Using Pipelines
As mentioned in the Automations & Workflows lesson, a Pipeline is a system similar to a Kanban board that is used to assist users (agents) in maintaining leads in the system. You can see an overview of your Pipelines from the Dashboard.
Getting Started
We will be using the Buyer's Journey Workflow Series form the Demo Snapshot to demonstrate Pipelines in this lesson.
Demo Snapshot
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Opportunities
When you add a Contact into a pipeline, you create what's called an Opportunity. If you would like a Pipeline demo account to use while you're building your business, please contact your account manager and we will be more than happy to set you up with another account.
Once you have loaded the Demo Contacts into your system, you can create Opportunities by clicking the "+ New" button at the top right of the Opportunities tab.
Tip: You can drag and drop Opportunities across Pipelines. If you Win or Lose a deal, you can also drop them into the "Win" or "Lose" bins to mark the deal as won or lost, respectfully.
Tip: In the previous lesson, you learned how to add a contact to a Pipeline by using a Form Trigger and an Create/Update Opportunity Action. You can add a Form to a funnel or website using the Page Builder, you can embed Forms on WordPress by clicking "Integrate Form" from the Form Builder, or you can use Instant Forms to add customers to your Pipeline using Workflows.
Automations
If you're running an agency, you can assist your sales agents by automating the Pipeline flow using Workflows! For example, you can move an Opportunity to the next stage based on an action or you can move stale opportunities back to a Cold Inbound Lead stage, effectively placing the contact back at the beginning of the Pipeline.
Tip: You can automatically move Opportunities through Pipelines using the Create or Update Opportunity Action in Workflows.
Conversions & Winning Content
A conversion occurs when a lead completes a desired goal, such as filling out a form or making a purchase. Whether you are using Automations or managing your Pipeline manually, your goal is to convert your audience.
Since we are already in Pipelines, let's talk about converting your audience.
Unless you have a killer offer (like maybe you're giving away free Nikes), chances are you're going to need two things:
- An Offer that stands out
- Winning Content that backs it up
We determine winning content by gathering data and analytics on our audience and using those analytics to help us optimize our content for sales in a form of tracking. In a lesson in the future, we will cover Gathering Data & Analytics in-depth.
Using Split Tests* (or Sprints** in some cases) you can use your data and analytics to create an Offer that has a higher conversion rate, a lower bounce rate, and a higher Click-Through Rate (or CTR).
* What is a "Split Test"?
A split test is a way of testing two different versions of a system or interface to gather analytics and determine a "winner". Typically, the test with the lower bounce rate, or the higher CTR, is the winner.
* What is a "Sprint"?
A Sprint is a form of split testing, usually used with multiple Ad Creatives, that involves providing numerous versions to determine a "winner".
Tip: Gathering Data & Analytics is about more than just placing a tag on a Contact so that you can segment your audience later. It's about not losing control over those systems. Unless you're giving away free Nikes, you have you use your analytics ???? and not just your intuition to make sales. You're building a system, not a social experiment.
Tracking & Engagement
One way to track and measure customer engagement is by using Trigger Links to send Offers to your audience. You can Tag the Contact using a Workflow, and then segment your audience using Tags. You can use a Conditional If/Else Action in your Workflow to send reminders or updates. You could even move them into a different column in your Pipeline if they click on a specific Trigger Link and then respond accordingly.
If you are using Trigger Links, you can grab the customer's contact information using a Workflow and then process an order given that their Customer ID is placed as a Custom Field in their Contact Info.
Tip: You don't have to use a Trigger to put Contacts through a Workflow. You can simply add Contact in Bulk to a Workflow and then send them an Offer. For example, you can create an Event titled "Cyber Monday" and then create a Set Event Date Action to Cyber Monday, send out an SMS / Email "Blast", and then wait until the Event Start Date to send out your offer.
You can also use this method to add Contacts in Bulk to an Analytics platform, or a Facebook Audience, for example.
Warning
This next section is for developers, so if you don't write code, it's not for you.
Advanced Tracking Methods
While Inbound Webhook Triggers are planned for Q1 2023, this feature will require some basic programming skills to send Webhooks when specific actions are taken by the customer. The feature will implement an IoC methodology that allows the sender to define their own signatures when sending webhooks.
