Infusionsoft Tips

Novak Solutions has created these tips as part of our weekly Tuesday’s Tip newsletter. Each week we give a new, absolutely free tip that you can use to get more out of your Infusionsoft app.

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Tuesday’s Tip: Getting help with the Infusionsoft API

The Infusionsoft API gives you the power to extend your marketing efforts outside of Infusionsoft and to tie all of your business tools together. Want to use SurveyMonkey responses to trigger campaigns? Want to sync your customers between your front office software and Infusionsoft? Want to let your customers schedule their own appointments? The API makes all of this possible. There are many integration solutions available for Infusionsoft that use the API. We offer several (including a SurveyMonkey integration), and there are a pile more in the Infusionsoft Marketplace. These solutions make it possible to quickly and affordably use the API to improve your business processes. But what if you need something unique? You have two options: hire a developer or write the code yourself. Hire a developer If you choose to hire a developer, we recommend choosing one that already has experience with the Infusionsoft API and that focuses on Infusionsoft development. You can find several in the Infusionsoft Marketplace. Do it yourself If you have some programming knowledge or need something very simple, you may be able to work with the API on your own. Everyone at some point runs into a problem or needs to reference the documentation, so I’ve put together a list of the most useful API developer resources.   DIY resources API documentation – Tells you what API features are available and how to use them. Table reference – To get data into or out of Infusionsoft, you need to know how the data is stored. The table reference gives you this information. It can be a bit confusing because some table names don’t match the current vernacular (for example, groups are actually...

Tuesday’s Tip: Copy a contact to another Infusionsoft app based on your criteria

Did you know that Infusionsoft has the built-in ability to copy contacts between Infusionsoft apps, based on any criteria you specify, without having to manually use the API? There are many situations where this could be useful. For example, you may want your UK contacts to go to one app and your US contacts to another. This would allow you to show region-specific pricing options to your contacts. Or maybe you’ve partnered with a business in a related field. Using this technique you can automatically send them any contacts that don’t qualify for your services but do qualify for your partner’s services. To accomplish this we are going to use the relatively unknown and undocumented lead distribution feature. Configuration and usage is fairly simple once you know what you are doing, so I’ll walk you through it. For this tip to be useful you’ll need at least two Infusionsoft apps. For this example we’ll call our apps Washington (to represent an app targeting US contacts) and George (to represent an app targeting UK contacts). Establish a relationship between the apps Open the primary Infusionsoft app. For our example, all of our contacts will be coming into Washington and will be copied to George if they live in the UK, so we need to open the Washington app. Go to Admin→Settings, then choose Relationships in the Collaboration Settings section. This feature uses the API key from the second app, so enter your second app name and API key. For this example, the second app name is George. Click Save. Create a lead distribution rule table Next we need to tell Infusionsoft what our criteria is for copying...

Tuesday’s Tip: Keep track of relationships in Infusionsoft

Infusionsoft makes it easy to track any kind of relationship between contacts. For example, your business may want to track which contacts are business partners. Or maybe your business needs to keep track of which contacts are family members, such as husband and wife. Infusionsoft calls this a “relationship link” and gives you the flexibility to configure them in whichever way makes the most sense for your business. To setup a relationship link, pull up a contact in Infusionsoft, and then click the Linked Contacts tab. If you haven’t created any link types yet, you’ll need to click Manage Link Types, then New Link Type. Give your link a name (such as “Spouse”). You can also limit how many contacts can be linked together with this link type. For example, a spouse link type should probably have a limit of 1 because you can only have 1 spouse. Click Save. Next, create the relationship link. To do this, go back to the Linked Contacts tab and search for a contact. Select the type of link and click Save Link. That is it! Once you have a relationship link established, you can merge a linked contact’s details into your email. For example, you might include a reference to a contact’s spouse, or cc a business partner. This will show up in your list of available merge fields under the name of the type of link (such as...

Biz Tip: Setup an IVR (Phone Menu)

IVR’s are those magic phone systems most companies have when someone calls. As much as I would love to have a full-time receptionist, it just isn’t practical for our business. We wanted our IVR to be different, and not lame. Give it a call at (480) 725-3434 to check it out. It isn’t hard to setup one of these either. Using a combination of Twilio and OpenVBX it can be setup in about an hour. While we don’t manage IVRs as a normal part of our business, we may do it as a sign of goodwill for somewhere around $500 for a couple of phone lines if you would like some assistance. Give us a call and we’ll work something out. If you want to set it up yourself, here is what we recommend: Start with a timer widget so you can set your open hours. If your office is open, send them to a menu widget, otherwise a message saying you’re closed and then to voice mail. Earlier this week, I said to turn off voice mail, but this voice mail can be automatically sent to your email account, so it flows well. Make your menu recording interesting and brief. Make sure all menus include a “0” option so people who are impatient and push 0 go somewhere (like a receptionist or other individual that can help route the call to the right person). That’s...

Biz Tip: Use an old Android phone with Skype for an office phone

Last year the time finally came for us to get an office phone instead of using my personal cell phone as the main office line. We didn’t want to actually get a land-line (so last decade), and we didn’t need a cell phone since it’s just for the office. After a few hours research we opted to get a Skype subscription with a Skype number (a few bucks a month) on an account that isn’t listed in Skype’s directory. We bought an older Android phone with wireless charging. This essentially gave us a cheap cordless phone for the office. We bought a Nexus 4 from Swappa for $60. It doesn’t need cell service to be used with Skype; just connect it to your office wifi. It sits on my desk, and when it rings I can pick it up (or one of our devs since it isn’t “The Boss’s Cell”), handle the call, walk around the office, etc. We can also take calls on a computer if we want since it is a Skype number. This gives us flexibility for a very low initial and on-going...

Biz Tip: Google Inbox instead of Gmail

Google Inbox is a new way to work with email. Most of us have used our email to manage tasks and get things done for years. Google realized this and created a new interface for Gmail called Inbox. It doesn’t replace Gmail, so if you try it out for a few weeks and hate it then you can always go back to Gmail without losing anything. Inbox is optimized to let us work from our email faster. It still has all the features you’d want from a mail client but it is simplified and includes some needed features for completing tasks. Easily schedule a task associated with an email for a specific date in the future, or add recurring reminders. It’s currently by invite only, so make sure to go to the site below and request an invite. It has made me more productive, and better at follow-up. Check it...