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Category : Zoho Campaigns

Employee using Zoho Campaigns: Autoresponders with help of ZBrains

Zoho Campaigns: Autoresponders vs. Workflows

Businesses use Zoho Campaigns to capture website leads, nurture them through the marketing funnel, and execute their email marketing strategy.

In this article, we’ll show you how to work with these Autoresponder and Workflow, Zoho Campaigns’ two tools for automated communication, and how you can leverage them in your email marketing campaigns for maximum impact.

Maximizing Engagement with Zoho Campaigns’ Autoresponders

In Zoho Campaigns, autoresponders allow you to create a series of emails that automatically send at predetermined intervals or based on certain actions your subscribers take, such as signing up for your newsletter, downloading an eBook, or making a purchase.

A few examples of when to use autoresponders include:

  • Welcome emails
  • Educational series
  • Abandoned cart reminders
  • Post-purchase follow-ups
  • Confirmation emails

These time-saving automations boost engagement while creating a more personalized experience for your customers.

What are Workflows?

Workflows are more sophisticated than autoresponders, as they enable you to create multi-step and multi-channel journeys.

You can use workflows to segment your subscribers into different groups based on their interests and preferences, then plan personalized messages designed to reach their inbox at exactly the right time, or in response to a trigger, such as sending a discount code when someone purchases a certain item.

In Zoho Campaigns, workflows are triggered by events or conditions that you specify in advance.

For example, you can set up a workflow so that when someone subscribes to your newsletter, they automatically receive a welcome email plus additional emails over the following weeks about your products and services.

You can also configure workflows to send out surveys or discounts based on certain criteria or customer segments such as their location or purchase history.

Like autoresponders, they are massive time savers and help keep your customers engaged. They make your life even easier by allowing you to create an automated sequence of emails and actions that can be monitored for conversions and adjusted as needed.

Autoresponders vs. Workflows: When To Use Each

Autoresponders are based on time intervals or specific subscriber actions, while workflows use more complex triggers, such as subscriber engagement, lead score, or changes in contact information.

They are also simpler tools—companies primarily use them for linear email sequences. Workflows allow you to build branching email campaigns based on multiple conditions.

Workflows offer greater flexibility in terms of targeting, segmentation, and tracking.

Use Autoresponders for:

  • Simple, time-based email sequences (e.g., welcome series, educational content)
  • Basic follow-up emails based on specific subscriber actions (e.g., abandoned cart reminders, post-purchase follow-ups)
  • Help desk or customer service emails that require immediate response (e.g., confirmation emails, account verification)

Use Workflows for:

  • Complex email campaigns that require branching and multiple conditions (e.g., targeted promotions based on user behavior or preferences)
  • Advanced targeting and segmentation (e.g., sending emails based on lead score, engagement, or changes in contact information)
  • Improved tracking and reporting to optimize email performance

How to Create Autoresponders and Workflows in Zoho Campaigns

Create an Autoresponder

To create an autoresponder, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the toolbar and select “Automation,” then choose “Autoresponders.”
  2. Click on “Create Autoresponder” and hover over the Signup autoresponder before clicking “Create.”
  3. Fill in the necessary information:
  4. a. Assign a name to the autoresponder for easy reference.
  5. b. Choose a mailing list associated with your autoresponder or create a new one if needed.
  6. c. Opt to include contacts added to your mailing list through Import and CRM Sync, if required.
  7. Click “Create.”

The Signup autoresponder offers two views: timeline and tree view. You can switch between these views using the toggle button in the top-right corner.

Create a Workflow

To create a workflow in Zoho Campaigns, follow these steps:

  1. Go to “Automation,” select “Workflows,” and click “Create Workflow” in the top-right corner.
  2. Choose a template for the desired workflow type or create a custom workflow.
  3. Select a trigger from the left panel to initiate the workflow and configure it on the canvas.
  4. Pick a flow control component or condition component from the Process section and set it up on the canvas.
  5. Add and configure actions from the Engagement, Productivity, or Zoho CRM categories.
  6. Click “Activate” in the top-right corner to enable your completed workflow.

Best Practices When Using Autoresponders and Workflows

When using Autoresponders and Workflows, remember the following best practices:

  • Be aware of your subscriber’s actions. When creating an autoresponder or workflow, consider the actions that the subscribers have already taken. For example, if someone has already made a purchase from you, don’t include them in your onboarding sequence.
  • Only send content around topics your customers have subscribed to. Make sure your content is relevant to the topics they signed up for.
  • Test and refine your emails as much as possible. Monitor email performance and adjust your campaigns accordingly. Keep track of open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribed, etc., to ensure each campaign reaches its desired goal.
  • Limit send frequency. Avoid bombarding subscribers with too many emails. Make sure you are only sending content that is engaging and valuable, as opposed to promotional or irrelevant emails.
  • Keep your messages short and sweet. Simple formatting and plain language help readers digest the information quickly, leading to higher conversion rates.

Conclusion

Zoho Campaigns is one of the most straightforward and robust email marketing platforms that you can use to create autoresponders and workflows. Autoresponders are ideal for simple, time-based email sequences while workflows are perfect for more complex campaigns with multiple conditions. 

Following the steps in this guide, you can create successful campaigns that will engage your customers and drive conversions.

If you’re still having trouble setting up and automating your campaigns, chat with us for more help.

A Woman Connecting Facebook Lead Ads to Zoho CRM

Connect Facebook Lead Ads to Zoho CRM: Integration Guide

In today’s digital age, harnessing the power of social media platforms is crucial for businesses to expand their reach and engage with potential customers. Facebook, being one of the most popular social media platforms, offers an effective advertising solution called Facebook Lead Ads. These ads allow businesses to capture valuable lead information directly from their Facebook ads. However, to effectively manage and utilize these leads, integrating Facebook Lead Ads with a robust customer relationship management (CRM) system like Zoho CRM is essential. This integration guide aims to provide a comprehensive walkthrough, empowering businesses to seamlessly connect their Facebook Lead Ads to Zoho CRM and optimize their lead generation and customer management processes.

Lead generation is a critical aspect of any business strategy. The Facebook Lead Ads program—which involves capturing prospective customers’ information via social media—can be a user-friendly option for identifying and capturing new leads. 

But for lead generation to be effective, it must be followed up with plenty of nurturing and analysis so that you can reach the best prospects who are most likely to convert into customers or clients. Integrating your Facebook Lead campaigns into your Zoho CRM allows you to keep all of your lead generation efforts in one place, while also facilitating lead nurture in real-time. 

To take advantage of these benefits, however, you’ll need to connect your Facebook Lead Ads to Zoho CRM. Here’s how to do it:

How can Facebook Lead Ads help in generating new leads effectively?

Facebook Lead Ads can be an easy way to generate new leads, as it allows you to run your marketing message within a venue you know your prospective customers frequent. Reaching people where they already are—in this case, Facebook—minimizes friction and increases the likelihood of your ads being seen.

Within Facebook, when prospects tap on one of your ads, a form pops up that’s already prepopulated with their Facebook contact information. All it takes is a few taps for them to get the information they need, while you generate a new lead for your business. 

Why Zoho CRM Partners Well with Facebook Lead Ads

By syncing your Zoho CRM account with your Facebook Ad Leads account, new leads can be automatically integrated into your CRM. As a result, you won’t have to manually export leads from your Facebook lead campaigns for import into your CRM. Instead, every time you get a new lead, it can be automatically saved to your Zoho CRM database, along with extra information such as the source of the lead.  

Additional Benefits of Zoho CRM Integration

Turning Conversations into Opportunities

Not only does Zoho CRM let you follow up on your Facebook leads, but it also lets you add leads from your listening streams, even if you’re not running an ad campaign. 

You can add these leads from the Social Tab manually, or set up triggers to automatically add leads from interactions that happen on your Facebook page. You can then assign these leads to your sales reps with specific rules, tasks, and reminders. 

Bringing Facebook and CRM Conversations Together

When a contact has been added to your Zoho CRM, you can go to your Social Tab and access their information, history, and activities. In addition, you can see their recent social interactions with your business so that you can respond appropriately to their social posts and comments. 

Engaging with Your Audience Live

Using the Social Tab in your Zoho CRM, you can easily create new social media posts or reply to comments and messages in real-time. Rather than switching between Facebook and Zoho CRM, you can keep your audience engaged from within a single platform. 

Tracking Conversations About Your Brand

By setting up listening streams that monitor when a prospect or competitor messages you or mentions you, you can manage your Facebook conversations in real-time. SalesSignals gives you real-time Facebook notifications via Zoho CRM. 

How to Connect Facebook Lead Ads to Zoho CRM

To connect your Facebook Lead Ads with your Zoho CRM account, you’ll need to use one of the Facebook Ad management extensions found within Zoho CRM’s marketplace.

Step #1: Install Facebook Advert Manager

To begin, you can either navigate to the Zoho Marketplace and install the Facebook Advert Manager extension, or you can log in to your Zoho CRM account and install it from there. Once the extension has been added to your CRM, take the following steps:

  1. Go to Setup > Marketplace > All
  2. Search for Facebook Adverts Manager
  3. Click Install Now

In the following screen, agree to the terms of service and click Install Now.

Select the users for whom you want to install the extension, and then click Confirm. Then, click Authorize on the following screen:

Finally, in the pop-up that appears, specify the username and password of your Facebook account, and click Continue.

Step #2: Import Your Facebook Ads

Once you’ve installed and authorized the Facebook Advert Manager Extension, you can start importing your ad data into Zoho CRM. When you first set up the extension, you’ll need to perform a complete import of your data.

  1. Within Zoho CRM, select the Facebook Advert Manager tab
  2. On the Facebook Advert Manager page, click Import
  3. This will import all the ads and ad sets that are associated with your Facebook account into Zoho CRM

Once this step is complete, you’ll be able to view and manage all of your ad campaigns from this tab itself. This will take some time, however, depending on the amount of ad data you have to import.

Additionally, if you’ve made changes in Facebook and want them to be reflected in Zoho, you may need to manually update your ads on the Facebook Advert Manager page. To update the details of a particular ad, select the required Advert ID and click Import Advert. The current status of the selected ad will be updated.

To import new ads from Facebook, click the Import button at the top right-hand corner of the window. This will not only import new ads from Facebook, but will update all of your existing ads as well.

Once you’ve successfully connected your Facebook Lead Ads account to Zoho CRM, you can take advantage of Zoho marketing campaign tools to easily nurture and convert the new leads you generate—as well as analyze your new data to create stronger campaigns.

FAQs: Integrating Facebook Lead Ads with Zoho CRM 

  1. What is the benefit of integrating Facebook Lead Ads with Zoho CRM?

Integrating Facebook Lead Ads with Zoho CRM offers several advantages. It automatically transfers lead data from Facebook to your CRM, streamlining your lead-generation efforts. Additionally, you can follow up on leads, engage with your audience in real time, and track conversations about your brand, all from within the Zoho CRM platform.

  1. Do I need technical expertise to connect Facebook Lead Ads to Zoho CRM?

You can use extensive technical knowledge. Zoho CRM’s user-friendly interface and the Facebook Advert Manager extension make the integration process straightforward. Just follow the step-by-step guide in the article to connect your accounts seamlessly.

  1. Can I import existing Facebook ads into Zoho CRM after integration?

You can import your existing Facebook ads and ad sets into Zoho CRM using the Facebook Advert Manager extension. Once connected, you can completely import your ad data into the CRM.

  1. How long does it take to import my Facebook ad data into Zoho CRM?

The time it takes to import your Facebook ad data into Zoho CRM may vary depending on the amount of data you have. For larger datasets, the import process might take longer. However, once the initial import is complete, you can easily manage and update your ads in real time.

  1. Can Zoho CRM help me nurture leads beyond Facebook campaigns?

Absolutely! Zoho CRM’s comprehensive lead management features allow you to nurture leads from various sources, including interactions on your Facebook page and other listening streams. You can set up triggers to automatically add leads and assign them to sales reps, facilitating lead nurturing and follow-up.

  1. How does Zoho CRM’s Social Tab help with engagement on Facebook?

The Social Tab in Zoho CRM enables you to interact with your audience on Facebook without leaving the CRM platform. You can create and schedule new social media posts, respond to comments and messages, and monitor real-time conversations. This keeps your engagement efficient and centralized.

  1. Can Zoho CRM provide real-time notifications for Facebook interactions?

Yes, Zoho CRM’s SalesSignals feature provides real-time notifications for Facebook interactions. This means you can stay informed about prospect messages or mentions as they happen, allowing you to respond promptly and take advantage of opportunities.

  1. Is Zoho CRM suitable for businesses of all sizes?

Yes, Zoho CRM is suitable for organizations of all sizes, from small startups to major corporations. Its scalable features and customizable options make it a versatile CRM solution for businesses looking to optimize lead generation, customer management, and sales processes.

  1. Can I analyze the performance of my Facebook Lead Ads within Zoho CRM?

Yes, Zoho CRM offers robust reporting and analytics tools that allow you to track the performance of your Facebook Lead Ads campaigns. You can gain valuable insights into lead generation, conversion rates, and campaign effectiveness to make data-driven decisions and improve your marketing strategies.

  1. Are there additional costs for integrating Facebook Lead Ads with Zoho CRM?

The Facebook Advert Manager extension is available in the Zoho Marketplace, and its installation is generally accessible.

However, depending on your usage and specific requirements, additional costs may be associated with Zoho CRM’s premium features or higher-tier plans. Remember, by integrating Facebook Lead Ads with Zoho CRM, you can enhance your lead generation efforts, improve lead nurture, and manage your customer relationships more efficiently, leading to better business growth and success.

Have further questions about connecting Facebook Lead Ads to Zoho CRM? Need help maximizing the value of the data you generate from these campaigns? Get in touch with our team of Zoho specialists for customized assistance. 

Marketing team planning a campaign

Choosing the Right Zoho App or Module for Your Marketing Automation

We get this question all the time at ZBrains: what is the difference between Zoho CRM Campaigns, Zoho Campaigns, and Zoho Marketing Automation? 

Although the names of these apps and modules are all quite similar, each has its own unique strengths. Let us take a closer look at how to use each resource, as well as the situations where it makes sense to use one over another:

What are the Marketing Features Offered by Zoho CRM Campaigns?

The Zoho CRM Campaigns module brings marketing automation features directly into your Zoho CRM to help you track the success of your sales and marketing campaigns. Depending on your business, that might mean measuring the number of deals, sales, or orders generated from a campaign. 

In any case, this module is mostly about marketing attribution, and Zoho gives you 6 algorithm modules to choose from:

U-shaped attribution and the time decay model–which attributes the most ROI to the last campaign someone was active in–are pretty standard choices for B2B businesses, while first-touch attribution is often more appropriate for small sales. Whatever you choose, all you have to do is pick the model, hit ‘Save’, and Zoho does all of the work for you.

As a note, although you can make campaigns manually in Zoho CRM Campaigns, you might not need to if you are using the Zoho Campaigns app or Zoho Marketing Automation. You also should not use Zoho CRM Campaigns to send mass email campaigns. The module does limit sending to 1,000 messages per day, but because the messages are sent from your own domain, you risk incurring penalties from Google for sending that kind of volume.

Zoho Campaigns

The Zoho Campaigns app is an email service provider (ESP) that is built to help businesses send marketing emails at scale, legally. Think of it like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or other similar email marketing tools.

In addition to providing the standard email builder features you would expect from an email marketing solution, Zoho Campaigns gives you the option to create new campaigns in Zoho CRM Campaigns simultaneously. To set this up:

  • Click ‘Advanced Options’ inside your Zoho Campaign
  • Find the toggle labeled ‘Create campaign in Zoho CRM’
  • Toggle it to the ‘on’ position and save your changes

Then, if you log back into your Zoho CRM Campaigns, you should see your email or social campaign in your list. 

You will still need to create phone and direct mail campaigns manually, as Zoho Campaigns and Zoho Marketing Automation focus on top-rated digital marketing company. But once you have your campaigns fully integrated between the 2 apps, Zoho Campaign activities can be recorded in your CRM records, helping your salespeople better understand your contacts’ engagement.

Another key point about Zoho Campaigns and Zoho Marketing Automation is that they do not send from your mail servers (even though you use the authorization to on your DNS). Zoho Campaigns also sends emails in batches–typically smaller batches to warm up the IP of whatever server they are being sent from–so that they have a much higher chance of getting into recipients’ inboxes.

Zoho Marketing Automation

Finally, there is Zoho Marketing Automation. Going beyond the kinds of email, SMS, and social campaigns found in Zoho Campaigns, Marketing Automation adds autoresponder campaign types including:

  • Sign-up
  • Date-field
  • Closed Group
  • Calendar
  • Email-action
  • Smart Series
  • Lead Nurturing
  • Cyclic

These different autoresponder types are based on contact actions and other triggers. For example, a Smart Series autoresponder is like a newsletter–contacts can be added midway through a campaign, and they will receive new messages as they are added. 

With a Lead Nurturing campaign, on the other hand, email addresses are added directly to the autoresponder. Once they are warmed up, they are thrown over the fence into Zoho CRM for follow-up by sales.

The process of working with Zoho Marketing Automation looks very similar to Zoho Campaigns, but when you go to a ‘Journey’ in Marketing Automation, you will see that there are a lot more actions to choose from than with the comparable workflows in Campaigns. There are more entry points, more lead score calculation options, and more end-of-journey actions–it is just a more robust builder overall.

For these reasons, Zoho Marketing Automation is more comparable to a platform like Marketo or Pardot, while Zoho Campaigns is really meant for simpler campaigns built around email, social, or SMS.

Choosing the Right Zoho Marketing Solution

While there are plenty of other differences between Zoho CRM Campaigns, Zoho Campaigns, and Zoho Marketing Automation, the features highlighted above should give you a sense of when to use each:

  • Use Zoho CRM Campaigns to monitor campaign performance, but build your campaigns in Zoho Campaigns instead, where possible.
  • Use Zoho Campaigns to automate email, social, and SMS campaigns without compromising deliverability.
  • Use Zoho Marketing Automation when you need more complex autoresponders than can be achieved with Zoho Campaigns alone.

Any other questions about these tools? Reach out to the team at ZBrains if you have questions or need clarification.

3 Things a Zoho Campaigns Consultant Does For You

Zoho Campaigns Consultant = Peace of Mind

If you’re reading about marketing strategies in a blog that’s specific to Zoho consulting, chances are you’re looking for some help with Zoho Campaigns, or one of the many other apps in Zoho’s marketing stack.  And, we can definitely provide that to you. But, what you may not know is that using a Zoho Campaigns consultant is about more than just getting your Campaigns app set up the right way. It’s about giving you confidence in Zoho’s flagship marketing app (well, at least until MarketingHub usurps it) and taking stress off your plate.  It’s about giving you peace of mind in an area where you previously didn’t have much.

zoho campaigns consultant

What can a Zoho Campaigns Consultant do for you?

Zoho Campaigns gives you a lot to play with, especially during setup.  Upon first login, you’re greeted with an enormous dashboard and no good place to start.  What’s to do?

Well, that all depends.  In order to know what exactly to do with setting up Campaigns, you (or your consultant, in this case) will want to take a step back and consider some questions:

  1. What is your marketing objective by using Zoho Campaigns?
  2. How frequently do you want to email your prospects?
  3. What metrics do you use to measure marketing success?

The reason for asking these questions is simple.  Anyone can set up Zoho Campaigns so it works correctly.  But, whether or not the system is set up for your business’s needs is something else entirely.  Your answers to those questions will help your consultant set up Zoho Campaigns for you.

Diving a little deeper…

Let’s explore these questions in a little more depth.

  1. What is your marketing objective by using Zoho Campaigns?  
    • Believe it or not, your answer matters here.  For example, your app will need a different configuration for garnering new leads (outbound marketing) than it will for contacting lists of customers or prospects who already know you (inbound marketing).  You’ll use different aspects of Campaigns, either way. And, your answer will inform what kinds of information you’ll need synced to Zoho CRM.
  2. How frequently do you want to email your prospects or customers?
    • Zoho’s pricing model varies depending on the number of emails you’d like to send per month – or, the number of contacts you’d like to be able to send emails to.  For emailing large numbers of contacts, you may want to set up segments for your mailing lists. And, to protect against spam reports for very large lists, you may want to vary your sender name or even your email domain in some cases.  This ultimately protects your domain and your brand so you can use Zoho Campaigns without worrying about a blacklist every time you hit Send.
  3. What metrics do you use to measure marketing success?

zoho campaigns consultant

    • The stats you want to track to measure your own success will dictate how you set up your Campaigns.  For example, maybe you measure success in the number of signups you get for a service, or maybe you’re only tracking email opens – or, maybe you want your email marketing to lead your prospects down the entire sales funnel.  Of course, you’ll modify the content you create based on these goals too.  But, your Zoho Campaigns consultant will recommend a slightly different setup depending on your goals.

By coordinating with a Zoho Campaigns expert, you can make sure your marketing app will be set up according to the answers to these questions, and more.  Proper training would of course cover the whole spectrum of the app, but that too would be tailored to your needs somewhat to avoid confusion.

Let’s reframe: What happens without a Zoho Campaigns Consultant?

A number of things can happen.  From best to worst:

  1. Campaigns won’t be set up according to your needs.  So, even if it’s somewhat effective for boosting business, you may have untold room for improvement.
  2. Your staff will find the software too difficult to use due to improper training – or lack thereof entirely.
  3. Your marketing efforts might even confuse your customers because they misunderstand the software’s purpose, and you could actually lose business.

Don’t fall victim to improper Zoho usage!  Your success is imminent.

zoho campaigns consultant

Good email marketing can mean the difference between a flat year or a banner year for your business.  And, you have the power to decide how it all goes.

If you’re like most people involved in a business, you don’t have time for another set of responsibilities, or at the very least you’d like having some work taken off your plate.

Don’t stand for figuring out another piece of marketing software on your own.  Contact us today to get an assessment at ZBrains and begin your journey with a guide.

Zoho Marketing Hub: The Alternative to HubSpot & Salesforce

zoho marketinghub marketing automation

Unless you have some fantastic luck, you could say the beginning of every good sale starts with good marketing.  Zoho Corporation, what with their regular schedule of updates, is well aware of this fact.  In fact, they have been putting together a very exciting new platform – Zoho Marketing Automation. It hat aims to capitalize on this notion and give users more marketing power and control – and in that way increase sales and put more money back in their customers’ pockets.  

This addition to the Zoho marketing stack is designed to encompass every marketing tool they’ve built. They’ve combined those tools with elements of Zoho Analytics, added a very attractive, and updated UI smacked onto it… The tool’s name: Zoho Marketing Automation.

Obviously, the implications of Zoho releasing such a tool in the context of its present suite of apps are far-reaching.  

In today’s post, we’ll go through the new features Zoho Marketing Hub Automation brings to the table, how the app can affect (and improve) use of Zoho CRM, and what the app’s existence means for other related Zoho apps.

zoho marketinghub collaboration

Solving a common problem: Lack of a Marketing Hub

Many of our customers already come to us looking for help connecting the various software components of their business.  The marketing “stack,” or suite of individual apps, is an important part of this.  Though with the sheer number of tools available to help, each with somewhat overlapping functionalities, your confusion over where to start and which ones to use would be forgiven.

And, Zoho has a reason for presenting all the tools to you in this way.  As businesses and commerce itself both trend toward being more digitized, it becomes more and more important to have all the digital tools necessary to market effectively to potential and current customers.  Previously, Zoho offered different apps to fulfill different marketing duties.  This includes Zoho Campaigns for email marketing and Zoho Social for social media posts and monitoring.  However, even with integration between these apps, it isn’t the same as having everything controlled by a single app.  Zoho putting all these different tools together under one umbrella is their ultimate answer to the question, “How do I manage the entire marketing funnel effectively, from A to Z and beyond?”

Here are some key features of Zoho Marketing Automation:

  • Lead Generation: The platform provides tools to capture leads from multiple sources, including websites, landing pages, and social media. By using customizable forms and automated workflows, businesses can effectively capture and manage leads.
  • Lead Nurturing: Zoho Marketing Automation helps businesses nurture leads by delivering personalized content based on their interests and behavior. It allows for targeted email campaigns, drip marketing, and lead scoring to identify the most promising leads.
  • Email Marketing: The platform offers a robust email marketing solution, allowing businesses to create and send personalized email campaigns. It provides email templates, A/B testing, and automation capabilities to enhance campaign effectiveness.
  • Campaign Management: Zoho Marketing Automation enables businesses to plan, execute, and track marketing campaigns across various channels. It provides tools for campaign scheduling, budget management, and performance tracking, helping businesses optimize their marketing efforts.
  • CRM Integration: Zoho Marketing Automation seamlessly integrates with Zoho CRM, allowing for the synchronization of customer data. This integration helps businesses gain a holistic view of their customers and enables personalized marketing campaigns based on customer insights.
  • Analytics and Reporting: The platform offers robust analytics and reporting capabilities, providing businesses with valuable insights into campaign performance, lead conversion, and customer behavior. This data helps optimize marketing strategies and improve ROI.
  • Social Media Marketing: Zoho Marketing Automation supports social media marketing by allowing businesses to schedule and publish posts on popular social media platforms. It also provides social media monitoring and analytics to track engagement and measure the impact of social media campaigns.

With Zoho Marketing Automation, businesses can automate repetitive marketing tasks, engage customers more effectively, and drive better results. By utilizing its comprehensive features, businesses can nurture leads, increase conversion rates, and build stronger customer relationships.

What does Zoho Marketing Automation bring to the table, then?

Marketing Automation covers all of a customer’s journey, not just some of it.

And, there are a lot of features to note here, so strap yourself in…

zoho marketing hub lead scoring

Lead tracking.  

As with both Zoho CRM and Zoho Campaigns, Zoho Marketing Automation provides web forms with which to funnel your prospects, leads, and contacts into different marketing “buckets,” each bucket with its objective and type of content.  These web forms can be placed on your website, but they can also be integrated directly with services like GoToWebinar and EventBrite for a more unified experience. As far as features go, this is parred for the course from Zoho, but this next one is downright exciting…

Web behavior tracking.  

Once you’ve obtained a lead’s information via a web form, you can use Marketing Automation’s Web Assistant feature to tell you exactly where that person went on your website, how long they were there, and where else on your website they clicked. This borrows a bit from services like Google Analytics. But, combined with information your lead already submitted, it allows you to identify their path to becoming a customer. And, for everyone who didn’t submit information to you, Zoho Marketing Automation still gives an aggregate page popularity map, page click-through likelihood tracker, and many other useful reports.  

zoho marketing hub website marketing

Custom email campaigns based on interest.  

You can use behavioral data gathered by Marketing Automation to send very targeted email campaigns based on the products or services your leads are most interested in.  Once they receive this info, you can give them lead scores based on how they interact with your content: did they skim or really read it?  Did they click a link and stay on the page for long? You can then choose to send leads who score the highest to your sales team automatically.  This will ensure the team doesn’t waste time reaching out to anyone unqualified.

Tailor the customer journey by persona.  

You can also use Zoho Marketing Automation’s data to modify your website itself so leads convert more quickly and easily in general.  Modify your customer journeys not only by product or service interest but by their very persona. This is one of those things that will make your potential (or current) customers more satisfied with your content and your company on the whole, though they may not know exactly why.  One of the few instances where mind games are okay to play!

zoho marketing hub lead nurturing

Continue engaging your customers long after they’ve bought from you.

 When you look at a list of customers, you’re looking at a list of people who already trust you.  If you have services or products that pair well with those that your customers have already consumed from you, you can use Zoho Marketing Automation’s data to make decisions about sending more email campaigns, custom surveys, and other promotions to help you sell more and sell easily.  

Plan future campaigns based on your exact ROI.  

Arguably the most important stat to a marketer is Zoho Marketing Automation’s Marketing Planner. It calculates the ROI of individual marketing channels and the respective campaigns within each channel.  This enables you to focus more of your effort on campaigns that deliver and kill off the ones that don’t produce.

These features of Zoho Marketing Automation are sure to improve the lives of the marketers who plug it into their campaigns. And, this is not just by informing them of what’s working and what isn’t, but by telling them exactly how profitable they are to the company.  From then onward, it’s incumbent upon the sales department to take all this great information from Marketing Automation and run with it.

So, how does that look, exactly?

Zoho Marketing Hub Automation feeds Zoho CRM.  Then, the CRM beefs up your sales potential

zoho marketing hub dashboard

If utilized correctly, introducing Marketing Automation to your suite of apps has the power to turn a fledgling sales department into a breakout team. For an already powerful team, it could make you into a group of downright all-stars.  And, while it’s true that Marketing Automation integrates with CRM. It can sync a good deal of information directly into the hands of your sales team; it’s not the raw data that concerns them the most.

Of course, there’s value in knowing things like:

  • The amount of time a lead has spent on your website
  • The number of pages they looked at, and their exact click path
  • Which email campaigns they acted upon and which ones they ignored

But, it’s even better to combine this data with the power of Zoho CRM – and some workflow automation programming – to inform your sales team:

  1. Exactly how to open the lead based on how long they spent on your website
  2. Just what products or services to pitch based on the exact combination of pages viewed
  3. How likely that person is to become a customer based on their email campaign interaction.  And, when they might say yes based on behavior of others in that persona category
  4. Which warm leads to go after, and exactly when to go after them

Of course, a well-seasoned salesperson can glean a lot of this information by looking at the raw data from Marketing Automation.  But, any salesperson worth their salt knows time is money.  So, why spend time figuring out yourself what Zoho CRM’s calculations and workflow rules can figure out for you in a snap?  You could even integrate blueprint into the mix and place hotter prospects into different stages in the Leads or Deals module, and save even more time.  The sky’s the limit when it comes to translating the data from Zoho Marketing Hub Automation into actionable CRM data for your team. (And, if you’re confused about what exactly to do, our team of Zoho consultants can help you with that and anything else.)

Transform Your Marketing with Zoho’s Automation Powerhouse

  • An All-in-One Marketing Automation Platform
    Zoho’s Marketing Automation is an all-in-one platform designed to cater to businesses of all sizes. From startups to enterprises, it offers a wide range of tools to manage every aspect of your marketing campaigns seamlessly. From lead generation to customer retention, the platform covers it all, ensuring you have everything you need under one roof.
  • Powerful Lead Generation Capabilities
    Generating leads is the lifeblood of any successful marketing strategy. With Zoho’s Marketing Automation, you’ll gain access to powerful lead generation tools, enabling you to capture, nurture, and convert leads effortlessly. By leveraging advanced lead scoring and tracking features, you can prioritize leads that are most likely to convert, optimizing your sales efforts for maximum efficiency.
  • Personalized Customer Journeys
    Understanding and catering to your customers’ unique preferences is vital for building strong, lasting relationships. Zoho’s Marketing Automation allows you to create personalized customer journeys, sending targeted messages and offers based on individual interactions and behavior. By delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time, you can significantly enhance customer engagement and conversion rates.
  • Seamless Integration with Zoho Suite
    As part of the Zoho Suite of applications, Zoho’s Marketing Automation seamlessly integrates with other Zoho products. This integration empowers you to combine marketing automation with CRM, sales, and other business tools, ensuring smooth data flow and enhancing overall efficiency. You can easily sync lead information, track customer interactions, and automate sales processes, providing a unified experience for your teams.
  • Multi-Channel Marketing Campaigns
    Expand your reach and engage customers across multiple channels with Zoho’s Marketing Automation. Whether it’s email marketing, social media, SMS, or web notifications, the platform enables you to design, launch, and track multi-channel campaigns from a single interface. This versatility allows you to connect with your audience wherever they are, maximizing the impact of your marketing efforts.
  • Advanced Analytics and Reporting
    To make data-driven decisions, you need comprehensive insights into your marketing performance. Zoho’s Marketing Automation offers robust analytics and reporting capabilities, providing detailed metrics on campaign success, customer behavior, and lead conversion rates. Armed with these valuable insights, you can fine-tune your marketing strategies and drive continuous improvements.

So, does this mean I can throw away Zoho Campaigns and Zoho Social?

zoho marketinghub

It’s not a bad question. Earlier, we mentioned Zoho Marketing Hub Automation combines many aspects of Zoho Campaigns with Zoho Social. And, essentially, it adds a lot of intelligence to those apps.  But, does that mean you should just stop using Zoho Campaigns or Social?  

My answer: If you’re afraid Zoho is just going to turn off your apps or delete your old campaigns, I wouldn’t worry too much about that.  Zoho’s usual MO when it comes to building apps that improve upon existing ones is to either allow users the option to use either app (or both apps) in question.  (A good example of this situation is in Zoho Books vs Zoho Invoice.) Or, they may even choose to merge Zoho Campaigns, Zoho Social, and Zoho Marketing Hub Automation formally into one app.  

But, I would guess the latter move would be very complicated and labor-intensive.  Not to mention, having only Marketing Automation as an option might even be overkill for some companies.  We wouldn’t want Zoho to turn into Salesforce…obviously!

Another value add: look for Marketing Automation in Zoho One

zoho marketinghub zoho one cloud

Zoho Corporation has added Marketing Automation to the Zoho One platform.  This just further cements Zoho as one of the best values out there, in my humble (and admittedly biased) opinion. Leveraging the power of Marketing Automation and CRM, you have the opportunity to feed data already coming from your website through both apps and present your sales team with new action items.  Nothing could be better for a sales department.

In Summary

In 2020, getting through 1000+ words might be a little too much to handle. So, I’m happy to provide a short synopsis of this article.

Marketing Automation is Zoho’s answer to the big marketing automation competitors like HubSpot, et al. And it packs the features to go along with its name.  Apart from tracking click paths and seeing how to best convert web traffic, you can also send email campaigns and launch social posts right from the app.  This means you could theoretically replace Zoho Campaigns and Social with Marketing Automation.  With Zoho Marketing Hub Automation, you’ll get just what you put into it.  So, as long as you connect it to your website and allow the relevant data to flow in, the resulting reports should be pretty easy to understand.  And, if they aren’t, you can always contact us and we’ll sit down and help you.

As always, we’ll keep you informed of any Marketing Automation, CRM, or other developments in Zoho.  If you have any questions about anything here, we’d love to hear from you. 

Contact us today for more information.

Exterior of Cross Campus Downtown Los Angeles location

Zoho Community Meetup at Cross Campus DTLA

Zoho Community Meetup at Cross Campus DTLA

At 1PM on Wednesday, October 3rd, ZBrains will host our next Zoho Community Meetup in the heart of downtown Los Angeles Cross Campus:

800 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90017

Come learn how ZBrains provides solutions to the most common Zoho CRM challenges. This event is FREE and open to the public!

Community Meetup Agenda

Join ZBrains as we help you better understand the Zoho CRM, journeying through the following topics:

Zoho Projects

  • Plan, track, and ensure positive collaboration among your employees. Projects allows for better time management and resource utilization.

Zoho Creator

  • Whether you need complex processes automation or just less tedious work on your plate, Zoho Creator lets you craft a custom app that fits your business.

Zoho Campaigns

  • Building a strong customer base is made that much easier with smart email marketing campaigns, and Zoho Campaigns helps you do that and then some.

POP and IMAP for Better Email Management

  • Achieve a greater understanding of POP and IMAP, and how Zoho integrates with them through various email clients.

SalesInbox to Prioritize your Emails

  • The email client built exclusively for salespeople to bring the most valuable emails to the forefront.

MS Outlook plugin to manage emails, contacts, and events

  • Collaboration is key, which is why this plugin pulls from your emails, tasks, and calendar for one convenient data hub.

Layouts for dynamic customization

  • Custom layouts allow you to tailor your CRM for your business, including the fields that are relevant for your industry.

Subforms to associate multiple line items to a primary sale

  • Custom-create subforms to add accessories to a primary product, or add contact details to accounts, among other uses.

API version 2 for enhanced integration capabilities

  • Released in February 2018, this updated API includes better call methods, output responses, and more!

Zoho CRM Integrations

  • Zoho Projects
  • Zoho Creator
  • Zoho Books
The New Zoho Campaigns UI

The Zoho Campaigns UI Has A Fresh New Look

Experience the New Look of Zoho Campaigns UI: Enhanced Design for Improved User Experience

Keeping your customers and clients-to-be engaged when they have so many other things going on in their lives is one of the most valuable things one can do when managing a business – otherwise, what are you to them?  Will they even remember you after your most recent conversation?  Zoho Campaigns is Zoho’s email marketing tool, and although it’s historically been a fine tool for sending emails and tracking statistics, it’s just added a load of customizable options and a good dose of marketing automation –  so you can engage your audience even more easily, and do it in style through the new Zoho Campaigns UI.

Here are 6 great ways the new Zoho Campaigns UI helps keep your marketing machine in gear and can help keep you at the top of your audience’s minds.

1. Updated interface designed your way.

The new Zoho Campaigns UI allows you to work smarter with a new, customizable dashboard, to maximize your efficiency. With this dashboard you can get an overview of your email campaigns, and add only the widgets that you want to see, so you aren’t wasting valuable space on your screen. With the My Short tab, you can achieve smooth transitions with tabs that group your favorite features together, allowing for effortless focus on just the tasks that make up your workday.

2. Advanced Email Design Capabilities

Creating email campaigns has now become even easier. The new Zoho Campaigns UI allows you to create responsive and more complex email templates. The new drag-and-drop editor makes building email templates easy, and the new UI also makes it much easier for you to add pre-header text, attachments, and links to your social media pages. You can even preview what your campaigns will look like on any device using the built-in Litmus test. Want to go back to a previous version of your email? Well, Campaigns now saves all past iterations so you can!

3. New Image Editing Precision.

In the previous version of Campaigns, you could only upload and resize an image.  Now, you can combine your creativity and knowledge with added tools that allow for editing images from within Zoho Campaigns. That means you can crop, retouch, and even add text to the images that you upload! You can extend your creative capabilities with more image editing options. And increase your ability to connect with your audience by using engaging images.

zoho campaigns ui dynamic-content-updated4. Automation Puts More Flow Into Your Workflows.

Gain back valuable time in your day with expanded automation. With a number of added customizable autoresponders, triggers, and workflows, you can target your audience based on their behavior, clicks, and actions. Take automation a step further with the introduction of dynamic content, which can change the content of your emails based on subscriber or list segmentation. Ensure that your clients aren’t bombarded by emails by setting up your own rules.

5. Define User Roles and Permissions.zoho campaigns ui roles-and-privileges

Ever worry that a new Zoho Campaigns user will accidentally delete one of your email campaigns? Well, the new Zoho Campaigns UI even takes care of this problem with new settings for team member permissions and roles, just like in the CRM. You can also set managerial approvals so no campaign ever goes out without being approved first!

6. Reporting Features to Campaign Smarter.

Knowing how your campaigns are performing is integral in the structuring and design of future campaigns. The new UI allows you to track your campaign’s success with comprehensive analytics on a customizable dashboard. You can drill down into your campaign data even further than before with reporting on specific devices, email clients, and browsers that your clients used to view your campaigns. Add Google Analytics to Campaigns and track activity back to your website, and suddenly you have access to much more data – and ways to bridge gaps to connecting with your clients – than ever before.

The new Zoho Campaigns UI is available for all users! Pricing for Zoho Campaigns begins at $6/mo for unlimited emails and up to 500 subscriptions. Interested in learning more, implementing Zoho Campaigns, or starting on another Zoho app like Marketing Automation? Contact a member of our team! We are Zoho Certified Consultants here to help. Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 or click the button below and we will reach out to you!

Connect with Us

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Zoho Apps That We Are Grateful For!

It’s Thanksgiving! It’s the perfect time to chow down, visit family and friends, and be happy and thankful for everyone in your life. In the spirit of the holiday, we would like to share some of the Zoho Apps that we are most grateful for with you! They can help you to optimize your potential and can keep you on-track and ready to close more, win more, and earn more.

Here are 4 Zoho Apps that we are grateful for!

Zoho appsZoho CRM

Zoho CRM is a powerful cloud-based customer and prospect management solution for your business. It is your most basic database where you can reach out to your customers and reference past work or projects, as well as forecast future sales – which you can use to make key decisions about your business. With Zoho CRM, you can set tasks and reminders to reach out to your customers in a timely and convenient manner, all for the purpose of giving your customers a smoother journey through your sales funnel. With a multitude of integrations, add-ons, and applications you can customize this CRM to fit your specific, unique business needs. Check out just how easy it is to migrate to Zoho!

Zoho appsZoho Sprints

Simplify project management for your business! This agile project management app designed to manage software sprints and help everyone get over their respective hurdles. A simpler project management solution than Zoho Projects, you can manage and track your team’s time and see where everyone stands using the Scrum Board. Use analytics which update in real time to help you make predictions, make adjustments, and identify bottlenecks. All of these features will make sure that your team is operating efficiently. Learn more here!

ZohoZoho apps Campaigns

Being able to keep in touch with your customers and prospects is important: it can convert uninterested leads into warmer prospects, and it can turn one-time customers into lifetime family members. Instead of toggling between various different apps for email marketing, you can use Zoho Campaigns. It integrates with your CRM to ensure that your data is always up to date. Campaigns also gives you massive insights into your email marketing campaigns so you can know how they performed and automate follow-up campaigns. Best of all, the integration with Zoho CRM offers unparalleled visibility into those engaged with your content and pipeline. Learn more about the power of Zoho Campaigns!

Zoho appsZoho Desk

Good customer service is important! Happy customers make life so much easier. Zoho Desk is that all-encompassing solution for your business in need of a ticketing system. Desk is context-aware and designed so your service never misses a beat. With in-depth reporting for management, detailed tickets and time tracking for agents, and a knowledge base for customers – this Zoho app help cover every level of customer service.

Love all of these Zoho Apps? Well, they are all included with Zoho One! If you are interested in learning more feel free to reach out to our team. Give us a call at (888) 207-4111 and schedule a consultation at a time that works best for you. You can also sign up for a free trial of Zoho by clicking the button below!

We here at ZBrains wish you a safe, happy, and delicious holiday!

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Woman Drinking coffee learning how she can enhance customer experience with Zoho's apps

From Sales to Social – Enhance The Customer Experience

In today’s ultra-digital environment with endless information and limitless options, the businesses that provide the best customer experience are king.  As you may well know, there are lots of different ways to interact (or not) with your customers, and there are many schools of thought on this.  But, generally speaking, people want to feel like they’re buying from a trusted brand, someone with a social media presence, someone able to nurture them from point A to point Z without it feeling like a sales process.

Bearing all that in mind, Zoho Corporation has tuned three of their apps – CRM, Campaigns, and Social – to give your business these very powers and cut away from the myriad others trying to do what you’re doing.  The difference truly is in the experience you give your customers with these apps.

How Zoho Can Help You

Here’s How Zoho Can Optimize The Customer Experience

Zoho CRM Accounts ScreenshotZoho CRM – The Customer Experience Hub

Zoho CRM is your most basic database, the place where you can reach out to your customers and reference past work or projects. You can set tasks and reminders to reach out to your customers in a timely and convenient manner all for the purpose of giving your customers a smoother journey through your sales funnel. You can also use the information inside to plan campaigns: Calling, emailing, social media, or even updating content on your website.

For example, you might see through Zoho CRM web-to-lead forms that only small number of prospects are coming to you through a landing page for one of your most profitable products, so you’d know that you’d need to improve your content around that product.  And for another example, you might have received a glut of new leads and want to contact them all at once – perhaps a job for a mass email from the CRM – or something a bit more sophisticated, like an email marketing app.

Zoho Campaigns – Email Marketing SimplifiedZoho Campaigns email marketing template screenshot

The benefits of email marketing are abundant. You can improve sales and conversion rates at a reduced cost. Being able to run campaigns easily in Zoho Campaigns helps to simplify your email marketing. Here you can create emails with beautiful customizable templates, track what content your prospects are engaging with, and receive up-to-date reporting and performance data. This information will keep your customers engaged and informed.

Campaigns integrates with Zoho CRM, so you can import your customer lists directly into it. You can create automation and workflows to ensure that your customers can receive personalized content that’s also relevant to them. Additionally, you can compliment your email campaigns with social media posts. Share your email campaigns, invite your subscribers to your pages, and create Facebook landing pages – all on one platform! Check out more on the power of Zoho Campaigns here.

Zoho Social Media Notifications Screenshot

Zoho Social – Post Easily and Effectively

Zoho Campaigns is not the only place that you can place you can manage your social media. Zoho takes it one step further with Zoho Social. Here you can manage all of your platforms in one place. Schedule social media posts as you see fit or by using SmartQ, which will suggest dates and times to post for optimum reach and engagement. Social’s new bulk scheduling tool will allow you to upload multiple posts at once, saving you tons of time!

Track customer engagement and respond to customer messages directly from the app. Did someone like your post or mention you in a tweet? Zoho Social will let you know! Social media marketing can be very valuable for your business when done right. It allows customers to connect with your business without feeling pushed. With in-depth reporting and analytics, you’ll know which posts received more engagement, and on which days. Stay the top of your customers’ minds and give them the knowledge they need to come to you when they need you.

 

Keeping your customers engaged is important to ensure that they have a positive customer experience. Communicating with them in a timely manner will show that your business is dependable while keeping them engaged through email or social media campaigns will build trust with your business as a reliable source of information. Zoho can help you optimize these processes.

Interested in learning more? Contact a member of the ZBrains team today!

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