VerticalResponse for AppExchange Blog

Sharing Content with Email Templates

Here at VerticalResponse, we’re pretty keen on not wasting time and energy by re-inventing the proverbial wheel.  I’m sure you already know how great it is to share account information throughout your company using Salesforce.  But did you know that you can also create email templates in Salesforce using the HTML from your VerticalResponse email marketing campaigns?

Maybe you’ve forked over a good bit of cash for a designer to create a fancy HTML layout for your company.  Or maybe you work in a bigger organization, and want to make sure there’s continuity in the look and feel of all of the emails that go out.  By using this functionality, you can share any HTML content that you create using our Email Canvas or Freeform HTML tools.

It’s really easy to create the template:

1)    To get started, click on the VR Email tab in your Salesforce account, and then select “New Email”

2)    Choose either Email Canvas or Freeform HTML as the Campaign Type (note that this won’t work with either Email Wizard or Text Only email campaigns).

3)    Create the HTML content as you would for any campaign

4)    Click on the “Edit Source” tab, and copy all of the HTML code (it might be helpful to paste it into a Notepad or another text editing program for safekeeping)

5)    At the top of the Salesforce, page, click on “Setup”, and then click on “Create or edit email template” in the middle of the page (Having trouble finding it?  It’s the second option in the “Email” section.)

6)    Click on “New Template”, and on the next screen, select “Custom (without using letterhead)”

7)     What happens on the next page is crucial:  For the “Folder” prompt, you MUST select a Public folder, otherwise you won’t be able to share the HTML content with others in your company.

 

8)    On the same page, you must also tick off the “Available for Use” box.  Go ahead and give the template relevant names while you’re there, and then hit the “Next” button.

9)    Give the email a subject, and then paste the HTML code you copied earlier into the “HTML Body” field.

10)     At this point, it’s a good idea to go ahead and Preview it, just to be sure that all of the code was pasted over properly.  If you like what you see, save it.

Now, when you’d like to use the template you’ve created:

1)    Click on the “VR Email” tab in their Salesforce org, and then “New Email”

2)    Give the new email campaign a name, but this time, rather than selecting one of the VerticalResponse tools for building an email, click on “Refresh Templates” at the bottom of the page.  (Note: depending on how many templates your company has saved, this may take a minute):

3)    Select the template from the drop-down list, and click on “Next step”

4)    The email template you selected should appear in the “Edit Graphical” window, and you now have the ability to edit it just as you would any other VerticalResponse campaign (change images, swap out text, etc.) 

Hopefully this tip will help you streamline your email marketing processes even more.  We are, as always, open to questions and comments, so fire away!

- Jessica Greene-Pierson, Marketing Programs Manager

Track Past the Clicks Using Google Analytics

We're really excited about the new partnership between Google Apps and Salesforce.  It just seems like it was meant to be, like Batman and Robin.  Or Laverne and Shirley.  Or even Posh Spice and David Beckham.

Here at VerticalResponse, we use Salesforce as our own internal CRM solution, and we also use Google Apps to collaborate and share information on projects.

Bottom line: we've been fans of Google for a while now and we believe in the value their tools provide. About 8 months ago, we integrated our app with Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free web analytics tool that allows you to track all of your website's inbound traffic and page views.  You can see where visitors were before they hit your site, and even what sites they visit when they leave.  Pretty cool stuff, right?

Now, this is where the magic happens: with the VerticalResponse-Google Analytics Integration, you can track your email marketing campaigns past the clicks from your emails, and see how your recipients are behaving once they're on your website. It's a great way to increase your conversion rate because you can learn where in the process your leads are dropping off.  For example, if lots of folks are leaving your landing page without converting (filling out the form, making a purchase, etc.), it probably means that your landing page needs a little TLC.

It's a breeze to setup:

1) Login to Salesforce, and click on the "VR Email" tab.

2) Click on the "Account Information" link at the top of the right side of the page.  This should take you to the Google Analytics page.

3) Simply enter the domains that you want to be tracked, and you're well on your way to seeing what folks are doing on your website after they click on your email links.

Jessica Greene-Pierson, Marketing Programs Manager