are sharing with their prospects and customers.

We get it, it's a competitive world, and we like these guys a lot, but if they're going to share information about us, we'd just like them to get the facts right. So here are a few things they mentioned and our response...

*Disclaimer: Although we're posting the exact quotes, we've changed the company's name to Reese's Pieces.

"Reese's Pieces trusts you, the marketer, with all bounces and unsubscribes.  VerticalResponse quarantines this data and does not allow access to it.  Therefore, there is no way to then run reports off of these key metrics."

I can think of 3 ways to get this data within the VR app, but here's the quick and dirty way:

1) Go into the Reports tab

2) Scroll down to the pre-built VR Email History reports

3) Click on "Contacts: Bounced", "Contacts: Unsubscribed", "Leads: Bounced" and "Leads: Unsubscribed"

Et voila!  You have a complete list of all your Bounces and Unsubscribes.

"You have one "from" address with VerticalResponse. So when you want your reps to maintain that one-to-one relationship with their prospects, forget about it. Your from address would be creative@mail.vresp.com, so your prospect might not know who that is. With a reply address of vresp.com and a domain of YourCompanyName, the ISP’s may think that you are phishing and blacklist you or send you to the spam filter."

Each email sent through VerticalResponse can have a different "reply-to" email address, and the user simply specifies the "reply-to" prior to launching the email campaign. So, if your org is sending out multiple email campaigns, you can specify a different "reply-to" email for each of the emails.

VerticalResponse emails are sent through the domain mail.vresp.com but there are actually a few reasons for it. VR authenticates all emails using SPF, Sender-ID and DomainKeys. If we allowed users to "spoof" the domain, we wouldn't be able to send fully authenticated emails for those users. Authenticating emails is a general practice and not doing so can greatly compromise email deliverability. We've chosen "vresp.com" since it doesn't include any branding and recipients will not recognize that domain and associate it with our long domain of verticalresponse.com. So, if your "From" label is "Widgets", the recipients of your email would see the sender as "Widgets <widgets@mail.vresp.com>".

We do have a few users who use their own domain. This requires some work on both our end and the user's end (mainly, registering the IPs we use with your domain's name). We do this the right way and the emails remain fully authenticated.

"Lastly, you have to send your list to VerticalResponse prior to every send to get their approval and this process can take up to 24 hours."

We are currently the only Email Service Provider who manually screens emails (not lists) before they are mailed. We screen to make sure our clients' emails are CAN-SPAM compliant (the "From" label reflects the sender of the email, the subject line isn't misleading, the email contains the sender's postal address, etc...), We also screen to ensure that graphical emails render correctly, and most importantly, to stop unsolicited emails (such as phishing scams) from going out the door (letting these types of emails go through is the fastest way to get blacklisted, and nobody wants that).

That said, this process generally takes merely minutes, but at the very most, 2 hours, which is far from the 24 hours mentioned above.

And there you have it. Hopefully any confusing issues are settled.

Reese's Pieces, make note of this stuff and give us a shout if you need any more information.

- Chris Carpio, Product Manager

What Stats Are Being Updated? An Explanation.

On my last post, I talked about how easy it is to update stats back into your Salesforce org. Let's walk through the type of statistics that are being updated back into Salesforce and where they are being updated.

Standard Objects

For all Mass Email you send when you create your list using VR's Query Tool, VR will log an activity for every Lead and Contact under the Activity History. The subject of the activity will have the following format, "VerticalResponse Mass Email: (subject line of your email)"

If the list you've mailed to was compiled from a Salesforce Campaign, the Campaign History's member status will be updated based on the response of your recipient. The possible values for the member status are: Sent, Opened, Clicked and Unsubscribed. For instance if your recipient opened your email and clicked on a link, their member status will be updated as "Clicked".

Whether you're using a Mass Email- or Campaign-based list, VR will always update the Email Opt-out field for Leads and Contacts who have unsubscribed from your email. Records with the Email Opt-out field checked will automatically be excluded from all future VR mailing list you create.

Custom Objects - VR Email History

In addition to updating standard objects, VR also provides enhanced visibility of statistics through the VR Email History objects. VR Email History will log statistics for "Sent", "Bounced", "Opened", "Clicked", "Clicked Links" and "Unsubscribed". You should be able to expose these objects within the Related List area of the Leads and Contacts page layout. This makes it easy to view any Lead or Contact, and see how they've responded to your emails. You can also click on the Email Name to see a copy of the email that was sent.

All the data found on the VR Email History objects can be further analyzed through custom reports. We've even saved a few reports for you. To access these saved reports, simply go to Reports and scroll to the VR Email History Lead and VR Email History Contact section.

Important: The reports are not specific to users. So, if you have multiple reps within your Salesforce org who send out VR emails, it's a breeze to get an aggregated report of all your VR email activity.

Feedback, comments and questions are always welcome! :)

- Chris Carpio, Product Manager

An Easier Way to Update Statistics...Post Launch

Along with the major changes to the app, we've also made some minor tweaks on existing functionality. Here's a subtle change we've made but I'm pretty sure it puts a smile on many of your faces.

Veteran users of the VerticalResponse for AppExchange know that previously, if you wanted to update email marketing statistics, you can only do it by going in to the Summary Report of each email. Imagine if you have a handful of emails to update, that means updating them one by one. Not fun!

Updating your email stats is more fun and easier than ever. Here's how you do it.

• Go to the VR Email tab and scroll down to the Recently Sent Emails section.
• You should be able to find the last 5 emails you've mailed.
• Place a check next to the ones you want to update and click on the Update Statistics button.
• You're done!

If you can't find all the emails you want to update through the Recently Sent Emails area, click on the View All link (you can also click on VR Statistics). You should be able to find all your sent emails there. Same deal, check the ones you want to update and click on the Update Statistics button.

Now, I know old habits die hard. So, if you prefer the old way of updating stats (one at a time), that option is still there. :)

--Chris Carpio, Associate Product Manager

Personalizing Signatures On Your Emails

What a busy Q1! I know we've had a little bit of a hiatus on providing "tips & tricks"  on our blog (no, Product Managers haven't been affected by the Writer's Guild strike <chuckles>), but I hope to change that. I want us to get back on track with providing our VR for AppEx users with tips and recommendations on how to fully utilize VerticalResponse and Salesforce when sending your emails.

Aside from the Account fields enhancements to the query tool, we've also included better Owner fields to query from and to map in to your VR mailing list. This comes specially important for Account Managers who want to personalize their email campaigns with their contact information.

Say you want to sign your emails with....

Sincerely,

Chris Carpio
VerticalResponse - Your Friendly PM
chris@verticalresponse.com
866-683-7842

Easy enough! Here's how you can do it.

Before getting started, make sure your Salesforce User Information is current. Go to Setup > My Personal Information > Personal Information

Now, when you create your VR mailing list, you'll need to make sure you include the Owner fields you need. To do this, when you get to "Step 2: Map Your Fields" step, map these fields as custom fields:

Owner - First Name --> OWNER_FIRSTNAME
Owner - Last Name --> OWNER_LASTNAME
Owner - Email --> OWNER_EMAIL
Owner - Title --> OWNER_TITLE
Owner - Phone --> OWNER_PHONE

*Check out the screenshot below.

Complete the steps on creating your mailing list and let's move on to how to include these fields on your email.

When you mapped the fields above, you've specified a field name for each in your VR mailing list. To use these fields to personalize your email, simply surround them with the curly brackets ( { and } ). Using my example above, here's how to enter it on your email.

Sincerely,

{OWNER_FIRSTNAME} {OWNER_LASTNAME)
VerticalResponse, Inc. - {OWNER_TITLE}
{OWNER_EMAIL}
{OWNER_PHONE}

 

I hope this helps. If you have an example on how you customize signatures on your email, please feel free to post it here.

- Chris Carpio, The Friendly Associate Product Manager

A Breakdown of the New Features

It’s been a little over a week since our latest VerticalResponse for AppExchange product upgrade and we wanted to take a moment to check in and see how things were going.  Have you had a chance to get familiar with the new features?  What do you think of the new look?  We’d love to hear your feedback so if you’ve got some to share, send it our way!

Today we’ll take a few minutes to highlight some of the key feature enhancements that were part of the latest release.  These upgrades were implemented based on the feedback you provided so thanks for helping us make a better app!  So without further adieu, let’s dive in:

Ladies and Gentlemen, “Account” fields have arrived!

Yes, we know this was a thorn in the side of many users and we’re happy to report that you can now created targeted newsletter lists using the standard and custom fields within the Accounts tab of your salesforce.com account. 

Need a real-world scenario? Let’s say you are a software company and you need to send a newsletter to all your partners and resellers informing them about a special training session next month. Done and done.

1. Start by clicking the VR Email tab, then click New List
2. Choose the first option called: Create a list of Leads & Contacts
3. Create a new query and define your filter criteria such as: Account Type equals Partner/Reseller

You’ll now be able to grab all the Contacts for all the key Accounts in one fell swoop and you can include standard and custom merge fields on your mailing list to personalize each email that you send.

This was by far the most popular feature request and we’re happy to see this one crossed off the list – we hope you are too!

Got a favorite query?  Go ahead, save it!

We know you’re busy, you’ve got a lot on your plate and the last thing you need is to jump through hoops to get your email newsletter out the door.  With the new Saved Queries feature you can create and save all your frequently used queries within your account for quick access. When you need to get an email out in a hurry just refresh your saved query to pull all the Leads and/or Contacts that match your search criteria.

Let’s say your company holds an informational webinar series with a different topic each month. To capture registrants, you have a Web-to-Lead for on your site that marks anyone who signs up with a Lead Source of “Webinar Interest.”  So to make your life simpler, why not use the Saved Queries feature to create and save a custom query once, (i.e. Lead Source equals Webinar Interest) and then re-run this each time you want to send out your webinar invitations each month.

To create a new Saved Query, simply follow the steps for creating a new email list and at the end you’ll have the option to save the query for use in the future.

Track “past the click” with Google Analytics

For those of you out there using Google Analytics to monitor website traffic you already know what a slick application this is and for those of you who aren’t yet using it…go set it up today, it’s free!

Now you can incorporate Google Analytics tracking for the email campaigns you send using VerticalResponse for AppExchange. With this one-two punch you can see who’s clicking on the links in your email (VR tracking) and monitor the website traffic generated by this campaign source (GA tracking).  Calculating your marketing ROI has never been easier!

Here are a few quick tips to help you get up and running. The first thing you’ll need to do is create a Google Analytics account (if you don’t already have one) and make sure the necessary tracking codes are correctly placed on your website. For more information on Google Analytics, click here.

Once your Google Analytics account is enabled and you’re starting to collect site statistics you can simply add the domain(s) that you’re tracking into your VerticalResponse for AppExchange account.  To add domains, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Account Information link (upper right-hand corner of the app)
2. Then click on the Analytics Settings tab to see the Google Analytics feature
3. Simply input the domains where your Google Analytics tracking codes exist

Now when you launch your next email campaign we’ll help you tag your links so the traffic generated from click-throughs can be tracked in your Google Analytics account. For more information on our Google Analytics integration, download the User Guide.

Questions? Comments? Bring 'em on!

-- Chris Carpio, Associate Product Manager

VR Hosted the Salesforce User Group at VR HQ!

We unveiled our new training room and hosted about 40 attendees for a breakfast meeting. If you weren't able to join us or you'd like ideas to bring to your local user group.

Here's a quick review of the event.

It wouldn't be a User Group without lots of great networking, and of course a little shameless plugging from the sponsor...in our case the power of email marketing was theme for a day!

It's always great to see participation across a broad range of industries, edition levels and email vs non-email experience and Jason Stewart of Demandbase does a great job leading this independent group. The content provided is valuable and clear to the local audience. Not surprisingly that's why he chose Tricia Reilly, Bluebird Marketing LLC, to speak about web-to-lead and auto-responding emails.

Topic 1 - Web-to-lead Forms and Workflows

What often seems really basic as a free option across every Salesforce.com edition, web-to-lead is the perfect pairing to a working landing page that supports quality email marketing. The audience received a thorough demonstration on bringing these two basic marketing practices together, presented by Trish.

Topic 2 - Images Affecting Email Deliverability

I get asked this question all the time. "If I use graphics and images in my email will they got stopped by SPAM filters?" The answer is, yes....and no! It's all in your execution. The true part- If Salesforce.com users are creating email in SF templates and not properly resizing images (say you upload your company logo that your marketing department provides) than quite possibly that logo they sent you is print quality high res and too big a file to be sending over images. If you aren't graphic savvy then you could be getting stuck in the SPAM filters.

The final consensus of the day, and the recommendation of VR Marketing team, a healthy mix of images and text that clearly convey your message is the way to go. Put a professional looking email together that supports your message for a winning combination. We heard the audience loud and clear on the questions relating to email deliverability, so look forward to a VR for AppExchange Webinar on the latest feature upgrades in our 2008 Release and Deliverability that Drives Results webinar!

--Erin Jacobs, Director of Marketing

New Features & New UI for VerticalResponse for AppExchange

VerticalResponse has some exciting news for all of you VR for AppExchange users. When you click on the VR Email tab in salesforce.com, you'll immediately notice the user interface changes in the application.

In addition to the new bright, streamlined interface, you are now able to:

• Save your most commonly used queries when creating mass emails

• Build a targeted list of Contacts using any Account fields

• Utilize Google Analytics right from your VR for AppExchange account

• Breeze through commonly used tasks via the new Email Menu Page

Login to your account and watch the new demos to see all of these exciting changes in action.

If you ever get stuck, or are seeking inspiration, consult with the Salesforce community in the VR Lounge, or you can always take advantage of your VIP customer support package.

Thanks for being a valued user of VR for AppExchange! Let us know what you think!

Your Marketing Checklist for 2008

It's that time of year again when we all list our New Years resolutions. Lose 10 lbs, get to work early, call your Mom every week, we know, we all have them. Well we hope this one actually sticks since so many of them don't. It's a list of resolutions all businesses should focus on in the New Year if you're not already ahead of the game. If you are, consider yourself a pro and do everything 20% better!

1. Use a Calendar - iGoogle has a great one where you can use alerts to remind you to write your copy and send your communications. Bonus? You can also share it with others so that they know exactly when you're planning to launch. Double bonus? It's free. You can also use the Salesforce calendar but it's more for making meetings with your leads & contacts imo.

2. Publish a Blog - Yes, even if you already have a website you should also host a blog. It's another way the search engines can pick you up, you establish yourself as an expert in your industry, you give a "voice" to your business and you can get your reader's insight into how they feel about you or your company through comments they make.  It's not an overnight success, however when it starts to take off it can be incredibly beneficial. Make sure you flag categories on your posts or tag them for the search engines. Make sure you backlink to your own site from your most popular keywords in your posts. Check out TypePad or WordPress, two great blogging platforms that are very cost-effective and easy to set up.

3. Get 5 Testimonials - Get your best customers to give you quotes and use them everywhere you can. Include them on any outbound communications, in your email newsletters, on your site and in your store. Used often, they can be one of the most powerful forms of marketing you have. We have a store near us that prints off huge posters of their customers wearing their clothing and hangs them in the window along with their history of being a customer. Benefit? The customers tell all their friends to go check out their big picture and shop at the store. These people are your influencers, use them wisely. To track what people are saying about you online, check out Andiamo Systems, then contact your talkers and ask if you can use what they say.

4. Get People Talking - Have a "wow" factor. Give free samples, throw a free gift into the customer shipment, call your customers to see how they liked their service, send a birthday greeting. Whatever it is, get your word of mouth campaign going!

• Send your best customers a "thank you for being a customer" gift. Expedia send me a great bright yellow Expedia travel wallet for my passport. It's easy to pick out in my bag and it's branding for them.
• Call your webinar attendees to ask if the information was helpful, thank them for joining.
• Retailers throw something fun into your online shipment orders or shopping bags.
• Consultants give your first 2 hours of time free.
• Offer coffee at your offline location.
  

5. Shake it Up - Pick one customer-facing thing you do and change it drastically. Change your entire look of your website, repaint your store, start a monthly club, change your advertising message, change your uniforms, heck even change your "hold" music. Just do something different in the coming year that you've always wanted to do. 2008 is your year.

6. Host an Event - If you've got a retail location host an after-hours sale or an event to celebrate your best customers, the new year or your anniversary party. Make sure you do enough marketing in store and outside your location to get the number of people you want there.

If you are an expert in your field host a "lunch and learn" or a networking event. Again, make sure you do marketing to your own list as well as potentially renting a list for a postal mailing in the area to get people there. If you're work is online, host a webinar. Note: most of these have a 40-50% attendee rate.

7. Advertise - Make a list of 5 of your competitors OR 5 other businesses in your local area and look at where they advertise. Then finally answer that pesky ad sales person and choose somewhere you've never advertised before. Then roll the dice! Caveat: don't only do it once and make the call that it doesn't work work, if it's in your budget, advertise 4-6 times before you decide to stop it or better yet, continue it.

8. Do a Customer Survey - Send an email and ask 10 questions about your customer's experience with you with a 5 point rating: Excellent, Good, Neutral, Poor, Very Bad.  Be ready for the good, bad and the ugly, you'll learn what your customers like and what they don't, then you can make changes. Make sure you send a statistically valid sample and get a good sampling back. You don't want to make changes based on just 1-2 remarks. Make sure you announce your changes to all of your customers in an email campaign. Everyone wins! Check out our friends at Clicktools on the AppExchange.

9. Collect Email Addresses - Put an opt-in form on every page of your site or blog or link to it on every page with a link "Newsletter Sign Up". Put an exit pop-up window with the opt in form when someone leaves your domain. Put a sign up form on your blog. Ask for your customer's information at your counter, input it daily into a spreadsheet or better yet a contact management system. However you collect email addresses send a welcome email to them with a thank-you offer. Use the Salesforce web-to-lead form or VerticalResponse to collect email addresses for free!

10. Analyze - Use Google Analytics to track your website visits. Get to know where your traffic is coming from and how good it is. Then make changes to your site, or your marketing materials.

Hopefully you're doing some of these already. It's tough to run a business and constantly come up with new ideas to market. Hopefully this list sparks some new ideas. Happy 2008!

CRM Success Tour - Boston

Happy New Year!  We're fresh off our SFDC city tour in Boston where we were able to meet with and speak to both prospective SFDC customers as well as some long standing customers and friends.   My experience with these shows over the last three years has been great.  Because our solution can be installed in a matter of minutes without any large upfront fees or resources, getting face-time to discuss this huge.  As with any sale that you may make, a handshake and a promise to provide as best a service as you can goes a long way in maintaining a successful customer base.

A couple notes and some feedback that we took away from the show:

• Turnout in Boston has historically been strong with an estimate of 300 attendees
• A lot of enthusiasm for the "save queries" functionality in our latest product release due out shortly
• Modifying your campaigns to direct to a "call to action" as opposed to a "reply" was discussed at length
• Benefits of "warming" up your trade-show leads before entering them into SFDC
• East Coast offices taking up allotted email capabilities before West Coast offices are even getting up and how VerticalResponse has solved this issue
• Companies that provide a product or service that may benefit from a VerticalResponse partnership like the SFDC partnership

VR Hosts the local San Francisco Salesforce.com User Group

Thursday, February 7th from 8AM to 10AM –join us here at the VR office and get involved with your local user group. (Breakfast Included)

This session will focus on instruction and tips for both beginners as well as experienced users. We'll be tackling Salesforce.com's marketing functionality.

• Tricia Reilly (Bluebird Marketing) leads How to set up web-to-lead and autoresponder
• VR will demo our latest features on the verge of release
• Andrea Wildt, Sr Product Manager, Salesforce Marketing  takes a “Deep Dive” into Using Advanced Workflows in SFDC Marketing
• Plus, lots of great networking

501 2nd St, 3rd Floor Meeting Room (Suite 350)
San Francisco, CA 94107 map

Please RSVP to Jason Stewart to let him know you’d like to attend.

Finally, if you are part of a local usergroup and would like VR to be a part of your next meeting, send an email to learn more

Thanks and good selling!

Alex Scalisi
Director of Sales
VerticalResponse
415-808-2481
alex@verticalresponse.com