You and your development team have built an integration with the VerticalResponse API that you know is going to add value for your customers and improve the usefulness of your services. When you’re done patting each other on the back (and giving the VerticalResponse team a tour of your magnificent programming prowess) what will you do for an encore?
There are several steps you can take to ensure your integration is a success for you and your customers. After all, what good is all that work if no one uses it?
Promote Your Integration
Adding email marketing to your software and services is a huge boon for your customers, but they need to know that it’s available. Certainly, you can add a link to your integration within your standard navigation, but is that where your customers are looking for it? You should spend some time exploring how your users are engaging with your software and identify the places where email marketing would enhance their experience. Then, consider adding links to your email marketing integration or developing additional integration points in these places so that your customers can find them exactly when and where they need them.
But don’t limit all of your promotion to in-app design – let your customers know about the hard work you’ve done to improve their experience. Feature your integration with VerticalResponse in a customer-facing newsletter. Submit a press release to publications, blogs and other media that cover your industry. Your Partner Success Manager can work with you to outline the clear benefits email marketing offers to your customers while providing timely statistics, facts and figures to bolster the importance of your work.
Train Your Users
Your users will quickly understand the power email marketing has to increase their customer base and improve their sales, but they first need to understand how to use it. You can flatten their learning curve by providing video tutorials and articles that demonstrate how to take full advantage of your integration with VerticalResponse. The Collateral section of the Marketing Center found on your Partner Dashboard contains several whitepapers that clearly explain email marketing best practices and effective techniques for building mailing lists and improving open and click rates.
This is another opportunity to work with your Partner Success Manager to develop materials that can help your customers succeed in their online marketing efforts. Your PSM can work with you to develop a custom online training session for your customers, allowing them to reach out to an expert and get immediate answers to their burning questions. You can even record the session and host it on your site for your customers to access at their leisure.
Use Customer Feedback to Integrate More Deeply
As your customers start using your integration with VerticalResponse, they’ll no doubt have several suggestions for improvements. Reach out to your customers and let them voice their opinions, not only about this integration, but about all of your services as a whole. Our easy to use survey tools make this a low-effort way to collect valuable information you can act on immediately.
The feedback you get may inspire you to integrate more deeply with VerticalResponse. Do your customers want to host their own templates? You can use our email creation methods combined with single sign on to make this quick and easy for them. Are there common queries customers use in your database (i.e. “All customers who have purchased in the last 60 days”)? You can create several pre-built queries that will simplify their workflow and allow them to identify more opportunities to market and increase their sales. With a live integration, you have a fantastic opportunity to explore what works and what doesn’t and get a good feel for how you can make your customers’ experience even more delightful. Talk to your Partner Integration Manager to discover how easy it is to add such advanced functionality to your system.
Your partnership with VerticalResponse doesn’t end when you push your integration live – in many ways, it’s only just beginning! The VerticalResponse Partner Team is committed to making your integration as successful as possible. You should always feel free to reach out to us with any questions you may have, and we’re always willing to sit down and discover new and interesting ways that you can make email marketing work for you and your customers.