If you run regular recurring events, then I think I can make your life a little easier.

Here’s how most businesses I work with handle repeating live events:

1. Build out campaign for event 1
2. Copy campaign for event 2
3. Adjust email copy, and campaign timers for event 2
4. Repeat for event 3, event 4, etc.

And heck, maybe you’ve even used campaign merge fields, and campaign links to make your life a little bit easier.

But this process is still heavily manual, and a little tiring. Right?

Right. So, I think I can make things a little easier for you, and your monthly workshop, or your meet-up every few weeks.

Let’s jump right in, shall we?

Context:

If you are promoting a live event then you likely want to put the date in the email(s) to your contacts, right? Totally normal request.

The way most people handle this problem is to use the campaign merge field.  Campaign merge fields are managed centrally on the campaign level, so if you have to make a change, you only need to go to one place to update the date and it will automatically use the new value for every email that was using that merge field.

This is especially helpful when you’re copying the campaign too, because the campaign merge fields are all copied too, so you can use the same structure and quickly update the merge fields to save yourself time.

But even if you update the campaign merge fields, you still have to manually go through and adjust all the date timers for the new event, and for some people this is a dealbreaker.

So, I’m going to show you how you can set the campaign and never need to touch it (as far as dates are concerned).

Scenario:

You are advertising on Facebook for your live event.  You have 4 events coming up in Jan and Feb.

Let’s Build:

Before the campaign:

For this campaign you’re going to need to set up an Event Date custom field (the field should be a Date Type), and then you’ll also need one tag, we use “Date Set” as the tag name.

The campaign structure:

• Create a goal to trigger the campaign.  In this case I used a tag as a goal for when people register for the event from Facebook.
• Create a Date Picker Sequence. (We’ll talk about what’s inside next)
• Create a Event Date Set Tag Goal
• Create an Event Reminder Sequence. (We’ll talk about this one in a moment too)

This is how your campaign structure should look:

Simple right? The magic happens inside the sequences. Let’s take a closer look at what is happening under the hood:

 Inside the Date Picker Sequence:

1. Use a new start element for every event date
   (The first date timer should range from the date you will start the ads up to the date before the event. We are not going to let people register for this event on the day of, yet.  For now, if they sign up on the day of the event, they will be registered for the next event.)
2. Add a Set Field Value widget and add the date of the event
3. Apply the Date Set tag.

On the second Start element, add a new date timer that runs between the start date of the first event and the day before the next event.  Then repeat steps 1-3.

Here’s how the inside of the Date Picker Sequence (highlighted in yellow above) will look:

Each of the individual “tracks” inside the sequence should look like the image below:

And here are the important things to note about this:

1. The date range timer should include all dates leading up to the first event, but you can adjust the cut off date if you want last minute registrations to automatically be registered for the following event. So, choose a range that accommodates based on your own preference.
   (Each “track” in this sequence will have a different date range, and they should not overlap.)
2. The “Set Field Value” is the widget responsible for recording the Event Date into a custom field on the contact record, this is important because it will be used in the next sequence to control the delivery of reminders.
   (Note: The first track would have the date of event one, the second would have the date of event two, etc.)
3. This is the “Event Date Set” tag, and this will be the same for each track in this sequence. This tag is important because once the custom field has been updated with the event date, this ensures that the contact is extracted from the sequence by achieving the Tag Goal attached to it.

Inside the Reminder Sequence:

1. Add the Confirmation email and merge in the Event date
2. Use a field timer with the event date.  Be sure to choose the option – “Use year from field”
3. Add a reminder email to let people know when the event is approaching.
4. Add another field timer, followed by another email, for as many reminders as you’d like.

Here’s how the inside of the Event Reminders Sequence (highlighted in blue above) will look:

———–

Okay, that’s about the size of things. You should now have a functional campaign designed to automatically assign registrants to the next upcoming event, and then send reminders as the event approaches.

One benefit of this campaign is that you can set it up for as many events as you have scheduled, so if you know the event dates for the next 6 months, you can build it out, launch, and you shouldn’t have to do any real upkeep to make sure things are current.

Hope this helps lend some automation to your recurring live events! If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below, or reach out to me directly!

Here you can create the content that will be used within the module.

A bit of backstory for you.  

This post chronicles the journey I went through to convince a couple of skeptics (my family) that Infusionsoft’s Sales Pipeline Component isn’t an unreasonable, hunk of junk, waste of time.

Let me tell you what I did wrong when creating a Sales Pipeline for my family business. Yeah, egg on my face. I’m putting this out into the world so you dear reader, don’t get any egg on yours.

And then what I did right.  Read this, and it won’t matter if you’re building pipelines for your own business or for your clients, you’ll be able to do it right from the start.

————————–

I learned Infusionsoft four-ish years ago by implementing apps and campaigns on our new-at-the-time family remodeling business.

My mom and husband are owners, and they were my test subjects. I start here because there’s a different dynamic to implementing new technology when your co-workers are your family. Grumbling about change is a little more pronounced when you’re related by blood or a vow. Understatement of the year?

The Sales Pipeline feature in Infusionsoft is wonderful when you have a situation where you are having one-on-one sales conversations with prospects. Typically, these are higher ticket items that require a longer sales process. Home remodeling = Perfect Fit. Lots of 1:1 conversations. High-ticket items. Long sales cycles. By definition, it’s the perfect tool. (Editor’s note: And if you may need more than one pipeline, no problem. Read more here.)

Now, here’s the beginning of how things went wrong for me.

In my attempt to get the team all aboard the Sales Pipeline Express, I originally built a Pipeline that would make your grandma say “hot damn!”. (Sounding good so far, right?)

I spent days and days creating this masterpiece of a campaign. Circa 2015, it most likely took this form: 

Family Drama. (Tragedy of tragedies).

Even after the explainer videos, SOPs, and daily walk-throughs, the team did not seem to “appreciate” the beauty that was this pipeline. They did not “appreciate” my genius.

The team’s stages of emotion went as follows: Excitement → Overwhelm → Frustration → Fury → Abandonment → Mutiny.

I was mad. They were mad. Horror of horrors.

Husband and Mom said to me “Yea. Infusionsoft is never going to work. Turn it all off.” It was the abject failure of what I’d hoped to achieve. A painful and bitter defeat, as you can imagine.

Has this ever happened to you? Overwhelmed with the depth of possibilities of Infusionsoft – the eject button starts to look more and more appealing, you, your staff, the client, everyone just wants out? So much so, that they give up on a masterpiece of a campaign you’re created. Whether it has or hasn’t happened, I’m hoping this post will help you prevent it entirely.

After this epic fail, a new adventure turned up for me professionally.

New Year. Who dis?

In January 2017, I left Infusionsoft to work in the family business full-time(ish).

I ramped up social and traffic on the inter-webs. Of course, this meant that there were more consultation appointments, and it was difficult for the team to manage the follow-ups manually.

I enjoy sarcasm and fighting with my family (exasperation can be fun, no?), so I decided to give the Sales Pipeline integration another shot with a different approach. So this is what I did.

Ready for Home Makeover Pipeline 2.0?

Tah-Dah!  Presto!  Voila!

With this new, improved Sales Pipeline campaign, team buy-in increased 200%. Daily usage of Infusionsoft increased 600%. Hearts were healed. The pope kissed my ring.

“But Reyna – Where is the pipeline? What converted the skeptics? I don’t get it. You’re weird.”

Husssshhh.

The Catalyst.

The change in team member adoption had nothing to do with a campaign.

It had everything to do with

• Access to real-time reports
• Instant opportunity organization
• Easy access via Infusionsoft Mobile

Make Infusionsoft Feel Like Home.

As an Infusionsoft implementer, we tend to think we know what the world needs when it comes to a Pipeline.

We know the value that a ladder pipeline offers over a linear one. But even so, inevitably, we’ll miss.

On day one, people want to feel like they’re still in their comfort zone, even though they’re in a new system. Whether it’s your clients or your in-house sales team, they want to feel like they still have control.

“But Reyna – Sales Pipeline can do so much more. This is beneath me.”

Sure! Version 4/Death Star in a few months will look different. But I’m telling you – START HERE.

I lovingly refer to Version 1 of Sales Pipeline as “Zombie Autopilot Phase”

I dare you – deploy Sales Pipeline for two weeks exclusively via Zombie Autopilot Phase to your team.

As soon as the dashboard reporting starts reflecting and helping out with their Opportunity organization, they are grateful.

Grateful that Sales Pipeline is 1. easy. 2. helpful. 3. does exactly what they expect it to do (sans surprises).

The Flip.

Now,  I’ll tell you what’s kinda surprising. Suddenly, unprompted by you, people start asking Infusionsoft to do a little more. Take notes. Send a reminder email. Forecast revenue.

See that psychological flip? The asking part? The transfer of ownership? #money

20/20

Looking back, the cause of the mutiny after I released the original Death Star campaign was not a group of people excited to start a fight with each other.

It was ME.

I was big-headed and conceited. I was too excited to show off my fancy new automation.

Lessons Learned

By not focusing on a fancy feast campaign, here are some positives that came out of Zombie Autopilot Sales Pipeline deployment.

Instant Gratification. It takes less than 15 minutes to build something like this and put it in your client’s hands. Wow moment? Yep! Great time to ask for a review? Yep!

Confidence Boost. Clients understand Sales Pipeline right away. They feel smart. Especially if they’ve heard negative things about Sales Pipeline before.

No Desktop Login. Infusionsoft Mobile is so ridiculously simple for managing the day-to-day in Sales Pipeline. Ever have clients that spend time outside of the office, on-site? Ever had a client get overwhelmed the second they log in to Infusionsoft? Yep. Mobile avoids that.

Proof of Concept. One of the harder parts of Sales Pipeline is learning to operate it and the concept of moving an Opportunity around. By focusing just on Opportunity movement first, clients are sold quickly.

Transfer of Ownership. As soon as I stopped begging the team to care about using Sales Pipeline, and I showed them the results, they stepped up and asked for more features. This is what we want in a client relationship, right?

In summary, QTMB&KISS – Quit The Monkey Business and Keep It Simple, Stupid. You’ll win the appreciation of your clients, staff, or anyone else who needs a pipeline that way.

Note: Remember that in order to utilize Opportunities you’ll need to have a version of the software that includes this module. If you don’t have it currently, you can upgrade to add it.