By now, you should have chosen your goal with Contactually. Now that you have prioritized your time and focused on one goal at a time, the next step is to ensure that all of your contacts are in one place, so that no contacts slip through the cracks.
Why is this important?
Getting all of your contacts in one place allows you to have peace of mind. It ensures that you have one system of record—a central repository of all of your contacts. More importantly, by connecting the various sources of your contacts, Contactually will automatically build a database of contacts and interactions for you, and continually update it. Once your sources are connected, the end result may look something like this:
Contacts originate from a few different places:
- Phone
- Spreadsheet/Admin
- In-Person (EX: Open House for Real Estate)
- Online Lead Sites (EX: Zillow for Real Estate)
- Your own website
- Advertising (EX: FB for Online Leads)
- Transaction Management (EX: dotloop for Real Estate)
1. Email
Connecting your business-related email accounts to Contactually takes just minutes. When you connect your email, we automatically bring in your contacts, as well as, anyone you have emailed in the past (6) months. In addition, we will bring in any new contacts you email moving forward. Contactually then cleans up and fills out missing information from your contacts, such as their picture, job, company, phone number, social profiles, and so much more.
You can connect as many email accounts as you'd like.
For Leads:
Connecting your email will make it easy for leads that you email for the first time to sync to Contactually. From there, you can quickly Bucket them from the Dashboard, under the "Recent Contacts" area.
For Referral Sources:
Connecting your email will make it easy for new referral sources / strategic partners that you email for the first time to sync to Contactually. From there, you can quickly Bucket them from the Dashboard, under the "Recent Contacts" area.
A pro tip to find existing referral sources is to use the Sorting/Filtering features on the contacts page to quickly find contacts you speak to the most often. Learn more here.
For Past Clients:
Connecting your email will make it easy for Past Clients that you previously emailed to sync to Contactually automatically. Once they are in Contactually, you can find them under the Contacts tab and place them into one of your Past Client Buckets.
For Active Clients:
Connecting your email will make it easy for Active Clients that you previously emailed to sync to Contactually automatically. Once they are in Contactually, you can find them under the Contacts tab and place them into one of your Active Client Buckets.
Need more assistance?
Want a video overview? Watch it here.
Want a step-by-step guide? Check it out here.
Need more help connecting your email account(s)? Try our support articles.
2. Phone
Connecting your phone contacts to Contactually allows you to sync to your contact list to your account.
For Leads:
We recommend adding the new lead in the mobile app itself, as this will allow you to quickly add notes and place them into the New Leads Bucket.
For Referral Sources:
We recommend adding the new referral source in the mobile app itself, as this will allow you to quickly add notes and place them into the appropriate Referral Bucket (Top 20, Sphere A, Sphere B).
For Past Clients:
If you previously called your Past Client and had their contact information in your phone book, that data will sync over to Contactually automatically.
Once the data is sync'd over the first time, we recommend using Contactually's mobile app to add notes, update contact information, and place them into the appropriate Past Client Bucket (Past Clients A, Past Clients B)
For Active Clients:
If you previously called your Active Client and had their contact information in your phone book, that data will sync over to Contactually automatically.
Once the data is sync'd over the first time, we recommend using Contactually's mobile app to add notes, update contact information, and place them into the appropriate Active Client Bucket (VIP, Active Client).
Need more assistance?
Want a video overview? Watch it here.
Need more help connecting your phone? Try our support articles (iPhone/Android).
3. Spreadsheet
Do your have your contacts stored away in a spreadsheet somewhere? You can easily import these leads into Contactually using our Import tool.
For Leads:
Do you use a third-party service, such as Vulcan7 for Real Estate, where they allow you to download your leads into a spreadsheet whenever you'd like?
Our recommendation is to have a column for the "New Leads" Bucket in your spreadsheet and to maintain a regular schedule (daily or weekly) to import new leads into Contactually if the only way to get the data in is via a spreadsheet.
Download a sample import template for leads.
For Referral Sources:
Our recommendation is to have a column for the appropriate Bucket in your spreadsheet so that your referral sources can all be Bucketed in a matter of minutes.
Download a sample import template for referrals.
For Past Clients:
Our recommendation is to have a column for the appropriate Bucket in your spreadsheet so that your Past Clients can all be Bucketed in a matter of minutes.
If you have information, such as their closing date, you can import that as a recurring event and be reminded every year to reach out on that special anniversary day. Learn more about recurring events here.
If you do not have the data in a spreadsheet that you maintain personally, you may want to check with your Office Admin, who likely has that data stored internally. It's important to note that when you import contacts, it's always best to have at least these four data points, in (4) separate columns in a spreadsheet:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Phone
Download a sample import template for past clients.
For Active Clients:
Our recommendation is to have a column for the appropriate Bucket in your spreadsheet so that your Active Clients can all be Bucketed in a matter of minutes.
If you have information, such as their current value or stage, you can import those as tags to filter down your contacts further.
Download a sample import template for active clients.
Need more assistance?
Want a video overview? Watch it here.
Need more help importing your contacts? Try our support article.
4. In-Person
Do you ever meet contacts for the first time in-person at an event or reconnect with people who are business-relevant while you are on-the-go? You can easily make sure these in-person contacts are funneled into Contactually.
For Leads:
If you are in Real Estate and you are running an Open House, you can use a digital sign in application use as Spac.io. Whenever someone enters the Open House, simply have them sign in on your iPad or mobile device. Spac.io integrates directly with Contactually. Learn more here.
Want a quick video overview of Spac.io? Watch it here.
Now, you don't have to run Open Houses to have a digital sign in sheet. If you have events to acquire new leads, you can have them sign in digitally using a tool like Spac.io or use something as simple as Google Forms and either connect the responses to Contactually via Zapier or import the leads to Contactually after the event.
Alternatively, you can simply create the contact inside of your Contactually Mobile App on-the-go. If you choose this route, we recommend creating the contact, adding notes of what you discussed, and placing them into the New Leads Bucket, which will ensure that you are reminded to follow up with them in the near future.
For Referral Sources:
There are two scenarios that typically occur when dealing with referral sources and in-person events. Either you already know someone well and see them in person, which triggers you to remember that you want to follow-up with them OR you just met someone new that could be a referral source down the line.
- Already know someone: When this happens, they are most likely already in your Contactually account, as you have probably emailed them. In this case, you can search for the contact in the Contactually Mobile App and then place them in the appropriate Bucket. From there, Contactually will make sure to remind you to follow-up with them when they would otherwise have slipped through the cracks.
- Just met someone: In this case, you can simply create the contact inside of your Contactually Mobile App on-the-go. If you choose this route, we recommend creating the contact, adding notes of what you discussed, and placing them into the appropriate referral Bucket.
For Past Clients/Active Clients:
Because you already know your past and active clients, they are most likely already in your Contactually account, as you have probably emailed or called them. In this case, you can search for the contact in the Contactually Mobile App and then place them in the appropriate Bucket. From there, Contactually will make sure to remind you to follow-up with them when they would otherwise have slipped through the cracks.
Need more assistance?
Want a video overview? Watch it here.
Need more help importing your contacts? Try our support article.
5. Online lead sites
This section is only relevant for New Leads.
For Leads:
It seems like there is a new lead site popping up every week. It's important that the lead site(s) you use to capture new leads are funneled into Contactually automatically. Luckily, there are a few ways to do that.
- Zillow/Truila: If you are in Real Estate, you can use our native integration with Zillow/Truila to funnel your online leads to Contactually. Learn more here.
- FiveStreet: If you use sites other than Real Estate to acquire new leads, you can use a third-party service such as FiveStreet, whose sole purpose is to consolidate over 100 lead sources into one system and then allow you to funnel those leads into your CRM, such as Contactually. Learn more how to integrate FiveStreet with Contactually here.
- Zapier: If you have unique needs and/or use a different lead site not listed with FiveStreet, you can use a service called Zapier to connect to Contactually. Learn more here.
- Other Lead Sites: Check out our full list of integrations to find other lead sites and website forms that connect to Contactually
Want to learn more about Zapier? Watch the webinar recording here.
When using these integrations, make sure to choose the New Leads Bucket as the destination for these leads.
6. Your own website
This section is only relevant for New Leads.
For Leads:
It is such an amazing moment for your business when a new lead fills out a "Contact Us" form on your website. But what happens next? How do you make sure that this new lead is always followed up with? There are a few ways for this lead to be funneled into Contactually:
- You can email the new lead from your Gmail, Office365, Exchange, or IMAP account. Because this email is connected to Contactually, the new contact will automatically appear in Contactually relatively quickly. Once they are added to your Contactually account, you can quickly Bucket them from the Dashboard, under the "Recent Contacts" area.
- If you are a Gmail user, you can use our Chrome Extension for Gmail and create the contact and bucket the contact in Contactually from inside of Gmail.
- You can use one of our integrations with various website providers (see here for the full list)
- If you use a different third-party vendor, you can try using Zapier to connect your website leads to Contactually. Learn more here.
7. Advertising
This section is only relevant for New Leads.
For Leads:
You spend advertising dollars on Facebook or Google Ads to acquire leads. You may even send new leads to a specific landing page to acquire their email address. How do you ensure that all of your advertising dollars are working hard for you? That your advertising efforts are getting the maximum ROI? Connecting your advertising to Contactually will ensure that all of your new leads generated from advertising are in one place
In order to connect your advertising to Contactually, you must use Zapier. In particular, you would use one of the following Zaps:
- Facebook Leads Ad: If you choose this route, when the ad is clicked, it triggers a contact information form. If/when the contact completes the form, that information can funnel into Contactually automatically. See the Zap here.
- Facebook Leads: If you choose this route, you can create an ad in Facebook that directs visitors to a specific landing page. This can be your own website or a specific landing site company such as Unbounce. Depending on your website company, you can use their native integration (EX: BoldLeads) or use Zapier to connect with specific website/landing page companies
- Google ads / other advertising: As long as the visitor fills out information somewhere along their journey of interacting with your advertising efforts, that data can be funneled into Contactually. Most often, our users will run ads on Google and then direct the visitors who click on the ads to a specific landing page. You may want to check out Unbounce or LeadPages, both of which are landing page companies that can be integrated with Contactually.
8. Transaction Management
This section is only relevant for Active Clients.
For Active Clients:
In some industries, such as real estate, there are a plethora of tasks involved with managing an active client. In other industries, you may use task or project management systems.
In order to connect your active clients that are managed in a different system to Contactually, simply integrate the tool. In particular, you would use one of the following methods
- dotloop: If you choose this route, you would integrate your dotloop account to Contactually under Integrations in your Contactually Settings. From there, contacts that originate in dotloop are automatically added to Contactually and be given a "Dotloop" tag in Contactually. Once inside of Contactually, you can filter by the tag and Bucket them appropriately or you can quickly Bucket them from the Dashboard, under the "Recent Contacts" area.
- Asana/Task Management: There are quite a few project management tools out there. If you use one that syncs with Zapier, you can integrate the two system and ensure that active clients that originate in the project management tool are automatically funneled into your Contactually account.
In conclusion
No matter where your contacts originate from, it's important that the data is flowing into Contactually. Following the steps above provides you with a specific process to follow to ensure that no important relationship, regardless of your goals with your Contactually, slips through the cracks.
Action Item: Make sure that all of your contacts are in one place and funneled into Contactually
Next Week: We will go over prioritizing your contacts based on how likely they are to help your bottom line.