Here are a few tips about what you need to think about so that your campaign is well planned and works the way you want it.

Let’s look at a simple free report opt in. What do you need to do?

1. Set up a webform. There is a default webform layout that you can easily customize to match what you want yours to look like. The visual editor has lots of functionality and it’s easy for even the tech-shy. And publishing is a breeze – if you don’t have a web person, you can use a hosted version of your form, right in Infusionsoft. It really couldn’t be simpler.

2. Write a ‘thank you’ email to deliver your free report. Once you have your thank you page set up (also can be done right in Infusionsoft), you want to follow up with an email, so that your prospects know their email address is connected correctly, and so they can access your free report from their inbox anytime they want. The email templates are also very simple to brand for your business, and easy to populate with your text, images, and trackable links. You can even attach files which is not a feature that all email services provide.

3. Upload your report to Infusionsoft so you can link it to your thank you email. You can upload your free report to your website, but it’s probably even easier to upload it right you’re your Infusionsoft file cabinet, and then attach it to the right email.  It’s simple to do, and then that file is easily accessible for any email correspondence you send in the system.

4. Tag your prospects so you can easily search for them in your CRM. Tagging is the signature feature of the system, and it differs from ‘lists’ in other email services. It’s a terrific way to segregate your people based on their behaviour, purchases, interests, and more. And because you can apply an unlimited number of tags to any contact, it’s very easy to find the people who are interested in many things that you are tracking.

5. Develop a follow up sequence to send people after they have opted in. The follow up is the best part of any Infusionsoft campaign.  You can set up your basic follow up (as stated above – tag, TY email) and then you can continue to add on more pieces as you see fit. You can set up a follow up sequence of emails that can take people along the path of your marketing funnel. You can add on sequences any time you want to, and add to the value that your people opted in for. And if they do take action that you put in front of them, you can move them to another sequence easily so that their funnel sequences stop. It’s pretty cool.

Pretty simple setup, and fairly standard no matter what type of system you are using to deliver your report.

But when you use Infusionsoft, you can really think ahead and actually plan ahead, so that you actually lead your prospects through your marketing funnel – from their basic free entry, to upselling them to your products and services.

The basic campaign manager is like mindmap, with its simple icons and arrows to connect the things you want to each other. It’s a pretty simple system when you look at it – a straight line of actions that occur in the order you put them – and controllable by dates, delay timers or other actions.

And the ability to leave things in draft mode until you are ready to use them is very helpful. You can work on an entire section of a campaign without connecting it to a live section. Pretty ingenious.

So the thing to do is to start thinking using the framework that Infusionsoft uses, and things really start to become pretty clear. It’s a matter of knowing where people are coming from, and what you want them to do, and then mapping out the path to get them there.

To talk about your campaign setup and planning your follow up, contact me for a Strategy Session today!

New users I see start by using mainly the shopping cart and autoresponder service parts of the system.

This is very common because the other systems that small business owners generally use maximize the shopping cart and autoresponders, so that’s the data that gets pulled over in an Infusionsoft transition, and the habit of the ‘old way things were done’ often continues from there.

It’s okay to start with what you know, but it’s essential to start to use the other parts of the system quickly so you can develop standards and procedures easily.

Here are a few key things I like about the three main modules:

1. CRM Management: Infusionsoft has an amazing CRM system, to manage all of your contact records – and loads of data for each contact. Not only can you store an almost unlimited number of fields of data within each contact record, but it’s nicely organized and easy to find what you need – from addresses, to encrypted credit card information, to orders and email correspondence (all emails, from single emails to broadcasts and follow up emails). It’s very robust. And one of the neatest features is that you can upload documents (like client contracts or other docs) to your client records too. Many of my clients use the Notes function to track coaching conversations with their clients, as well as consultations or networking contact with prospective clients. The task function is one of my favourites – to help me know what needs to be looked after, and when. Just great stuff.

2. Marketing: The Campaign Builder is a fantastic way to set up all of your campaign pieces for any given launch, promotion, product sale, program, or whatever you do in your business. The pieces of the campaign builder allow you to set up emails very easily, apply tags for segregation, build opt in pages and landing pages in a flash, and even start and stop follow up sequences by other actions that are taken somewhere else in the system (for instance, if my client has a phone call with a client and then sends me a task to do something, I can ‘check off’ that task in my dashboard, and that can kick off the proper sequence for that particular client or prospect). Collaboration and automation at their finest.

3. Ecommerce: The shopping cart part of Infusionsoft seems clunky to set up at first – with so many places to go to set up things like order forms, payment plans, promo codes and so on. But once you get the hang of where things are it becomes a nice little dance from place to place as you set up some neat options for your products. There are lots of neat features for shopping cart design and upselling too, but the simple ‘purchase’ link is very easy to set up quickly, and placing orders and managing payments is basically done in a couple of clicks. It’s a great smooth system for updating credit cards and scheduling payment dates.

Although there is a steep learning curve when starting to use Infusionsoft, the key is to learn the best features of each module and how they can apply to your business.

To talk about how your business can benefit from maximizing your Infusionsoft use, contact me for a Strategy Session today!