With all the PPC spending going on one must assume there’s a lot of websites getting hits.  Where do all those web leads end up?  It’s one thing to generate a hit, another to keep them from bouncing off your site, and another to bring them into your organization’s house-file. 

In a perfect world our website would handle our visitors from the point when they land on our site through to an ecommerce transaction, and even give them the self service they need down the road.  Also, in a perfect world, every time that original prospect or future customer needs something they would return to our site, and sometimes even just to check out our new offerings.  Yeah right …. You know it’s not a perfect world!

This brings me back to the point of this article.  Where do your web leads go and how do they get there?  A lot of firms I know receive an email with the information from forms that their visitors fill out.  The email is directed to a person who is responsible for entering the information into their house-file and then telling a salesperson to follow it up.  I believe there’s a better way – here’s how we handle it: 

• Encourage visitors to fill out “contact forms” – offer downloads, newsletters, special access to hidden information, etc.
• Automatically upload the information captured on these forms into our customer relationship management (CRM) database.  In my case, we use the “web import” features of GoldMine software.  This saves time and eliminates data entry errors.
• Automate distribution and follow-up of new leads according to the nature of the request – in the design of web forms and scripts, you can pass hidden field information to your database so that your leads are categorized as they come into the database.  This enables your marketing and sales efforts to be tied to the lead immediately.  Your CRM system should do this.
• Use Automated Email Responses to speed up follow-up and to engage prospects in a dialogue.  This also helps to further qualify the lead, while providing more personalized attention. Your CRM system should do this.
• Work new leads into the regular marketing stream so that if they’re not ready to do business at this time, they don’t fall through the cracks.  (Naturally, you must provide a means for, and honor opt-out requests.)  Future marketing can direct prospects back to your website for information on future offerings. 
• Catch repeat visitors and dup-check them using their email address – if your customers put in the same email address into future forms on your site, your CRM system should automatically match them up with their existing record in your database.  This way, rather than creating a duplicate record, you can append the additional information or inquiry to their current database record.  It’s also nice for your customer to not have to “log in” to your site, which some visitors find inconvenient.
• The same process can begin with an incoming email as well.  Your CRM should be able to create the record and link it to the email, although if there’s no V-card you will have to manually enter their contact information.  Even “Chat” conversations on your website can be saved in a CRM record.

 Getting a visitor to your site is hard enough.  Keeping them on your site is equally difficult.  But the last thing you want to do is lose track of them once they do express interest.  Your CRM system, combined with intelligent marketing and sales activities will increase the ROI of your site, and your overall business!

Tis the season to be mailing … cards, calendars, gifts!  So it’s time to dust off your GoldMine label reports.  Since some of you may be rusty, here are some thoughts on the subject.

Printing mailing labels for Primary contacts is generally not much of a problem.  You just need to apply a GoldMine Filter or Group to select your records and then run the “Avery 5160 Primary Contacts” label report.  (More about Additional contacts in a moment!)  Sometimes the label format needs to be adjusted a bit.  For example, you may want to use a different or smaller font.  Or, you may need to adjust the label around a bit to help it to fit.  Long addresses are sometimes a problem.

To modify the format of your label report, go into the Report Layout.  If you’re unsure of what you’re doing, I suggest you clone to make a copy of the original report before you make any modifications, or contact First Direct for assistance. 

Do you need to Print Labels for GoldMine Additional Contacts based on a Merge Code?  Here’s a report you can use. Just download this report and save it in your GoldMine “Reports” folder, and then add it to your GoldMine Reports menu.  When you run this report it will prompt you for a “Merge Code.”  Enter the Code (case counts) in the two prompts fields and this will select only Additional Contacts with this Code.  If you want to select multiple Codes you may need to run the labels multiple times.

Other Label Printing Hints:

•  
  • Check the Sort order of your report so your labels come out in the order you want.  If you’re printing personalized letters be sure to use the sample Group sorted in the same order as your labels.  This will make it much easier to do a “matched mailing.”
  • If you’re mailing to contacts in the United States, make sure your Country field is blank. If your Country field is filled in with U.S.A for example, then it will get printed on you label. There’s no need to use up a line for that, so just leave it blank!
  • Use fonts that the United States Postal Service accepts.  Courier New or Times New Roman will work fine. 
  • Use black, versus a color.  The USPS character recognition software doesn’t like red!
  • Reduce font size to 9 point to help you fit more on each label
  • Be aware that the fields built into this label report are set to “wrap” so that if an address line is too long to fit on one line, it will drop a portion to the next line.  This is the biggest cause of addresses not fitting onto labels. I Suggest you run the report onto paper, versus label sheets first so you know which Contacts present a problem.  If it’s no too many, you may just want to write out a few addresses. 

 

Here are links to more specific information on USPS regulations about the face of a mail piece or  mailing and shipping guidelines for business.

The wMobile product enables users to have live wireless access to a GoldMine based CRM system from their handheld device.

Users can access all contact information contained on a GoldMine contact record including information in customized GoldMine fields. Users can add and edit contact information with updates instantly available on the live GoldMine database all from their handheld device.

Sometimes managing people is better accomplished by managing the technology they use.  This certainly can be the case when it comes to your GoldMine database.  Data quality, which I’ll define as accuracy and completeness, is largely in the hands of your users.  What they do each time they’re on record or doing some activity that should be tracked in the database will largely determine the quality of your data.  And, as the database goes, so goes your ability to effectively target and communicate to your customer and prospect base.

“Record Typing” in a feature in GoldMine that enables an organization using GoldMine to present users with fields and screens and fields to dictate the fields that users should view and edit. As a GoldMine Record progresses from a “Lead” to a “Prospect” to a “Customer” the fields in view for the Users to edit can change.  In effect, you are able to design a workflow.
Using Record Typing in this way will enable users to see and be reminded more easily of what information they should collect.  Record Typing can also make it simpler to train new users, who will see fewer fields on the screen. 

By assigning a “Custom Screen” and “GM+View” for each Record Type, as you switch Records, or enter a new Record of one Type or another, the Main Screen (top half) of Record, as well as the custom fields in the Fields Tab, and the GM+View, will switch accordingly.

All the configuration for Record Typing is done within the Records Type Administrator.   I must tell you that the way this works, plus the bugs in GoldMine that relate to this feature, is enough to make you scream.  By the same token once you get the knack of it it’s not too bad.  And, you already know that First Direct is pleased to help you in this area.  I’ve even planned a FREE webinar on this topic – click here for a link to that special event.

As some of my readers know, First Direct Corp. has won more than our share of sales awards. I could point to a few different reasons for this, but the one I wish to focus on in this article is one you can all benefit from. It’s also one that seems terribly obvious. To sell more … do more! 

What does this have to do with GoldMine? Just about everything. If you ask me, what I like most about GoldMine? – The answer is, the way it lets my organization do more. We can make more calls, do more marketing, stay in touch with more contacts, respond to more inquiries, produce more communications, and just simply do more sales than we could possibly do without the software. In other words, I need GoldMine to sell GoldMine!

I’m always struck by the following reaction some sales people have expressed during the first training session, or even during a demonstration of GoldMine. They’ll say something like this, “You expect me to put all this information into a database … when am I going to have time to sell?” When I hear this I want to say, “Who has the time to sell without GoldMine!?”

When I look back over the many articles I’ve written in the past for this newsletter, as well as the free webinars I’ve hosted, I find numerous topics that I’ve shared with my audience to help them sell more by doing more. Yet, as the old expression goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.” 

GoldMine gives you an enviable toolset to help you and your organization sell more and market better. But you have to make it happen, or get the help you need (shameless plug). If you’ve reached the threshold or the realization that you need to use GoldMine to sell more … schedule a free, no obligation, meeting with me and start to make it happen. 

Take a look at this upcoming webinar – Using GoldMine Through The Eyes of a Sales Rep – A Sales Centric Approach to Using GoldMine.

Have you ever tried to import contact data from Excel into GoldMine? If so you’ve probrobly run into some trouble. The best way is to save the contact data stored in a Microsoft® Excel spreadsheet as a dBASE IV (.dbf) file and then import those contacts into GoldMine using the GoldMine Import Wizard not the GoldMine Link to Excel. Here’s how:

* Make sure your columns are wide enough in Excel to view all data in the column. Also make sure your column headings do not contain spaces, numbers or non-alpha characters.

In your Excel spreadsheet, choose file>>Save As. Then, choose a file name and select DB 4 (dBASEIV) from the save as type drop-down menu.

Once the file is saved, close the excel file and open GoldMine and choose Tools>>Import/Export>>Import Contact Records.

Choose to Import a New File and choose DBF as the file type. Then click Next.

Browse to the DBF file that you just saved and click Next and Next again.

Map the appropriate field labels to the appropriate GM fields and choose Next.

If you want to save this data as a profile for future use, select “yes” and type in a profile name. If you do not want to save it as a profile, choose “no” and click on Next.

When you are ready to import the contacts, click finish to start the import.

NOTE: GoldMine’s import feature offers other capabilities, such as duplicate checking, globally filling fields with values not contained in the import file, and attaching GoldMine Automated Processes. For even more advanced import functions we recommend one of the following add-on solutions: GoldBox or Inaport. For further information or assistance contact First Direct Corp.

It would be nice if GoldMine’s email editor offered as many features as Outlook. The most common HTML editing functions/actions are available on the email composition toolbar, but here are a few features that GoldMine offers that users are often not aware of.

Bullets – Adding bullets to emails is possible! It’s not an icon, like we’re used to. However, if you “right click” on your highlighted text you’ll be able to select “Style” from the local menu and on that list you’ll see the option for “Bulleted List.”

Numbered List – Creating a numbered list is also available from the “Style” menu.

Background Image – Inserting a background image, perhaps just for the purposes of a color, or maybe a watermark, is available from the toolbar as well as the “right click” menu under “Insert.”

Heading Options – A quick way to create a bold heading at the top of your email is to select from one of the various heading options available under the “Style” menu. They go from largest to smallest with 1 being the largest.

Inserting a Hyperlink – You can insert a link behind any text, which will be available when the reader clicks on your text. Sometimes this is preferable to pasting the actual link into your text. This way your link can be a “call to action” with the URL, and maybe even a tracking code for your web site analytics, can be in the link. This feature is available from the toolbar as well as by right clicking on your highlighted text and selecting “Insert” > “Insert Link” from the menu.

For even more robust email designs consider a full fledged HTML editor, the same software one would use to design a web site. HTML can be copied and pasted into your GoldMine email templates. Doing this enables you to create elaborate emails with interactivity, fancy graphics and much more!

A final word to the wise. Sometimes in an effort to get fancy we forget the value of simplicity. There’s an old marketing expression “test ugly early.” I often find that the briefest, simpler communications get past the “spam radar” and are more likely to be read and replied to. And, since that is the objective, there’s a lot to be said for keeping it simple. By the same token, the editing options above can help you to make your message clear … and clarity is paramount, because if you confuse them you lose them!