If you love Mautic and use Trello, keep on reading as we talk about connecting the systems with this plugin. And at the same time you will connect sales and marketing as well. Manage your Mautic contacts in a clear and easy way – on a Trello board. Create a card for each contact and have your contacts’ information right at your fingertips. 

Are you new to Trello?

Trello is a Kanban board-centric easy-to-use project management and collaboration tool. The tool works like sticky notes on a whiteboard – in a very advanced manner. 

You can organize teams, projects, workflows and much more by simply dragging and dropping cards on your board. Many teams use Trello every day to keep everyone in the loop, help them stay organized and don’t miss a thing. 

Get started and create contacts in Trello as cards directly from Mautic

When you work through your leads in Mautic you can directly create a Trello card without leaving Mautic with the Mautic-Trello plugin and its Trello power up (plugin) counterpart.

How does this work? Mautic users can download it here for free in GitHub – this function is pre-installed for Aivie customers. After the installation, you will find the new function “Create Trello Card” in your menu for each lead. Just choose the name of the card, the list you would like to add the card to, and a due date.

Install and use the Trello Power Up

If you wish to access Mautic from within Trello, you will need to install the Trello Power Up. Power Ups are like plugins in Trello and can be installed with a click. In case you hit an issue anyway, our tutorial to install the plugin will help you out.

3 benefits of connecting Mautic and Trello

After you install the Power Up in Trello and the plugin in Mautic, you can link your Mautic contacts to a card in Trello (or create a new contact) and then view important details directly in Trello. 

Here are some advantages and some important use cases of the Aivie Trello Power Up: 

1. Add reminders and tasks to your contacts

You can add due dates directly within Mautic – without leaving it. Next time you check your Trello board, the contacts and all the information is simply there.

How we use it: When we see the need for a personal followup, we create a Trello card from Mautic and set a date. Then, every week we go through the contacts on the Trello board, filter for the due date, and initiate calls. So we always know when it’s the right time to reach out.

2. Build a sales funnel in Trello

The principle of Trello is to move cards forward as the tasks progress. The task here is: sales!… and everything that leads to it and beyond. 

You can have Trello lists for the more advanced stages of the sales funnel. From when a contact engages first in a personal conversation with your business to the commitment to a deal, and beyond the sale. Whether your business is in B2B or B2C does not matter, although we do recommend to select your prospects when you are in a high volume Ecommerce business to not overwhelm your Trello board. 

After each conversion, the card is moved forward. This way, you can see the sales funnel at a glance and have control over the most important contacts.

This Screenshot shows you how it might look to visualize your sales funnel on Trello. And with this new Mautic-Trello Plugin you can populate this board automatically.

3. See your relevant contact details in Trello

When you link a Mautic contact to a Trello card you will see the stage, points, tags and the last time they were active directly on the card. This way, your sales or marketing team has more information at the most convenient place at any point in time.

When you combine Trello Power Up with the Mautic-Trello plugin, you can also create cards directly from Mautic. Every card is created for one contact and, of course, shows the contact’s name in the title. 

How we use it: We at Aivie do lead scoring with Mautic using points and stages. This information is also displayed on the Trello card. This way, we can see immediately how interested one contact is in working with us. And maybe now is the right time to contact them again.

Who is behind the Mautic-Trello Plugin

Aivie is a Mautic community partner based in Switzerland. The Mautic-Trello Plugin and Power Up of the same name is 100% compatible with a standard Mautic instance.

Author

Adrian Schimpf is CEO and Head of Product of Aivie, a marketing automation tool from Switzerland for Europe. He designs digital channels and customer interactions with automation, AI and plugins.

He has 20 years of experience at the interface between customers and IT. Most recently as a product manager at Swisscom, previously in various roles at SMEs, start-ups and agencies. Software developer, user experience consultant, project manager, among others.

Adrian Schimpf is a CEO and Head of Product at Aivie. You can follow him on Twitter and read more of his marketing automation tips on Aivie’s blog.

California Family Kicked Off Delta Flight After Argument Over Toddler’s Seat

American Airlines investigates after video shows mom in tears

Delta Employees Asked Man to Leave Flight After Using Restroom

United Airlines Passenger Is Dragged From an Overbooked Flight

I don’t share these incidents to bring judgement upon the airlines or its passengers. The reason I share this is because I think as marketers, we can learn a lot from these situations. We can learn from innovative successes and groundbreaking products, as well as communication breakdowns and errors in judgement. Each of these stories should cause us to reflect and have meaningful discussions in our businesses.

As we consider each of these incidents, what is one thing they have in common? They reflect a breakdown in the customer journey. You’re likely saying, “Yes, we know all about the customer journey, there’s no problem here. We understand the touchpoints, as well as how we engage customers along each step of that journey.” That’s great. However, have you put your customer journey in front of your customer? Would they agree with each touchpoint? Have you considered missing touchpoints that maybe only your customer sees? The director of marketing at each of these airlines likely did not see the journey that included unhappy customers that are asked to voluntarily leave their flights each and every day.

So what does this mean for our marketing automation efforts? We should consider this a wake up call to how we engage our customers at each and every step and with each and every interaction. And that includes the interactions we may not always see or acknowledge.

• Re-assess the Customer Journey:

  Your customer and marketplace are not, and should not be, static. If the way your customers find, access or engage you continues to evolve, then so should your customer journey.

  “A customer is never on a predetermined course – they are unpredictable! By ‘understanding the customer journey’ brands run the risk of pigeon holing their customers and losing them, by trying to control the process.” (source)

  This is significant. Don’t get lulled to sleep by believing that once you’ve outlined your customer journey that it is in “set it and forget” mode. There is a risk to not consistently evaluating each touchpoint. Even touchpoints you think don’t exist.

• Review the Data and Verify:

  One of the most valuable elements of marketing automation is the ability to segment and communicate directly to the needs of our audience. But how often are we reviewing the data and verifying that the value is meaningful?

  “If the enterprise does not augment the product experience with accurate, timely, and relevant information (according to the user’s location, channel and time of usage), users will be left dissatisfied, disoriented, and disengaged.” (source)

  Don’t forget to periodically monitor click throughs and open rates to ensure your content is adding value to your segments at each and every stage.

• Find the Gaps:

  As you reassess your customer journey, not only must you constantly be speaking with you customer facing team, but you must be speaking directly with customers at each stage of the customer journey. Why did that potential customer not place an order? Were there unmet needs? Are there touchpoints that we haven’t addressed?

  “As part of this 360-degree view of the customer, brands need to connect data from both physical and digital touchpoints in order to bridge the gap between the two.” (source)

  These gaps reside in our day-to-day interactions with customers, but also in the digital handoffs that occur as we provide our products and services.

• Add Value at Every Stage:

  Whether your customers are loyal or encounter an unforeseen roadblock, it is incumbent upon you to add value. We are in a sharing economy. The challenge we face as marketers is that every potential customer should be seen as a potential advocate for our business whether they are a customer or not.

  “The art of creating added value starts with the ability to see your business through the eyes of your customers.” (source)

  So walk in their shoes, talk with them directly. Sometimes the best data is not in a report, but directly interacting with the people you serve.

In summary, what can we learn from the challenges airlines have been experiencing over the past couple of weeks? That no matter how long you’ve been doing business, and what you think you know about your customers, there is always an opportunity to learn more and improve the customer journey before, during and after they interact with your business.

For more information about how to create your own custom journey in Mautic, check out our video on the subject.

In the days leading up to digital sales and marketing, the term improvisation (or improv), often took the role of the savvy salesperson who was able to think quickly on their feet in a sales presentation, or the marketer who was able to think outside the box. Improv has many attributes, but can automation be one of them?

The Art of Improv

The value that improv provides is the element of surprise and delight. But this value isn’t based on random or arbitrary activity. It’s based on a few core elements that are second nature to the people who are able to deliver it.

• Listening for relevance:
  One of the key elements of improv in a comedy context is that one person needs to listen and truly understand where the other person is leading the dialogue. This is why marketing automation should never be a solo proposition. To be truly effective in improv, you must listen to other actors and determine their role and how you will interact with them. To create moments of improvisation you must first listen.
• Know Your Audience:
  In any field where communication is relied upon to provide value, listening and understanding who you’re speaking to are key. Have they experienced what you’ve experienced? Whether it’s a group of realtors or bodybuilders, what each group finds humorous will be unique. The connections we make with them must reflect our knowledge of who they are.
• Follow the flow:
  When you’re doing improv, it’s necessary that your story have a rhythm or a cadence. It’s in this flow of story that an audience will find connection. If you’ve ever been to an evening of improv, you’ll notice that there is a broader story being told. The flow of a story will ultimately engage you in meaningful ways. Breaking this pattern or flow will leave audiences feeling disconnected.
• Delight with a payoff:
  There are many times throughout an improvisational skit or comedy routine where there’s a moment of delight or a comedic payoff. It often leaves the audience even more engaged and connected to the story being told. This is one of the most important elements of improv. It’s the response that our amygdala reacts to. It’s the part of your brain that helps evaluate if something is memorable and full of delight.

Improv is part art and part science. It’s not something that can simply be calculated or easily produced. It comes with practice and a keen awareness of these elements. Now let’s take a look at each of these elements in the light of how we automate our marketing and communications.

Automating Improv

Automation continues to be seen as a calculated prescription of actions that are a result of someone’s choice. These seem in complete contrast to the ebb and flow of a improv comedy routine. Or are they? Let’s consider the factors of improv that we’ve highlighted and determine if there is a place in our marketing automation for them.

• Listening for relevance:
  One of the things that we often miss when developing our automation workflows is a close relationship with the other functions of our business that provide us with real-time feedback. Integrations become a key way for businesses to assess relevance throughout the entire product lifecycle. Are you working with other teams in your business? If you’re able to check for whether an email has been opened or a link has been clicked, what other actions/activities can provide feedback? Payment received? Order processed? Shipment delivered? Consider what notifications can be leveraged to help you make the most meaningful connection.
• Know Your Audience:
  This seems fairly intuitive. When someone clicks on a link, visits a page or fills out a form, it begins to indicate intent or motivation. Your audience is providing you with all manner of information that will help you learn more about them. Knowing this information gives you information with which to validate interest. Are you leveraging each marketing channel and function in your business to truly understand them?
• Follow the Flow:
  Consider flow akin to your buying journey. One of the real challenges of improv is the ability to combine all of these factors into a relevant story. The same is true of marketing automation. Follow your visitor/customer as they make decisions. As you do, be sure to provide value at each milestone. Allow their decisions and your value to steer them into opportunities for delight.
• Delight with a Payoff:
  We all know that with improv the payoff is the punchline or the big finish. As we consider marketing’s role in engaging our audience and maximizing resources with automation, we must use these tools to engage our audience, not simply move them through a funnel. Whether you are listening for keywords, monitoring for clicks, be intentional by identifying specific segments or customers to provide truly delight filled moments.

Many organizations are joining the marketing automation movement. They’re taking their simple, routine communications and moving them into an automation system. This is not altogether a bad thing. But the opportunity cost may be greater than anticipated if marketing teams don’t find improvisational ways to make automation a value added part of their marketing strategy. Here’s our chance to take the stage and make each interaction one they won’t soon forget.

…a systematic and repeatable organizational capability to achieve and maintain profitable and significant growth.

With each bug we squash and new feature we develop, we seek to tackle each challenge your business may face. Ultimately building Mautic into an “organizational capability” that will help you fast track your growth.

Your journey is our journey. We are poised and ready to support your growth as you create meaningful experiences with your customers. Release 2.1 carries with it a number of features that we believe will help your business, and ultimately your customers, grow faster and smarter. This release includes the following;

Campaign Management

• Custom Themes: Users now have the ability to upload and use their own custom themes! Create an email or landing page theme/template that represents your brand and use it over and over again. Administrators can upload, download, view or delete themes by accessing the theme menu item in the settings area. All users on the account can access the custom themes from the theme selection area while building new emails and landing pages.
• Multi Lingual Dynamic Content on Emails and Landing Pages: Many businesses work with customers around the globe. Now a preferred language can automatically be associated with a contact based on the language settings in their browser! Users can translate a page or email into various languages and also link different versions together. The page or email is then dynamically displayed into the contacts language! (if a translation exists). The default language can also be set manually.
• New Campaign Builder Experience: Building campaigns should be incredibly fast and intuitive. Well the campaign builder has has gotten a powerful usability increase! A list of available actions are displayed by clicking on the ‘+’ for each campaign item making it more efficient to use the campaign builder. Talk about a time saver.

Contact Management

• Progressive Profiling: Forms now have dynamic fields! When serving up a form, information that the system already knows about the contact can be hidden, and alternate fields can be displayed in their place. This ensures that the contact is only asked to complete limited information every time they fill out a form. This reduces the risk of abandoning a form when they are part way through. Yes!
• Touch Management: There are specific times when you should send information through specific channels. Administrators can now set limits on the maximum number of times a contact can receive a message through a particular channel. Limits can be set per channel, system wide for all contacts and can also be overwritten at the individual contact level. Don’t fall into the trap of over communicating with your contacts.
• New Interface for Timeline Activities: Viewing timeline activities in the contact record can be a struggle. Well, now you can view record detail in a tab-based format, making it much easier to consume and filter activities. Here’s to making information easier to read!

Reporting and Tracking

• Reporting on SMS and Web: You want more detail, we’ve got more detail. Information such as creator, date and category are now tracked for the SMS and Web notification channels. This enables better understanding and visibility of the content sent through these channels.
• Device Granularity: Now you can see which devices contacts are using to view their emails and landing pages! Two new dashboard widgets have been created to show device usage by segment and by channel. Now you can view a breakdown of usage based on devices such as a tablet, mobile or desktop. Device information is also available for each email/landing page, on the contact timeline and in reports. This feature will help you understand what devices your contacts are using to consume your content.

Integrations

• Expanded Salesforce Integration: The integration to Salesforce has been expanded! Now, information from contacts in Salesforce can be mapped back to contacts in Mautic! Timeline activity from the contact in Mautic can be also be written back to the Lead or Contact record in Salesforce. This enables sales users in Salesforce to see what marketing activities the record has interacted with. Win. Win.
• Video Integration: Deeper video integration is here! Users can insert videos from Vimeo or YouTube or any other mp4 platforms onto landing pages with a gate. This means the user can require a contact to fill out a form after the video has played for a predefined period of time. Video consumption metrics including time viewed and percent of the video watched are also available on the contact’s timeline.

We’ve assembled a playlist of videos to help you understand these new features. We’ll be adding to this playlist throughout the day so be sure to hover over the playlist button and scroll down to access them all.

The powerful features we’ve packed into release 2.1 are just that. Powerful. They are designed to help your business move beyond being inspired to grow, and actually create measurable results.

Mautic 2.1 Upgrade Details:

For more detailed information about the release for self-hosted users, please follow this link to the Mautic 2.1 Release Notes. If you experience any challenges accessing or using these incredible new features, please be sure to connect with us on Slack and the Community Forum.

Thank you for being an important part of the Mautic community!

Introduction to Marketing Automation Slides

As you watch the video above you may also want to review the slides on their own. Below is an embed of the slideshare. Interested in printing them out or saving a local PDF? No problem, just click the link and view or download them directly on Slideshare.

1. You’re paying too much.

If you are using marketing automation services, how much are you paying?

What percentage of your departmental budget consists of marketing automation platforms or an external service managing you clients?

The answers to these two questions are likely much higher than you would think. Already a billion dollar industry, marketing automation platforms (like Hubspot, Eloqua, and Marketo) continue to find new ways to coax clients into utilizing additional services with separate pricing tiers and subsequent service caps. Most small businesses and startups cannot afford to pay thousands of dollars every month for a single service.

Does the service you receive match the extreme rates you are paying? It is not secret that marketing automation is expensive, but what are the consequences of the overpriced service? For one thing, it means that only highly developed, revenue generating companies have access to the powerful growth potential of the software, and is the service really worth the cost for those who can afford to pay?

2. No Access to your data

Marketing automation platforms use big data for “Big” results, but without the right effort and access on the user end, results are unlikely to be of any real value. Marketing automation platforms are not only gladly taking your money, but they also get to choose what data you can access. Unfortunately, this means that all potential leads, consumer profiles and traffic data is filtered through your platform, they choose what percentage to give you as a report. As a result, you are at left at the far end of the data stream to use what you are given as opposed to what is yours. Why not allow access to it all, if you so choose? This brings us to the next point, that in addition to only having a limited amount of data access, you do not truly have any engagement with the powerful software itself.

3. Service Only, Not Software.

Marketing automation services are incredibly valuable to the growth of company. According to a survey published by Carlos Hidalgo of the Annuitas Group,

Businesses who use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads.

In addition to staggering growth potential, the survey showed an increase in revenue of 417%. These statics imply that it will not be a matter of if businesses adopt, but when? Let’s explore what you are getting by way of service.

A strange dynamic exists between clients and providers, since you the client rarely engage with the software. You only receive the reports, leads, and data that is given to you in exchange for thousands per month. With the proper investment of time and an easy to use platform, anyone could utilize the strength of concept and achieve new growth potential. Currently, however, marketing automation users do not have access to the necessary software, and the service leaves much to be desired.

4. If You Find A Problem, Too Bad.

When a user experiences any sort of bugs, complications, or limitations in the program, they will have to wait until the next release and update. This drawback of closed proprietary services is common, but somehow almost expected. When a user runs into a problem with the program, they will have to wait until the platform developers address, fix, test and schedule an update release. When did this become the standard response upon encountering errors? What about the possibility of adding features and customizing the software for your purposes? Forget about it!

If you are a developer and coding is your thing, it does not matter that you posses the skills to fix and customize because you will never see that closed software.

5. User/Lead Caps

It is not enough that marketing automation platforms charge you a fortune, decide what data you receive, withhold access to the software, and make it impossible to address errors or add features, but they even add service caps in a multi-tiered service plan. Depending on the size of your company and what product or services you offer, some may not need to generate thousands of leads. Accordingly, each service plan includes a maximum number of leads. As your business grows and you find out that you can now handle all of these leads, providers will re-categorize and reprice your account to squeeze even more of your marketing budget out of you. All the while, you still are only receiving the reduced, chosen leads for which you pay.

When did these problems become so commonplace? I guess it is true that the one with the money and the software makes the rules. It takes a great deal of nerve and arrogance to demand the sky-high service rates of marketing automation providers and still limit your uses, access, experience and growth. So why has no one done anything about this dissonant dynamic?

There is Hope

Hope has arrived to an industry dominated by elitist proprietary services. While executives from Eloqua, Pardot, Marketo and HubSpot are laughing all the way the bank, changes are happening and the ground is shifting beneath their feet. Open source activists have penetrated into many sectors of the tech industry, and now it has reached the explosive marketing automation sector. What this means, is that the absurdly wealth executives who have gotten away with it so far, are about to learn what universal access to powerful marketing automation software will do to their company. Unless the clients are too wealthy to care about what they spend and too lazy to care about the quality of service, this open alternative will be utilized and will be developed.

A Bright Future

It is clear that the market is flush with opportunity and that marketing automation will continue to play an ever more vital role in growing businesses and organizations. The power of the concept is immense, the results are remarkable, and the service has left much to be desired. Software giants will not and cannot continue to do as they please while getting rich on your revenue. So choose wisely and remember what faults to look out for in a marketing automation service provider. Look to open source solutions like Mautic, a nonprofit development community with the only open source marketing automation software on the market. Now that the faults of the current system are clear and the solution seems to lie in open source transparency, more software and services will continue to pour from this powerful alternative.