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HubSpot’s release brings quoting and payments improvements

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HubSpot's release brings quoting and payments improvements

Some of the most exciting updates from the past month (March to mid-April) include:

  • Service Hub relaunch 
  • Customizable quote templates
  • New features for HubSpot payments and invoices
  • RevOps certification 

Service Hub relaunch

On March 15, HubSpot relaunched its Service Hub tools with new features, including service level agreements (SLAs), Customer Portal and inbound calling. The price has also increased beginning May 2.

These improvements could help more companies adopt HubSpot as a cross-functional revenue operations platform by adding their service team to a tool their sales and marketing teams may also be using.

I was somewhat disappointed to see only minimal improvements to my favorite Service Hub tool, the Knowledge Base, which our company uses for internal documentation. 


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Customer Portal improvements

For Hubspot Service Hub Pro and Enterprise users, the Customer Portal now allows end-users to see all tickets from their company in the customer portal instead of only viewing their own individual user tickets. 

Where to find it. Under the Service menu, Customer Portal. Also, in the Settings area, Website, Customer Portal, scroll down to the Ticket Permissions for the feature described above.

Why we care. Customers can now learn from the answers of other team members’ ticket submissions, which reduces duplicate support tickets. 

Service level agreements (SLAs)

For Hubspot Service Pro and Enterprise users, the new SLAs build out its help desk functionality with working hours, time to first response, time to close, reporting, lists and workflows using SLA properties. 

The two SLA settings per inbox are Time to first reply (to the ticket) and Time to close (the ticket). You have two options for each setting: apply to all tickets in the inbox, or apply based on priority. SLAs will only apply to the chosen work hours when conversations have associated tickets in the inbox.

Where to find it. In the Settings area, Inbox, Inboxes, SLA tab. 

HubSpots release brings quoting and payments improvements

Why we care. SLAs help to set and meet customer expectations about the timing of responses, help the customer support team to prioritize tickets, and help customer support managers to coach reps and improve the support process using reporting and workflows — such as reporting on how many tickets are due soon. 

Inbound calling (beta)

Admins with Sales or Service Hub Starter and above can now buy a U.S., United Kingdom or Canadian phone number to use inside HubSpot for outbound or inbound calls. The calls forward to your own phone and create records, transcriptions and recordings inside HubSpot. Users must have a paid Service Hub seat to receive calls on their personal devices.

Where to find it. In the Settings area, Calling, the orange button on the right, “Get a HubSpot number.”

Why we care. Previously, only outbound calls were possible in HubSpot. Answering inbound calls is part of many customer service teams’ responsibilities, which will help keep all conversations from the same customer in the same system without additional tool integrations.

Customizable Quote templates 

Admins with Sales Hub Pro or Enterprise can now create custom quote templates inside of HubSpot, utilizing the power of CRM, CMS, and HubSpot’s new payment features. The previous limitation was three basic templates. 

Where to find it. Admins can go to the Settings area, Objects, Quotes, then Customized Quote Template. Developers will need CMS starter or above, or Marketing Hub Pro or Enterprise. Developers can use the HubSpot design manager tool to create custom themes, templates, and modules for quotes while ensuring the branding is consistent with style guides. 

Users can find the completed quote templates in the usual Sales Quotes tool.

1651529630 959 HubSpots release brings quoting and payments improvements

Why we care. Many users complained there were not enough template options or they needed to create more complex proposals or contracts beyond simple quotes. This led users to buy and (hopefully) integrate additional quotes software in the past.

New features for HubSpot payments and invoice

The beginning stages of the HubSpot Payments tools were announced in the fall, making it easy to embed payment links inside HubSpot tools such as quotes.

As these are for U.S. users only, our international friends are missing out on these features, and we hope that HubSpot can roll out international versions soon. 

Invoice object for QuickBooks Integration users

Similar to the contact or company objects, invoices from QuickBooks now have their own object records inside HubSpot. 

Where to find it. Go to the Contacts menu, then click on the blue Contacts link underneath the top menu, then click on Invoices in the dropdown menu.

1651529630 40 HubSpots release brings quoting and payments improvements

Why we care. You can now see invoices in one place instead of only on individual deals, and you can use the invoice data in workflows, reporting, and list segmentation.

My company uses QuickBooks, and the integration has been fairly manual to use over the past year while HubSpot worked on improvements. We’re still waiting on an invoice paid date property to sync from QuickBooks, but these new invoice updates are promising.

Sync QuickBooks Invoices to HubSpot

You can automatically add QuickBooks invoices to HubSpot’s invoice object and automatically update invoices in HubSpot when you update an invoice in QuickBooks.

Where to find it. Go to the Settings area, Integrations, Connected Apps, QuickBooks, Invoices tab and there is a toggle on the right side of the screen. Note: If you turn this on, you should first audit and match your Products in HubSpot and QuickBooks, or it could affect your QuickBooks reports and your sales team’s line items in HubSpot.

Why we care. Because manual work is not fun, attaching and detaching invoices to deals and companies, such as when the QuickBooks invoice wasn’t started in HubSpot (recurring invoices). 

You can now embed a payments button link in your marketing emails.

Where to find it. In the email editor, add a button to your email and choose payments in the left side panel dropdown.

Why we care. This feature can help companies bypass the need for a full e-commerce store and help recipients quickly register for a paid event directly from email. It removes a step in the payment process, and removing friction can increase your customers’ willingness to pay.

You can now add additional contact property fields to your payment links beyond just first name, last name, email address and phone number.

Where to find it. Either from the Sales menu, Payments, or go to the Settings area, Objects, Products, Payment Links tab. When you create the link, the new properties are available to add to the form on the second page of setup.

Why we care. Capturing more data can lead to more reporting and workflow opportunities. 

RevOps certification 

HubSpot Academy has released over five hours of content in their free Revenue Operations (RevOps) certification course.

Lessons include: Applying RevOps to the Flywheel, Systems Management for RevOps, Communicating the Value of RevOps to Company Leaders, Structuring Your RevOps Team, Hiring RevOps Team Members and Evaluating and Iterating Your RevOps Strategy, and more.

Where to find it. In your HubSpot portal, click on your profile picture, go to HubSpot Academy, and search the catalog.

1651529630 805 HubSpots release brings quoting and payments improvements

Why we care. HubSpot is a RevOps tool since it can be used across many revenue teams such as marketing, sales, and customer success, with the data flowing easily and accurately through the customer lifecycle. Though there has been a huge increase in RevOps job titles, there aren’t many RevOps certifications or courses. Many people have different definitions of RevOps, so it can be a confusing space, and there is a need for education. HubSpot’s been working hard on this certification for a long time; they interviewed me for it a year ago.

This resource blends practical advice with high-level concepts in an easy-to-consume format that will give anyone of any skill level something to work at.

Additional notable releases

  • CRM Associations improvements
    • You can now associate multiple object records to each other, such as associating more than one company with each contact, deal or ticket. In Pro or Enterprise levels, you can also create custom association labels and use them in lists, workflows and reports, such as “main point of contact” for a company. This is a big improvement over the previous limitations of describing object relationships.
  • Workflow sync to sandboxes (beta)
    • This has been a missing feature in the sandbox tool. Previously, you could create amazing workflows in the sandbox, but you had to recreate them in your regular HubSpot portal. Now you can easily sync them into production.
  • Lifecycle stage customization (beta)
    • This is a highly requested but potentially dangerous feature. Every other area where that function is useful (i.e., Attribution Reporting) will be impacted, and other departments that rely on that property for a different purpose than your use case.
  • Calling integrations for all HubSpot users
    • Free HubSpot users, and users without paid seats, can now use outbound calling integrations to call HubSpot contacts. Previously, they either had to upgrade or only use it for 15 minutes a month.
  • HubSpot app for Zoom meetings
    • Use Hubspot from within Zoom meetings you are hosting to look at participants’ contact records, create new HubSpot contacts and add notes to their contact record during the meeting.
  • Sync health
    • Previously, there was little visibility to background errors preventing records from syncing. Sync Health tells you which records are syncing, being excluded from the sync or failing to sync.
  • Improved multi-touch attribution
    • Two new industry-standard multi-touch attribution models are now available: J shaped and inverse J shaped. 

All the updates, all the time

If you are a HubSpot user, you can find a complete list of recent updates by clicking on your profile picture, Product Updates, and filtering for the last 30 days, past three months or past year.  

HubSpot also describes select new features and shows roadmaps of future items in development on its website.

I also recommend following HubSpot Academy Senior Inbound Sales Professor Kyle Jepson on Linkedin or Twitter. Search for #HubSpotTipsAndTricks.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


About The Author

HubSpots release brings quoting and payments improvements

Jen is the head of operations at Remotish, a HubSpot RevOps and WebOps agency. Her work includes creating plans, processes and programs such as a knowledge management program (wiki), a comprehensive employee onboarding program and a referral partner program that generates 45% of company revenue and earned her the 2022 Heroes of RevOps award from Revenue.io. She was a lesson professor for the HubSpot Revenue Operations certification, a RevOps correspondent at INBOUND2021 and a panelist on the INBOUND After Hours show and the MoPros Career Fair. Jen is currently writing a book about RevOps, to combine her love of research, writing and lifelong learning.

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Take back your ROI by owning your data

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Treasure Data 800x450

Treasure Data 800x450

Other brands can copy your style, tone and strategy — but they can’t copy your data.

Your data is your competitive advantage in an environment where enterprises are working to grab market share by designing can’t-miss, always-on customer experiences. Your marketing tech stack enables those experiences. 

Join ActionIQ and Snowplow to learn the value of composing your stack – decoupling the data collection and activation layers to drive more intelligent targeting.

Register and attend “Maximizing Marketing ROI With a Composable Stack: Separating Reality from Fallacy,” presented by Snowplow and ActionIQ.


Click here to view more MarTech webinars.


About the author

Cynthia RamsaranCynthia Ramsaran

Cynthia Ramsaran is director of custom content at Third Door Media, publishers of Search Engine Land and MarTech. A multi-channel storyteller with over two decades of editorial/content marketing experience, Cynthia’s expertise spans the marketing, technology, finance, manufacturing and gaming industries. She was a writer/producer for CNBC.com and produced thought leadership for KPMG. Cynthia hails from Queens, NY and earned her Bachelor’s and MBA from St. John’s University.

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Revolutionizing Auto Retail: The Game-Changing Partnership Between Amazon and Hyundai

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Revolutionizing Auto Retail: The Game-Changing Partnership Between Amazon and Hyundai

Revolutionizing Auto Retail The Game Changing Partnership Between Amazon and Hyundai

In a groundbreaking alliance, Amazon and Hyundai have joined forces to reshape the automotive landscape, promising a revolutionary shift in how we buy, drive, and experience cars.

Imagine browsing for your dream car on Amazon, with the option to seamlessly purchase, pick up, or have it delivered—all within the familiar confines of the world’s largest online marketplace. Buckle up as we explore the potential impact of this monumental partnership and the transformation it heralds for the future of auto retail.

Driving Change Through Amazon’s Auto Revolution

Consider “Josh”, a tech-savvy professional with an affinity for efficiency. Faced with the tedious process of purchasing a new car, he stumbled upon Amazon’s automotive section. Intrigued by the prospect of a one-stop shopping experience, Josh decided to explore the Amazon-Hyundai collaboration.

The result?

A hassle-free online car purchase, personalized to his preferences, and delivered to his doorstep. Josh’s story is just a glimpse into the real-world impact of this game-changing partnership.

Bridging the Gap Between Convenience and Complexity

Traditional car buying is often marred by complexities, from navigating dealership lots to negotiating prices. The disconnect between the convenience consumers seek and the cumbersome process they endure has long been a pain point in the automotive industry. The need for a streamlined, customer-centric solution has never been more pressing.

1701235578 44 Revolutionizing Auto Retail The Game Changing Partnership Between Amazon and Hyundai1701235578 44 Revolutionizing Auto Retail The Game Changing Partnership Between Amazon and Hyundai

Ecommerce Partnership Reshaping Auto Retail Dynamics

Enter Amazon and Hyundai’s new strategic partnership coming in 2024—an innovative solution poised to redefine the car-buying experience. The trio of key developments—Amazon becoming a virtual showroom, Hyundai embracing AWS for a digital makeover, and the integration of Alexa into next-gen vehicles—addresses the pain points with a holistic approach.

In 2024, auto dealers for the first time will be able to sell vehicles in Amazon’s U.S. store, and Hyundai will be the first brand available for customers to purchase.

Amazon and Hyundai launch a broad, strategic partnership—including vehicle sales on Amazon.com in 2024 – Amazon Staff

This collaboration promises not just a transaction but a transformation in the way customers interact with, purchase, and engage with their vehicles.

Pedal to the Metal

Seamless Online Purchase:

  • Complete the entire transaction within the trusted Amazon platform.
  • Utilize familiar payment and financing options.
  • Opt for convenient pick-up or doorstep delivery.
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Hyundai’s Cloud-First Transformation:

  • Experience a data-driven organization powered by AWS.
  • Benefit from enhanced production optimization, cost reduction, and improved security.

Alexa Integration in Next-Gen Vehicles:

  • Enjoy a hands-free, voice-controlled experience in Hyundai vehicles.
  • Access music, podcasts, reminders, and smart home controls effortlessly.
  • Stay connected with up-to-date traffic and weather information.

Driving into the Future

The Amazon-Hyundai collaboration is not just a partnership; it’s a revolution in motion. As we witness the fusion of e-commerce giant Amazon with automotive prowess of Hyundai, the potential impact on customer behavior is staggering.

The age-old challenges of car buying are met with a forward-thinking, customer-centric solution, paving the way for a new era in auto retail. From the comfort of your home to the driver’s seat, this partnership is set to redefine every step of the journey, promising a future where buying a car is as easy as ordering a package online.

Embrace the change, and witness the evolution of auto retail unfold before your eyes.


Revolutionizing Auto Retail The Game Changing Partnership Between Amazon and Hyundai

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How to Schedule Ad Customizers for Google RSAs [2024]

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How to Schedule Ad Customizers for Google RSAs [2024]

It’s no wonder that responsive search ads have steadily grown in popularity in recent years. Through Google’s machine learning capabilities, RSAs provide a powerful way to automate the testing of multiple headlines and descriptions to ensure a closer match to user intent. The benefits are clear: RSAs mean broader reach, better engagement, and improved performance metrics.

However, all these benefits come at a significant (but reasonable) cost – they can be extremely difficult to manage, especially when it comes to updating ad copy to promote limited time offers.

I know this firsthand – I work with several ecommerce clients with promotions that constantly change. Not too long ago, I found myself going through the consistently tedious process of updating a client’s RSA headlines and copy. As I was making the changes, I thought to myself: “There must be a better way to update this ad copy. I shouldn’t have to use find and replace so many times while pausing and enabling my ad campaigns.”

After expressing this to my colleague, Jordan Stambaugh, the two of us agreed there must be a better way. But we’d have to make it happen. A few weeks later, we put that idea into action and created a more efficient process for updating RSA ad copy on a scheduled basis. If you want to try this process for yourself, just keep reading.

Responsive Search Ad Customizers 101: Basic Options & Execution

Before diving into the process of scheduling automatic updates for your RSA customizers, it’s essential to understand some key Responsive Search Ad fundamentals.

First, you can customize three main options within RSAs: the Attribute Name, the Data Type, and the Account Value. Each of these plays a vital role in personalizing your ads:

  • Attribute Name: This is essentially the identifier for the customizer. It is how you’ll reference the specific piece of information you’re customizing within the ad. For instance, if you’re running a promotion, you might name an attribute “Promotion.”
  • Data Type: This indicates the kind of data the attribute represents and it determines how the information can be formatted and used within the ad. Common data types include Text (for plain, non-numeric text), Percent (to represent percentage discounts), Price (to denote monetary values), and Number (for any numerical value).
  • Account Value: This is the default value for the attribute that you set at the account level. It acts as a fallback if more specific values aren’t provided at the campaign or ad group level.

For example, if you wanted to promote a 10% off discount using RSAs, you’d use the “Discount” attribute, a data type of “Percent,” and an account value of “10% off.” Then, when someone is searching for products, Google would test automatically inserting a copy regarding a 10% off promotion into your ad.

Once you’ve set up the right customization options, you can start to format your RSAs with customizers.

Here’s how:

  • Start by typing in {
  • Click on Ad Customizer then select your attribute
  • Google will populate your attributes that are already uploaded
  • For a simple offer, use the “Default text” attribute as a catch-all. This will ensure your ads run smoothly if Google can’t pull the right messaging from your RSA feed

 

 

How to Schedule Your Ad Customizers with a Feed

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s cover how to schedule your ad customizers.

Just follow this three step process:

1. Create the feed

Start by creating two sheets: The Parent sheet, and the Child sheet. The “Parent” sheet will act as the primary data source, while the child sheet will pull data from the parent sheet.

We’ll start by building the parent sheet. After opening the sheet, start by renaming the active tab to “Promotions.” Don’t skip this step, it’s crucial for referencing this range in formulas later on.

In your “Promotions” tab, head to the top row and label columns A, B, and C with the headers of your ad customizer attributes. For example, you might have “BrandSaleHeadline” as your attribute in column A, “text” as the Data Type in column B, and “Shop the Collection” as the Account Value in column C.

Once your headers are in place, move to cell C2. Here, you’ll input the expression =lookup(today(),F:G,E:E). This formula will play a key role in dynamically updating your RSA customizer based on the current date.

Next, go to columns E, F, and G, which will be used to manage your scheduling. In these columns, you’ll list out the different values your chosen attribute might take, alongside their corresponding start and end dates. For example, under the “BrandSaleHeadline” attribute, you might schedule various promotional headlines to appear during different sale periods throughout the year.

Here’s how your sheet might look:

Now look back at the first 3 columns on your sheet. They should look like this:

Now create a second sheet. We’ll call this sheet the Child sheet. It’s going to automatically pull in data from the parent sheet you just created, and will be the one you link to Google Ads later on.

Columns A, B and C will be almost identical to the child sheet, but we will be using a special formula later so we can automatically populate this. So, start by labeling Row 1 Column A “Attribute,” then the next column as “Data type,” then column C as “Account value.” 

Then go to C2 and use this expression to populate the right account value from the parent document: =importrange(“[PARENT DOCUMENT URL HERE]”,”Promotions!C2″)

Your sheet should now look like this:

We recommend adding a date range with default text for any days you’re  not running a promotion. In the example above, we have “Shop Our Collection” appearing as default text.

2. Input attributes

Once you have your feed created, the next step involves inputting your attributes into the Google Ads platform. This can be done either manually or through a bulk upload.

For the manual approach, navigate to “Tools & Settings” in your Google Ads interface, then go to ‘Setup’ followed by “Business Data.” Here, you’ll find an option for “Ad Customizer Attributes.” Click the plus sign to add your attributes. It’s crucial to use the same attribute names that you’ve established in your Parent Google Sheet template to ensure consistency and proper data synchronization.

 

 

Alternatively, if you prefer the bulk upload method, again head to “Tools & Settings.” This time, select “Bulk Actions” and then “Uploads.” For this process, you only need to upload columns A to C from your template. 

Be aware that it might take some time for your uploaded attributes to be reflected in the business data section of Google Ads.

3. Set up an automatic schedule

At this point, you’ve almost finished scheduling your ad customizers. Navigate to Tools & Settings, then Bulk Actions, then Uploads, then click the Schedules tab at the top. Select your Child Google Sheet as the data source, and share your Google Sheet with the appropriate email.

 

 

And there you have it – Google will automatically pull in the data you populated in the sheets into your RSAs.

Common Challenges When Scheduling RSA Ad Customizers

When we test these sheets with our clients in the wild, we’ve uncovered five common challenges. Be on the lookout for these issues – solving them before they happen can save you a lot of trouble down the line.

Not scheduling your upload when the site changes 

The first and most significant hurdle is the mismatch between the scheduled data upload and website content updates. For instance, if the Google Sheet is set to upload at 11 am, but the website changes occur at 3 pm, there’s going to be a discrepancy where the wrong message could be displayed for several hours, or new messaging could appear prematurely. Conversely, if the website updates happen before the scheduled sheet upload, outdated promotions might linger until the new data is imported. Synchronizing these schedules is crucial; it’s best to align them so updates occur simultaneously.

Skipping QA during a message change

Another pitfall is neglecting quality assurance (QA) during message updates. It’s vital to regularly check the business data section to verify that the correct values are in place post-update.

Issues with the IMPORTRANGE function

Then there’s the technical aspect of setting up the IMPORTRANGE function correctly in the Google Sheets template. The ‘child’ template must reliably pull data from the ‘parent’ sheet. If this function isn’t configured correctly, data won’t be imported as needed.

Not sharing access of the Google template for automatic uploads

Pay attention to your access permissions for the Google Sheets template. Google will prompt you with the email address that needs permission to access the ‘child’ sheet for automatic uploads. Overlooking the sharing of your sheet with this address will prevent the system from working.

Having date range gaps in your parent sheet

Lastly, a common oversight is leaving date range gaps in the ‘parent’ sheet. Every single date must be accounted for without overlaps. A practical tip is to have an ‘evergreen’ backup message ready, scheduled to run continuously, ideally through the end of the year, to cover any potential gaps.

Conclusion

Leveraging Google Sheets in conjunction with Google Ads to schedule RSA ad customizers is a game-changer for managing dynamic promotional content. This process not only streamlines your workflows but also ensures that your ads remain relevant and up-to-date, reflecting current promotions without the need for constant manual intervention. 

By adopting this method, you’ll save significant time and effort, allowing you to focus more on strategy and less on the minutiae of ad copy updates. Give it a try and experience a more efficient way to manage your RSAs, keeping your campaigns fresh and engaging with minimal hassle.

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