What you need to know before integration

Integration of two omnipotent platforms is serious business. You cannot integrate CRM and CMS platforms by fluke. You need to understand each of their functions and features to complete a seamless integration successfully.

Before choosing an integration tool, here’s what you should consider –

1. How much information do you need for communications? What are the necessary fields you require including but not limited to name, contact number, address, email address, and zip code?
2. How do you want to handle the new leads? Do you already have old leads that are valuable? How are you handling them currently? How can you migrate or export the existing leads to the new platform?

• Do you need to customize the forms? How much customization do you need? Do you need basic forms or do you need custom fonts with specific color coding and styles?

Hooking up your website to a strong CRM platform can be rewarding for any online business. The changing environment with a natural inclination toward digital marketing makes it imperative for almost all companies in 2017 to integrate their CMS into an all-around CRM.

What are the perks of integrating your website with a new CRM?

You can achieve perfect data sync; you will not have to worry about customer relationships and updating data, data backup will no longer be a chore. However, many businesses have not yet integrated their WordPress data with Salesforce, and this is why they are missing out.

Amazing user management options

The syncing of the platforms gives rise to a cohesive database. WordPress website functions like customer registration, the creation of new leads, and following the progress of online campaigns become more compact with the integration. Syncing the fields between the two applications is quite easy as well. This is especially true for membership and subscription-related websites. If you are running an online survey or looking for a collection of customer feedback, melding the two platforms proves to be a rather good idea.

In fact, syncing WordPress to Salesforce allows syncing of the customers’ account status dynamically. You can tag your leads and users as customers and give them access to your "customer only" areas of the sales website. This process of automated updating of customer status takes significant workload off the shoulders of your sales team, and it serves as a comprehensive guide for the customer service team.

Building an expansive e-commerce store

Salesforce CRM allows multiple ways of importing products into the database successfully. There are only a few ways of keeping all your product data synced with an external online store. SalesforceDx offers a flexible and intuitive environment for developers to create their pathways of integrating the product information into the Salesforce CRM from an external store. These are more efficient than the out-of-the-box solutions available for most of the other CRMs.

Predesigned solutions may seem easier to avail, but they come with a considerable disadvantage. The pre-meditated setups can nullify any and all your customizations of the database or workflow. Most experts suggest customized import pathways and conditions, rather than opting for off-the-shelf solutions.

This should preferably include a complete e-commerce solution with updated stock quantities, sales history, and sales data in your database. If you have any previous data on customer purchases, Salesforce makes it much easier to target your customers for new products, campaigns, and promotions.

Object integration and flexibility

Salesforce is more extensible than most of us assume it to be. If you are thinking of using this powerful CRM, you just need a strong developer team to match its potential. Using SalesforceDx, it is now much easier to create any object you need dedicated to your website. From subscription sites to sales websites, you can integrate custom objects on your CMS to your Salesforce CRM as per your need. You can track due payments, lapsed subscriptions, new shipment updates, and cart abandonment rates with your new tools.

You can even attach your WordPress actions to your Salesforce campaigns. Can you believe it? Well, you better do, it because SalesforceDx and a smart team of developers can make that happen for you. You can add users to your database when they submit specific forms to given Salesforce campaigns. You can target specific websites for activities you are interested in. Additionally, you can create an endless number of actions and conditions for your WordPress actions.

For example – you have a WordPress blog, and you want to keep an eye on the number of people who view the different posts in different categories in a day. You can create a WordPress action to monitor the events and collect the data from relevant user activities. These actions enable businesses to have a certain dedicated marketing and sales goals while designing the integration pathways.

How do you integrate the two platforms without glitches?

WordPress websites are the easiest to manage and upgrade. Salesforce is the most comprehensive CRM there is for all business purposes. Now, you may want to send your website leads, data, and more directly to your new CRM. After all, that is a smart thing to do! There are new plug-ins that allow the seamless integration of WordPress as a CMS and Salesforce as a CRM.

Sometimes, finding the specific plug-in is difficult in certain circumstances. Most of the time it is the WordPress contact managers. You can overcome this by using a combination of different plug-ins that facilitate the integration of the two platforms. The overlapping fields often give every business what they need from both these application platforms.

Integration of WordPress and Salesforce is becoming more mainstream by the day. There are hundreds of paid and free versions of plug-ins that are making e-commerce quite the happening topic of discussion among data managers right now.

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Twitter is a great marketing tool to promote your business, and since it’s all about conversations, Twitter is an excellent way to engage with your customers.

Visibility is the Holy Grail of online marketing, and the strategy for improving visibility varies for different social media platforms. When it comes to twitter, there are 7 key factors. 

Content that strikes

We have talked about how Twitter is essentially a conversational platform. The key here is to give your followers something to talk about. Post content that is intriguing to your followers. Dig deep into your niche and come up with ideas that are likely to catch on. This will help boost your visibility, organically. You could use a content curation tool to help find newsy and intriguing content.

Tool Recommendation:

DrumUp is a social media management tool that also doubles-up as a content curation tool to save you loads of time. The tool delves deep into your niche and sifts through a staggering amount of content based on keywords you choose to bring out great choices of posts to share. DrumUp also allows posting content across multiple social media accounts, so you can directly share schedule (custom or 1-Click schedule) suggested posts to be published on your accounts.

2) Hashtags and @Mentions

Don't forget the importance of hashtags and @mentions in your tweets.

Mentions are used to draw the attention of other Twitter users. They are effective in increasing the visibility of your brand, and if you happen to mention another Twitter user in a good context, he/she is likely to return the favor by engaging with your content. For instance, when sharing a post that mentions Oreo, you should probably @mention Oreo.

Use @mentions wisely. For instance, if you are tweeting a tennis update and happen to know that your client enjoys tennis, you could @mention them following the text in your post.

Never use random @mentions to get more engagement on posts.

Hashtags are used to label a particular topic of conversation. By labeling conversations, you make them visible to people searching for those types of conversations.

Hashtags are also a hit when it comes to branding. When you create a unique hashtag, you provide your brand with an identity on Twitter and give fans the opportunity to talk about you and your activities.

Hashtags can also connect you with the whole of the general Twitter community and boost your reach greatly. For instance, #FF or FollowFriday is a hashtag that was created way back in 2009. Today, #FF has 539 million users and Twitterati use the hashtag to recommend profiles to their followers every Friday.

3) The right visuals

The human brain is wired to process visual information faster than factual information. This means your audience is more likely to remember a message conveyed through relevant visual content rather than long panels of text.

Studies show that tweets with captivating images get 18% more engagement and 150% more re-tweets. Talk about a boost in visibility. Since tweets are limited to 140 characters, you sometimes run out of space to say what you feel. Including images can give you means to say more than what the 140 characters accommodate. Infographics and video content are also great visual formats for tweets.

For instance, Jimmy Kimmel of TV show Jimmy Kimmel Live runs a segment where celebrities read tweets about themselves. He then tweets a preview of a video of celebrities doing that for his followers. These tweets receive a large number of likes, re-tweets, and replies, from the celebrities themselves, their fans and Kimmel’s fans.

4) Conversations matter 

It’s useful to note once again that Twitter is a conversational platform. An obvious tactic to boost your brand’s visibility is to simply join conversations. Search for hashtags related to your niche or topics that are most talked about by your followers.

Tool recommendation:

Hashtagify, a hashtag analysis tool suggests hashtags related to keywords you input. You can use these hashtags to look for relevant conversations on Twitter.   

Pay attention to the community participating in tweets related to your niche. A large number of Twitter users who participate in such conversations are likely to have similar interests as you and may follow you. This strategy of participating in relevant conversations not only boosts your visibility but also builds your network.

Once you have built a community of conversationalists around your brand, its important to acknowledge every participant.

Taco Bell, for instance, has a great feed where people are constantly posting content around the brand. Their conversations are sometimes even joined by celebrities. Taco Bell’s social media managers acknowledge every participant’s contribution to conversation, and many times, these witty and timely responses go viral.

5) Time it right 

If your ultimate goal is to boost visibility for your posts, then you should make sure that you tweet at an optimum time. Your tweets should reach followers around the world at a time when they are online to drive the maximum engagement for your posts.

The frequency of your tweets matter as well. It should drive engagement but not drive your followers away. Studies show that a frequency of up to 3 tweets a day is used by most brands to drive engagement. As for the optimum time to post, research shows that tweets drive more engagement during weekdays between 12 P.M-3 P.M. 

6) Link smartly

One of the best ways to boost visibility through twitter is to place links strategically in your tweets. A study has found that links placed towards the beginning of a tweet has a higher click-through-rate than links placed towards the end of the tweet.

Another important strategy is to take advantage of a reader’s curiosity. When you tweet a link, give a brief introduction to your posts, not too much, just enough to highlight the relevance of the content and at the same time, build a sense of curiosity to discover what’s next. This encourages your readers to click on the links in your tweets. Also, don’t forget to include links in the description box.

7) Engage with influencers 

One of the best tactics of marketing is to appeal to your influencers. Closely follow your powerful influencers as they will promote you and build your credibility. Engage them and mention them in your tweets.

You could use Twitter lists identify influencers and maintain relationships. Look at the Twitter lists created by colleagues or peers. If they’re Public Lists, you can subscribe to them, follow influencers and interact with their content.

Many businesses struggle with creating visibility on Twitter, being a quick-paced social media platform. With the right tactics and tools, however, one can boost his/her reach, visibility and engagement on Twitter.

The post 7 Advanced Twitter Marketing Tips to Boost Your Visibility appeared first on RELEVANCE.

Here Lies the Secret

When embracing social media for database marketing, you should consider integrating various social media platforms in order to attain the best results. That means being present on multiple social media platforms and effectively participating in each one of them.

You will only know which social media platform is best for your database marketing ventures if you try out individual ones and see the one which is more efficient. Take a closer examination and find out on which platform your customers are more responsive.

Additionally, you should be able to analyze which channel the customers are more receptive to. Analyze Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Email, and other platforms to find out what best works for you and your business. Additionally, doing this also helps you to identify secondary channels through which you can get in touch with your clients. In the process, you will also get to know the kind of messages suitable for varied platforms.

For instance, when you are a car dealer, it is more resounding to engage your clients on Facebook after-sales rather than bombarding them with unnecessary emails. Get them to discuss the features of the cars involved. You will not only be facilitating brand awareness but also strengthening customer relations.

A notable example is Morton’s The Steakhouse. This company normally invites its customer to share freely their views and experiences with others. Other potential customers get to learn about their capabilities as a firm and what best to expect from them. For the best results in database marketing, you need to adopt such strategies.

Precisely integrated data can enable one to create information-packed client profiles, which will translate to efficiency, commitment, and full dedication. Most importantly, practicing this helps you get insights into your social customers and find a better way of managing them. Subsequently, you can increase the enthusiasm for spreading your database marketing news.

Promotes Targeted Marketing

Notably, sorting out the social media users according to sub-populations helps you identify further their special needs. By doing this, you may be in a better position of understanding your clients. Eventually, this will help you come up with working strategies that will help you achieve nothing short of success.

Evidently, social media is distancing itself from the initial stage of mass data collection, which is a characteristic of undeveloped marketing channels. This makes it a more relevant marketing sphere that can be used so easily in achieving targeted marketing and more goal-oriented specifications. The most successful database marketer is one who realizes the essence of integrating social media with other relevant marketing channels with an aim of developing profitable interactions with their customers.

It Comes Down to Regular Update Customer Records

Analyzing your user profiles in a social media marketing setup gives you the advantage of understanding better the kind of people you are dealing with. Using social media as a database marketing vehicle helps make it easier for you to study your clients the easier way and subsequently update their records.

Keeping a close record of the social users within your sphere of influence can make it easier to analyze consumer behavior. What is it that they find more appealing to your brand? What are some of the evident areas that they might need possible changes?

It is possible to get an insight into all of these resulting in better productivity. You will also be able to follow trends on how best customers are interacting with your brand. Social media gives you a more sustainable platform for ensuring you address your users through the most sustainable marketing platforms.

For the best results, have regular updates of your user database. Where necessary, add the extra details you need pertaining to your clients. You can also do away with obsolete records to make them more relevant and precise in achieving your database marketing goals.

Learn What Works For You the Easier Way

One undoubted aspect of using a combination of social media tools in achieving your marketing goals is that it will enlighten you on the best marketing channels and strategies. Trying out various strategies through social media and analyzing them makes you realize the working strategies and those ones that are not worth the struggles.

You will only get better at using social media as a database-marketing tool when you are able to keep all the records and subsequently analyze them to get a deeper insight into the direction your business is taking.

With a closer analysis of your user database, you will be able to realize the best thing that works for you as a manager. It is only by doing this that you will be able to make greater achievements and notable milestones in your journey as an entrepreneur and business manager.

Most importantly, you can be assured of more returns on investment. No one wants to waste efforts and resources working on something that is not beneficial in the end. That gives you every reason to take closer consideration of social media as a database-marketing tool.

Ideally, social media is effective in achieving workable database marketing goals. The ease and efficacy that comes with using various social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, cannot be overlooked. With the increased assurance of promoting target marketing, there is no doubt that social media has a significant impact on database marketing.

However, it takes critical analysis and a sixth sense to figure out all these. For the keen and insightful business manager, the seamless opportunities that come with using this marketing vehicle are unstoppable.

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