VerticalResponse for AppExchange Blog

Yep, It's Holiday Prep Time Again

As much as we love the holidays for the opportunity to spread cheer, participate in festivities and share warm fuzzy moments of sipping hot cocoa and declaring what we're thankful for, we can't deny the later months are also characterized by holiday-themed marketing chock-full of Christmas, Hanukkah and Turkey Day specials. So the question remains, how do we jump ahead of the curve and seize the opportunity to entice consumer spending with the perfect winter wonderland special? We've got the answer!  

Don't Be a Scrooge: Nothing gets us more into the holiday spending spirit than browsing through our favorite department store to the sound of winter wonderland in a setting of shiny golds, deep reds and forest greens. The same concept applies to browsing bookmarked websites or receiving an email from our favorite senders. Whether it's in emails, on websites, or in your blog, don't be a scrooge when it comes to holiday theming. So get in the spirit and include a festive graphic in your newsletter, craft holiday-themed subject lines, or apply a seasonal color scheme to your homepage to get your customers excited for the next holiday. Their cheery mood will have a positive impact on your brand and overall revenue.

'Tis the Season of Giving: The holiday season is characterized by higher spending rates and more shopping, but that doesn't mean your customers, clients and prospects aren't looking to save a few dollars in the process. Providing a two-for-one deal, a discount on your annual renewal, a percentage off setup or subscription fees, or a credit to your existing customers' account will go a long way and boost your business' earnings this holiday season.

Give Thanks: It's the time to give thanks, and one of the most effective methods for creating and keeping loyal customers is expressing an appreciation for their business. This can be achieved through something as simple as a sending a thank you email or postcard. Thanking your clients and customers for their patronage without asking for something in return will not only make them feel they are important but it will shed a positive light on your brand and keep you top of mind over your competitors.

 

Get a head start on your holiday marketing and don't be afraid to start early. Extending the season's theme will not only maximize holiday benefits for your business but it will keep you present (pun intended) and set you apart from your lagging competitors. Thanks for reading! We hope these holiday tips help you keep-up the cheer and remain jolly this holiday season.

Savannah Stewart is the Partner Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse and blogs here about all things related to marketing and B2B communication. Connect with her on Twitter at @savannahstewart.

How to Rock a Tradeshow

VR had the pleasure of attending Dreamforce last week. And, we're proud to say it was a   great success thanks to our wonderful staff, friendly neighboring booths and comrades, and of course our fun attendees and AppExchange users like you! Dreamforce was a particularly successful tradeshow because, we quite literally rocked the booth. See below for more on our Dreamforce rock theme and find tips on how to rock the booth at your next event! We've compiled a list of successful tradeshow strategies we hope you'll find useful.

1. Break out of the monotony - In a sea of booths stocked with mini sized candy, branded pens and those all too familiar handouts, it's important to stand out and even more important to avoid boring your visitors. Rather than attempt to bring visitors in with the usual tactics attract them with a game, contest or competition! Spinning the wheel to win or holding a raffle or Twitter competition will help to set you apart from the rest and give you something to offer in exchange for your attendees' attention.

Example: We rocked the booth at Dreamforce with a Metallica Rockband setup and raffled off an Ibanez acoustic/electric guitar (happy winner Brandt Page pictured to the right) to those who Tweeted a pic at our booth using a special hashtag.

2. Dress for Success - We dress our best for tradeshow events, but an even more effective strategy is to coordinate booth staff attire. Wearing shirts with your logo or branding at events is a great way to promote your business and create a sense of solidarity and professionalism in the booth.

Example: At Dreamforce our "I Rock VR" shirts (pictured left) were a hit - and played off our theme. Attendees stopped to ask about them both inside and outside of the booth.

3. Look Around - Don't forget to take the time to look around at other booths to find which strategies work and which don't. Imitation is the strongest form of flattery right? Make a mental note of the most effective data sheets or the most enticing give-aways for your next tradeshow.

Example: Dippin' Dots, flashing sunglasses, earbuds and iPads were some of the most coveted giveaways we noticed at Dreamforce. Who doesn't want flashing sunglasses to accompany their attire at a Metallica concert? (p.s. Metallica was the Dreamforce headlining band).

4. Prepare for Your Arrival - Send an email to your current customers and contacts informing them of your upcoming tradeshow attendance or use geotargeting to let nearby residents know you will be at a tradeshow in their city or state. This will not only help boost visitors but you may even get to meet some of your loyal customers.

Example: We included a Dreamforce blurb in our monthly newsletter letting customers know they could come by our booth to speak to a VR for AppExchange expert. 

5. Strategize - After you've promoted your event and created innovative ways to attract visitors don't forget to come up with strategies to record and remember your attendees. Gathering attendee information is one of the biggest payoffs in tradeshow attendance. It allows for communication with new individuals and can lead to more revenue and new sales for your business.

Example: Use the lead retrieval device at events, collect business cards and create codes to categorize leads, interest levels and customer status.

6. It's All About Timing - Once you've compiled your list of booth visitors you'll want to send a follow-up email. It's important both to be conscious of your attendees' travel schedule and to recognize all of the other tradeshow communications they may receive. You'll want to connect as soon as possible, but not so early you get lost in the post-show inbox clutter.

Example: Follow-up sooner with attendees of local shows but wait a few days for things to settle before connecting with out of state visitors.

We hope these tips will help you rock your next tradeshow and make the most of your attendance. Tell us! Do you have any rockin' strategies you've found effective in your booth?

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Posted by Savannah Stewart

Savannah Stewart is the Partner Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse and blogs here about all things related to marketing and B2B communication. Connect with her on Twitter at @savannahstewart.

VR for AppExchange Event Marketing Is Here!

  It's truly been a labor of love these past few months behind the scenes at VR for Appexchange, and we're proud to announce that VerticalResponse Event Marketing is now available! With this new product offering comes the ability to easily create event web sites, sell tickets, and promote events through your email and social media networks in a matter of minutes. We hope you'll be surprised and delighted at how quickly you can create and market your events, all through your VR for AppExchange account!

Review Event Marketing pricing and then take advantage of this exciting new product! Event marketing can be found under "Resources and Tools" in the "VR Email" tab of your VerticalResponse for AppEx account.

Related blog posts:

• Event Marketing is Coming to VR for AppEx - Stay Tuned!
• Coming Soon! Sell Tickets and Promote Events through VR
  

Posted by Jason Whittenberg

Jason Whittenberg is a Product Manager at VerticalResponse and blogs about enhancements and new functionality.

Event Marketing is Coming to VR for AppEx - Stay Tuned!

Back in June we announced we're adding event marketing and ticket sales to our product offerings, and we're delighted that VerticalResponse for AppExchange Event Marketing will be released very soon! This new tool will enable you to quickly create event websites, sell online tickets, accept sponsorships and donations, and send emails to promote your events − all through your VR for Salesforce account.

After the launch, users of VR for AppExchange will notice a new “Events” section under the "Resources and Tools" portion of the VR Email tab in your account.

Getting Started & Selling Tickets

To get started you'll simply complete a quick sign-up page. After that, you’ll be creating and marketing your event in no time!

With VR for AppExchange Event Marketing there are several ways to "sell" event tickets:

• Create an online box office on the event website where customers can buy tickets to your events.
• Use the Shopping Cart feature to sell tickets at various price points (or free of charge) that your customers can purchase, and then print a receipt to gain entrance to your event. 
• Embed the ticket widget on your web site, or even your Facebook page, within minutes!

Collecting Funds

If you're selling tickets, the funds can be deposited directly in your PayPal account. Ticket purchases and revenue figures can be accessed for your event at any time, allowing you to quickly gauge how your promotions are performing and whether you need to expand your mailing lists or exposure to social networks.

Get Social with Your Event Marketing

Speaking of social networks, have you taken advantage of our recent Social Media Updates for getting the word out about your email campaigns and events? Well, now’s your chance! Your event marketing programs can also benefit from our social media update to track the popularity of your events among your customers and their social networks. Simply turn on our social sharing features in your email invitations and announcements, and then your customers and their connections can promote your events for the widest reach possible. The number of posts, tweets, and Forward to a Friend actions are all tracked through your VerticalResponse email reports dashboard.

Event Marketing Email Templates

Currently in your VR for AppEx account there are new email templates that can be tailored for a variety of invitations and campaigns. If you've already created emails for events you don't have to worry about redoing all the great work you already have, since invitations can be sent through your VerticalResponse account.

Non-Profit Discount

We're proud to offer our non-profit customers discounts on the service we provide, and with Event Marketing we continue our commitment to those of you who do so much for your communities. Along with selling tickets and collecting payments you can also accept donations or sell sponsorships for your events. Event sponsors can then be recognized in your invitations and event website to showcase those who donate to your cause.

Feedback

As you can see there's a lot to be excited about, and we hope you are as excited about these new features as we are to provide them! To foster your input we added “Event Marketing” in the Feedback tab of the application, since we're very interested to hear your impressions while working with VR for AppExchange Event Marketing. We ask that you continue to provide feedback and suggestions to improve and maximize your experience, and we'll strive to bring more of these great features to you!

What the Heck is Google+ and What Does it Mean For My Business?

Now that Google+ is beginning to open to the public we thought we'd tap our Social Media Manager, Ellery, to give a rundown of what it's all about and why it's relevant to your business.

Another social network?!

Yes, another social network, but one that you should definitely pay attention to. Although dominant in the search market, Google has tried for years to break into social with little luck and some large failures. Google+ seems to be a product of the lessons they've learned along the way. After a week of exploring Google+ and it's features, it's impressing how well thought out the network appears to be. Sure, there are a few off things here and there, and your homepage may feel like a ghost town since only a handful of folks are on it so far, but we see a ton of potential, particularly for businesses.

 

So, how's it different than Facebook?

At first glance, Google+ actually looks a lot like Facebook, probably a good thing when it comes to user adoption. The home page doesn't drift far from the look and feel of the Facebook wall and status updates and the commenting function works essentially the same way as well. Hey, Facebook has honed its user experience for years...no need to reinvent the wheel, right? The key benefits to Google+, though, lie in the features that aren't available (or weren't until just last week) on Facebook in any form. There are five in particular we think really stand out:

• Circles: Circles give you the ability to sort all of your contacts into separate groups based on the nature of your relationship. You can then select which circles you want to be included whenever you share something on Google+. For example, you could have a circle for your family members where you share pictures of your kids and other family news, while keeping a different circle for your friends and even another circle for just acquaintances. By sorting your contacts in this fashion, the information you share can be much more targeted, and in turn, more relevant to the people you're sharing with.
• Hangouts: Hangouts are group video chats. By making yourself available to "hangout" you can start a video chat with up to ten of your contacts who are also online at that time. You can also share things during a hangout (say an article or a youtube video) which everyone can view together. Now that's cool!
• Sparks: Sparks is a feature that recommends content for you based on your interests, online activity, and preferences...sort of like your very own custom content curator. Given Google's expertise in data mining, we expect this feature to become really robust over time. Another nice thing about Sparks is the ability to share things you find to the circles of your choice without ever leaving Google+.
• Huddle: Huddle is a group chat function that can be used online or across Android, iPhone, or SMS. Yes, Facebook just announced the rollout of group chat too, but the integration of mobile and a more professional environment (see next bullet) give Google+ the edge here.
• Aura of professionalism: Okay, so not technically a feature, but we think the professional vibe put forward on Google+ so far (or at the very least, the ability to easily separate friends from professional contacts using circles) is a huge benefit for the network. Google+ seems to take the powerful functionality of Facebook and marry it with the professional environment and discussion topic types of LinkedIn. On top of all that, Google+ functions a bit like Twitter too, in that you can follow someones updates regardless of whether they are following you or not...a huge plus when it comes to finding good content. For these reasons, Google+ has a lot of implications when it comes to business applications.

Okay, then what does Google+ mean for my business?

For the time being, Google has asked that businesses refrain from creating a profile on Google+. The company says that they have plans for businesses to be able to get the most out of the network, but that it's just not ready for that functionality yet. If you're interested in being one of the first businesses on Google+ permitted to create a profile, you can sign up with Google to be notified as soon as profiles are available.

That said, there are several ways right out of the gate that Google+ is good for business:

• Productivity: Between Hangouts, group chats, and the ability to create work specific circles, Google+ is poised to be a powerful internal communication tool at your company. Imagine being able to push certain information or topics towards one or a few departments without bogging down peripheral employees news feeds. With circles, this will be a snap. Have offices spread across several locations but need to arrange a quick face-to-face meeting without springing for a pricey web conference solution? Hangouts has you covered. And for those companies already using Google apps at some level, the inevitable integration with Google+ will be a serious game changer.
• Professional Networking: While Google+ probably won't replace LinkedIn when it comes to things like showcasing your experience and professional recommendations, it will be a threat to areas like industry specific content sharing and discussion groups. Additionally, Google+ enables users to allow other people to contact them via email, regardless of whether they are in each other's circles or not. While not everyone will leave this feature on, for those that do it will open a great avenue for new business contacts.
• Competitive Research: For the same reasons that Google+ is a powerful professional networking tool, it can also be useful when it comes to keeping an eye on and interacting with your competition. Google+ allows you to follow anyone with a Google+ profile regardless of whether the connection is reciprocated. Of course, users can specify whether or not specific content is shared with public circles, but for content that is public, Google+ can be a great way to stay up-to-date on news and announcements in your competitive space.
• Personal Branding: Because Google+ profiles are publicly searchable and viewable - don't worry, you control what is and isn't shared - the network represents a great opportunity for users to brand themselves by maintaining a complete profile and sharing content that speaks to their areas of expertise. By specifying which circles see what, you can tailor this messaging even further. Remember, though, personal profiles are a reflection of the company as a whole, so be sure that employees who share their affiliations with you are representing the company in an appropriate way.

Is Google+ here to stay?

While still in its infancy and admittedly kind of limited to tech geeks and social media experts at this point, we see a ton of potential for Google+ moving forward. By making the effort to truly field test the technology before rolling it out to the masses, we think Google will avoid many of the problems they've had with social in the past. At the end of the day, Google is building a powerful social network on top of an infrastructure (search, email, documents, advertising, etc.) that already has mass adoption. Leveraging this fact is going to be the difference here and what makes Google+ the first legitimate contender to Facebook's social dominance.

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RELEVANT Content is King

The Social Future is Here!

In the old days there was a pretty limited set of options to spread a message far and wide:

1. You could climb to the top of a mountain and shout to the people below.
2. You could tell some guy on horseback to ride from town to town and yell it to people he passed.
3. You could pay people to hand-copy something you wrote and hand-deliver it all over the place.
4. And in the more recent past, there were fliers and phone trees (which were admittedly kind of fun).

While each of those options could help get the word out (and in some cases have awesome fitness side effects), reaching a large audience was no small feat.

Email marketing (along with a few other technologies) changed that. And in the last few years, social media has completely revamped the game. Today, the rules change again:

VerticalResponse for Salesforce is happy to introduce our enhanced social media features for email marketing!

You asked for it and we delivered. We've been working on our new social features for several months, taking great care to build what you need. In the last couple of months we introduced you to the basics of the new features which give you the ability to:

• Include social sharing icons in the emails you create
• Share your email on Twitter and BOTH your Facebook Profile AND business Page(s) when you launch your email
• Track the social activity generated by your email

And, we also discussed a couple of finer points of the integration:

• Clicks vs. Social Reach: Who clicks on the icons in the email they receive from you, and how viral it becomes once it hits the social networks
• Facebook Graph API: The latest and greatest from Facebook that enables almost all of our new features

Now it's time to give this new stuff a try! We enabled sharing icons by default in any new email you create, and you can share your email right from the launch page, so it's easy to start sharing right away. And as we all know, sharing is caring (enough said).

So sit back, create a new email, and easily share it with the world (and let others do some of the sharing for you). You'll be glad you didn't have to climb a mountain to do it (unless you're into that sort of thing).

Expand the Reach of Your Email Beyond the Inbox

Social media is the talk of the town, but after many conversations we've found that people often leave with more questions about how to make effective use of social media for their business than when they came. To address this conundrum, VerticalResponse has put a lot of thought into how we can help small businesses use social networks to spread their email marketing messages most effectively. We think the social sharing features we're about to release are the perfect combination of quick and effective, and as we put the finishing touches on them prior to release, we'd like to highlight some of the more unique aspects our new social sharing features will have.

Clicks vs. Social Reach

VerticalResponse has always been proud of our reporting features - they let you quickly see performance data in a nifty high-level dashboard with charts and graphs, and also allow you to drill into the details if you are so inclined. Continuing in that tradition, we've designed the social reporting to behave similarly: a combined dashboard view (so you can see your social data right next to your email data), along with downloadable details about who shared your email to their networks. 

 

What's particularly cool about our new social reporting is that in addition to showing the clicks from the emails, we also include a measure called Total Social Reach that will help you understand what happens after your message hits the social networks. These numbers have the potential to be wildly different, and in fact we're hoping they are. Here's why: let's say you have 10 clicks on the "Like" button from your email. Once those 10 Likes hit Facebook, they can be re-liked/shared on Facebook, commented upon, etc., which has the potential to make your content viral. That means with 10 clicks, you might see something like 50 total Likes across Facebook (or more!). Wouldn't it be great to know who on your list contributed to that? 

With this approach, you not only see the intent of the person you sent your email to, but you'll also see how people engage with your content. Armed with this information, you can take things one step further to determine who on your list has the most social influence (with a service like Klout), and then continue to focus on building a good relationship with them by giving them what you promised.

The Facebook Graph API

VR's current social sharing features use an older integration with Facebook that, while functional, is somewhat limited in what it can do (the people at Facebook are in the process of fixing it as I type). Our new social sharing features use Facebook's latest and greatest Graph API which is at the core let's us automatically add Like, Tweet, and LinkedIn Share buttons to the hosted version of your email! 

The two main benefits to this upgrade are that it allows a connection to all the Pages you control within Facebook at once (that means your profile and all the other Pages you own for your business) so that you can share your message more efficiently. And secondly, your recipients can share the content they receive from you. We're obviously very excited about the upgrade and the additional functionality we'll soon offer you, but since this is a completely new integration - even if you've been using our current social sharing features - we'll ask you to re-link your VR and Facebook accounts just the first time you use the new sharing tools. It'll only take a second, and you'll be on your way to much more powerful social marketing!

So stay tuned, because expanding the reach of your email beyond the inbox is only a few weeks away!

Want More Clicks? Tease Your Readers!

If you’re using social media for your business, good for you! Hopefully you're paying attention to which messages you publish to social networks like Facebook and Twitter get the best response. But it’s important to understand what messages you publish are most interesting to your fans.

No matter which social network you use, it’s crucial to grab your reader’s attention with a compelling hook. And your introductory message can be the difference between your content being shared or completely ignored so you need to get their attention with a "teaser."

We took a look at a recent activity report for the VerticalResponse email marketing Twitter account, @vr4smallbiz, to see what takeaways we might be able to give you about our own teasers. Looking at the top five most clicked links over a two-week period in March, we saw some interesting themes emerge that can be applied to how you might use social media. Check them out:

1. How-To

Using the words "how to" clearly communicates to the reader that they will be getting information that's useful to them and actionable.

2. Numbers/Lists

People love numbered lists. By including a list in your teaser, your reader knows exactly what to expect when clicking through.

3. Rewards/Offers/Exclusives

Using "Top Lists Of..." will always be successful whether it's informational or a list of "Top Products Purchased" this week. This tweet promoting VerticalResponse's free downloadable guides has continued to be one of our most clicked through teasers nearly a month after posting.

4. News/Announcements

Have some exciting news about your company or industry? Make sure to use it in your teaser. You might be surprised how many people follow you on social networks for access to the latest information about your brand or business.

5. Charlie Sheen (or any topical reference)

Well okay, not just Charlie Sheen, but you can go ahead and call it the "Sheen Rule of Social Teasers". Using humor, drama, and timely topical references do a great job of commanding attention. Just be careful with this one and make sure that it does somehow tie back to the content you're sharing...you don't want to make your fans feel like they've been conned. The Sheen Rule of Teasers reminds us that it's perfectly okay, even encouraged, to have a little fun with your social teasers. Social media is the perfect place to get your personality out there.

Bonus!

You may have noticed that social teasers have a lot in common with the subject lines you craft for your email marketing campaigns. In fact, many of the practices that we recommend for writing email subject lines can be applied here as well. Check out our 29 Great B2B Subject Lines for some ideas. Also, if you're not using the VR for AppEx Social Sharing feature to post your newsletters to Facebook and Twitter, you might want to revisit our recent blog post about how to make the most of social media for your business. 

Want More?

Check out our Spring Webinar Series to sign up for helpful live demonstrations on what you can do with email and social media.

Make the Most of Social Media for Your Business

We recently hosted a live Partner webinar. Ellery Long, VerticalResponse's Social Media Manager, discussed how to leverage social media marketing for your business. Below are a few highlights from the webinar:

1. Social Media Adds Business Value
   It allows you to gain insights on genuine customer perception, converse with your customers on a platform that's already part of their daily routine, engage online influencers, and can be measured to get ROI.
2. Social Media is Simpler Than You Think
   Facebook? Twitter? YouTube? Digg? Don't get overwhelmed by the multitude of social platforms out there. Concentrate on 2-3 social platforms best suited to your business objectives. Choose platforms where your customers already gather, and tend to them well.
3. Remember a Few Universal Social Media Strategies
   Be Consistent: Users constantly consume so content gets stale quickly.
   Listen, respond, and converse: Don't be afraid to take it offline.
   People like to share - make it easy: Create share buttons for your website, blogs & emails (use VR's Social Sharing Feature). 
4. Promote Your Social Presence Across ALL Your Marketing Channels
   Use email, traditional, and cross-platform marketing to allow your customers to easily find you.

These are only a small sampling of the many key points covered in the hour-long webinar. Ellery discussed specific actions you can take to maximize your Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and blogging potential. Download the webinar slides or view the recorded presentation to get more in-depth information and learn actionable steps you can take to increase your social media presence.

Attend our weekly VR for AppExchange demo or check out our other live webinars here!

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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!