Announcing the FreeAgent + Zapier Integration

Integrations just got easier – or should we say, Zap-ier!

A product update for people who LOVE saving time


Here at FreeAgent, we LOVE saving you time – so you can focus on your customers and growing your business. That’s why we’re so excited to announce FreeAgent’s Integration with Zapier. You can now do SO much more with FreeAgent by connecting it to tools your team already uses.

FreeAgent CRM already effortlessly automates the sales, marketing, and support tasks you used to do manually. But what about automation with systems that go outside of FreeAgent? No problem! You’re just a Zap away..

Zapier connects FreeAgent CRM with over a thousand apps, including MailChimp, LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms, Google Sheets and more. You can now set up Zaps – a Zap is an automated workflow that connects two or more apps – to communicate with your customers and track all those interactions, automatically.  And best of all, no coding required!

Most of the integrations can be used with Zapier free of charge in their “free forever” plan.

Here are a few examples of our favorite FreeAgent CRM Zaps.

Create Mailchimp subscribers from new FreeAgent leads

Wouldn’t it be great if new leads inside of FreeAgent automatically sent information over to your email marketing list? This automation can help you save time by not doing any extra manual work to get contacts from FreeAgent over to MailChimp. When new leads are created in FreeAgent, it automatically creates a subscriber in MailChimp.

Add FreeAgent Deals to a row in Google Sheets

Do you like to use Google Sheets to maintain a detailed record of events within your company? Set up this automation, and every time new deal is created in FreeAgent, we will add a new row to a selected Google Sheets spreadsheet. Automatically update your records and make sure your data is always accurate and up to date.

Add LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms leads to FreeAgent contacts

If you’ve spent too much time entering contact details into your CRM by hand, give this integration a try. After you’ve set it up, whenever a new lead submits their info to one of your LinkedIn Lead Gen forms we will also log their details on FreeAgent as a new person, saving you from the trouble of having to do so yourself.

These are very basic scenarios that can be expanded to multiple steps with many different apps. Learn more about Multi-Step Zaps.

Want to learn more?

FreeAgent + Zapier Tutorial
Connect FreeAgent CRM with 1000+ apps with Zapier

View more integrations below and click to try them out!

FreeAgent + Mailchimp Resource Guide

You already know all about the latest release FreeAgent CRM Bonsai and the much anticipated best-in-class integration with Mailchimp (the industry-leading email marketing solution).

To help you get started – or take your campaigns to the next level – we’ve created a resource guide with helpful topics that range from pairing Mailchimp within FreeAgent to template design tips to getting the most out insight of campaign reporting.

FreeAgent + Mailchimp Overview
If you missed the fiesta, find out about the benefits and features of the latest FreeAgent CRM release.

Mailchimp 101
If you’re just starting out with Mailchimp as a marketing tool, this article is a great place to begin.

Getting Started with FreeAgent + Mailchimp Together
Unleashing the power and simplicity of Mailchimp within FreeAgent CRM is as simple as pairing your Mailchimp account.

Email Design Guide
Look and feel professional when using your Mailchimp templates with campaigns launched within FreeAgent. Here’s some great advice on conveying your message with great looking emails for better conversion.

Create Your First Mailchimp + FreeAgent CRM Campaign
Annnd launch! When it’s time to create your first campaign, here’s all you need to know to get started.

Email Marketing Benchmarks
Ever wonder how your campaigns are doing compared to other businesses in your industry? Mailchimp has compiled benchmarks for you.

Getting the Most from Your Mailchimp Reports
See your campaign reports directly in FreeAgent CRM. Follow up perfectly with customers who opened-and-clicked.

Additional Resources

We’re just scratching the surface of what’s available on both platforms. For deeper information, start here:
FreeAgent CRM Tutorials
Mailchimp Marketing Resources

Happy campaigning!

(Customer) Relationship Advice from the Experts – Valentine’s Day Edition

All great relationships require nurturing. And while we don’t usually think of customer relationships the same way we think about love… when it comes to the best expert advice on the subject, we couldn’t help but notice a lot of similarities.

For Valentine’s Day, enjoy this timeless advice from the experts about customer relationships – or any other relationships on your mind today!

1. Challenge your limiting beliefs

Cultivating great relationships with customers even as your company grows is every businesses’ top priority. If you want to scale, you’ll need the right tools, like a great CRM. But you’ll also need the right mindset.

In The Psychology of Selling, Brian Tracy talks about “self-concept.” A person with a good self-concept believes that every day presents a myriad of opportunities – sales opportunities! – no matter what the pipeline looks like, because they believe in their own mission and they believe in themselves to achieve it. They know – and project – that they’re providing immense value. When you’re confident in your own value, customers will believe in your value too. It’s contagious!

2. Be of service

In To Sell is Human, by Daniel Pink, a man is looking to buy a vacuum. But instead of just selling him a vacuum, he suggested being a “problem finder” instead of only a “problem solver.” How can we become more attuned to the hidden problems, rather than the stated problem?

The problem in this case is: He has too much dust in his house. There are many solutions to this – new windows, a housecleaner, or perhaps a new vacuum. Which is the best for him though?

As Pink says,

“This is what it means to serve: improving another’s life and, in turn, improving the world.”

3. Sell benefits, not products

Zig Zeigler, one of the original motivational speakers, and author of many books on sales, says in Selling 101,

“Prospects do not buy products. Prospects buy products of the products — known as benefits… Prospects buy what the product will do for us.”

We can only know how our customers will benefit from our solution when we truly understand their problems. When we really listen.

A benefits-first approach helps your customers get to the heart of your business much faster. After that, be honest about what problems you can solve, and which ones you can’t. We must be authentic in order to foster brand trust and of course, our product must actually benefit our customers in order for them to keep coming back.

(As an aside, Zig also wrote Courtship after Marriage: Romance Can Last a Lifetime. It seems there are crossover qualities in sales and love!)

4. Face your fears

In Jeffrey Gitomer’s Little Red Book of Selling, he says,

“You will not get rid of the butterflies, but you can get them flying in formation.”

We all fear rejection, or failure. Avoiding risk, though, is no path to success. Edison tried a thousand times before he successfully built the first light bulb; Michael Jordan missed over 9,000 shots; and Babe Ruth was known as The King of Strikeouts. What these greats have in common is that they were not afraid of failure.

You won’t always be able to help every customer, and you might even get some tough feedback from time to time – or maybe even your whole first year of business. Those companies willing to face challenges – and fix their mistakes – are long-term business material.

 

FreeAgent CRM is a platform that helps small businesses nurture quality customer relationships. Get set up in less than 20 minutes and start working with a company that believes that CRM means Customer Relationships Matter. Check us out.

Taco Tuesday: Valentines Day

Taco Tuesday: V-Day Special Offer and a sneak peek at the next big release!

Get ready to win your customers hearts with Email Campaigns

FreeAgent CRM Platform Update February 12, 2019

Here at FreeAgent CRM, we really love our customers. And our customers love their customers. And of course, we all love tacos! So, in honor of Valentine’s Day, this Taco Tuesday is dedicated to love.

In this update:

Spread the love – Special V-Day Offer
Get ready to win your customers hearts with Email Marketing
New Vlog: 5 ways to let your customers know you care

Spread the love – Special V-Day Offer

Give 15%, receive 15%
For the month of February, refer a friend (or friendly business) to FreeAgent CRM – they’ll get 15% off their subscription* and you’ll get 15% off your next renewal**

* For annual or monthly
** For annual renewals only – get 15% off the whole year (if you’ve been thinking of switching to annual to save costs already, it’s never been a better time!)

To redeem this offer, your friend must sign up in the month of February. Share this offer with them early so they can get started with our amazing product specialists.

FreeAgent Bonsai

Next Taco Tuesday is a downright fiesta for our most anticipated product release yet – Free Agent Bonsai. And you’re invited!

Here on the team, we’re going bananas for the new features. When it comes to being the best all-in-one CRM platform, we are not monkeying around…

We can’t tell you everything about next week’s big release just yet 🙊 (stay tuned next Tuesday!) but we DO want to give you 3 great ways to get ready for it now, so you can hit the ground – and the trees – running.

 

3 Ways to Win your Customers Hearts with Email Marketing

Next Taco Tuesday is a downright fiesta for our most anticipated product release yet – Free Agent Bonsai. And you’re invited!

Here on the team, we’re going bananas for the new features. When it comes to being the best all-in-one CRM platform, we are not monkeying around…

We can’t tell you everything about next week’s big release just yet (stay tuned next Tuesday!) but we DO want to give you 3 great ways to get ready for it now, so you can hit the ground – and the trees – running.

Get crystal clear on your goals

What are you trying to achieve with your email marketing campaigns? While selling to new customers is a goal for every business, it’s not the only kind of email to send. There are post-sale and nurturing emails that keep customers engaged; offer emails that provide incentives to buy; re-market campaigns for customers who weren’t quite ready to buy.

You can get an idea how to set goals for your metrics by checking out some benchmarks for your industry. But outside of having great open, click and conversion rates, some other goals might be to:

  • Re-engage customers who haven’t heard from you lately
  • Make your offerings known by announcing new features or products
  • Learn more about your customers so you can better target offers at a later date
  • Spur sales by offering a discount or gift

Oh, and the number one goal of any email communication? Provide value. When you have this covered, you are guaranteed to get a higher ROI out of your marketing campaign – and it’s already SKY HIGH as far as lead channels go. Check out these stats about email marketing ROI:

Send the right message to the right customers

According to the email campaign silverback MailChimp, segmented email marketing campaigns get 14.64% more email opens and 59.99% more clicks compared to non-segmented campaigns. Relevant emails drive 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails.

We’ve all cringed at the email marketing the product or service we already purchased or opted out of. By segmenting your customers, you know where they are in the sales cycle so you can be sure that you’re sending the right message and the right irresistible offer at just the right time.

Look and sell like a pro with well-designed branded templates

Every email campaign is a chance to put your best foot forward, and you should always deliver! Your customer has invited you into their sacred inbox. (Gosh, they even DOUBLE-OPTED invited you in!) Let them know you respect a few mb of their inbox space with professionally designed communications, and be consistent! They’ll learn to love your emails on first sight.

5 ways to let your customers know you care

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, let’s talk customer love with Gwen (our resident Free Agent Ambassador!)

Check out the blog (and vlog below!) – and in the spirit of spreading love, feel free to share with a business who might need a reminder. 😉

Five Ways to Make Sure Your Customers Know They’re Loved

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, let’s talk customer love with Gwen (our resident Free Agent Ambassador!)

Check out the blog below (and vlog!) – and in the spirit of spreading love, feel free to share with a business who might need a reminder. 😉

 

 

If you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business – and it doesn’t take much to lose a customer in 2019. Feeling unappreciated is the number one reason customers switch away from a business.

No matter what your role is on your small business team, customer love is your top priority! And while loyalty programs and fun gifts can work in spurts, it’s way more important to get the basics right and be consistent and reliable in their execution. Don’t wait for a special occasion, like Valentine’s Day or a birthday to let your customers know you care. Build it into your business’ DNA.

Here are five ways to let your customers know you care.
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1. Respond right now

When an inquiry is made, acknowledge the receipt of the question right away. 90% of customers today expect an immediate response – and they tell us that “immediate” means within the first 10 minutes! To ensure consistency here, you need automation – with marketing, customer service, or CRM tools, you can personalize auto-responses that let customers know you’re on the case and taking action, and that their inquiry didn’t go into a black hole. Making customers wait, even a little bit, is no longer acceptable.

2. Respond to the actual inquiry

Customers want to know they’ve been heard, and that their question/concern is actually being addressed. Automation is not the right tool here – don’t just send back suggested knowledgebase articles based on keywords in the inquiry. Instead, consider how historical customer data available at your fingertips can provide instant context into the customer – tracked emails and notes can even show you if they’re tech-saavy or usually require more explanation.

3. Tell them what to expect…

Whether it’s a follow-up to a question, timing for delivering a product or letting someone know that you’re running late, be specific in telling your customer what to expect. Even when you’re responding right away (See #1!), let customers know when a live human will be back to them.

4. … And then follow through

One of the best ways to lose business is to say one thing and do another. Customer relationship quality and the reputation of your brand are based in trust. You might want to throw the cliché “under-promise and over-deliver” out the window, but not doing that is a sure-fire way for your customers to feel very unimportant.

5. Check in after the sale

A customer that has made a purchase is the best kind of customer to have. These are your loyal fans and making sure that things went smoothly after the deal is done will ensure your success through referrals, brand trust, and high-value social proof. Engaged customers who feel connected to your business are not only 50% more likely to make more purchases themselves, they’re also 10x more likely to recommend you to friends.

Taco Tuesday: Preview Cards you’ll love at first sight!

Preview Cards you’ll love at first sight!

Plus, introducing a whole new kind of data relationship

FreeAgent CRM Platform Update February 5, 2019

In this update:

6-Part Preview Cards
Icon Library
M2M Relationships

Preview Cards you’ll love at first sight, because they know exactly what matters most to you!

Your data is important. But the same information isn’t equally important to every company. You’re unique! That’s why we launched Configurable Preview Cards in the Aspen Release. This Taco Tuesday, we’re launching enhancements to Preview Cards that makes them WAY more powerful – and a little prettier, too!

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A refresher on Configurable Preview Cards:

  • See what matters to you – Each object has its own card configuration so you can decide which fields are most important to your business.
  • Set it and forget it – Your custom Cards show all throughout the application (Rolodex, Board, Related List) but you only have to configure it once.
  • Your team on the same page – Your custom Card configuration is shared with your whole team, making collaboration even more seamless.
  • Don’t forget mobile – Unlike any other CRM, Cards even show on your mobile app with your custom configuration, so it works for you wherever you work.

What’s a Preview Card?

We call it a preview because these cards provide a quick overview of your Detail Card which is complete with segments of data for Filtering, Sorting, and Reporting. This includes data such as Lead Source, Dates, and even quick links to Account and Referral Contacts.

You can include any of FreeAgent’s out-of-the-box fields or your own Custom Fields, so each card is truly unique to your business.

This latest enhancement to Preview Cards brings your most important information front and center while minimizing what’s less important, so your experience stays uncluttered and visually-pleasing (one of your favorite things about FreeAgent CRM!)

Here’s what’s new:

  • All objects will now have the 6 field layout (previously only on Contacts) with the option to select “None” (so you can have 4 or 5 if you prefer)
  • Ability to hide/show the Next Step footprint icon on the card
  • Ability to select an icon from the Icon Library that will be used as a default image for records of that object
    • This replaces the initials that were previously used on records that did not have an image
    • You can still use auto-magic google search to populate an image on any record and it will show instead of the icon
    • Have instant context across Contacts, Accounts, Deals and Custom Tabs

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Watch the Video!
Discover the Power of Configurable Preview Cards with Ryan

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Want to learn more?

Check out the tutorial:
How can I customize the configuration for the Cards?

M2M Relationships

This Taco Tuesday also introduces a new type of data relationship to FreeAgent CRM.

M2M, or Many-to-Many, is an incredibly powerful relationship type you can now enjoy across the platform with both Standard and Custom objects.

Here’s an example from ZenPPM – a company with a custom object Products. Deals can be related to many Products AND Products can be related to many Deals.

Here’s what that could look like in FreeAgent CRM on the Products and Deals tabs:

Things to Know

An M2M relationship is created between two objects when a field is added of type: Reference – Multi Select.

When this field is added:

  • There will be a Related list on both objects so that you will always know which records are related
  • You’ll always have the ability to select “Manage object_name” in the “Things You Can Do” dropdown

Want to learn more? Check out the tutorial.

What is a Reference – Multi Select Custom Field?

Automatic Activity Roll-Up

By Free Agent request! You asked for the ability to turn off and on the automatic roll-up of activities between the following objects:

  • Leads to Deals
  • Leads to Companies
  • Companies to Deals

You got it! Make changes to your roll-up settings in Settings > Activity Roll Ups

Things to Know

  • Turning activity roll-ups on or off will only impact activities made after the change, and will not update/change any past activities that were already rolled-up

Enjoy!

 

Suggested Contacts is your intuitive contact-list based on actual relationships

Suggested Contacts is your intuitive contact-list based on actual relationships

Easily and effortlessly keep your inbox in sync and your contacts up to date

FreeAgent CRM Platform Update January 22, 2019

In this update:

Suggested Contacts
Select All Bulk Actions

We’re super fired up to announce our latest feature which not only makes it even easier to get started in FreeAgent, it also helps you easily and effortlessly keep your inbox in sync with your CRM, and ensures important contacts aren’t slipping through the cracks.

“Traditional CRM’s get out of date very quickly. They become dependent on labor-intensive manual intervention, or they require you to leave the CRM entirely – disrupting your workflow to use email or plugins separately. This makes them not much better than Excel as a tool for small business.

As a productivity platform that’s way more than just sales pipeline management, FreeAgent acts as an integrated central hub for front office and external facing interactions such as calls, emails, meetings and more.

That’s why we’re so excited about our newest feature: Suggested Contacts. It works by intuitively generating a list of contacts based on actual relationships – not dependent on existing email contacts (because if you’re anything like 90% of us, you don’t actually create contacts manually anymore in your email either).” – Ryan Manning, Chief Strategy Officer at FreeAgent CRM

What is Suggested Contacts?

Suggested Contacts is a dynamically updated list of people that seem like high potential prospects or important contacts. It works auto-magically with the email you paired with FreeAgent CRM.  It gives you the option to immediately and effortlessly create a contact in FreeAgent by selecting just the one suggested contact, or you can rapidly select and add many at a time.

Don’t worry! Your list is completely personal to your account and is not shared with your team. In fact, Suggested Contacts is a great way to get an overview of contacts in FreeAgent, so you always know what’s being tracked (“In FreeAgent”) what’s not being tracked (“Not In FreeAgent”) and you can easily choose with 1-click which contacts FreeAgent CRM ignores.

Why it’s better than email plugins
1. You never have to leave your CRM
2. Doesn’t matter what your email provider is, even IMAP
3. If you have multiple emails paired, it combines them together in a unified Suggested Contacts list

Pro Tip

Combine Suggested Contacts with Saved Views to keep your inbox and FreeAgent in sync

What’s Ryan’s favorite saved view?

“I like to Filter ‘Not in FreeAgent’ and sort by Last Inbound Email to find the most relevant contacts quickly.

Also, sorting by outbound emails makes it easy to rule out spam.”

Things to Know

  • See and sort by key analytics (Total # of Emails, Last Inbound Email, etc.)
  • Create new contacts with a single click
  • Quickly filter, sort, and search to find the right contacts to bring into FA
  • “Ignore” any contacts you don’t want tracked in FreeAgent
  • Works with and combines multiple paired email addresses

Want to learn more? Check out the tutorial.

How to use Suggested Contacts in FreeAgent CRM

Select All Bulk Actions

It’s been a month since your big networking event and you want to update the lead status of all of the prospects you met there. No problem!

Bulk Edit has always been a powerful feature. Now with Select All, you can filter, select (Select ALL), and edit even easier. Here’s how it works:

  • Clicking the top checkbox in the list view will first select 50 records (or up to the amount listed)
  • An additional option will show to Select All records (FreeAgent will always obey filters with Select All)
  • Bulk Edit all records selected (unlimited) – Boom!

Things to Know

Bulk Actions have the following limits:

  • Edit – Unlimited
  • Delete – Unlimited
  • Email – 50 Records
  • Merge – 10 Records

 

Changing the M in CRM

If you’re reading this, you probably already know that CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management; and that a CRM is a system that supposedly manages your contacts and sales cycle.

But in a world of social media where customer relationships die as quickly as they’re started, do customers want to be “managed?” And do customers really want to be managed by a “system,” a robot so-to-speak?

I think not!

Customer relationships actually matter. Feeling unappreciated is the number one reason customers switch away from products and services, and as any successful business owner can tell you, as business expands, time seems to contract.

Customers don’t need to be managed… but time, now that’s another story.

As business grows, there’s a lot less:

  • Time for follow-ups
  • Time spent with customers
  • Time to train employees
  • Time for product improvements
  • Time to answer emails

Holy crap… It’s a wonder you ever have any time to sleep!

If you’re pressed for time, can a CRM help?

In a word, YES! Technology is not a be-all/end-all (like some people may have you believe), but automation can definitely help enhance customer relationships. And one of the biggest ways it does this? By freeing your time to focus on what matters most: your customers.

Automation is not a robot

You may be thinking: But the reason I’m successful is because I give everyone a personal touch. They want to do business with ME. But when you’re busy, then what? Emails fall behind, or even worse, get written hastily, without care.

But what if your customers receive a personalized email, at exactly the right time – without you having to remember? AND without you having to repeat the same task every single time, for every single customer? What if you could look down a to-do list with all your follow-ups in one place and never miss a beat?

A CRM that truly fits your business can be easily set up with your personal touch, your voice, your language, and your schedule. Handling business in a timely manner is about as personal as it gets and automation can help you get there.

Data is not your enemy

You might think that tracking every little thing might be a burden, but what if you didn’t have to do anything differently? What if you just did your job and all your communications were logged and filed; and when you wanted, you could just go to a dashboard and see what was happening at any point in time?

An easy-to-use CRM system can do this for you. Look for a CRM that integrates with the tools and services that you’re already using. You know how to do business and a good CRM fits into the way you’re already working. Spend time on cultivating relationships, and leave managing data to your CRM.

Two heads are better than one… until they’re not

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone could just know what everyone else was doing with customers, so you didn’t have to explain every single thing to every single person? And when there are 30 balls in the air, anyone can grab one and run with it?

A good CRM can make this happen. A CRM that can be simply set up to map to how you do business makes collaboration a way of life, or better put, a way of work. Once you have collaboration running smoothly, you’ll wonder how you managed before.

But my employees won’t use it

If my boss came to me and showed me how my job would be more efficient by following a few simple steps (and maybe if she gave me cookies!), I’m pretty sure I’d get on board pretty quickly!

A CRM platform that is easy to set up and simple to use makes everybody happy. Remember: a good CRM fits into the way you’re already working. (See above!) Productivity goes up without any extra effort; who wouldn’t be happy with that?

So sit down and take a breath

You have time… you deserve it!

FreeAgent CRM is a platform that helps small businesses nurture quality customer relationships. Get set up in less than 20 minutes, and start working with a company that believes that CRM means Customer Relationships Matter. Check us out.