Keap, Software Updates
ICON is always a really exciting week, and in the years past they’ve gone out of their way to announce big changes to the software. Well, this year definitely gave us a glimpse into what we can expect from the software over the next few months, but they really didn’t lay out a long term product road map like I had hoped they would.
First of all, Terry Hicks spoke from stage – and in case you haven’t heard, Terry is the new Chief Product Officer. I like him. I met him at PartnerCon and I was impressed with his “take-action” mentality. His message at PartnerCon was “Don’t take my word for it. Let me show you results.” That’s something I can get behind. But even if I didn’t like him – it’s hard to argue with the traction that they’ve got in the core product lately. Month after month we’ve been seeing powerful new features and updates roll out (albeit, not without a handful of bugs). Check out the January, February and March updates in case you missed them.
Okay, so to learn about the product (which I figured would be important to everyone…) I had to track down the Product Showcase session, which was held in one of the smaller breakout rooms at the same time as 11 other sessions. There were roughly 100 people in the room during the one I attended (they may have held that session more than once, I’m not sure).
The showcase was exactly that, it was a series of product managers sharing the result of whatever they’d been working on. And for someone like me, it was basically a buffet of deliciousness.
Update #1: The New Email Builder is coming to Campaign Builder
When it is coming: Soon. They didn’t commit to a date, but conversations I had led me to believe we’d start seeing it within the next 6 weeks.
What it does: The new email building environment, which was recently rolled out for broadcasts, will soon be released for the campaign builder.
Why it matters: When they rolled out this new builder I know there was a lot of excitement around it, and many people were disappointed when they realized it was only for the broadcast environment. So, this update will bring that same builder to the rest of the application. This means that you will be able to build uniform and mobile responsive emails across your entire system. Oh yeah, and templates. Did I mention you’ll be able to create and save templates?
Update #2: Physical Credit Card Swipe
When it is coming: TBD or “Soon”
What it does: This is an attachment that you can plug into your mobile device or tablet which will allow you to swipe a credit card, process an order, and trigger automation as a result of a successful payment.
Why it matters: This will be a huge benefit to anyone who does live conferences or events. Now, you’ll be able to create and process orders in real time. No more asking your customer to type in all their information, just swipe the credit card and it pulls the data and runs the payment. They demoed this live during the session and it was pretty slick. You could also add tax or discounts in real time to adjust the order as needed.
Update #3: The New Marketplace
When it is coming: TBD or “Soon”
What it does: This will be a new version of the existing marketplace, but with easier and more intuitive search and navigation.
Why it matters: The current Marketplace is nice, but it can be tough to navigate. Often times you’ll end up searching and you’ll get either 0 search results, or dozens of results. This new marketplace will be easier to operate, and should provide a more customer friendly experience to help you find the tools and solutions you need without the hassle.
Update #4: Infusionsoft Payments are coming to the UK
When is it coming: 3-6 months
What is it: Infusionsoft Payments will be available for customers in the UK.
Why it matters: Infusionsoft Payments is the Merchant Gateway that Infusionsoft announced at ICON last year, and has since been available only in North America (US first, and more recently Canada); but now they’re bringing this payment solution to Infusionsoft Users elsewhere. First up will be the United Kingdom, and I would expect Australia and New Zealand will follow later this year. If you have a merchant gateway that you use and are happy with then this may not be a huge deal for you; but if you’ve had trouble with your gateway, or live in an area where they’re hard to come by, then this could be really big news. I’ve use Infusionsoft Payments since I started Monkeypod and have been thrilled with the experience and the rates.
Update #5: Delight Enhancements
When it is coming: It’s already happening.
What it is: Infusionsoft has recognized that there are some aspects of the platform that just simply aren’t delightful; and recently they’ve been really intentional about addressing these things. My understanding is that we can expect more of this. Infusionsoft wants to make sure that each release that comes out has something in it that customers can see and feel.
Why it matters: This matters because we can all agree that the structure or code base of the software is important, but as a user community it’s also our expectation that this will work as expected without us noticing that it’s being maintained. So, Infusionsoft is making an effort to deploy releases that people can feel and appreciate more easily. This means that hopefully we’ll see more things like the email reporting in the campaign builder, the ability to use internal forms for the quick-add feature, and simple stuff – like being able to clone an order form.
Okay, well, those are the big PRODUCT related announcements from ICON. I wish I had a more specific timeline for when we can expect all of these features to be released; but the reality is that Infusionsoft has been burned in the past by announcing a timeline and being unable to stick to it; so this year their language was unclear about when they’ll be able to deliver these things – and personally, I respect that. They’ll deploy them when they’re ready; and I’ll be thrilled when they do.
If you have questions about any of these, or if you attended a session I missed and want to share something you’re excited about please feel free to comment below! This post was specifically about the Infusionsoft software – you can expect another post in the next week or so recapping the rest of the conference and my favorite sessions and take-aways.
Keap, Small Business
You guys, ICON is nearly here, and this year’s event promises to be better than ever.
In case you’ve never been to ICON, picture this: You show up, and you’re greeted by thousands of small business owners just like you. You’re surrounded by the spirit of entrepreneurship, and the hunger for information. Every single one of the four-thousand attendees is looking for new ways that they can grow their business. And each person is happily sharing the milestones they’ve already hit, and the obstacles they’ve traversed in the process.
I love ICON, not just because of the valuable content delivered by the 80+ speakers, but also because I love the Infusionsoft community – and seeing a large part of this community in the same place at the same time can really be inspiring.
With that being said, here are the 6 things I’m most excited about for ICON 2016:
Partners. Infusionsoft has a partner ecosystem unlike any that I’ve ever seen before. And that ecosystem is on display at ICON like nowhere else. I love browsing the vendor area and meeting the different partners, and seeing demonstrations of what they have to offer. I’m also particularly excited about a handful of partners speaking at breakout sessions this year. If you can, carve out time to see Greg Hickman, Tyler Garns and Brad Martineau.
Networking. I love the content at ICON, don’t get me wrong, but I really love the networking aspect as well. I believe that anytime you get that many entrepreneurs together in the same space you can’t help but have something great happen. I’ve watched some really powerful connections be made over the past few years, and I love seeing the conversations that take place in between sessions, at lunch, or over a pint after-hours. Every single attendee at this conference has at least one-thing in common with you.
Infusionites. Infusionsoft really does have a unique culture, and this culture attracts a specific type of employee. As such, they’ve got some really intelligent and capable people employed inside the Infusionsoft headquarters. I’m really pumped that this year they’ve giving many of those rockstars a platform to share their brilliance. In no particular order, I definitely recommend making time to see Paul Sokol, Justin MacDonald, Brina Kaiser, Jordan Hatch, and Scott Richins.
Me. I know this one is kinda cheap – listing myself on my own list, but get over it. It’s my list, and I’m pumped. I’m excited about my first opportunity to speak as an Infusionsoft partner. I was fortunate enough to speak at ICON in 2014 and again in 2015, and as I’ve been working on my presentation for the past few weeks, my excitement for this year has been rapidly building. This year I’m presenting 5 productivity tricks that you can use to get more out of your Infusionsoft application. This will be one of the more technical presentations of the week – and I would venture to say that every single person who attends my session will leave having learned at least one new thing (even you Paul Sokol).
Product. It’s the 10th anniversary of ICON. you’ve gotta believe that Infusionsoft has something big up their sleeves for this event. I love hearing Clate Mask speak each year – but this year I’m particularly excited about hearing the new Chief Product Officer, Terry Hicks take the stage. In addition to Terry, Justin Topliff and Tyler Zeman have a session called Product Showcase. ICON is usually where Infusionsoft rolls out their product roadmap, and tells us all the cool stuff they have in store, and personally, I can’t wait.
Gary Freaking Vaynerchuck – are you kidding me? This man is the unofficial small-business spokesperson. He lives and breathes entrepreneurship and delivers his insightful perspectives with a refreshing authenticity that is hard to find. I was lucky enough to hear him speak at ICON in 2012 – and just as my story has continued to evolve since then, I feel confident that his has too.
So that’s my list, and I’m 100% confident that there will be some awesome sessions delivered by people I didn’t mention, or people I hadn’t heard of. For that reason, I’d spend some time pouring over the agenda and highlighting the sessions that you plan to prioritize.
Everyone approaches this conference differently, and that’s perfectly fine. There is tons of value for business owners, employees, partners, or aspiring entrepreneurs. If you’re interested in some technical tricks to get more out of the software, save space for my session on Wednesday at 11 am!
Keap, Software Updates
I don’t know if you had the same relationship I had with NBA Jam, but if you did, you probably remember that if your player made two shots consecutively, you’d hear the announcer say “He’s heating up…” and once they made their third in a row, you’d get the booming “HE’S ON FIRE!”
Then for the next few possessions you’d just chuck up three pointers from wherever you wanted, dunk from half-court, etc. You were basically unstoppable, right?
Anyway, I’m getting off-track.
When the January release came out, and you could easily add and remove people from campaigns, clone order forms, and a few other things – I remember thinking “Hey, this isn’t bad at all.”
Then, when the February Release rolled, and we got inventory management, mobile responsive landing pages and the new email builder, I thought “Man, that’s two in a row, they’re heating up!”
And then boom, here comes today, the March 2016 release rolled and I thought “HE’S ON FIRE!”
This latest release isn’t all that big, it only has a few updates in it, but man, they’re really, really meaningful.
The two updates I’m most excited about are the ability for your customers to make a payment when you send them a quote, and the ability to easily see open rates and click-through percentages on all your campaign emails.
You guys, I’m not crazy. I fully acknowledge that both of these features are pretty standard. And yes, you could make the argument that these features should have been included in the software all along, but guess what – I don’t care. Call me a homer, or an optimist, or whatever. Yup. It sucks that we didn’t have them before, but we have them now. That’s it, let’s move on.
Update #1: Pay a Quote Online and View Status
What it does: It allows you to send a quote to a customer, and allows them to apply a payment once they’ve accepted it.
Why it matters: Infusionsoft introduced the ability to generate quotes a few years back, and people were pretty excited about it. Well, that excitement quelled pretty quickly when we realized that once a customer accepted a quote, it created an order in Infusionsoft but didn’t allow them to make a payment. You had to manually go collect the billing information, and apply the payment yourself. Not very automated, right? So, because of that, quotes were quietly set aside for most users, and never revisited again.
Well, not anymore. Now, when you generate a quote – you’ll also be able to select from three options.
Send quote with no payment options: This means the recipient will be able to accept or decline the quote.
Send quote and allow payment later: This means that the recipient will be able to choose whether they want to pay it then, or defer payment until later.
Send quote and require online payment: This means that the recipient will be required to make a payment online once they’ve accepted the quote.
Yes, once they’ve accepted the quote you’ll get a notification. If they have also paid the quote, you’ll be notified of that as well. You can customize the language in the email that delivers the quote, but the page which they’ll use to make their payment isn’t something you can design (right now). It will have your logo on it though, and in my opinion, it’s pretty sleek looking.
NOTE: An online customer payment of a quote WILL trigger campaigns, purchase actions and billing automation triggers. Say what? I don’t know about you, but to me, that’s amazing.
Update #2: Email Reporting for Campaign Emails
What it does: This allows you to see historical open rates and click-through percentages for your campaign builder emails.
Why it matters: This is HUGE. In the past, if you wanted to see this data you’d have to use some sort of workaround, or export your info and do some excel wizardry. But now, you can easily see email open rates and click-through percentages from the performance tab of the campaign builder. This will empower Infusionsoft users to figure out what is working and what isn’t, so that they can optimize their campaigns and therefore their customer’s experience. Like I said, HUGE.
A few things to note on this one:
To view your email statistics, you’ll have to switch to the performance tab, click into a specific sequence, and then switch to the historical view.
Okay, so that’s about the size of it for this release. Like I said, it’s not a huge release in terms of tons of new features, but it’s a huge release in terms of the direction they’re going, and the momentum they have.
Now, to be fair, I think both of these features still have a few things that need to be added – but just as your marketing campaigns are constantly evolving, so too is the software. In the future, I’d love to see them include the ability to compare emails across sequences, or across campaigns. I’d love to see my highest performing emails (by click % and by open %) for specific time periods, and not just limited to 24 hour or 30 day windows.
With regards to the quoting feature, I’d love to be able to design the interface that the recipient experiences when they’re interacting with the quote, and to me it makes sense to be able to change some of that language. For example, is “quote” always the best term? But, truth be told, I don’t use quotes as heavily in my own business – if you do, I’ve love to hear your opinion.
If you love either of these features, have questions about them, or think I missed something, please go ahead and comment below! Enjoy thanks for reading.
