Report From the Trenches: Using Salesforce & Act-On Together

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Act-On Software News | 25 Comments |

Editor’s note: On the heels of Dreamforce, we received a guest post from Monica Seely of Rapid Notify detailing how she makes the most of Salesforce by integrating it with Act-On.

Using Salesforce Campaigns became more meaningful once I learned how to use them in connection with Act-On. I’ve created a four-step process that works very well to reach the right prospects, support follow-up by sales, and track conversions.

Here are the steps I use:

Start by creating a Salesforce campaign that contains a manageable group of leads based on a defining characteristic that is important to our business.
Use the “Add to Act-On List” button on my SF campaigns so I can further segment my leads within Act-On for automated follow up programs based on lead activity.
Create custom SF Campaign Member Status levels (such as “Hot” or “Warm”) based on meaningful activity, and have them updated via Act-On List Maintenance. This helps to trigger SF workflows and other automations for my sales team to follow up accordingly. This also enables use of the SF Campaign Call Down feature, helping to create call lists based on Campaign Member Status.
Keep my Act-On Campaign synced to the SF Campaign for several weeks to continue to capture activity from leads that were out of office, etc.

What to use with Salesforce Now my Salesforce campaigns connect the dots by tracing the line from lead marketing to opportunity prospects to products/assets purchased. My Salesforce/Act-On campaigns help my sales team evaluate the most effective messaging and lead segments – and help me show ROI to my executive team.

Monica Seely is the Marketing Manager at Rapid Notify. Rapid Notify provides a comprehensive suite of emergency notification and management services. The company’s reliable and cost-effective mass notification solutions help people to connect during a crisis, manage operational incidents and other communication activities.

Categorized in: Act-On in Action

http://www.iGrafx.com Guedo Fanony

This is awesome! I have been doing this for quite some time and I had not seen the “Add to Act-On List” feature. I have been just adding them to campaigns, then pulling the campaign into Act-On, which takes a lot of time. I’ll definitely be looking forward to this next time I set up a campaign! Thanks for the tips!
Nuala

Wow this is really helpful. I also haven’t been using the “Add to ActOn List” feature. Thanks for sharing best practices.
http://www.jacobcurtis.co Jacob Curtis

We have not yet included this integration into our own company tactics but I am very thankful Act-on provides articles like this for its users to maximize their campaigns.

As Guedo stated above, this tip saves a lot of time which is a huge benefit when you are using the platform to drive results. Thank you Monica for the guest post!
http://www.mybusinessintegrated.com Chris Kiersch

Thank you for the great tip. I have found that we spend a lot more time addressing lead assignments, lead routing, and we get stuck in the weeds of a “client ideas”. I always tell them we can do anything if you throw enough money at it, and it’s really nice to share a simple idea that makes them stop in their tracks like the one submitted here. Cheers, Chris
Jeff

Sounds like a really solid system to be using. We just started using Act-On recently and will definitely bookmark this post for future reference. Thanks as always for the tips! The amount of support Act-On provides is amazing.
- David Svigel
  
  I agree about high level of Act-On support. The team is always there to help out.
Tim

I too was unaware of the “add to act-on list” feature in SF campaigns. The act-on connector for SF is amazing, and definitely a bug selling point for the platform. This is a solid process. Thanks for sharing. I will certainly take some pointers from this article.
http://www.nwasoft.com Teresa Whelan

Monica helped me find the “Add to Act-On List” button and it truly is a time-saver – thanks Monica! Makes the SF-ActOn connection even more seamless!
Dani Calvert

Thanks for sharing this. I haven’t seen these steps outlined this clearly and it’s very helpful. Our sales team uses Sales Force and Act-On, so I’ll be sending this through to them.
Brittany

It seems like sales and marketing work together closely in the real world, but this really helps everyone get on the same page with goals and actual turnout. It helps identify where the process is getting hung up in a plan and everyone has the opportunity to provide innovative feedback. It’s wonderful!
http://www.taos.com Dave Gross

Thanks for the great tips and also the response regarding the “Add to Acton List” feature. In a perfect world sales and marketing work closely together and this helps get it there.
http://overnitecbt.com thomas craft

Great article, I would also like to add that Act-On has been successful in helping our own proprietary system(not salesforce) in doing this exact same thing!
http://www.firstcal.net Kat

Great points. We are trying to figure out the best ways to use salesforce and act-on now. I am going to send this to some of our early adopters to check out.
Greg Palmer

We are gearing up to overhaul our sales team’s use of SF and I can’t wait to get deeper into this type of integration. Have bookmarked this to come back to in the new year, but I can already begin to imagine the ways this will help our sales and marketing functions work together a bit more harmoniously.
Brad

We certainly don’t use Act-On to its fullest potential. We haven’t really done anything with automation at all. However, we do use the SalesForce integration to segment email lists. We often send different emails to customers in specific areas of the country or with specific interests. The integration lets us easily create a list in SalesForce and import it into Act-On. Once the email is sent, Act-On uploads the appropriate data back to SF so our sales team can see that their contact/lead received the email.

In 2013 we will be expanding our usage of the integration and are excited to see a lot of the newer tools Act-On has available.
Bobby Holt

Salesforce makes it incredibly easy to add lists into act-on. Sending mass email blasts is a breeze once we have the necessary lists, which is what salesforce does well.
http://twitter.com/matthewmilad Matt A

I’m lost. Is there some sort of functionality with Salesforce that I have overlooked here? Where can I start to look at implementing the steps mentioned here?
Zachary Winnie

As a designer, I don’t dive into Salesforce at all. But I can see how this could be useful for the sales team in sending emails and tracking leads.
Marshall Welch

Whoa! I didn’t realize you could send your Salesforce campaigns directly to Act-On. That could be huge for our marketing lists!
http://twitter.com/pepper__shaker Todd Holbrook

We use the Salesforce integration feature with our Act-On service and is has been very useful, especially when crafting unique messages to individuals. Don’t know much about the Act-On List Maintenance feature but will have to get into that.
@BESegal

I use other aspects of ActOn’s integration w/ SalesForce. As a heads up to other users of SF & Act-On, you need to have permission to create campaigns in SF or you won’t be able to use this great tip.
David Svigel

I think the real value in this approach is being able to analyze and report campaign results in a comprehensive and meaningful way. It’s always troublesome and often inaccurate to try and pull results from various systems.
http://twitter.com/kdelucia22 Kristen DeLucia

The Salesforce integration is one of the main reasons we Act-On stood out to us. This feature helps us validate our efforts in the c-suite.
Stacy Gentile

i wish there was a more developed dashboard in SF for act-on…Having one window to manage everything is so critical.
Joe Goehring

I think one of the most important points is in the first couple of sentences. A ‘manageable’ number if leads. Too often mass lists become unmanageable. These should be segmented in SFDC or in Act-on. Metrics should be passed from act-on clear through he sales cycle