VerticalResponse for AppExchange Blog

Essential Fall Holidays to Recall

What is it about fall that’s so appealing? Is it the crispness in the air, the vibrant oranges and yellows that emerge, football season, or the slight hint of cinnamon in just about everything? Whatever it is, fall is here and we've just hit the tip of the holiday iceberg. So, compiled below is a list of fall holidays and observances for you to warm up to. Send an email with a frighteningly good sale, holiday happenings or turkey tips - all with a little sugar and spice!

October:

• 10/15: National Poetry Day
  
• 10/16: National Boss’ Day
• 10/31: Halloween

November:

• 11/6: Daylight Saving Time Ends
• 11/8: Election Day (US)
• 11/11: Veterans Day (US)
• 11/24: Thanksgiving (US)
• 11/25: Black Friday
• 11/26: Islamic New Year
• 11/26: Small Biz Saturday
• 11/28: Cyber Monday

VerticalResponse Postcards Holiday Submission Deadlines

*Note: Postcards ordered from VerticalResponse must be completed and sent to the printer by October 17 to be delivered by Halloween and November 10 to be delivered for Thanksgiving.

Posted by: Colleen Corkery

Colleen Corkery is the Lifecycle Marketing Coordinator at VerticalResponse. She writes and reaps about all email-related things. Connect with her on Twitter at @youcollme

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.

Why Your Email Should Resemble A Picture Book

Remember reading picture books as a child and the happy, warm and enjoyable emotions that usually accompanied the process? Whether it's reading a picture book to yourself, to your child, or to a group of eager 2nd graders, it's hard to feel anything but positive emotions while projecting playful sentences or turning the book to display the vibrant images. And it's usually those positive emotions that keep everyone interested, entertained and captivated.

We know what you're thinking...how do picture books relate to email marketing? Well, much like a picture book is designed to gather and keep readers' attention, emails should also be crafted to enthrall their audience. This is not to say that your recipients are equivalent to a group of 2nd graders, but with busy schedules and workdays their attention spans certainly may be. Below are suggestions for designing your email to captivate your audience.

Keep it positive! - No one likes to read a sad story or see unattractive images whether they come from a picture book or an email. Likewise, we certainly don't want any of that negativity associated with our company or brand. To avoid this, insert images that include smiling faces, vibrant colors or appealing scenery to your emails and use positive language wherever possible.

Example: Use conversational language within your emails or include a joke! It will not only make your messages more digestible but it may even give your customers a reason to smile.

Appeal to aesthetics - Much like a picture book appeals to its audience with a healthy balance of pictures to text, an email should include about 20% images and 80% text. Rather than overwhelm readers with an all text email, include images to draw-in your recipients' attention and encourage them to read the accompanying text.

Example: Include a complimentary image for each headline, title or section of your monthly newsletter.

A picture still tells 1,000 words - A reader's eyes will usually be drawn to an image first and then look to your text for an explanation. Make sure the pictures in your emails are relevant to your text in order to keep your message consistent. Similarly, relevant images can help to quickly convey the purpose of your email to recipients.

Example: Include a coupon or image that displays the total savings in promotional emails.

Credit the Author - After doing the work to create aesthetically appealing, positive and relevant messages you'll certainly want to your company to reap the benefits! Make sure the from label in your messages clearly references your company name or company owner and include a company logo in the header of each email message.

Example: To avoid entering the information in "Set Up" each time you create an email, you can save your company name, logo and address under the "Account Information" link in upper right hand corner of the "VR Email" tab.

Want more?  Check out the Image Library section of our help site for more information on how to easily find, edit and add images or attend our weekly VR for Salesforce live demonstration.

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.

Hit Your Target Audience with Geotargeting

  There are many tactics you can use to build your lists and maximize their efficiency:

• Run  split tests to increase open and click performance.
• Use Salesforce campaigns to target by a contact's lead or opportunity status.
• Map list data to personalize your message based on specific contact information. 

One simple method of list creation that's  often overlooked is geotargeting. Geotargeting involves building your list to send specific messages or offers to target individuals by geographic area. How's it done and why should you do it? Glad you asked!

To create a geotargeted mailing list you'll need to have a contact's city, zip code or phone in your salesforce records. You can collect information to target markets by any size area you'd like. Next, use this information to run a Salesforce report based on the specific geographic information you've gathered. Then, add the members of that report to a Salesforce campaign and select to use that campaign as a list.

Check out our blog post How to Use a Salesforce Report as an Email List, our guide Map Salesforce List Data or view our tutorial Build Lists Using Lead & Contact Queries for more detailed step-by-step instructions on creating targeted lists.

Okay, now that you know how to do it, why should you give it a try?  We've compiled a list of our top geotargeting ideas. Check them out! And, feel free to comment and add to the list!

1. Events - Use geotargeting to promote events to residents of specific regions. Rather than send a mass email informing recipients of multiple events in various cities or states, use geotargeting to send a more specific invitation. This can increase both sign-up and attendance rates by making the invitation more relevant and exclusive.

2. Promotions - Notice low sales, subscriptions, or sign-ups in a particular area? Send a targeted promotion to low performing regions or use geotargeting to vary offers across low or high performing territories.

3. Personalization - Personalize messages by referencing local celebrations, events or landmarks.  Your messaging will be more relevant, personal and effective. Moreover, recipients are more likely to feel they are being addressed by an individual instead of a large corporation. 

4. Loyalty - Let your local customers know that you're nearby. This not only informs them that you are easily accessible, but allows you to foster a more personal and intimate relationship with them. Individuals are often more comfortable conducting business locally, especially when they know you share a city or state or that you're only a neighborhood or even a block away.

5. Subject Lines - Geotargeting can also be used in subject lines to increase open rates. Reference an individual's place of residence or even their hometown in your subject line to catch their attention. Recipients may be more likely to notice a message containing their city or state in the inbox over a generic subject line.

Want more on lists? Check-out the lists section of our VR for AppExchange helpsite for information and tutorials on managing lists, creating opt-in forms and queries, and list best practices.

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Get More With VR Statistics

Many of you have become pros at creating attractive emails, uploading perfectly formatted lists and launching your campaigns like clockwork. Great, except one thing may be missing. Reporting! VerticalResponse for AppExchange has great reporting resources to help you determine everything from most popular send times to your most social email. Below are some tips on how to get the most out of the VR Statistics tab in your account.

1. Compare emails- Choose any 5 emails from any time period and see a side-by-side comparison on opens, clicks, bounces, unsubscribes and social media likes and shares. Example: Use the compare emails feature to determine your most successful send time or best performing newsletter design.

 

2. Create a List- Use results from a recent campaign to create a targeted mailing list. Simply click the campaign name in the VR Statistics tab then the "Create Mailing List" option to build a list of recipients who clicked a link, opened the email, converted, or shared on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Example: Use the "create a list" feature to download a record of all non-responders (those who did not open the email) and send a follow-up message.

 

3. Measure Email Performance- Quickly determine the performance of a particular email over time by selecting the email in the VR Statistics tab and choosing the desired time since launch under "Activity". Example: View open and click trends from 6 hours to 2 weeks after the launch of an email to determine when response rates are the highest and schedule your next email accordingly.

Quick Tip: Don't forget to select "Update Statistics" for recent emails in order to maintain the most up-to-date statistics for your leads and contacts. Next use the "VR Email History Object" to view exactly which emails an individual Lead or Contact has received and see exactly what they did with each of those emails.

Want more on reporting? Visit our Salesforce Statistics page to access video and text tutorials or sign up for our weekly VR for Salesforce live webinar.

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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Adding Links in Your Emails - Why, What, and How?

After all your hard work writing compelling content and uploading images, adding links to your emails is one of the easiest things you can do to increase customer engagement. With links you can encourage recipients to take action by directing them to visit your website, your blog, sign-up for an event, learn more about special promotions, or purchase products. Links also give particularly interested email recipients a way to easily continue their interaction with your brand or product. 

Where is the best place to add links in my email?

1. Images - Link images (including your company logo) to your website or another relevant URL. Also ensure you place alt text for all your images.

2. Titles or Headers - The titles or headers of specific sections in your emails are often an enticing place to click and make a great place to insert links.

3. Names or Titles - You can link names and titles to a corresponding email address so customers have an easy way to make contact.

4. Buttons or Text - Inserting a "Learn More!" or "Sign-up Here!" button or text link is an easy way to present your call-to-action. Performable offers a great and simple way to build buttons to include in your emails.

5. Relevant Content - Add links within the body or content of your message. They can help to not only break-up content and make it more digestible but are also a great way to get recipients to take some form of action.

6. Table of Contents - Including a small Table of Contents at the top of a long email or an email that includes several different topics (as with a Newsletter) can be a great way to get more people engaged with your message.  A TOC allows recipients to find items that interest them without needing to scroll through the entire email message.  And, of course, the easier you make it for your subscribers to find content that interests them, the more likely they’ll be to take action with your message.  

You can also test the success of different links by accessing the "VR Statistics" tab in your account to view click rates and reporting on your links.

Adding links is simple! Here's how:

• Highlight the text or select the image you'd like to use as a link.
• Click the chain link icon in the Designer's Toolbar (top right hand side in the top row of icons).
• Select the "Link Type" (email or URL)
• Type or paste your link or email into the dialog box.
• Click "Insert" or "OK" and you're all done! If you'd like to test your links, go to the Quick Preview tab found directly above the Designer's Toolbar. 

Want to learn more about adding links in your emails? Visit our How To Do Everything Salesforce site to access one of our video or text tutorials or sign up for one of our weekly VR for Salesforce live demos!

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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!

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.

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