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Turn It Up Tuesday: Tips from Insightly to Take Your Business to 11

Welcome to Turn It Up Tuesday, where we bring you 3 weekly tips—a tip on running your business, a tip on using Insightly CRM, and a tip on improving your life. Enjoy this week’s tips!

	Say It Out Loud
	Have you ever thought about starting a podcast to promote your business expertise? Absorb this: BloombergBusiness reported that the number of smartphones in use globally hit the 1 billion mark back in 2012. That number is estimated to surpass 2 billion in 2016. That’s an impressive audience that’s ripe for downloading podcasts to their smartphones. While it’s true that most of us won’t reach the popularity of heavyweight podcasters like Entrepreneur On Fire or the BBC Business Daily, with time and persistence you can start your own podcast and begin to establish a respectable following. Before you run out and purchase a broadcast quality microphone (which is important, by the way), choose a topic you’re passionate about. Next, brand your podcast with a name that’s both memorable and descriptive. Once you’ve got your moniker in place, begin creating a format and structure for your show, then start planning your content. Think of it like a print publication editorial calendar and plan at least four weeks of content in advance.  At this stage you’ll be ready to begin recording and editing. Here’s the kicker. To capture a solid listener base you need to be consistent and committed to the effort. In other words, if your business is widget manufacturing and you want to establish yourself as the Thursday at 8 pm “go to” person for hot tips on streamlining your supply, be there without fail.
	Connect The Dots
	Insightly has multiple features to keep information organized and interconnected. Think of a contact, project, or opportunity as the information hub and any associated information as the spokes. For example, if you are negotiating with a prospect on more than one opportunity, you don’t have to enter the prospect’s details multiple times for each opportunity. Instead, just create one link for each opportunity and associate those links with the prospect. To add links, open up the prospect’s original record and use the Add New Link field.
	Scan Your Business Horizons
	We recently launched a business card scanner on the Insightly mobile app… and it’s free! Hold on. Before you toss out those business cards, keep them on hand to use for short grocery and “to do” lists, as well as for jotting down miscellaneous notes. Business cards are more durable than a sticky note and they’re easy to tuck into your pocket or wallet.

 

Check out Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial right now.

Send Us Your Tips

Would you like to share your tips with Insightly customers? Send them to us!
If we use one in our weekly feature we’ll send you a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Contact us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or send us an email.

About the author: Marta Bright is Insightly’s Content Manager. She’s been writing about the “business of technology” in the Silicon Valley for more than a decade.

Almost every time we implement a CRM system, clients frequently ask: “Hey, can we integrate our CRM system with our accounting system?” The answer is usually yes. But at what price? Today’s good CRM systems, like Insightly and others, enable integrations to popular accounting applications like QuickBooks Online and Xero. And there’s no question that integrating your CRM application with an accounting application is much easier than it ever was. But it’s not a piece of cake. In fact, there are some myths about integrating these systems that you should know.

Myth #1: I need to integrate my CRM with my accounting system. I hate to break it to you, but it’s not as important as you think. In fact, no less than 80% of our CRM implementation never integrate with their accounting system. They talk a big game at the beginning, but in the end they hold off. Why? Most discover it’s not that necessary. Sure, it would be nice to see invoices in their CRM system but it’s just as easy to view those invoices in a separate Window or through a simple report. Sure, it’s helpful to make sure that customer information is synchronized but unless you’re making hundreds of changes a day, simply updating the information in both systems, while duplicating work, is still faster and more affordable than worrying about the challenges of integrating. In the end, it’s about cost and value of the work and many of my clients don’t see the ROI.

Myth #2: Integration to my accounting system is costly. Not really, as long as it’s already built. Insightly’s QuickBooks Online integration allows customers with paid subscriptions to view records from QuickBooks Online and copy data between the two systems. Other good CRM systems also have integrations already built with accounting systems. When this is the case, configuring these integrations is relatively simple and inexpensive. That said, if pre-built integration is not available then your integration options do become more costly. See below.

Myth #3: Integration to my accounting system is easy. If something is pre-built, like the example I gave above, then yes it’s pretty easy to set up. But if you’re using an accounting application that’s less popular or doesn’t have integration already pre-built then it’s not easy at all. You’ll need to use import/export tools or a programmer. And once integration is completed it doesn’t end there. Going forward it will need to be supported because software, databases and the environment will change. Which brings me to the next myth.

Myth #4: I can’t integrate if I’m not a programmer. Not true. If you want to integrate Insightly, for example, with your non-QuickBooks Online accounting system there are tools to help you do this. For example, there’s Zapier, an Insightly partner that will not only move data from/to Insightly to other accounting applications like QuickBooks, FreshBooks and Xero but also trigger workflows to send emails or schedule reminders. Most good CRM applications like Insightly have date integration tools that a non-programmer can work with.

Myth #5: Having the API solves your accounting system integration challenges. It’s good but it won’t solve everything. Application Programming Interfaces are great tools for developers but know that this is not source code. It’s just a tool. You may hit barriers with what you can integrate if your needs are complex so make sure you do your due diligence. Accounting vendors are picky about what data can be manipulated with and for obvious reasons. Also, if you’re going to need an API that means you’ll need a developer to work with it. Someone familiar with the API, with good communication skills and affordable to work with. Judging on my long experiences working with developers, this is no easy task either! That said, a good developer and a good API can do wonders.

The bottom line: think long and hard if you really need to integrate your CRM system with your accounting system. Sure, it’s often possible. But is it really worth it? That’s a business decision you’ll have to consider.

 

At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a huge variety of verticals. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.

About the Author: Gene Marks is a small business owner, technology expert, author and columnist. He writes regularly for leading US media outlets such as The New York Times, Forbes, Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur. He has authored five books on business management and appears regularly on Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC and CNBC. Gene runs a ten-person CRM and technology consulting firm outside of Philadelphia. Learn more at genemarks.com

Turn It Up Tuesday: Tips from Insightly to Take Your Business to 11

Welcome to Turn It Up Tuesday, where we bring you 3 weekly tips—a tip on running your business, a tip on using Insightly CRM, and a tip on improving your life. Enjoy this week’s tips!

	Fearless Business Flyer
	Whether you’re a one-person operation moving all of the dials behind the curtain, a growing enterprise with a staff of 20, or an aspiring entrepreneur in the concept phase, there are a few things you should keep in your arsenal of tools, always: Surround yourself around the best people you can and give them an opportunity to do what they excel at Find a mentor and meet with that person as often as schedules permit Don’t be afraid of your own business ideas or lack of experience Be willing to make as many mistakes as you can, as fast as you can, to get them out of the way and learn from them Be collaborative with your staff, your customers, and your vendors or suppliers
	Email Smoke Signals
	Got questions? Insightly has an email ticketing support program—available Monday to Friday, from 8 am to 4 pm, PST. Through our email Support model, Insightly users on fee-based plans get one-on-one support directly from the Support team. To access Support, simply login using the same email address you use for your Insightly account. Once you’re logged into Insightly email Support, click submit a request, then type in a subject and a detailed description of the problem you’re experiencing. You can add more detail to your request by selecting the issue type or by including attachments. Once your query is submitted, the Insightly Customer Service team will begin investigating your query and follow up with suggested solutions via email. Note: If you don’t have an account, you can easily create one using the same email address you use to access Insightly. If you’ve forgotten your password, simply click the “Forgot my Password” link to reset your password and get access to Insightly Support.
	Don’t Sit To Be Fit
	It’s no secret that regular exercise is linked to better health, so why not rip and replace your daily sitting routine? Start by taking the stairs wherever and whenever you can find them. Take a walk down the hall to catch up with an employee, and instead of typing emails or hitting a few buttons on your phone, get up and take a stroll over to where that person is sitting. Long periods of sitting are linked to increased risk for diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease. Stand and demand a little something of yourself by hosting short, stand-up meetings or investing in a standing desk. If you’re a little wary of breaking out in jumping jacks in the middle of the hallway, there are a few “silent” exercises such as isometric glutes squeezes that nobody but you will ever have to know about. Just make sure you hold each squeeze for 5-10 seconds, then release. Repeat until the glutes tire. Strengthen the hamstrings by standing behind your chair, holding onto it for support, and gently kicking one foot back, aiming the heel for the top of your thigh. Lower the foot back down and repeat exercise with the other leg. Do 10 reps, take a break, and then do 10 more.

 

Check out Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial right now.

Send Us Your Tips

Would you like to share your tips with Insightly customers? Send them to us!
If we use one in our weekly feature we’ll send you a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Contact us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or send us an email.

About the author: Marta Bright is Insightly’s Content Manager. She’s been writing about the “business of technology” in the Silicon Valley for more than a decade.

 

Have you ever heard the expression, “Many hands make light work?” The more people contribute, the less each person has to do on their own. The same concept holds true in the software world.

With the influx of tools available to today’s technology consumers, many people are still feeling overwhelmed. The services that should be making our lives easier are having the opposite effect. You employ “many hands” — or many tools — but you’re not always finding the work getting lighter.

At Insightly, we get it. You need these tools to run your small business, but you also wish there was a way they’d work in harmony to make toggling between apps easier on you. We’ve heard your frustrations and now, we’re adding new integrations to make Insightly even easier to use.

While apps are meant to help you become more productive, app overload can cost you time. You waste a lot of time toggling between apps and open windows to find information, struggling to pull everything together into one cohesive view.

We have a solution.

Insightly has teamed up with several of the most used apps by businesses. The goal is to ease the inefficiency of multiple apps and make doing business easier. After all, isn’t that supposed to be the point?

Here’s how Insightly works with other programs:

Your Accounting

If you’re like most businesses, you use an online accounting application to track which customers have paid, how much each customer has spent with your business, and more. Insightly is integrated with the two leading accounting applications:

Our QuickBooks Online integration let’s you get past and current payment information in your CRM. No more dual entries or confusing financials.

Our integration with Xero let’s you benefit even if you’re not the person in charge of managing the finances. Stay in the loop by adding your accounting team to your Xero dashboard. With one click, you can tell Insightly who should be able to update the customer data. Connect your accountant for the latest updates on what’s happening with each invoice you send.

Your Support System
A customer support system is essential to any small business. Insightly integrates seamlessly with SupportBee, one of the leading customers service solutions. By merging your CRM with your support system, you can free yourself from confusing ticket statuses and track all communications in one place. You’ll love how easy it is and you’ll impress your customers with your organization.

Your Data
Transferring customer data is tedious. That’s why Insightly works with Data2CRM and Import2 to make data migration simple and fast.

Data migration goes way beyond basic importing of your information. Imports can often leave gaps in your data. With migration services like Data2CRM and Import2, you eliminate that risk, keeping your business running smoothly while transferring from one CRM to another.

Your Documents
From proposals to sales contracts and all your customer’s information, you have a lot of documents for each new client. Organizing these documents is more streamlined with Insightly’s integration with Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive. Instead of shifting between document management programs and your CRM, you get it all in one place.

Your Email
So much of the sales process happens in your email. Shouldn’t your CRM integrate to pull those conversations and keep you organized? We think so. That’s why Insightly integrates with some of the leading email marketing programs, including MailChimp, INinbox, Brandizi, and DirectIQ. By integrating with these services, you can schedule messages faster and track how each customer reacts to your marketing emails.

Sidebar Extension
So much of your business happens in your Gmail account. You start conversations with prospects, negotiate proposals, land deals, and offer support, all from your inbox. Shouldn’t your CRM integrate with your email too? We think so.

Insightly integrates with Gmail and Boomerang for Gmail. Save an email from a customer to Insightly with a click of a button and schedule follow up emails so you never forget to touch base with your customers. When you combine these apps, you’ll breathe easier knowing your inbox is well-organized.

That’s why we’ve added a sidebar to Gmail. In this sidebar, you can quickly pull up detailed information about your contacts (perfect for brushing up before meetings), get familiar with the opportunities available, save emails, and track your business. It’s fast. It’s simple. And, most importantly, it makes you look and sound more impressive to your potential clients.

Equipped with a simple “Send and Save to Insightly” button, you’ll have more control over your business without having to leave your inbox. Not sure if it’s right for you? Give it a test spin.

Your Productivity
There are tons of productivity apps available to keep you focused on moving forward. Insightly gives productivity and workflow apps a boost by integrating each of them with your CRM. We integrate with Flow XO, Google Calendar, Hubstaff, TimeCamp, and Zapier to help you track customer actions so you never miss an opportunity (or waste any of your valuable time sorting opportunities) again.

Your Sales
Ultimately, the goal of your CRM is to keep the money rolling in, which is why we partner with several sales tools. Track the statuses of your proposals by integrating with PandaDoc, Proposable, and Quote Roller. Follow up with a video chat to make things more personable by integrating your CRM with Google Hangouts. And respond quickly to prospects requests using the template, alerts, and customer context with the sidebar from VipeCloud.

This is How Smart Businesses Work
You’re busy. Don’t waste your time inputting customer information in two separate apps. With Insightly’s integrations, you get ahead in the sales game faster and with a stronger set of tools supporting you in each conversation.

What is your favorite Insightly integration? What would you like to see from us in the future? Sound off in the comments below!

Turn It Up Tuesday: Tips from Insightly to Take Your Business to 11

Welcome to Turn It Up Tuesday, where we bring you 3 weekly tips—a tip on running your business, a tip on using Insightly CRM, and a tip on improving your life. Enjoy this week’s tips!

	Go With the Cash Flow
	Running day-to-day operations is a constant juggling act. Drop the ball in one area and gravity will soon pull the rest down. Cash flow is one juggling act you have to execute flawlessly. Without rock solid cash flow management skills, you risk damaging your credit, losing credibility with your vendors, and maintaining the ability to have enough cash on hand to pay your bills. In an interview with Inc., author and former chief financial officer, Philip Campbell, said, “Despite the fact that cash is the lifeblood of a business — the fuel that keeps the engine running — most business owners don’t truly have a handle on their cash flow… poor cash-flow management is causing more business failures today than ever before.” Try incorporating a few of these standard practices, be consistent about following them, and over time you will begin to see improvement in your checking account balance. First and foremost, always pay your bills on time. Late payment fees are not only outrageously expensive, the cumulative effect with further erode your cash flow. Late payment fees are also a red flag to your creditors. Red flags=lower credit scores. If you close a large deal, ask for a deposit up front to secure the agreement. It’s hard to resist a great buy, so why not offer discounts as an incentive to your vendors? A discount of 5% to 10% in exchange for payment upon receipt of goods or services, or on a net-15 rather than net-30 payment schedule, will get their attention. Last but not least, tap into the allure of major holidays (e.g. Christmas, New Years, Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day) by hosting a sale.
	Make Importing Contacts A Breeze
	Your customer contact list is the lifeblood of your business. If you maintain your contact list in an Excel or CSV file, by putting some effort into tidying up information prior to importing it into Insightly, you can make an already fast and easy process even faster. In this instance, “tidy” means complete data, so make sure you include the following in your Excel or CSV file: First Name, Last Name, Title, Organization (Company) Phone Number, and Email Address. If your contact list is incomplete and does not map directly to the required fields, you will get a “no match” message.  You will then need to select and fill in the missing fields manually or skip them altogether. On the upside, if there are any contact duplicates based on name, address, and phone number, Insightly will automatically skip those entries. There’s no bulk update feature in Insightly, so getting it right the first time will pay dividends.
	Don’t Feel the Burn
	As a business owner your days rarely end at 5 pm. You’re the go-to person, the on duty problem solver who’s on call with little or no backup. While the rewards of being your own boss are huge, you’re also at greater risk of burn out–a state of being which the Merriam Webster dictionary defines as, “The condition of someone who has become very physically and emotionally tired after doing a difficult job for a long time.” So, what can you do to keep yourself energized and ready for the next challenge? A good starting point is to educate yourself on the typical signs of burnout so you can recognize and address them before they get a foothold on you (or your employees). For instance, you might be having feelings of cynicism towards your work or a lack of motivation to get it done. You might also find yourself stuck in a constant state of anxiety, feeling as if you never have enough time to get things done. Burn out can even manifest physical symptoms such as excessive tiredness, headaches, or frequent stomach aches. If you begin to notice any of these signs, try incorporating a few changes to your routine: Take mini mental breaks throughout the day by stepping away from your desk for at least 5 minutes Commit to taking a vacation (even a long weekend) and set a strict deadline for booking it Take a 20 minute walk at lunch time or after work Practice how to say “no” to invitations that leave you over-scheduled

 

Check out Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial right now.

Send Us Your Tips

Would you like to share your tips with Insightly customers? Send them to us!
If we use one in our weekly feature we’ll send you a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Contact us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or send us an email.

About the author: Marta Bright is Insightly’s Content Manager. She’s been writing about the “business of technology” in the Silicon Valley for more than a decade.

I have a client who is a really, really large Fortune 500-size insurance company. And their Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is Karen—not her real name because I haven’t told her I’m writing this (not that she’d have a big problem or anything). Karen is unique among marketing people. She would willingly admit that she’s no creative genius. She’s not, thank goodness, a female version of Don Draper. She’s not going to invent the next Coke advertising campaign. But she’s very smart. She has good ideas. She’s hired good people who also have good marketing ideas. And she’s something else, which is very unique: she’s an accountant. An accountant! She spent a number of years at a Big 6 accounting firm. An accountant as Chief Marketing Officer?

Welcome to the 21st century, where accountants are taking over marketing. Karen’s not the only one. Twitter’s Chief Financial Officer runs their marketing operations. And even me, yes me…. I’m a CPA who runs a company that sells CRM software. Are the accountants taking over marketing? It’s a trend. And it makes sense. Here’s why.

A CRM system is just a database. That’s it. No matter what the software makers say, the data just resides in a database. And it’s all about the data. Managers can’t do their job without good data. Salesmen can’t sell. Marketers can’t market. To a finance person like Karen, her database is every bit as important as her company’s financial statements. It’s relied on in her case by hundreds of people. Communications have to be correct. Demographics need to be on target. When an accounting firm certifies a financial as audited they’ve done the necessary procedures to make sure that the information in the financial statements is accurate and complete. Same goes for a marketing database.

The internal controls over data are critical. Financial managers know that the data coming out of a database is only as good as the data going in. That’s why finance people become experts at understanding internal controls. They understand the procedures and policies that must be in place so that a database has accurate and complete data being entered and is being checked and verified all the time. In Karen’s case, she’s always checking and double-checking the sources of her marketing data— whether it came in over the web, was purchased as part of a list, or was manually entered by someone in the field. She has controls to alert administrators when fields are empty or have not been updated after a certain period of time. She’s hired developers to write scripts that check and fix duplicate data. Data to her is the most important thing. She learned that in the financial world. And she’s bringing it to her marketing job.

The metrics using data is critical. In the end it’s all about reports. And good financial people know all about reports. And so do marketing people, which is why Karen is so good at her job. Every marketing move she makes needs to have results. Some of it is intangible—exposure, branding, eyeballs. Most of it is tangible. By that I mean leads. Karen studies which campaigns get the most responses, which emails are opened more frequently, which links are clicked on more often. Karen tracks where her leads come from and how fast it takes to follow-up and resolve them, either positively or negatively. She wants to know the level of engagement on her socials sites, the growth in followers, how many likes, and how many fans. All of this data is at the heart of every financial person like Karen. And as well it should be for every CMO too.

Today’s marketing is data driven. It’s big data. Large campaigns. Profiling. Demographics. Interactions. Responses. Leads. Closed sales. Lost sales. A good marketing person isn’t just about being creative. It’s also about managing the data to track the results from one’s creativity. And that’s why, in many cases, finance people like Karen make great CMOs.

 

At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a huge variety of verticals. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.

 
About the Author: Gene Marks is a small business owner, technology expert, author and columnist. He writes regularly for leading US media outlets such as The New York Times, Forbes, Inc. Magazine and Entrepreneur. He has authored five books on business management and appears regularly on Fox News, Fox Business, MSNBC and CNBC. Gene runs a ten-person CRM and technology consulting firm outside of Philadelphia. Learn more at genemarks.com

Image courtesy of XXXXX at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

Manage leads and contacts. Build your sales pipeline. Track project activity. Whatever the “to do” list of the day brings; you’re in the business of doing business, not spinning your wheels fighting with complex tools to accomplish everyday administrative tasks. It’s one of the many reasons small businesses like yours chose Insightly to handle daily CRM tasks—it’s about sensibility and simplicity for the sake of saving time.

A Selfie’s Worth a Thousand Words… And Maybe a Smartwatch

So, how are you using Insightly to save time? We want to know! Enter our #LoveMyTime contest and a Smartwatch or an Insightly t-shirt could be in your future. A picture’s worth a thousand words, so we’ve made it fast and simple for you to share your time-saving story.

Snap, Post, Done

Here’s how to enter the #LoveMyTime contest:

1. Snap a selfie of what you love to do with all the time Insightly saves you
2. Post your selfie to your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter account with the hashtag #LoveMyTime
3. Sit back and relax

No judgements here. Well, okay, maybe a few. Once you post your selfie showing what you love to do with the time Insightly saves you, we’ll select a group of finalists. We’ll then hand the task over to the Insightly Community and let a jury of your peers choose the grand prize winner. Enter the #LoveMyTime contest today.

Turn It Up Tuesday: Tips from Insightly to Take Your Business to 11

Welcome to Turn It Up Tuesday, where we bring you 3 weekly tips—a tip on running your business, a tip on using Insightly CRM, and a tip on improving your life. Enjoy this week’s tips!

	Turn Off Email Notifications to be More Productive
	It’s easy to feel productive when you’re sending and receiving a bunch of emails, but the day can quickly slip away if you’re constantly being interrupted by emails. A large majority of emails do not require an immediate response, and if they do people will often call. Checking email frequently can harm your productivity. According to a study done by Loughborough University, it takes an average of 64 seconds to fully recover and get back to your work after being interrupted by an email. This time can really add up over the course of the day. To check email less frequently – you could even try out a product such as Inbox Pause to have your email set to deliver at 3-4 times a day.
	Organize Projects With Categories
	Take organizing projects to a deeper level by grouping them into categories. For example, if you often attend tradeshows as a vendor and organize customer events, your project categories might include “Tradeshow” and “Customer Event.” Your Insightly administrator can create and add new categories by navigating to System Settings > Categories page. Once the project and categories are set up, you can easily identify and filter the categorized projects when looking at the project list. Tasks related to each project can also be categorized with the same categories or different categories specific to tasks. By associating projects with categories, you can keep relevant information grouped together and easy to find and view.
	Goal Setting
	If you were to select three people you greatly admire for a particular attribute or accomplishment (e.g. athletic skills, integrity, tenacity, business success, etc.) and sit down and ask them what their secret to success is, you’d quickly recognize a common theme—goal setting. Setting goals is tantamount to having a road map to get you from point A to point Z. It turns out, however, that very few people actually take the time to sit down and set goals. In a study focusing on the 1979 Harvard MBA program graduate students were asked “have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” Shockingly, 84% of respondents had no goals at all. If you need a cheerleader to keep you honest and motivated in setting up and meeting your goals, an article published in Harvard Business Review shows that bringing a significant other into the process can greatly increase your odds of success. Write your goals down—be specific and detailed. Start small—set three goals over the next 12 months, for example. Be realistic—if you’re a weekend athlete in your middle years, it’s highly unlikely make it to the WNBA or NBA. Set milestones, chart your progress, and make adjustments along the way as needed. Don’t beat yourself up for making mistakes or hitting obstacles along the way. Reflect on what worked and what didn’t as you were working towards a specific goal.

 

Check out Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial right now.

Send Us Your Tips

Would you like to share your tips with Insightly customers? Send them to us!
If we use one in our weekly feature we’ll send you a $10 Amazon Gift Card!

Contact us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or send us an email.

About the author: Marta Bright is Insightly’s Content Manager.

A buyer persona, also known as a customer avatar, is a representation of your company’s ideal customer. Depending on your industry and target market, you may have several buyer personas to create. When you create a persona for each portion of your target market, you can better refine everything in your marketing and sales tactics by writing copy as if you were speaking directly to a live person with defined wants, needs, likes, and dislikes.

Your buyer persona should include: who your ideal buyers are, the roles they play in their personal and professional lives, their goals and challenges, demographics, and a story. The more information you can work into the generalized persona, the more targeted your marketing can become. Dig deep, creating specific personas for each possible spin-off of the general customer.

With a highly-targeted buyer persona, you can avoid sending blanket messages to all customers by creating a more personalized approach to marketing. An astonishing 86% of shoppers say personalization influences their purchases to some extent, while one-quarter of shoppers admit it significantly influences their purchasing.

Take for instance, Skytap, a provider of cloud automation solutions. After implementing a content marketing strategy that involved tailoring content to various buyer personas, the company saw a 124% increase in leads from all channels both online and offline, a 97% increase in leads from online marketing, and a 55% increase in organic search traffic.

Who is Your Ideal Customer?

What elements or traits would your ideal customer have? Write down what you think would be useful to know about your customer, and use your ideas to guide you through the rest of the buyer persona exercise.

For example, a company in the kitchen and bath design industry needs a customer who is a homeowner and wealthy enough to cover the cost of designer services in addition to the cost of the remodel itself. They would also someone who lives in their service area.

But kitchen and bath designers don’t just want to restrict marketing efforts to homeowners. It’s also a good idea to target construction companies and real estate agents who work directly with customers who are becoming homeowners.

Your ideal customer will not only buy your product or service, but offer repeat business and become your brand ambassador, sending friends, family, and colleagues your way whenever possible.

What Does a Day in Their Life Look Like?

Think about details in your ideal customer’s life that would make your product or service attractive. Is the customer looking for something that will save them time because they’re so busy they barely have time to breathe? Is the customer looking for something that will save them money because they’re interested in stretching their budget, or saving for the future?

Use available information to craft a story about your ideal customer. Give the customer a name, profession, family life, etc. Weave all of the details you have about the customer into the story.

In the exercise equipment industry, you’re likely looking at customers interested in losing weight or staying healthy who are too busy to go to a local gym and have enough disposable income to invest in exercise equipment.

Let’s name your ideal customer Jim. He’s 34 years old and decently healthy, but worried about aging. He has three kids, ages 7, 5, and 2. He wants to stay in shape to be able to keep up with his kids and see his future grandchildren grow up.

He has a full-time third shift job, and there is no gym nearby with childcare. He decides to invest in a treadmill for his basement. After a hard day at work, he wants to be able to go downstairs, run a few miles on the treadmill, shower, and go to bed so he can be up to spend the afternoon and evening with his family.

Jim will not only buy more equipment in the future, his children are likely to emulate his healthy habits, giving you a foot in the door on the next generation of consumers.

What Demographics Do They Fall Into?

Your target customer’s demographics are important to the overall picture, because they help in targeting the right people in various advertising campaigns. In Facebook ads alone, there are an almost overwhelming number of demographic details available, allowing you to get as specific as necessary. Target by basic demographics and flesh out your profile by expanding into a variety of interests and behaviors.

Beyond things like age range, location, salary, and education level, look at specific demographics that pertain to your industry. While a customer’s living arrangements (rental, homeowner, potential homebuyer) don’t matter to say, a movie rental business, they definitely matter to the real estate agent, and to the kitchen and bath designer.

What are Their Goals and Challenges?

Where your customers are headed in life is a key piece of information, knowledge that gives you a chance to address how your product or service will help them reach their goals and get past their challenges.

For Jim, our busy dad who’s in the market for exercise equipment, his goal is to become fit with a small time investment every day. His challenges include finding the time to workout and financing the purchase. He has the income to support the purchase, but doesn’t want to spend a huge chunk of change at once. He’s done a considerable amount of outside research online, and isn’t really sure your product is best for his needs.

You can assist Jim by offering advice on fitting the workout into his day – highlighting how your machine is designed to work all core muscle groups so he can burn calories and see results in less time than competitor treadmills. To address his financing issue, offer a finance plan that allows him to make affordable monthly payments, plus free delivery and setup if he buys from you.

How CRM Can Help

With the CRM market expected to hit $24.22 billion by 2018, it’s a sign big data is here to stay. For existing businesses refining their marketing efforts, CRM data is a goldmine of information that can assist in crafting the perfect buyer persona.

For new businesses that haven’t collected customer data yet, CRM is still an incredibly valuable tool. In the initial persona creation phase, turn to your market research, competitor analysis, and social media for the details you need to define your customers. You’ll add more details as you notice common traits in your best customers and as your business grows and changes. Over time, the data you add to your CRM will bring your buyer personas to life.

With freshly crafted buyer personas in hand, review your marketing materials to ensure they reflect the customers you’re trying to reach. Closely examine your business cards, website, direct mail, pay-per-click campaigns, and social media for accuracy. You may discover you’ve been marketing to the wrong customers, and need to adjust accordingly.

 

At Insightly, we have a CRM for all kinds of businesses and all kinds of users. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.