Inbound & Digital Marketing Blog

Custom Order Fields in Infusionsoft

Posted by Clarke Bishop

March 12, 2010

Greased Skid Marketing is now part of Inbound Team --The Atlanta, Georgia Inbound Marketing Agency specializing in helping businesses grow with online marketing.

Here's how you can add custom order fields to the Infusionsoft shopping cart!

  1. Go to Setup -> Misc. Settings. Under Application Settings, you'll see a section called Custom Fields. Make sure you select Order from the drop down before clicking Go.
  2. Add the custom field you want. Be sure to select the appropriate field type as this will affect the searches you can do later on.
    customfield
    Custom Field Screen
  3. Click View the field database names (for the API). Write down or print out the "Database Name." You'll need this later on. For example, the name of my Test field is Test1. These names are case-sensitive, so make sure you capture the name exactly!
  4. Now, go to Setup -> Shopping Cart and select Theme Gallery. The edit your current theme. Click the HTML Sections tab, and then click the Edit button for Area 1. Enter the HTML code for your custom field like this:
    <input name="Order0_Test1" id="Order0_Test1" type="text" value="Test Order Data"/>
    Notice that you have to put Order0_ in front of the database name. That's the word, "Order" followed by a zero and an underscore. You should have this in both your name and id attributes.
    Click Save.
  5. Click Back to Theme Gallery and click Live Preview. You should see your store front. Add a product to the cart and click Checkout. You'll see your custom fields in Area1 above the Billing Information.
    shoppingcart
    Shopping Cart with Custom Fields
  6. Now, pay for the order. Here's a good trick. Under Shopping Cart, Payment Options, select the checkbox for payment by check. Then, when you're testing, you can just click the pay by check option in your shopping cart. You don't actually have to pay for the order this way!
  7. Finally, go to Orders -> Find Orders ..., and lookup your new order.  You'll see a Custom Fields tab. Click that, and you'll see your order complete with the custom field data.
    orderscreen
    Order Screen with Custom Fields

I hope this is helpful. Leave a comment below with any questions or to let me know how this works for you!

 

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Topics: Infusionsoft, Sales & CRM, eCommerce


Infusionsoft Double Your Sales Promise Review

Posted by Clarke Bishop

March 10, 2010

Greased Skid Marketing is now part of Inbound Team --The Atlanta, Georgia Inbound Marketing Agency specializing in helping businesses grow with online marketing.
NOTE: This post is one section of an extensive review of Infusionsoft.

Infusionsoft Double Your Sales Promise Overall Grade: B+

Recently, their focus may have shifted. But, over the last year, Infusionsoft has talked a lot about their product being able to Double Your Sales. Is this true?

Actually, it is true for many small businesses. If your business fits into the following, you have a good chance to Double Your Sales with Infusionsoft:

  • If you have revenues less than $1M. Obviously, it's easier to grow your business from $200K to $400K than it is to go from $10M to $20M in a short time.
  • If you have a good product or services and a clear, differentiated strategy. If you have a poor or "me too" product, then doing a better job of communication and follow-up still won't help.
  • If you are willing to spend your time and/or money to improve your marketing or follow-up. Sometimes, people allow themselves to believe that all they have to do is spend $200-300 with Infusionsoft and their sales will improve. Of course, this won't happen by itself. It takes a real effort to realize the potential of Infusionsoft.
  • You're an established business and already have a list of customers. Startups can still benefit from Infusionsoft, but it's going to take longer and cost more.

Infusionsoft loves to talk about doubling your sales. One example company had a good product, was established, had a contact list of almost 6,000 customers, and had revenues of $200-300K when they started. So that had a good starting point. The one thing that isn't always pointed out is that Infusionsoft supplied some of their top people to provide consulting help. The company may have paid for some of the improvements to their website, but they didn't pay for the top consulting help.

Doing better at attracting leads, building your contact list, and following-up will help any business, and Infusionsoft is very helpful in facilitating this process. Plus, Infusionsoft will help with your education-based marketing programs.

The key is to provide value to your prospects and customers. I know this is obvious, but I talk with people all the time who have the idea the technology like Infusionsoft is the secret. Infusionsoft is a good tool for many companies. But, you have to know your customer, provide value, and communicate clearly. At GreasedSkid, we help Infusionsoft clients accomplish exactly these goals.

So, why a B+ instead of a higher grade? Some of Infusionsoft's marketing reinforces the idea that if you just buy the product, your sales will quickly double. As described above, it can. Just be prepared to do the needed work!

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Topics: Inbound Marketing, Infusionsoft, Sales & CRM


Infusionsoft Shopping Cart & Storefront Review

Posted by Clarke Bishop

March 8, 2010

Greased Skid Marketing is now part of Inbound Team --The Atlanta, Georgia Inbound Marketing Agency specializing in helping businesses grow with online marketing.
NOTE: This post is one section of an extensive review of Infusionsoft.

Infusionsoft Shopping Cart & Storefront Overall Grade: D

The shopping cart and storefront are some of the worst parts of Infusionsoft!

  • The customization options are limited
  • The product pages are not SEO optimized
  • The shipping options are limited, and you can't integrate with Fedex or UPS.
  • It's not a good fit if you have very many products

Maybe I'm being too hard in some ways. If your needs are very basic, the shopping cart does work. It's a good fit for you if:

  • You have relatively few products and product categories
  • You are not picky about the branding for your online store
  • You can use simplified shipping options

I think Infusionsoft is aware that their Shopping Cart & Storefront is a big weakness, and they have oriented their marketing toward their strengths in email marketing, follow-up, and automation. It's a shame, really. It's really great to be able to do marketing follow-up based on products purchased, etc.

The limits of Infusionsoft's shopping cart has been good for GreasedSkid, though. We do a lot of project that integrate Infusionsoft with third-party shopping carts like Volusion.

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Topics: Infusionsoft, Sales & CRM, eCommerce


Infusionsoft Automation & Multimedia Marketing Review

Posted by Clarke Bishop

March 6, 2010

Greased Skid Marketing is now part of Inbound Team --The Atlanta, Georgia Inbound Marketing Agency specializing in helping businesses grow with online marketing.
NOTE: This post is one section of an extensive review of Infusionsoft.

Infusionsoft Automation & Multimedia Marketing Overall Grade: A+

Infusionsoft's follow-up sequences and automation take Autoresponders to the next level. Plus, you can do more than just send email -- Letters, faxes, voice mail, and more are all supported.

Nearly anything that happens in Infusionsoft can trigger an Action Set -- A group of actions that can including adding the contact to a  follow-up sequence:

  • A new opt-in via a web form
  • A purchase
  • A recurring charge that failed
  • A specific date passed (A birthday or an event date)
  • A click on a link in an email message
  • A manual trigger by one of your sales or support employees
  • An event external to Infusionsoft that triggers via the software API

Action sets can include many actions like:

  • Tagging a contact to segment your database
  • Sending a single email to a contact
  • Adding the contact to a follow-up sequence (multiple emails or other media)
  • Assign the contact to a specific sales or support employee
  • Create a task for an employee
  • Create an Opportunity Record
  • Create an Order

Follow-up sequences let you schedule a sequence of follow-up activities for a specific contact. People are busy, and staying in touch helps them learn about your company and use your products. More on how to use Follow-up Sequences ...

Follow-up sequences can contain many types of multimedia and activities:

  • Email messages
  • Fax (There is a per fax fee)
  • Voice Message (There is a per message fee)
  • Letter (You have to pay for printing and postage)
  • Fulfillment (You have to pay for fulfillment costs like the product or printing, shipping, and handling)
  • Add a task to one of your users
  • Run some other Action Set

There is a lot of flexibility regarding how and when each of these follow-up activities happen. You can add rules that control most activities and can have people automatically removed or switched to another follow-up sequence.

In working with Infusionsoft customers, I have always been able to create workable follow-ups and automation.  Sometimes it takes a little creativity, but there's usually a way.

Automation and Multimedia follow-up are truly strengths of Infusionsoft.

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Topics: Infusionsoft, Marketing Automation


Infusionsoft Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Review

Posted by Clarke Bishop

March 5, 2010

Greased Skid Marketing is now part of Inbound Team --The Atlanta, Georgia Inbound Marketing Agency specializing in helping businesses grow with online marketing.
NOTE: This post is one section of an extensive review of Infusionsoft.

Infusionsoft Integrated CRM Overall Grade: A

The best thing about Infusionsoft is that it integrates together most of the tools you need to run your small business. If you or your employees regularly speak directly with customers, then having a good CRM system becomes invaluable.

Infusionsoft's CRM has all the things most small businesses will ever need:

  • An individual record for each contact
  • The ability to associate contacts with companies
  • Tracking of tasks and appointments
  • Capture of contact history -- Emails, phone calls, notes, purchases (If you use the Infusionsoft shopping cart), etc.
  • Import contacts from other systems
  • The ability to add custom information to each contact or company
  • Calendar
  • Send email directly from the CRM screen
  • Opportunity management (With the $299 per month Deluxe version). Track specific sales opportunities through your sales pipeline.
  • Billing and Invoicing  (With the $299 per month Deluxe version). Create orders and invoice clients.
  • Integration with Outlook. You can use Outlook for many CRM functions and still have all the information stored and sync'ed with Infusionsoft

In my work with Infusionsoft users, I have not found any feature gaps or problems with the CRM functionality. There are other more flexible systems available, but they are also more expensive!

You can use the CRM for your support team or your sales team.

The only time I would say Infusionsoft's CRM is not a good fit if you have a large number of users. Beyond the 2-5 users that come with their packages, each user adds another $59 per month. If you have more than 25 support or sales users, you've probably outgrown Infusionsoft.


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Topics: Infusionsoft, Sales & CRM, Marketing Automation


Infusionsoft Review

Posted by Clarke Bishop

March 3, 2010

Greased Skid Marketing is now part of Inbound Team --The Atlanta, Georgia Inbound Marketing Agency specializing in helping businesses grow with online marketing.

I am an Infusionsoft consultant (CMAC), and I work with a lot of Infusionsoft customers. If I hated Infusionsoft, I wouldn't be in this business! It's got it's strengths and weaknesses, and since I work with it every day, I'm going to try and help you decide if it's a good fit for you.

Since I may work with you in the future, I want to paint a realistic picture of where it's good and who it will work for. It's not good for me to have to tell clients "No, Infusionsoft can't do that."

In case you don't know, Infusionsoft is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Email Marketing product. It gives you a database to store all your customers, and makes it easy to send follow-up email messages to them. Since most businesses don't do a good job of following up, this can really boost your business.

Their system is specifically targeted at small businesses. The typical starting price is $200 or $300 per month (At the higher price, you get more contacts and features). This price includes 2 users, so if you have more than two salespeople who will use the system, you'll need to add additional users at $59 per month. Infusionsoft is not recommended for companies with more than 25 users!

Infusionsoft is very aggressive with it's sales and marketing. I understand their desire to sell their product, but I think it would be better if they were more consultative in their sales approach. The sales people seem to say "Yes" to almost any question regarding the capabilities of the system. I think their sales and marketing aggressiveness is the number one reason for Infusionsoft complaints.

So, I'm going to try to help with a balanced review of their features and service. I'm going to go through each of these in the next several days, and if a link isn't active, please check back.

And, if you are or become an Infusionsoft user, please Contact Us when you need some help!

Comments are always welcome here, so if you have a specific question, please leave a comment.

Infusionsoft Features

  • Email Marketing Grade: A-
    4-8-2011 Since I originally wrote this review, Infusionsoft has upgraded the product, so I increased their Email Marketing grade from B+ to A-.

Infusionsoft Technology and Support

I hope this information helps you make a wise choice for your business. As you can see, Infusionsoft does some things very well, but you have to make sure the gaps don't get in the way of your business.

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Topics: Small Business Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Infusionsoft


How to Send SMS Text Messages from Infusionsoft

Posted by Clarke Bishop

September 3, 2009

Greased Skid Marketing is now part of Inbound Team --The Atlanta, Georgia Inbound Marketing Agency specializing in helping businesses grow with online marketing.

It IS possible to send SMS text messages as part of a follow-up sequence from Infusionsoft!

There are a couple of tricks, though.

  • You have to buy an external SMS text messaging service like Clickatell.
  • Set the To address for the template to: sms@messaging.clickatell.com, and all messages get sent to this address.
  • In the body of the message, embed a custom field with the contact’s SMS phone number. The number should be unformatted to match Clickatell’s requirements.

You can't use one of Infusionsoft's phone number fields because it automatically formats the number and Clickatell won't work right! But, if you just use a Custom field, then everything will be OK.

I made this work with Clickatell's SMTP API, by sending an email template like this:

user:xxxxx   {Your specific Clickatell info}
password:xxxxx   {Your specific Clickatell info}
api_id:xxxxx    {Your specific Clickatell info}
to: 448311234567  {Insert the custom field data here}
reply:youremail@yourdomain.com
text:Meet me at home {This is the message you want to send}

I hope this helps. There's also more on the Infusionsoft Blog.

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Topics: Lead Generation, Inbound Marketing, Infusionsoft


Inbound Marketing: eMail Deliverability Reports

Posted by Clarke Bishop

August 24, 2009

Greased Skid Marketing is now part of Inbound Team --The Atlanta, Georgia Inbound Marketing Agency specializing in helping businesses grow with online marketing.

Mike asked a question about eMail Deliverability Reports in Infusionsoft:

First of all, as a newbie to Infusionsoft, its good to find your site and the pdf download (the analytics clickable links helped already).

My question is, is there a way to get an email deliverability (opens/clicks/hard and soft bounces etc) for all emails sent over a certain period?

I'd love to see Infusionsoft improve their reporting or open up more of the data to the API so I could create better reports.

One report you can run is the Email Batch Status report (Under Reports --> Marketing Reports). Then, click the View button to see the report.

It's not obvious, but you can click on the pie charts to get more detail! If you want a more detailed explanation, please download my free special report: Infusionsoft: 7 Keys to Top Results. Key number 6 has some detailed information on how to use the pie charts and get all the information.

You can also request new features at ideas.infusionsoft.com.  They do pay attention and do implement some of the requests!

Please leave a comment if you have other questions!

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Topics: Small Business Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Infusionsoft


WordPress with HubSpot or Infusionsoft Web Forms

Posted by Clarke Bishop

June 11, 2009

Greased Skid Marketing is now part of Inbound Team --The Atlanta, Georgia Inbound Marketing Agency specializing in helping businesses grow with online marketing.

Conrad asked about using Infusionsoft web forms inside of WordPress:

Can I put Infusionsoft forms in a Wordpress blog?

Is there a plug-in?

This is actually quite easy, and here's a movie that shows you how to use Infusionsoft Web Forms in WordPress: 

Basically, the steps are:

  • Create the Web Form in Infusionsoft
  • Click the "Gimme the Code" button, select all (ctrl-A), and copy (ctrl-c)
  • Create a WordPress Post or Page and click the HTML tab in the WordPress editor
  • Paste in the Infusionsoft web form code
  • Edit the web form code to clean it up or style it if you want
  • Switch back to Visual mode and add other text, images, etc.
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Topics: Inbound Marketing, Infusionsoft, Conversion


Marketing Automation - Love Your Leads

Posted by Clarke Bishop

June 11, 2009

Greased Skid Marketing is now part of Inbound Team --The Atlanta, Georgia Inbound Marketing Agency specializing in helping businesses grow with online marketing.

Malcolm asked about marketing automation and follow-up:

Email campaigns based on purchases

Generate a “send person A written Thank You card″ or something like that.

I have no e-commerce or web-based sales… I just want something to manage email and real mail campaigns based on clients’ potential interests or recent purchases or referrals.

I’d also like to provide people the opportunity to “request information” off my website so I can (A) send them info, and (B) capture their contact info for additional contact later to try to win them over as a client.

Once you DO get someone as a client, how do you track their change in status?

Much of our business is run off a SQL database kinda program I suspect there would be a lot of manual data entry or updating as our clients buy things or refer people or what have you.

Since much of my business is run on a different program, I wonder if automating my email and regular mail campaigns is kind of like looking for a unicorn.

In another post, I explained Email Marketing & Lead Nurturing to Grow Your Sales -- This is really a strength of Infusionsoft!  This post goes into detail on how you can define customer follow-up sequences that:

  • Send written Thank You cards or other physical packages
  • Send different messages or items based various rules involving customer interests or recent purchases
  • Have multiple steps over time to stay in touch with your prospect

But Malcolm also raises another question. What if you already have a customer database you're using to manage your business? Depending on your situation, there are two fundamental options:

  • Replace your existing customer database with Infusionsoft. As long as your database is clean and well structured, you can easily import all your customer information. Infusionsoft allows you to create up to 100 custom fields for your specific situation. Amd, if you need to, you can integrate Infusionsoft with your external applications with the API.
  • Keep your existing customer database, but synchronize the contact information with Infusionsoft. This may require using the Infusionsoft API to keep everything up to date.

Infusionsoft will only email contacts that are imported into your Infusionsoft application. So, you can't avoid keeping all your contacts in Infusionsoft.Either way, giving people the opportunity to “request information” off your website is simple. You just create an Infusionsoft web form and put the code on your website. Then, the propspects information is automatically captured in Infusionsoft.

For more information, see our special report: Infusionsoft: 7 Keys to Top Results.

And, thanks again for the great question, Malcolm!

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Topics: Inbound Marketing, Infusionsoft, Marketing Automation