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Category : Zoho CRM

Zoho Quickbooks Integration

Zoho CRM Integration: Benefits and Process

Published on: April 23, 2023Category: Zoho CRMLast Updated: June 5, 2023 Comments: 0

With more than 80 percent of the SMB market share, QuickBooks is by far the world’s most popular accounting software. Businesses use QuickBooks to track income and expenses, pay bills, send invoices, and produce files and reports for their accountants. Integrating Quickbooks with Zoho CRM takes account management capabilities even further, automating repetitive data entry processes and enabling more agile interactions with customers.

Simplify Sales and Order Process: QuickBooks Integration with Zoho CRM

Integrating QuickBooks with Zoho CRM saves businesses a lot of time by eliminating the need for duplicated, manual data entry. Integration helps to lessen errors in the sales and order process and eliminate data conflicts by synchronizing contacts, quotes, products, vendors, sales orders, invoices, and other data fields.zoho crm

Following integration, the salesperson can enter the order in CRM and the software manipulates the record type as the order is processed, filled, and invoiced. Once the order has been filled and invoiced, the software syncs the information back to the original system.

The process of integrating QuickBooks differs depending on whether you use QuickBooks Online or QuickBooks Desktop. Here’s an overview of the integration process for each.

QuickBooks Online <> Zoho CRM Integration

For QuickBooks Online, there are two integration alternatives – using Zoho’s integration platform, Zoho Flow, or using a service provider to allow custom syncs.

Zoho Flow is Zoho’s DIY tool for connecting cloud applications and automating complex business workflows without needing to write any code. The platform works with over 400 business applications (including QuickBooks Online) and offers over 500 ready-to-use integrations. Its drag-and-drop integration builder can also accommodate a degree of custom integration. If you need deeper integration or run into problems using Zoho Flow, reach out to us at ZBrains.

Companies that need custom synchronizations or don’t feel comfortable undertaking such an important task on their own should work with an experienced service provider like ZBrains. We’ve done hundreds of QuickBooks Online <> Zoho CRM integrations.

Modules That Can Be Synced

Essential modules that can be synced in a QuickBooks <> Zoho CRM integration include:

  • QuickBooks Customers with Zoho CRM Accounts
  • QuickBooks Customers with Zoho CRM Contacts
  • QuickBooks Items with Zoho CRM Products
  • QuickBooks Vendors with Zoho CRM Vendors

Transactional modules that can be synced include:

  • QuickBooks Invoices with Zoho CRM Invoices
  • QuickBooks Sales Orders with Zoho CRM Sales Orders
  • QuickBooks Estimates with Zoho CRM Quotes
  • QuickBooks Purchase Orders with Zoho CRM Purchase Orders

Other modules that can be synced include but are not limited to:

  • QuickBooks Jobs <> Zoho Deals
  • QuickBooks Payments <> Zoho Payments

Major Steps in the Integration Process

All integrations include at least seven major steps, starting with the discovery phase and continuing through ongoing support post-integration.

Discovery

Before any work begins, there should be one or more planning sessions to develop the information needed to create integration specifications. These specifications will be followed in field mapping, deploying the integration, and establishing the appropriate settings.

Systems backup

Next, test environments and data backups of both QuickBooks and Zoho CRM should be created before the integration deploys.

Deployment and Testing

The deployment process, which includes integration planning, data cleanup, and field mapping, is typically completed in less than one day. That includes time spent meeting with the deployment engineers, creating test records, and verifying data.

This process typically incorporates screen-sharing sessions and involves the use of a tool such as ZBrains AgilitySync.

Sync and migrate data between systems

Data from Zoho CRM to QuickBooks or QuickBooks to Zoho CRM can be migrated from as far back as 2012. This is a labor-intensive process that normally adds 2-4 weeks to the integration timeline.

Ongoing support

However your integration is undertaken, you will need ongoing support for tasks such as mapping and settings changes, bug fixes, and answers to any questions you may have along the way.

Efficient QuickBooks Desktop Integration: Expert Guidance

Since QuickBooks Desktop is locally hosted, integrations are more complicated and there is no ready-made integration option.

You will need to use a service provider who can help you decide whether integrating directly to Zoho CRM or migrating first to Zoho Books is the best option for you. ZBrains has extensive experience working with companies on their QuickBooks Desktop integrations, with or without a Zoho Books migration.

Conclusion

Any business can reap the benefits of a QuickBooks <> Zoho CRM integration, from saving time and eliminating data conflicts, to strengthening the sales cycle and enhancing the overall customer experience. ZBrains provides total deployment assistance for QuickBooks <> Zoho CRM integrations, including standard and custom field mappings, data migration, conditional syncing, and more.

Reach out today for more information.

ZBrains Zoho Inventory Pricing

Zoho Inventory Pricing: Create Bundles for Maximum Sales

Published on: April 5, 2023Category: Zoho CRMLast Updated: September 21, 2023 Comments: 0

Grouping products together creates a number of benefits, such as making it easier to organize your items and increasing your selling power by enabling you to create retail product bundles with attractive pricing. 

If you’re new to Zoho Inventory, let’s take a closer look at some of the sales and marketing advantages of bundling products, as well as how to do so in Zoho. 

The Advantages of Zoho Inventory Pricing Bundling for Sales

When you bundle products, you can increase your revenue and stay ahead of your competitors by packaging two or more products together at an attractive price. Further, inventory bundling makes it possible to:

  • Increase your sales margin by cross-selling products. Bundling helps introduce customers to products that are compatible with each other, potentially increasing your customers’ spend at checkout. 
  • Keep your dead stock moving. Stock that’s not selling can weigh heavily on your business. With bundling, you can move slow-selling products more quickly by grouping them with other, more desirable items. 
  • Encourage your customer to buy more. If you incentivize higher spending with free shipping, for example, inventory bundling can help your customers reach your minimum order threshold. 
  • Promote new products effortlessly. When you bundle a new or obscure product with an already popular item, it’s more likely to gain a presence in your shop. 
  • Accelerate the fulfillment process. The bigger the customer’s shopping cart, the easier it is to fulfill and ship the order than if they ordered the same items across several individual purchases. With Inventory Bundles, you can package, ship, and track one single commodity, speeding up the order fulfillment process. 

How to Create Zoho Inventory Bundles

Within Zoho Inventory Pricing, Inventory Bundles are created within Composite Items or Sales Transactions. To take advantage of Bundles, you’ll need to have the Composite Items feature enabled within Zoho. Do this by navigating to Settings > Preferences > Items, and then click the ‘Enable Composite Items’ checkbox. Now, Composite Items will be accessible within the Items module.

Now, you’ll have two options for bundling in Zoho:

Bundling Items from Composite Items

  1. Open Zoho CRM
  2. Go to the Composite Items module under Items from the left sidebar
  3. Open the Composite Item for which you want to create a unique bundle
  4. Click the Create Bundle button

ZBrains Zoho Inventory Bundles Screenshot 6

From here, you’ll need to specify the Bundling#, Bundling Date, Quantity to Bundle, and the warehouse within which you’d like to create the Bundle for this Composite Item.

ZBrains Zoho Inventory Bundles Screenshot 5

Finally, if you’ve enabled serial or batch number tracking for your Composite Item, you can use the screen pictured below to enter the serial or batch numbers for the bundle quantity.

ZBrains Zoho Inventory Bundles Screenshot 4

During this process, any items or services that are associated with the Composite Item will be auto-populated (you can also add, change, or remove items, as needed). Once your bundle is saved, the necessary adjustments will be made to your Zoho Inventory. 

If needed, you can also view past Bundle activity by visiting the Bundling History section and clicking the number associated with an individual Bundle.

ZBrains Zoho Inventory Bundles Screenshot 3

Creating Bundles from Sales Transactions

If you find yourself in a situation where the quantity in demand for one or more of your Composite Items is greater than the quantity you have available, you’ll want to use the Bundle option within sales orders or invoices to generate the quantity required.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Go to the Sales Orders or Invoices module under Sales from the left sidebar of Zoho Inventory
  2. Create a new sales order or invoice and add a Composite Item
  3. Specify the number of Composite Items ordered by your customer (note that the quantity ordered will need to exceed the available quality shown to trigger the Bundle option to appear)

Zbrains Inventory Bundles Screenshot 2

4. Click the Bundle option, and the required quantity of Composite Items that need to be bundled will be calculated automatically

ZBrains Zoho Inventory Bundles Screenshot 1

Creating Zoho Inventory Pricing Bundles in Zoho CRM gives you the flexibility needed to customize Composite Items for individual customers—for example, to add extra products or services to sweeten the deal for a single buyer.

However, we also recognize that managing Zoho Inventory Pricing can be tricky. If you have questions about working with Composite Items or Bundles in Zoho, get in touch with the expert team at ZBrains for assistance.

ZBrains Zoho Dashboards for Sales

Building Zoho Dashboards for Sales: Your Ultimate Guide by ZBrains

Published on: March 17, 2023Category: Zoho CRM, Zoho CRMLast Updated: June 12, 2023 Comments: 0

Zoho CRM is a user-friendly and robust customer relationship management software suitable for businesses of any scale. It helps companies effectively manage customer interactions, automate sales processes, and monitor performance. With the help of Zoho dashboards, businesses can quickly get insights into their sales pipeline, identify bottlenecks, and make data-driven decisions to improve their sales performance. 

But one of the best features of Zoho CRM is its ability to create powerful, visually appealing sales dashboards. A well-designed dashboard can help you get an accurate picture of your business’s performance at a glance. With the right data, your dashboards can identify key trends, highlight opportunities, and help you make informed decisions.

Optimizing Sales Performance with Zoho CRM and Analytics

Zoho CRM simplifies sales, marketing, and customer service by utilizing a unified data source for all activities. This approach enables businesses to easily track essential metrics such as sales volume, order fulfillment rate, and revenue per customer. With the help of Zoho dashboards, businesses can efficiently monitor the performance of individual employees or teams by comparing their metrics against those of others within the organization. This valuable information empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions and optimize their sales process for better results.

Zoho Analytics, on the other hand, can use multiple data sources from across the organization to provide an even more comprehensive view of your sales performance. For example, you can track customer lifetime value (CLV) and customer acquisition cost (CAC), as well as average order size, frequency of purchase, and other metrics. Users can also embed these into the Zoho CRM homepage to quickly overview their business performance in real-time.

Zoho CRM provides a variety of views tailored to meet the needs of individual sales reps, managers, and executives. These views offer insights into essential key performance indicators (KPIs) that businesses should monitor. With the help of Zoho dashboards, businesses can effortlessly keep track of these KPIs, optimize their sales process, and maximize their revenue. Let’s explore the specific KPIs you should monitor for each role within your organization.

Individual Sales Reps

To effectively monitor individual sales reps responsible for identifying prospects, closing deals, and driving growth, track their performance on specific metrics such as:

  • Number of Leads: The number of leads created or assigned in a given time frame.
  • Number of Meetings: The total number of meetings booked with new prospects.
  • Number of Meetings Completed: The number of scheduled meetings that successfully occurred.
  • Show Rate: The number of meetings that were attended vs. the number of meetings that were scheduled.
  • Opportunities Created: The number of opportunities created in a given time frame.
  • Lead Conversion Rate: The percentage of total leads that have been converted into customers.
  • Total Pipeline Value: The total dollar value of all opportunities in the sales pipeline.
  • Total Pipeline Growth: The change in the pipeline value over time.
  • Total Deals Closed: The number of deals closed in a given time frame.
  • Dollar Amount Closed: The total dollar amount of all deals closed in a given time frame.
  • Win Rate: The percentage of total deals that are closed successfully.
  • Lead-to-Win Rate: The number of leads it takes to close a deal.
  • Leads/Opportunities/Accounts With Activity: The number of leads that have had activity (calls, emails, meetings) in a given time frame.
  • Activity Levels: The average number of activities performed by each sales rep (on an individual activity basis) in a given time frame.

Sales Managers

Sales managers should be responsible for the sales metrics of the team, as they oversee the sales team and ensure each rep achieves their goals.

  • Rep Metrics: Sales rep performance data such as lead conversion rate, win rate, and dollar amount closed.
  • Team Metrics: Team-level performance data such as total pipeline value, average deal size, and overall close rate.
  • Cohort Analysis: The ability to compare sales performance among different groups of reps (e.g., by location or product
  • Metrics by Geography/Territory: The total number of deals, pipeline value, and revenue based on geographic region.
  • Metrics by Product: The total number of deals, pipeline value, and revenue based on the product or service being sold.
  • Metrics by Lead Source: The total number of deals, pipeline value, and revenue based on the lead source.
  • Revenue by Person: The total dollar amount closed by each sales rep in a given time frame.
  • Forecasted Revenue: The estimated revenue to be earned in the next quarter or year, based on pipeline value and rep metrics.

Executive Leadership

Executives can use Zoho dashboards to ensure the company is on track to reach its goals, and that all departments are working together efficiently.

  • Lead-to-Win Rate: The rate at which leads are converted into customers shows executives how efficient the sales process is.
  • Pipeline Value: The total dollar value of all opportunities in the sales pipeline helps executives track progress toward their goals.
  • Net New Customers: The number of new customers acquired in a given time frame.
  • Revenue Trends: Year-over-year revenue trends show executives if the company is on track to meet its goals.
  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): The total value of all transactions with existing customers helps executives understand customer loyalty and profitability.
  • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): The cost of acquiring each new customer is a critical metric that shows executives how efficient their sales process is.
  • Churn Rate: The rate at which customers are lost can indicate customer satisfaction and potential areas of improvement.
  • Sales Efficiency: The overall efficiency of the sales team demonstrates how much time and effort is being spent on each sale.

How to Build an Effective Sales Dashboard in Zoho CRM

Whatever metrics you intend to track, here are a few of our top suggestions for monitoring them within your Zoho CRM sales dashboard.

  1. Choose two critical metrics for each role in your organization. Assign each person a leading KPI and a trailing KPI based on importance. 
  2. Make sure your system can easily gather the necessary data for the KPIs by setting up automation, automating your reporting, or defining custom fields. You can accomplish this by establishing automation, automating your reporting, or defining custom fields.
  3. Create a weekly version of each KPI, grouped by person, and also for the entire company/department. This will help you get a better understanding of each person’s performance and let you easily compare it with the team as a whole.
  4. Make sure to verify the data and the report’s accuracy, especially if you plan to tie them to performance reports or incentives. 
  5. Add a trend (and perhaps a forecast), if you have enough data to do so.
  6. Hold a weekly-to-daily meeting to review the KPIs. Hold people responsible for their performance by having a discussion and tracking progress over time.
  7. Set quotas and targets for each KPI. Target is generally 20% above quota, and quota is the desired outcome for each metric.
  8. Create a contest or incentives around your target(s) to motivate your team.

Finally, try not to change the KPIs too much, or too quickly, unless everyone agrees that doing so is appropriate. Determining the “right” KPIs and optimal quota for your organization might take some time, but it’s still best to be as consistent as possible.

Need help creating your ideal Zoho sales dashboard? ZBrains’ expert team is standing by for any sales tracking or measurement questions you may have. Reach out today for more information.

zoho vs hubspot crm

Zoho vs Hubspot: Which CRM for Field Service Companies?

Published on: January 26, 2023Category: Job Costing, Zoho CRM, Zoho OneLast Updated: September 26, 2023 Comments: 0

Zoho vs Hubspot CRM – which one is the better choice for your business needs? Field service companies face several unique challenges—from measuring and tracking job performance to scheduling and routing technicians to customer sites, numerous moving parts go into running a successful business.

With customer relationships at the core of any service-based business, field service companies need CRM software to manage leads, scheduling, invoicing, and other nuanced customer relations tasks.

Zoho and HubSpot are two popular CRM systems that make it easy for field service companies to streamline operations and grow their business while nurturing their most important asset—their customers. Here, we’ll take a look at the features, benefits, and costs of both Zoho CRM and HubSpot to help you decide which system is right for your business.

Zoho CRM vs. HubSpot: A Comparison of CRM Features

Zoho CRM and HubSpot are both comprehensive customer relationship management (CRM) systems that help field service companies manage their accounts and contact information, automate sales processes like quoting and invoicing, and track customer interactions.

Each has an impressive reputation in the marketplace. But while Zoho offers a full range of apps and comparable features, Hubspot has doubled down on its marketing and email capabilities.

  • Zoho CRM is one of the many applications included in the Zoho ONE platform, an end-to-end platform that offers powerful features like marketing automation, sales tracking, customer service tools, a full finance suite, and more. It also integrates with popular programs like Xero, Dropbox, and QuickBooks.
  • HubSpot, on the other hand, is better known for its sales, marketing automation, and customer service tools. It also offers a marketplace of third-party apps that extend the system’s functionality.

How Zoho CRM and HubSpot Stack Up

Let’s take a look at how Zoho CRM and HubSpot compare when it comes to features, benefits, and costs.

Contact and Lead Management

HubSpot and Zoho CRM are not only easy to use for organizing contact and lead information, but also for managing sales data, such as call logs and sales signals. With the paid versions of both software programs, you can also score leads to determine which ones should receive priority outreach.

However, there are a few differences to be aware of. HubSpot’s duplicate management feature, for example, is only available on the company’s Professional and Enterprise plans, which can be costly. Zoho CRM de-duplicates data on its top three-tier plans for a lower price, potentially making it a better option for smaller field service businesses.

Lead Generation and Sales Quoting

Another significant benefit to Zoho CRM is its end-to-end software. While HubSpot has many integrators, keeping everything on the same platform reduces data silos and supports processes like marketing lead gen; ‘configure, price, quote’ (CPQ) task management; job scheduling and work order management; and billing, invoicing, and job costing.

Since field services companies often have complex pricing models, automated lead funnels and CPQ software that can quickly generate automated quotes is invaluable. Zoho CRM, with its CPQ capabilities, makes this task simple and efficient. While HubSpot can handle these tasks, most require the use of add-ons that must be purchased separately.

Field Service Processes

When it comes to managing field service processes, Zoho CRM simply offers more features than HubSpot. For example, Zoho’s capabilities can support job scheduling and dispatching, billing and invoicing, job costing, and an offline mode built-in for reps who travel to places with low cell reception.

With Zoho ONE, you can reduce data silos, the number of vendors you use, support and maintenance costs, implementation time, integration points, and risk of system failure—all while keeping your costs low.

HubSpot doesn’t have a dedicated, integrated field service app, but it does offer some features that can support field service companies, such as a robust task management application, customer support ticketing, and contact tracking.

Pricing

Generally speaking, Zoho is much cheaper than Hubspot—especially if you go with their all-inclusive Zoho ONE package, which includes access to several integrated applications (including CRM and field service) for one low monthly price.

HubSpot’s lowest-tier plan is significantly more expensive than Zoho ONE, but it does offer a more traditional email marketing platform compared to Zoho’s email marketing solution. The Professional and Enterprise tiers of HubSpot also offer features like lead scoring, contact segmentation, and more that aren’t available on the company’s Basic plan, but which are offered by Zoho’s ONE’s competitively priced plan.

Reporting

With HubSpot, you can have three free dashboards with 10 reports each. If you upgrade to a paid plan, you can store up to 50 dashboards, each of which can have 10-30 reports at a time. The Professional and Enterprise plans let you create 100 and 500 custom reports, respectively—a feature unavailable on any other plan.

All paid plans of Zoho CRM come with standard reports, as well as the ability to schedule these reports. Zoho’s Standard plan offers 100 custom reports, while the three higher-tier plans offer an unlimited number for any KPIs you want to track.

Zoho CRM vs. HubSpot: Which Should You Choose?

Ultimately, when evaluating the features of each program, Zoho CRM is the clear winner for service companies. With more features tailored to field services, a lower price tag, and more comprehensive reporting capabilities, Zoho is the logical choice for most field service businesses.

That said, HubSpot’s email marketing platform is one of the best out there. If you’re looking for a traditional email marketing platform—or if you’re only interested in sales and marketing tools and can get what you need from the company’s lowest-tier plan—HubSpot could be a good fit for you.

Consider your business needs carefully before making a decision. Or, if you need help comparing the two programs, reach out to ZBrains. Our expert team can support you in evaluating both options to determine which solution will best meet your needs going forward.

ZBrains CRM Consultants Migrating Your Legacy System

Zoho CRM Help: Migrate Your Legacy System with Consultants

Published on: January 23, 2023Category: Zoho CRM, Zoho Features, Zoho PartnersLast Updated: May 23, 2023 Comments: 0

On the surface, the benefits of a CRM tool seem obvious—it’s designed to help businesses better manage customer relationships, resulting in more organized contacts, streamlined processes and workflows, and an improved customer experience.

But when it comes to migrating your legacy system to a new CRM, the process is often anything but obvious. In too many cases, companies find themselves confronting an intricate web of different technologies, and ensuring the data transfers correctly can be overwhelming.

This is especially true if you need customizable features and software integrations, which can turn the complexity of setting up a CRM system into a nightmare. That’s where CRM consultants come in. 

On the surface, the idea of finding and working with a consultant might seem expensive and unnecessary. But if you’re busy running your business, don’t have the capacity to learn a new system or process, or are under a time crunch, working with a consultant can save you time, frustration, and money in the long run. They’ll also ensure your system is set up optimally so that it’ll actually be adopted by your users—plenty of projects fail because they aren’t rolled out correctly or built with end users in mind. 

As experts in the technology, CRM consultants like ZBrains can help you to identify any issues that could arise during migration, ensure your data remains secure, and even create customizable features tailored to your specific needs. Here’s exactly how they can help:

11 Steps for a Successful CRM System Migration

Generally speaking, several steps go into a successful CRM system migration. Let’s take a look at what the process looks like.

  1. Assess your reporting and KPIs: The first step involves understanding your current system and the KPIs that are essential to measure success.
  2. Analyze your data inputs: Next, you’ll need to get a better understanding of your data inputs at each stage of your process, including what kinds of content you’ll be migrating and the origin of each element.
  3. Assess operational efficiencies by department: Each department within your organization will have different needs and processes, so it’s essential to understand how they work together.
  4. Spec out your inputs: Inputs are the data points that will be used to populate your new system. Spec out which fields need to be populated, as well as the type of content for each field.
  5. Build your inputs: Now, you can start building out the fields in the new system and populating them with content.
  6. Build initial reports: Your reports provide critical insight into how your business is performing, so you’ll want to make sure they’re set up properly before making the switch.
  7. Spec out automation: Automation can make your life a lot easier, freeing up your time for higher-priority projects. Once you have your data inputs properly set up, you can start creating rules and workflows.
  8. Build automations: Once you have your automation rules properly laid out, it’s time to build them into the system.
  9. Migrate data: This is the moment of truth—all of the data from your legacy system must be moved over to your new CRM.
  10. Go live and perform change management: Once your data is migrated, it’s time to start using the system. Depending on how complex your CRM setup is, you may want to put a change management plan in place to help new users adapt.
  11. Add new features or reports using feedback from your team: As you start using your new system, you may realize that you need to make tweaks or add additional features. This is the time to do it.

As you can see, migrating data into multiple modules and systems can be a complex process, and it’s often essential that the data is migrated in a specific order for it to link correctly. That’s why, at ZBrains, we strive to make the CRM migration process as seamless as possible by performing both a test migration and a live migration.

Through this process, the test migration allows us to identify any potential data issues that could arise, as well as develop a plan to fix them before the live migration takes place. We also ensure that all data is migrated from your legacy system correctly and without any loss of information.

Finally, we take extra steps to secure your data during the migration process by using encryption technology and multi-layered authentication.

Pitfalls to Avoid During Migration (and How CRM Consultants Can Help)

When companies attempt a CRM system migration without the help of an expert, they often end up making costly mistakes. Here are four particular pitfalls to avoid:

1. Choosing the wrong way to solve a problem

Platforms often have many ways to solve a single problem, and it can be difficult to determine which is the best option without experience. This is especially true in the case of complex automations and features (e.g., multi-list segmentation and interactive dashboards).

2. Implementing too many features, too quickly

When companies invest in a robust CRM software, they can be tempted to build out more features than necessary. This often results in an overly complex platform that is difficult to use, with extra time and budget wasted on development.

Even if there are multiple custom features an organization can benefit from, keeping the system as lightweight as possible is key. Working with CRM consultants helps you to identify the features that are truly necessary, and leave out those that will slow down your system or add extra costs. Remember, focus on adoption first, then optimization.

3. Not properly preparing for a migration

Migrating a CRM system means downtime, potential data loss, and a steep learning curve for users. Working with a partner that has experience with successful migrations can help you understand the process and plan for any potential issues.

4. Poor change management

Migrating to a CRM system isn’t just about data migration. It requires a shift in how employees work and think, which can be difficult without proper guidance. Platform-specific CRM consultants can help you create a successful change management plan, as well as ensure that your system is set up to best support its users and maximize system adoption.

Outsource Your Zoho CRM Migration to ZBrains

When it comes down to it, there are four reasons to outsource something:

  • Time: Unless you already have someone in place and ready to perform the migration, chances are it’s going to take more time and energy than you currently have available in-house.
  • Cost: Outsourcing may seem like a more expensive option—until you take into consideration the cost-savings a CRM consultant can provide by helping you avoid migration mistakes and optimize your new CRM for your needs. 
  • Expertise: CRM consultants will already understand the nuances of your chosen system and will be able to get things set up quickly and efficiently. Even if you’ve migrated a system before, being unfamiliar with Zoho creates inherent risks in the migration process that can be costly or time-consuming to resolve.
  • Dynamics and Corporate Politics: In some organizations, having an external partner involved in the migration process can help with change management and ensure that all stakeholders’ needs are accounted for during the process.

At ZBrains, we understand exactly what it takes to get your system up and running—and we know how to save you time and money along the way. Contact our expert team today for more on how we can help streamline your next CRM migration project.

Migrating from Hubspot to Zoho with help of ZBrains

Hubspot Migration: How to Migrate Data to Zoho CRM?

Published on: October 19, 2022Category: Certified Zoho Consultants, Zoho CRMLast Updated: August 16, 2023 Comments: 0

The decision to transition between customer relationship management (CRM) programs shouldn’t be made lightly. In fact, data migration—the aspect we’ll focus on in this article—is only one step in the process. Successfully migrating from one CRM to another involves both strategic planning and execution work to ensure a seamless transition.

That said, when it comes to the data layer of CRM migrations, one of the best aspects of Zoho CRM is that you don’t necessarily have to start from scratch. In fact, Zoho makes it easy to migrate from many other CRMs—Hubspot included. 

To see the process in action, take a look at the step-by-step process we’ve put together below on how to migrate your data from HubSpot to Zoho CRM. 

Understanding HubSpot to Zoho CRM Migration

Migrating from HubSpot to Zoho CRM can be a transformative step, requiring meticulous planning, execution, and data management. The process involves transferring various data elements, including customer contacts, leads, deals, notes, tasks, etc. To navigate this successfully, follow these key steps:

1. Assess and Plan

Initiate the migration process by thoroughly assessing your current HubSpot CRM setup. Identify the data you intend to transfer, evaluate data quality, and determine which aspects of your business processes require preservation throughout the migration. This comprehensive planning phase will serve as the foundation for the entire process.

2. Map Your Data

Data mapping is integral to this process, as it involves defining how the data in your HubSpot CRM corresponds to the fields and structure in Zoho CRM. Accurate data mapping is essential to ensure data aligns correctly and prevent inconsistencies and data loss during migration. Detailed data mapping minimizes errors and guarantees a seamless transition.

3. Extract Data

Extract data from your HubSpot CRM by exporting the identified datasets into a format compatible with Zoho CRM. This step may involve exporting CSV files or using migration tools that facilitate data extraction.

4. Cleanse and Transform Data

Before importing data into Zoho CRM, ensure that the data is clean and transformed. Standardize data formats, eliminate duplicate records, and maintain data integrity throughout migration.

5. Import Data into Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM provides tools and features for importing data from various sources. Utilize Zoho’s import functionalities while following the earlier data mapping, ensuring accurate and efficient data transfer.

6. Validate Data

After data import, perform thorough data validation to verify accuracy and completeness. This step helps identify potential issues and guarantees that the migrated data aligns with your business requirements.

7. Customize and Configure

Leverage Zoho CRM’s customization options to tailor the platform to your business needs. Configure fields, layouts, workflows, and automation rules to replicate your HubSpot CRM functionalities within the Zoho ecosystem.

8. Test and Train Users

Conduct comprehensive testing before fully implementing Zoho CRM to ensure all functionalities are operating as expected. Furthermore, provide adequate training to your team members to familiarize them with Zoho CRM’s interface and features.

9. Go Live and Provide Post-Migration Support

With comprehensive testing and team training completed, it’s time to go live with Zoho CRM. Monitor the transition closely and offer post-migration support to address any issues or questions during the initial stages.

Why should you consider transitioning from Hubspot to Zoho CRM?

Before we jump in, let’s cover a few of the top benefits of transitioning from Hubspot to Zoho CRM in the first place. After all, your CRM supports critical functions within your business. It’s important to ensure that the system you’ve chosen is the right one to support your business goals. 

There are many reasons you might want to choose Zoho CRM over HubSpot, but here are just a few:

  • Zoho CRM is more user-friendly. Zoho CRM allows for team collaboration on all tiers, whereas HubSpot only offers collaboration on top-tier plans.  
  • Zoho CRM is easier on your wallet. Not only does Zoho offer a longer free trial, there are many different pricing tiers for Zoho CRM, starting with a free version and going up to $40 per user for the enterprise version (when billed annually). By comparison, Hubspot’s entry-level paid plan comes in at $45 per month for two users.
  • Zoho’s platform offers greater extensibility. Zoho CRM easily integrates with the company’s broader suite of apps. While Hubspot offers sales, marketing, and operations modules, it does not offer comparable solutions for inventory management, HR, legal, and security needs.
  • Zoho is endorsed by publications like Forbes as a top choice for SMBs. Thanks to its budget-friendly, flexible nature, Forbes has recognized Zoho CRM as the better choice for small and medium-sized businesses in nearly every industry. 

The Necessity of CRM Migration

As businesses evolve and expand, their CRM requirements also evolve. In some cases, enterprises seek more robust alternatives due to the limitations of their existing CRM platform. With its extensive array of features and customization options, Zoho CRM often emerges as a compelling choice for businesses looking to enhance their customer engagement strategy.

Not sure if Zoho CRM is right for you? ZBrain’s expert team can help. Reach out to schedule a personalized assessment of your business’s needs.

The Hubspot to Zoho CRM Data Migration Process 

At a broader level, data migration involves moving all your information from one platform to another—in this case, from Hubspot’s CRM to Zoho CRM.

In Zoho CRM, you’ll use the Data Migration wizard to transfer your data from Hubspot, accurately and efficiently. Where common modules are available, the wizard will automatically map your import files to Zoho CRM modules, aligning file columns with Zoho CRM fields. 

Where modules aren’t already available, Zoho CRM will create them and map the relevant files to them. It will also let you know how many files have been mapped, how many remain unmapped, and which—if any—aren’t supported. 

If your migration needs are more complex or if multiple applications are involved, you can turn to Zoho’s vast partner network—including ZBrains, a leading, US-based Zoho Consulting Partner—for help.

How to Migrate from HubSpot to Zoho CRM: A Step-By-Step Process

On a technical level, Zoho CRM’s Data Migration wizard uses APIs and Instance URLs to migrate your data from HubSpot to Zoho. For this reason, you’ll initiate the migration by generating and entering the API key, and then the entire migration will take place in the back end. 

You’ll be notified by email when your migration is complete, and you’ll have the option to undo or rerun the migration up to three times. 

Step #1: Generate the API Token

To find or generate your API token:

  1. Log into your HubSpot account
  2. Click Account Name on the top right corner and select Integrations
  3. Click API Key
  4. Click Generate API Key (if you’ve never generated an API key before)
  5. Click Copy

If you’ve already generated an API key in the past, click Show key and then Copy. You’ll also want to capture your Instance URL using this process.

Step #2: Initiate the Migration

Once you have your API key and Instance URL:

  1. Log in to Zoho CRM (make sure you have Administrator privileges)
  2. Navigate to Setup > Data Administration > Import
  3. On the Data Migration page, choose HubSpot as the CRM you’re importing data from
  4. Enter the Instance URL and the API Token you generated in Hubspot
  5. Click Migrate Now

Once the migration is complete, you’ll be notified via a pop-up and an email.

Step #3: Check Your Data Migration

Zoho’s Data Migration wizard makes importing your Hubspot data simple, but it’s still a good idea to check your data for accuracy once the migration is complete. 

To do so, navigate to Setup > Data Administration > Import > Import History, and check that all fields have been imported properly. It’s also a good idea to spot-check individual records. Navigate to a few people and accounts to see if their data matches up with their corresponding Hubspot records (or to what you know to be true for them).

Remember, Zoho CRM allows you to undo or rerun the migration, but only for a limited number of times. If you are not satisfied with the import or field mapping results, you can delete the imported records and re-run the migration. Just don’t wait to detect errors until you’re too far down the road to redo your migration!

Keep the following notes in mind while planning and executing your migration as well:

  • Tags can be migrated from Hubspot into Zoho CRM, but only the first 10 tags will be migrated. Additionally, each tag can only have up to 25 characters. 
  • Your data migration will be paused if more than 5,000 records in a module are skipped during the migration. At this point, you’ll have the option to discard the migration or continue—Zoho CRM will inform you of every module where this occurs.
  • If you need to undo the data migration, visit your Import History. 

The ZBrains Advantage: Your Partner in Seamless Migration

At ZBrains, we understand that CRM migration can be a daunting endeavor. With years of experience in CRM solutions and business process optimization, we’ve fine-tuned our migration approach to ensure minimal disruption to your operations. Our team of experts takes a personalized approach, meticulously mapping your existing data and processes to HubSpot CRM’s structure. The result? A smooth transition that preserves data integrity while unlocking the full potential of HubSpot CRM.

If you’re ready to make the change from Hubspot to Zoho CRM, built-in migration tools make the process as simple as possible, while also alerting you to any issues that need to be resolved manually. 

But if you have any questions about migrating from HubSpot to Zoho CRM—or if you’d like expert support while you navigate the process—get in touch with ZBrain’s team of Zoho experts for personal assistance. 

A Woman Connecting Facebook Lead Ads to Zoho CRM

Connect Facebook Lead Ads to Zoho CRM: Integration Guide

Published on: September 22, 2022Category: Zoho Analytics, Zoho Campaigns, Zoho CRM, Zoho MarketingHubLast Updated: August 2, 2023 Comments: 0

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. 

ZBrains Zoho CRM Reports Graph

Maximize Sales with Zoho CRM Reports: Analytics Reporting Guide

Published on: August 3, 2022Category: Zoho Analytics, Zoho CRM, Zoho CRM, Zoho Reports, Zoho ReportsLast Updated: April 26, 2023 Comments: 0

Of all the advantages of using Zoho, one of the most compelling is the platform’s simple, yet in-depth reporting applications. 

Depending on what you need to report on, you may find that the basic reporting options built into Zoho CRM suffice. Alternatively (or, additionally), you can tap into the power of the more advanced Zoho Analytics when you need to get a deeper understanding of how your business functions.

With that in mind, let us explore each in turn, looking more closely at the advantages and disadvantages of Zoho CRM or Zoho Analytics. 

Zoho CRM

As a CRM, Zoho’s offering is well-rounded and user-friendly, offering most businesses everything they need to keep track of customer relationships. 

From a reporting perspective, Zoho CRM comes with its own reporting engine that is customizable and operates in real-time. As a result, the program enables you to run reports on key relationship and sales metrics, as well as email them out on a scheduled basis. Zoho CRM also comes pre-built with a myriad of reports useful for sales, account management, and front office leadership.

Building Your Dashboards

In the Zoho CRM reporting window, you will see a list of records that you can build into tables, including pivot tables and pivot charts:

You can choose a range of components to group into your dashboards, as well as place components on your home screen. 

An example of a group of components

An example of a dashboard

That said, while Zoho CRM allows you to choose the time or table that best represents your data, it does not allow you to change how your query is built. When you choose the type of table you want to use, Zoho writes the query for you. 

Scheduling Your Reports

With Zoho CRM, you can schedule reports to be automatically sent out by email, which can streamline internal progress reporting and status updates. 

Simply go to the left-hand menu, pick Scheduled Reports, and enter the report you want to have emailed out on a regular basis. 

The major advantage Zoho CRM reporting is real-time but limited to CRM data with no drill-down configuration. If you need additional reporting capabilities beyond what Zoho CRM can provide, you may want to look into Zoho Analytics.

Zoho Analytics

Zoho Analytics is Zoho’s business intelligence and analytics platform. Zoho Analytics allows you to review and report on data from a variety of data sources, as well as customize how that data is presented and shared. 

Data Sources

Incorporating data from multiple sources means that Zoho Analytics facilitates a much deeper dive into your data. In addition to Zoho data points, you can also use Analytics to pull in data from external applications, such as Google Analytics, YouTube, Google Ads, or Facebook. 

Within Analytics, simply select your chosen data sources, and pull them into the same workspace. From there, you will be able to query those different tables together to build reports that span across each application. 

Customizing Your Data Drill-Downs

Like Zoho CRM, Analytics allows you to choose from a variety of charts to present your data. However, with Zoho Analytics, you also have the option to customize charts and tables for tailored insights with Zoho Analytics.

Once you have built your table or chart, you can drag and drop them onto your dashboard for enhanced visibility. 

You can also utilize global filters–such as user, team, and date–to drill down into your data. For example, if you wanted to check on an individual team’s performance, you could filter your reports by team. All of the charts and tables that include a team filter would then be updated and displayed accordingly. 

Trend Reporting

One final feature that may make Zoho Analytics a better fit for your organization is its predictive capabilities. Analytics displays trends and projections, enabling informed predictions for future business decisions and investments.  

As a note, this is not an ‘either/or’ situation. You can Embed Zoho Analytics reports into Zoho CRM via the Analytics widget, by inputting the dashboard URL. Overall, Zoho Analytics is valuable for teams needing trend reporting, global filtering, and multiple data sources.

It is worth keeping in mind, however, that Analytics is not a real-time dashboard. The tradeoff for this enhanced functionality is that you will have a three-hour sync to contend with, though this is not likely to be a deal-breaker for most teams.

Zoho CRM vs. Zoho Analytics Reporting

As you explore your different Zoho reporting options, weigh your options within CRM and Analytics carefully. Taking these and other key points into consideration will help you arrive at the right solution for your team.

Any other questions about Zoho CRM and Zoho Analytics? Reach out to the team at ZBrains if you have any queries or need clarification.

Marketing team planning a campaign

Choosing the Right Zoho App or Module for Your Marketing Automation

Published on: July 13, 2022Category: Zoho Campaigns, Zoho Campaigns, Zoho CRM, Zoho CRMLast Updated: June 14, 2023 Comments: 0

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 digital marketing. 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.

Zoho Updates October 2021

Zoho Updates, New Features, and Issues | October 2021

Published on: October 6, 2021Category: Certified Zoho Consultants, Zoho Bugs, Zoho CRMLast Updated: May 10, 2023 Comments: 0

Hello and welcome back to the Zoho Updates October 2021. In the past month, Zoho CRM has released a number of notable updates and improvements. In this digest you’ll find time saving new features, how CRM is making user experience better, and how Zoho Desk is making the ability to relate contacts to multiple accounts simpler!

Keep reading for details about What’s New, Zoho Updates Ocotober 2021. 

New Features & Improvements from Zoho

Zoho CRM

  • Updates to IOS Mobile App for Zoho CRM:

    • User-related lookup fields have been optimized, including the search and selection of users from owner lookup field.
    • “Plotting Leads, Contacts, and Accounts in nearby maps has been optimized for better user experience. Also, nearby pins will be grouped on zooming out a location on maps.”

  • Online instances of Zoho Campaigns offers increased specificity in regards to bounced status. “Soft Bounced” and “Hard Bounced” are now noted instead of just “bounced.”

  • Predictive Analytics utilizing Zia in CRM have been improved to achieve more accurate outcomes.

  • New color-coded picklist values improves data interpretation at a glance. Color-coded values are seen in records, modules, deals pipeline, charts, dashboards, and more.

  • Zoho CRM Sales Motivator admins can now compare the performance of a KPI or Target with other KPIs and Targets. Read more here.

  • Select your theme in Motivator; toggle between the light or dark theme to suit your viewing preference.

  • Zone Analysis is a new Dashboard component in Zoho CRM that helps you understand which data requires attention. This comparative analysis currently allows you to analyze two parameters.

  • If you have questions or need help setting up any of these, ZBrains Support is here for you!

Zoho Creator

  • This month Creator released two new enhancements to help you streamline work.
    • The first are a set of enhancements to export settings which allow you to name a file, select the format, select columns to include, and password protect exported files.
    • Secondly, Creator can now pull and pull data from external apps! Using Widgets you can now configure integration from your external apps, giving more power to the applications you use created on the Creator platform.

Zoho Desk

  • Desk now allows you to add a contact to multiple accounts: “Zoho Desk provides a way to relate a single contact to multiple accounts so your agents can easily track the relationships between the customers and companies they work with. Additionally, contacts can view all the tickets belonging to their account on the help center. When you enable this feature, each contact requires a primary account. The primary account represents a direct relationship. But you can associate additional accounts to the contact in a secondary relationship.”

ZOHO UPDATESApplication Updates from Zoho

Zoho CRM

  • CRM extension for LinkedIn Sales Navigator was sunsetted on September 30th. Affecting all users, the extension can no longer be used by current users or downloaded by anyone.

 

Have a question we didn’t answer here?  If you have questions or would like to connect with one of our consultants, schedule below. We’re also available by phone, just call our offices at (888) 207-4111.

 

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