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Tag : zoho crm

Zoho Quickbooks Integration

Zoho CRM Integration: Benefits and Process

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

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.

A person using Zoho CRM by ZBrains Plus

Zoho CRM Plus: The Ultimate Unified Experience Solution

Zoho CRM Plus is a unified customer experience platform that helps you deliver an exceptional experience to every customer across all stages of their lifecycle and convert them into brand advocates.

The CRM Plus platform includes 9 powerful services in a single interface. Few other platforms, if any, provide such much high-value functionality across so many software apps at such a competitive price.

  • Zoho CRM: Sales automation and complete pipeline management
  • Zoho SalesIQ: Live chat and visitor tracking
  • Zoho Desk: Help desk
  • Zoho Projects: Project management
  • Zoho Campaigns: Email marketing
  • Zoho Analytics: Unified insights across teams
  • Zoho SalesInbox: Exclusive sales emails
  • Zoho Social: Social media marketing
  • Zoho Survey: Customer surveys

Empowering Business Growth: The Versatile Zoho Suite

Zoho CRM Plus is pre-integrated, providing access to shared customer data and a unified experience from a single console. Its simple onboarding mechanism has users up and running in the cloud from day one.

Zoho CRM

Highly rated on just about every customer review site, Zoho CRM offers powerful enterprise-level functionality that is highly configurable and easily customized to support faster onboarding, multiple pipelines, and reporting. As an added bonus, it is loaded with functionality that enables reps to prioritize tasks and stay organized, resulting in better throughput for businesses with larger pipelines.

Zoho SalesInBox

Zoho SalesInBox enables reps to prioritize communications by segmenting emails between active deals, regular contacts, and internal communications. It integrates with all leading email clients (Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, and more) and synchronizes with email campaigns.

Zoho SalesIQ

Zoho SalesIQ is an all-in-one live chat and analytics platform. Its digital engagement tools let marketing, sales, and support teams communicate with site visitors at every stage of the customer lifecycle. Users can also easily build chatbots and personalized message routing. 

Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a full-featured help desk application that simplifies customer service operations, improves agent productivity, and delivers quality, lasting customer experiences.

Zoho Projects

Projects is Zoho’s cloud-based project management software, used for comprehensive project planning, efficient work tracking, and effective collaboration between teams. The functionality of Zoho Projects compares favorably with Asana, Trello, Smartsheet, Jira Cloud, Monday, and similar systems.

Zoho Campaigns

Zoho Campaigns provides the toolkit teams need to create email designs that elicit responses, customize messages, deliver emails to inboxes, connect with new customers, and trigger automated workflows.

Zoho Social

With Zoho Social, your teams can schedule unlimited posts, monitor what matters, and create custom analytical reports.

Zoho Survey

Zoho Survey turns survey creation into both a science and an art. With over 25 question types, features like skip logic and piping, customizable themes, and more, the perfect survey is just keystrokes away. The SSL-protected surveys can be shared instantly via email and social media.

Zoho Analytics

Zoho Analytics delivers powerful functionality paired with point-and-click simplicity. Users are able to generate insightful reports without needing to write SQL queries, although this capability remains available. It also features Zia, an AI-based voice assistant that provides sales teams with insights that make them more productive.



Customizing Zoho CRM Plus for Optimized Business Processes

  • Flexible Customization Options: Zoho CRM Plus provides businesses with extensive customization options to tailor the CRM software according to their specific requirements. Users may customize fields, layouts, modules, and workflows to their particular business processes. This flexibility allows businesses to create a CRM solution that reflects their workflows and captures the information they deem essential.
  • Customizable Sales Processes: Zoho CRM Plus enables businesses to define and customize their sales processes based on their unique sales methodologies. Sales stages, deal closure criteria, and sales forecasting can be customized to match the organization’s specific requirements. This customization ensures that the CRM system aligns with the company’s sales strategies and enhances sales team efficiency.
  • Personalized Dashboards and Reports: With Zoho CRM Plus, users can create personalized dashboards and reports to gain insights into their sales, marketing, and customer service activities. The CRM suite offers a drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to design customized visualizations that display key performance indicators and metrics relevant to their business. This customization empowers users to monitor and track the data that matters most to them, facilitating data-driven decision-making.
  • Workflow Automation: Zoho CRM Plus offers robust workflow automation capabilities that allow businesses to automate repetitive tasks and streamline their processes. Users can define custom workflows to automate lead assignment, task creation, email notifications, and more. By automating routine activities, businesses can save time, reduce manual errors, and ensure consistent and efficient operations.
  • Integration and Extensions: Zoho CRM Plus supports integration with various third-party applications and extensions, enabling businesses to further customize and extend the functionality of their CRM system. Through integrations, businesses can connect Zoho CRM Plus with other tools they use, such as marketing automation platforms, accounting software, or e-commerce platforms. This integration capability allows for a seamless flow of data and streamlines cross-platform operations.
  • API and Developer Tools: Zoho CRM Plus provides APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and developer tools that allow businesses to develop custom integrations, extensions, or applications on top of the CRM suite. This customization capability enables businesses with specific requirements or unique workflows to extend the functionality of Zoho CRM Plus according to their needs.
  • Mobile Customization: Zoho CRM Plus offers mobile apps that can be customized to reflect the branding and specific requirements of a business. Users can tailor the mobile app’s interface, layout, and functionalities to match their business processes and ensure a consistent user experience across devices. This customization empowers mobile users to access and manage customer data while on the go.

By leveraging the customization capabilities of Zoho CRM Plus, businesses can create a CRM solution that aligns with their unique workflows, captures relevant data, and enhances overall productivity and efficiency. The flexibility to adapt and customize the CRM system allows organizations to optimize their sales, marketing, and customer service processes, leading to improved customer satisfaction and business growth.

What is the Difference Between Zoho ONE and Zoho CRM Plus?

The difference between Zoho CRM Plus and Zoho ONE is that CRM Plus unifies customer-facing teams to improve customer experience, while ONE enables businesses to operate lead to cash on one singular platform, consolidating vendors and software silos while streamlining your business operations.

  • Zoho CRM Plus includes the 9 essential enterprise-level applications to unify your sales, support, and marketing teams, providing a 360-degree view across all touchpoints for a consistent experience at every stage of the customer journey.
  • Zoho ONE, with more than 45 web applications, is an enterprise-level, all-in-one suite for running your entire organization. From sales, support, and marketing through finance, HR, recruitment, and more, Zoho ONE provides everything companies need to grow their business.

Should I Purchase Zoho CRM Plus or Zoho ONE?

The CRM Plus bundle is the obvious choice for companies that want to save money by only licensing customer-facing teams. Zoho CRM Plus is usually the best fit for companies that only want the functionality offered by its 9 applications. Although priced higher per user license, only customer-facing teams must be licensed. 

Zoho ONE, on the other hand, is priced lower per license than Zoho CRM Plus, but all employees must be licensed. 

Important note: While it is more expensive per user, Zoho does have a separate pricing model for those that want access to all the Zoho ONE apps but do not want to license every user in their organization

The Zoho ONE bundle is ideal for companies that need all employees to use the software. It’s also cost-effective for those who will ultimately pay less to license all employees (at the lower rate) than only those who are users (at the higher rate).

Regardless of the Zoho CRM chosen, either bundle provides substantial savings compared to licensing the included apps separately.

Conclusion

Still not sure what to purchase? Don’t worry. Talk to the experts at ZBrains who have worked with businesses similar to yours to help them migrate from their legacy systems. We can help you identify the apps that you should use to achieve your goals and prepare a cost-benefit analysis to gauge the best fit.

Reach out today for more information.

ZBrains Zoho Dashboards for Sales

Building Zoho Dashboards for Sales: Your Ultimate Guide by ZBrains

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.

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. 

ZBrains Zoho CRM Reports Graph

Maximize Sales with Zoho CRM Reports: Analytics Reporting Guide

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

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.