Posted by Scott
Tue, 20 Mar 2007 16:24:00 GMT
We have at least one demo user that is looking at LeadsOnRails as a process workflow tool independent of lead management, per se. I think that is a great idea. LeadsOnrails Tracks and Steps are great for small business marketing teams that see the benefit of supporting a consistent marketing message. It turns out that the same capabilities provide value in other workflow situations.
If you are using LeadsOnRails for lead management, consider if there are other small business workflow management tasks that you could put into LeadsOnRails giving you a chance to move a step toward a single toolset for tracking your activity.
Posted in Ideas | no comments
Posted by Scott
Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:42:00 GMT
I received a note from Barry Hess at Scrawlers reminding me that I signed up for a Scrawlers account, but had yet not logged in. (Scrawlers “embraces constraints” through stories of 100 words or less). I promptly signed in and posted my first three lines to Scrawlers that afternoon.
That email was a good example of the importance of occasional updates to your leads: your new and trial users who sometimes sign up, take a quick look, make a mental note to come back later, and then just forget to. The timing, content, and delivery of these emails visits, postcards, or calls is at the heart of your lead management efforts.
Contact Managers vs. Lead Management Software
Barry’s was a simple email from his email client, I suspect. But what happens when he grows to hundreds and thousands of new users?
Maybe you are already there. That is where you start looking for small business lead management and contact management tools.
There are hundreds of tools available for online contact management and you could use one of those as your lead management software. But then you’d miss out on features that make for more effective lead management.
I’ve put together a quick list. The image at left is a preview of lead management software features.
Click here for a comparison of lead management software and contact management software.
Useful Reminders Work
The Scrawlers reminder prompted a new active user. After we at Synap Software send emails updates to trial users we always see login activity to accounts that had been inactive for a bit. Our reminder emails typically have useful information about a lead management feature or a small tutorial on lead management. This information both informs and reminds trial users why they initially had an interest in our lead management product. [Note: We do not monitor our users’ detailed use of the system, but do monitor login activity and user counts to help provide better service and understand aggregate usage patterns.]
How to Set Up Trial-Users Reminders in LeadsOnRails
Whether selling online products, offline products, or services you should offer a free-trial or free version of your product or service. (See step 4 of this article.) Users of your free trial are your leads. Input each lead into LeadsOnRails for effective lead management.
Create a message template for each step in the trial process, right up to trial expired. Each message should have a userful bit of information about your customers’ industry as well as a reminder of how your product relates.
Then, when you have completed the message templates, set up a track like this. Put the appropriate amount of days between each step, depending on how long your free trial or free service runs until you expect to convert or upsell a customer. Maybe your lead management scenario is months, weeks or days. If you are a LeadsOnRails user, you’ve experienced the receiving side of this lead management process.
Put Trial Users On Track
Now, simply assign leads that are using your free trial to this track and your trial-user lead management process will be on automatic, helping you deliver the right message at the right time.
Do you use trail-user management, lead management, or contact management software to keep your trial- and new-users informed and reminded of your product? We’d love to hear any experiences of how it’s worked out.
LeadsOnRails.com continues to be focusses on turning leads into sales. Over the next month we expect LeadsOnRails to take some huge leaps in being a complete lead acquisition, lead nurturing, and lead management solutions. Our vision is for LeadsOnRails to help you with most of the steps discussed in the article 7 Steps to Improve Small Business Marketing Results. Stay tuned!
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Posted by Scott
Thu, 22 Feb 2007 05:41:00 GMT
Welcome to the first entry in the LeadsOnRails product log. Here is where the developers of LeadsOnRails will update users on feature plans, system status, and other news. And even more importantly, this is one place for users to express feedback!
For general information on other Synap Software activities and Business and Technology in general please see our company blog Now, Do It. For information specific to LeadsOnRails, you are in the right place.
Getting Started
The first in a series of “Getting Started” email articles to current users went out today. It can be seen here.
If you are not familiar with LeadsOnRails, see the product tour.
We are growing
A steady stream of users join the LeadsOnRails system daily. I mention this only because as a customer-feedback driven product and company, this influx of users has made the product and product plans better. We love feedback so please keep it coming.
Email: comments@synapsoftware.com.
Phone: 303-683-3522
Chat: http://synap.campfirenow.com/a8d9b
- Scott
Posted in Getting Started, Ideas | no comments
