VerticalResponse for AppExchange Blog

8 Places to Find Advocates For Your Business

Most businesses have customers who love them and who love to talk about them. You've probably spent a lot of time and energy building up your business, so now it's time to locate those people who love to shout from the mountain tops how great they think you are. Why? Well eventually you'll want to reach out to these very special people, thank them and treat them extra special.

The easiest thing to do, is create a list of them from different channels so that when you're ready to really activate them even more than they already are, you can do it easily. So where do you start?

Your Employees - Your employees can be the best advocates for your business. You know who your best employees are and those who love what they do. Ask them to talk about your business on Twitter and Facebook if they'd like, and to post that they work for you on LinkedIn.

Best Customers - Look to see who your best customers have been, these are probably people that have purchased from you a number of times. Then based on your criteria, create your "best customer" list.

Survey Responders - If you're sending our customer satisfaction surveys, why not monitor who responds positively to your surveys? Then create your "Survey advocates" list.

Google Alerts - Sign up for FREE Google Alerts with your business name, your name, even your competitors name. See if there is anyone who keeps talking about your business more than a few times. Call this your "Google Advocates" list.

4Square - If you've got a local business, monitor who becomes the Mayor of your business. When they check in, make sure you know and give them a special discount or deal. They'll be sure to visit often and tell their friends. Call this list your "Mayor" list.

Twitter - Search your twitter handle on twitter.com. You will see who is talking positively about you. We use TweetDeck and set up a variety of keywords to track. Then from that easy interface we can manage our conversations with them. Make sure you RT them asking them to send you an email, include your email address. "Thanks for the RT! Email me at [email address] for a special deal!" You only have 140 characters so make sure you can fit it all and get their email address so you can start to build your email list of "Twitter advocates."

Facebook - Create a Facebook Fan Page and monitor who is speaking up with comments and likes. Set up a "Reviews" Tab and ask your followers what they think about you. Then message them back thanking them. Ask for their email address so you can send them something (free product, discount.) For anyone who "Likes" what you write, add them as a friend on Facebook. Then message them and ask for their email address as well. Start to build your list of "Facebook advocates".

Blog - Check out those who've commented on your blog. Most blog platforms enable you to see their email address. These will be your "blog advocates."

Are you finding your best advocates? If so, how? Please comment!

Think All Customers Love Fancy Graphics and Images? Think Again.

It can be fun and visually appealing to create and design emails with fancy images, elaborate tables and pretty buttons, but do customers respond positively? Not always. Particularly in B2B communications, many email recipients are more likely to respond to text emails.

Why do text emails deliver good results?

1. They tend to be more direct and to the point making busy B2B customers more likely to read the content and respond.
2. Calls to action and links are more apparent in text emails. The visual distractions presented in graphical emails may take attention from key email points.
3. Text emails are more personal and professional and give off a less "mass email" feel.

The VR for AppEx team recently conducted a test with its B2B audience to see if customers were more likely to respond and interact with a graphical email (containing images and graphics) or a text email. The results may surprise you!

Text example on the left, image email on the right.

 

 

We found the text email had both higher open and click rates!

Curious whether your customers will respond better to graphical or text email messages?

Use the VR for AppExchange reporting tools to test the two types of emails. Split your list in two, send one list the graphical email and the other group the text email to measure differences in open and click rates. Remember, you can only track opens with HTML emails so be sure to keep the HTML version in the mostly text email. It's also a good idea to adhere to the 20% images and 80% text rule. You can do this by including a button or two along with your company logo for branding. Happy testing!

Check out our online guide on Designing Your Email for Delivery & Response or view our How To Do Everything Salesforce page for more guides and resources.

Want more? Attend our weekly VR for AppExchange live demonstration, Wednesdays at 10AM Pacific.

Got Questions About Using VR for AppEx?

Did you know every week VerticalResponse hosts a free live demo and Q&A session about VerticalResponse for AppExchange? Whether you're an experienced user or just getting started, we've compiled some of the most commonly asked questions from our demo attendees to help you make the most of your integration. Read below for helpful tips and answers to your top VR for AppExchange questions!

1. I sent an email to my leads and contacts but I can't see the results under VR Email History. Help!

There are a couple of things that could be happening here. The first step to correcting this is to update the statistics from VR to Salesforce. Click on the "VR Statistics" tab, select the email campaigns that you would like to update by clicking the box on the left and then click Update Statistics. This will send the data to your leads and contacts in Salesforce and update the VR Email History.

If you don't see the VR Email History object on your leads or contacts you just need to make that section visible.   Under the "Leads" or "Contacts" tab in your Salesforce account, select any lead or contact then choose "customize page" in the upper right hand corner. You can then add VR Email History to the lead/contact page so the results will be displayed.

Its also possible that you see the VR Email history but are missing the fields that VR can update. This is also an easy fix, again select any lead or contact, click on "Edit Page Layout" in the top right corner and find VR Email History on the page that comes up. Click the icon that looks like a wrench and select the fields you wish to see. We recommend at least adding Mail Date, Email Name, Opened, Clicked, Bounced and Unsubscribed but you can add more if you'd like. Click Ok on that window to save, then click Save in the top left corner of the next page to save the new layout.

2. How can I enable or view dashboards to see VR Email History?

You can view a dashboard with graphs and charts of VR Email History for your contacts and leads.* To view the VR dashboards simply click on the "Dashboards" tab of your account, click on view dashboard and select the "VR Email History" option. Now you can easily view email campaign response rates for bounces, opens, clicks and unsubscribes!

3. Can I create a table of contents so that it links one section of my email to another?

Yes you can! First you need to use the Canvas tool as your email editor. Then choose the part of the email that you'd like to link to, such as the title of a section. Next click the anchor icon (top row, right side of the Designer's Toolbar). This will bring up a dialog box - name your anchor and click Insert. Now that you've "laid anchor", choose where you'd like to place the link to that anchor and highlight the text. This will usually be text or an image near the top of the email, since the main purpose of using an anchor link is to make it easy for readers to navigate to different parts of your message. Click the Chain Link icon (it's right next to the Anchor icon) and use the drop down menu to select the name you gave your anchor earlier. Then click Insert. Done! The new link will redirect you to the Anchor within your email. You can test this by going to the Quick Preview tab and clicking on the link.

                            

If you have other questions about your VR for AppExchange Integration, attend our weekly free live demo Using VerticalResponse for Salesforce. Our Education & Training Manager, Jill hosts a live Q&A session at the end of every demo. You can also visit our help site to access short videos and text tutorials to help you with your integration.

Still have questions? Call our support team toll free Monday through Friday, 6am-5pm PDT at 866-6VERTICAL (866-683-7842) or send an email to AppExchange@verticalresponse.com.

Related Posts:

Make the Most of your Salesforce Integration

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*If you are running VerticalResponse for Group Edition the dashboards feature is not available.

So, What's a Good Email Open Rate?

Whether you're generating a report for your boss, measuring return on investment o r tracking recipient activity, when it comes to analyzing email marketing efforts many of us find ourselves asking the question "What's a good open rate?" The quick and easy answer is open rates between 15%-30% are considered average. In truth, open rates tend to fluctuate based on send time and send date and vary with industry, list size, messaging and many other variables. 

As an example, email messages related to marketing and acquisition typically have lower open and click rates than editorial or non-profit messages. Similarly, emails sent from within the travel industry tend to have higher open rates than those from the retail industry.

What does this mean for your business? There really is no magic number to achieve when it comes to open rates. The best method for finding a good open rate for your emails is to monitor your own previous and current rates and take steps to improve upon those numbers. More importantly, click rates can be an even stronger indication of customer engagement. Click rates should also be monitored and improved upon. They indicate that a recipient has not only opened your email but that they are also interested in the content you've sent them.

Steps you can take to improve open and click rates:

• Personalize Campaigns - Creating a personal, one-on-one dialogue will make your emails more welcomed by recipients. Example: Include the recipient's name in the greeting of your email. Check out our video tutorial on how to personalize emails or visit our VR for AppEx tutorials site for more tips!

• Use Customer Data - Previous behavior or past purchases can be used to send targeted emails and appealing messages. Examples: Send a specific message to customers who recently purchased a certain product to promote a similar product on sale. Or, offer your most frequent or highest-value customers a special premium (free shipping, zero setup fees, etc.) as a thank-you for their valued business.
  
  
• Send Timely Follow-ups - Send messages to recipients while your brand is fresh in their mind and interest is high. Example: Quickly follow-up with individuals who have recently visited your website or registered for a newsletter.

• Test, Test, and Test Again- Test send times, subject lines, link types and email template designs to find those that deliver the best click and open rates for your type of business and audience. Example: Perform a split test to measure open rates of two differing subject lines.

Related Posts:

Yep, Subject Lines Are Still Crucial to a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

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Top 10 Things to Test to Put Your Email on the Top 10 List!