Media training 101 for small businesses

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Great news: you just scored a big press interview to promote your business. The story will expose your brand to the perfect new audience and drive meaningful traffic to your website. So…don't blow it. Yes, just as quickly as the excitement for the opportunity arrived, the realization that you now have to do an interview sets in. I get it—press interviews can absolutely be intimidating. The resulting coverage represents a significant opportunity to acquire new customers, drive sales, or raise awareness, and you want to be sure to represent your brand well and really compel the audience to check out your company. On top of that, you have to contend with adrenaline and nerves in the moment. You may be thinking, "So many other business owners are so polished and articulate in their interviews. How am I going to pull that off?" Deep breath. A successful interview is usually the result of good media training: preparation and practice in advance of an interview. I've tr

How Small Businesses Use Infusionsoft by Keap and Zapier to Save Time—and Money

It's easy for a small business to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of apps and tools available for every aspect of a business. You have customer relationship management (CRM) systems where leads and notes live; sales automation tools to move leads from one stage to another; email marketing tools for newsletters and campaigns—and on and on.

But the savviest small business owners know you can use all-in-one marketing and sales automation tool Infusionsoft by Keap with app automator Zapier to cut costs and reduce the time it takes to manage the whole process.

Here's how a few of Zapier's users combine Infusionsoft's features with our library of over 1,400 apps to make their work more efficient and their days more productive.


Create Infusionsoft Contacts from Form Entries

"Zapier unlocked functionality that would have otherwise been cost-prohibitive: merging Typeform responses with the appropriate Infusionsoft user records so we can keep track of client feedback."Dan Russell, Lead Strategist, Synduit

Companies and products alike grow through feedback. Synduit, a content and virtual marketing company, actively seeks out feedback from their clients to make sure the content they produce—as well as their other offerings—meet and surpass expectations, and to see if there's any room for improvement.

In order to keep track of which client gave what feedback, the team at Synduit uses Infusionsoft. In Infusionsoft, they collect clients, tag them, and trigger certain workflows depending on that tag.

To collect feedback, they use Typeform, sending forms to their clients as needed. When a client submits a response, a Zap, which is an automated workflow powered by Zapier, automatically runs, searching Infusionsoft for the client—and creating one when it doesn't exist—and adding the feedback to their record.

Over at Project Warrior, a fitness program based in the UK, founder Kyle Genner also uses Infusionsoft to manage his contacts, new and old. He uses a Wufoo form to schedule consultations with potential clients:

"Once the client completes the application in Wufoo, Zapier creates the contact in Infusionsoft and applies a 'hot lead' tag to it," he explains. He uses another Zap to send a text to the client, where they can book a call. If they don't? Infusionsoft comes into play again: "If they don't book a call, they're then sent a series of follow-up emails via Infusionsoft."

With a little automation, Kyle ensures every lead either books a consultation or gets a few emails, just to be safe.

For product engineering consultation firm YP3 Solutions, using resources and tools that are the best-in-class comes naturally: They seek out the best tools to aid their clients' R&D departments and engineering needs.

YP3 Solutions builds completely customizable web forms with Formsite.When the team gets a response, Zapier sends it to Infusionsoft, creating a contact. Zapier will also add a tag to the contact in Infusionsoft, which triggers one of the workflows they've built within Infusionsoft.

"It would be a full-time job managing all of the data to keep several campaigns going at once," says Jeremiah Harrison, digital marketing specialist. Instead of a person manually transferring information, this one Zap does it all, saving people power for the important work of assisting clients.

Automatically Manage Leads

Getting new leads is a lot like adopting a bundle of kittens: Fun at first—but as more start showing up, the effort and time to manage increases at an exponential rate. So, why not take the manual out of lead management, like New Meta does?

New Meta uses Zapier to send new leads from Facebook into Infusionsoft once a lead finishes filling out the Facebook lead ad form.

Now that these new leads exist, why not share the good news with the rest of the team? With these Zaps, you can instantly notify your team or an individual in Slack. It's an easy, trackable way to maintain a feed of new leads in Slack, where anyone can come in and see the funnel at work.

These are also an easy way to celebrate wins: When sharing in Slack or via email, add in a celebratory gif or emoji (or three). Sharing leads doesn't just have to be about the numbers—it's good for the company morale, too.

Jeremiah at YP3 Solutions uses another straightforward integration between Infusionsoft and online scheduler Calendly to make sure new leads know when their appointment is approaching.

He explains it best: "I use Zapier to take date and times from the Calendly app, load them into custom fields in Infusionsoft, and then send reminders from Infusionsoft field timers counting down to the appointment with unique, personalized emails."

It's a great way to ensure your lead doesn't forget the meeting, which always increases your chances of closing a deal.


When you combine two powerful tools like Infusionsoft and Zapier, and throw in our 1,400+ partner apps, there's no limit to the work you can accomplish with simple, automated workflows.

Want to combine the powers of Infusionsoft with the easy automation of Zapier? Give Zapier a try for free.

Our stories explore how Zapier's users solve common problems. From marketers to CEOs, educators to real estate agents, millions use Zapier to automate their most tedious tasks. If you haven't yet, try Zapier for free to see what we're all about.



from The Zapier Blog http://bit.ly/2UPKXyi

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