The ACT! by Sage Journal

Fast Tip Friday: A Look at E-marketing in ACT! 2010 -- #actFTF #act2010

tmergel — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:01:14 GMT

Good Morning,

Here's a little Fast Tip to enjoy with your morning coffee!

Happy Friday!

Tawny

Building an Actionable Landing Page - Guest Blog by Annie Cooley

tmergel — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:24:07 GMT

Landing pages are crucial when you want your target audience to focus on a very specific message. People land on these pages via ads, actionable email campaigns or direct mail pieces. They are the middle step of closing the sale, gaining a new lead’s contact information or inviting people to attend your event.

Sharpening Copywriting Skills

bbenneraz — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:13:57 GMT

In sitting down to write this blog, I was thinking back to some emails I recently received (and even blogs I had read) that didn't get to the point and had me tossing it aside before I fully read it.

Using Web Info in ACT! 2010 to Manage Customer Files

alduet — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:41:49 GMT

When I asked our ACT! consultants to challenge me with some "off the cuff" requests for Web Info links I ended up learning a new capability to the Web info feature!

Fast Tip Friday: Creating Your Own Dashboards in ACT! by Sage 2010 -- #actFTF #act2010

tmergel — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:57:38 GMT

Happy Friday Community Members!

This week's Fast Tip is all about customizing your own dashboards. Managers or Administrators can add or remove components, change titles or legends, and use drag-and-drop functionality to design dashboards that are relevant to the way you do business.

Which begs the question...how do you use this functionality in your business?

Have a great weekend!

Tawny

The Right Content to the Right People Through the Right Source - Guest Blog by Dan Ogdon

tmergel — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:53:32 GMT

There are so many outlets in new media to reach your customers. Likewise your customers are gathering information from more sources than ever before. It’s great for you because you can reach new and existing contacts in so many ways, but how do you make sure your message is heard and ultimately taken action upon?

Technology Meets Personal Connection

jmullery — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:29:00 GMT

As I’ve watched some of the business leaders that I admire, I’ve notices that they take a personal interest in people. They find out about their families, they remember their birthdays, they help them celebrate life’s accomplishments and send the message that you are not “just a number”.

Is Your E-Marketing Message Marking You as a Spammer? - Guest Blog by Karen Fredericks

tmergel — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:14:28 GMT

As an author I’ve been critiqued by some of the best editors in the world and I know the process. It’s not unusual for the early drafts of my books to return to me in the form of road kill. As the daily recipient of dozens of pieces of spam I know which messages will make their way through - and which messages will take a permanent place in the Spam Folder.

Fast Tip Friday: Creating Opportunities in ACT! by Sage 2010 -- #actFTF #act2010

tmergel — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:56:49 GMT

Did you know you can estimate the probability of success, note your competition, and generate reports and graphs that put it all on paper? You can even export the opportunities to Microsoft Excel where ACT! creates a list, a pivot chart, and a pivot table.

Who really knows what a “pivot” is… but once you’ve seen it, you’re off the farm, baby, and you’re never going back. :smileyhappy:

Check out this week's Fast Tip.

Thanks,

Tawny

ACT! 2010 Service Pack 1 is available!

kstalcup — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:46:01 GMT

We’ve heard a lot of great feedback about ACT! 2010 since it was released last fall. Many of you have commented on some of the features you love in the release and the improvements you’d like to see in the next release. We’ve been closely monitoring all of this feedback and, thanks to your participation in the ACT! online community, we are proud to announce the release of Service Pack 1 for ACT! 2010, available today.

Some of the improvements we’ve made in this release are:
• Adding a count for the number of contacts in the group and company detail views
• Changing the big easy search button to access keyword search
• Adding some wording at the end of the mail merge wizard to let you know what will happen when you click ‘finish’
• Adding the “location” field to the default task list view

These are just a few of the great ideas we’ve incorporated into ACT! 2010 SP1. To see all of them, check out the Ideas Forum and look for items tagged with “Available in ACT! 2010 SP1”.

There is no additional cost for ACT! 2010 Service Pack 1. If you have your ACT! database set to receive automatic updates, you will receive a notification soon to update to this service pack. If you do not, you can download the update manually by following these steps:

• Launch ACT!
• Go to Help
• Click on ACT! Update
• Dialog boxes will take you through the process step-by-step

Thanks for helping make ACT! better!

Dynamic Groups and eMarketing – They’re Made for Each Other

Emily — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:27:36 GMT

One of the new and in my opinion, greatest features of ACT! 2010 is that it now includes eMarketing powered by Swiftpage. For some, the concept of eMarketing is new but for many businesses the thought of living without is unimaginable.

Calling all History majors!

smacmillan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:38:09 GMT

So I thought it would be fun for us to share interesting factoids about ACT!. As many of you know, ACT! has been around since 1987, so it has a rich history. Here are a few of my favorites:

Key questions you should be asking your customers (as told by John Jantsch) - Guest Blog by Annie Cooley

tmergel — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:53:06 GMT

Are you asking your customers the right strategic question to determine if your efforts are effective?

Fast Tip Friday: Creating a Quote in ACT! by Sage 2010 -- #actFTF #act2010

tmergel — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:33:05 GMT

Happy Friday! If you find yourself spending hours each week creating quotes, you might really enjoy this week's Fast Tip showing how you can easily produce a quote right from ACT! Just one click!

Enjoy...

Gartner Predicts Marketing Savings through Higher Targeting Precision

pbuckley — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:47:41 GMT

More than 90% of marketing campaigns will include online marketing by the end of 2011. Why?

The Cart Whisperer

nmerrett — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:33:10 GMT

Maybe only geeks like me and my folks who are into the Web stuff really appreciate the references, but this video about shopping cart abandonment and the cart whisperer added some levity to my research on user experience metrics and processes.

Fast Tip Friday: Defining and Modifying Layouts in ACT! by Sage 2010 -- #actFTF #act2010

tmergel — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:19:10 GMT

Happy Friday!

Does your company website show up on page 5 of a Google search?

cfarina — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:42:47 GMT

Nowadays, simply having a web presence is not enough. People researching products using search engines make quick decisions based upon their findings on the Internet. Therefore, it's important now, more than ever, for company websites to be fully optimized for web searches.

Strategy and Execution

alduet — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:43:22 GMT

Not too long ago at a meeting of small business owners and advisors, a group member asked – "Would you rather have a great strategy and limited execution capabilities or no strategy but great execution abilities?".

Let Me Sell You Some Swamp Land in Florida - Guest Blog by Karen Fredricks

tmergel — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:18:03 GMT

All too often CRM shoppers succumb to the same sales tactics that got my friends to buy I-Phones. They’re told that one solution is “better” or “easier” than another when in reality most solutions offer pretty much the same standard set of features. A simple search on the Internet will provide you with hundreds of CRM solutions. So how do you narrow the field?