Category: Previous Post

  • How To Do An Advanced Merge Field Notation

    Summary:

    In the About Advanced Merge Field Notation video, 2014 Infusionsoft Partner of the Year, Kim Snider, walks the audience through the various nuances associated with Advanced Merge Field Notations. During the video, Kim explains what AMFN is, how it can be used and what makes it the “secret sauce” of Pocket Developer.

    Advanced Merge Field Notation:

    Time Stamped Show Notes:

    • 00:05 – Introduction from Kim Snider
    • 00:18 – The video covers the definition of Advanced Merge Field Notation and explains what can be done with it
    • 00:23 – Within The API Guys website go to → Learning Center → Pocket Developer Documentation → Scroll to Advanced Merge Field Notation
    • 00:50 – Advanced Merge Field Notation is the “secret sauce” of Pocket Developer and what enables it to do so many things
      • 01:06 – Specifically it enables users to work with fields that are not normally available in the drop-down of Campaign Builder
      • 01:35 – It also allows users to work with those field in a contact other than the one going though the campaign
    • 02:16 – Advanced Merge Field Notation can be used in any of the core plug-ins from the API Guys
    • 02:52 – How to Use Advanced Merge Field Notation
    • 03:17 – 99% of API Guys plug-ins work via an HTTP Post
    • 03:26 – An example of Advanced Merge Field Notation
    • 04:12 – Example #2 of Advanced Merge Field Notation
    • 04:52 – Kim walks through Reference Notation
      • 04:55 – This allows the user to work with a specific opportunity that may or may not be connected with the contact going through the campaign
      • 05:19 – There are always two required parameters when working with a Reference Notation → table and field
    • 05:30 – Kim talks through some of the Valid Qualifiers
      • 05:44 – FilterBy → Allows for the performance of a query
      • 06:26 – Newest and Oldest → Only returns the newest (or oldest) record
      • 06:55 – Unpaid → Only supported for queries on Invoice Tables
      • 07:19 – IsEmpty → Returns all empty fields
      • 07:29 – GreaterThan
      • 08:05 – Before
      • 08:29 – OrderBy → Sort the results of a query by the specific field
      • 09:08 – Max → Returns maximum of all returned numeric values in the specific field
      • 09:14 – Count
      • 09:20 – Sum → Returns the sum total of all values returned by the Advanced Merge Field query
      • 09:39 – Global → Runs “global” queries for all contacts, not just the contact associated with the action or sequence
      • 10:09 – Combine → Takes the results of an Advanced Merge Field query into one string and applies a “glue” between each result set
      • 10:52 – All
    • 11:05 – Additional examples of Advanced Merge Field Notation
    • 11:14 – prefetch
    • 11:38 – FAQ
    • 12:14 – Kim’s contact information

  • How To Use Custom Delay Timer

    Summary:

    In the How to Use Custom Delay Timer video, 2014 Infusionsoft Partner of the Year, Kim Snider, provides the audience with a succinct and clear demonstration of how Custom Delay Timer can be used to delay a campaign from firing using seconds as the unit to determine the length of delay.

    How to Use Custom Delay Timer:

    Time Stamped Show Notes:

    • 00:07 – Video jumps right into the Campaign Builder demo
    • 00:16 – Infusionsoft users would use Custom Delay Timer if, for example, they wanted to build a delay into a sequence but required something shorter than what Campaign Builder naturally has built-in (which is a 15 minute delay)
    • 00:57 – Custom Delay Timer is an HTTP Post plug-in and it gets installed on YOUR server
    • 01:39 – There are two parameters to Custom Delay
      • 01:40 – How many seconds does the delay need to be (delayFor)?
      • 01:45 – A unique call name (callName)
    • 02:00 – Following every delay  there needs to be an API Goal
      • 02:17 – Looking at the Goal you can see the App Name (which is also in the URL) and the callName
      • 03:15 – Think of an API Goal as having a the same function as a tag; the only difference is that with a tag goal you must access the contact record to apply the tag
    • 03:38 – Kim demonstrates how this works in practice
    • 05:32 – The API Goal is particularly useful if you make a number of calls to external 3rd party integration
    • 06:07 – Checking to see if Custom Delay Timer worked properly

  • How To Email Anyone Anytime

    Summary:

    In the How to Email Anyone Anytime video, 2014 Infusionsoft Partner of the Year, Kim Snider, demonstrates how to properly use the Email Anyone, Anytime plug-in to send an email with multiple to, cc, bcc and merge fields from any contact record, with as much or as little frequency as necessary.

    How To How To Email Anyone Anytime

    Time Stamped Notes

    • 00:05 – Introduction of topic from Kim Snider
    • 00:38 – Like most Pocket Developer plug-ins from the API Guys, Email Anyone Anytime runs from a HTTP Post
    • 00:44 – In this video, the demo campaign is very straightforward; Email Anyone Anytime is triggered by a goal, nothing else
    • 00:55 – Looking at the HTTP Post, the domain in the URL will reflect the location of installation (typically your server)
    • 01:48 – When creating a new HTTP Post snippet, contactId and the merge field contact.ID will populate by default and should not be changed
    • 02:00 – Email Anyone, Anytime only has one other required field besides contactId and that field is templateId.
      • 02:13 – There are also five optional fields: from, to, cc, bcc and delete
    • 02:25 – templateId
      • 02:30 – Infusionsoft does send an Infusionsoft template so YOU need to tell it which template to send
    • 03:11 – from and to
      • 03:18 – If you chose to put something into the from and to fields, it will override whatever is in the template
      • 03:43 – Three different things can go into the from field: a hardcoded email address, a standard Infusionsoft merge field or an advanced merge field notation from The API Guys
      • 05:12 – The three options for the to field are the same as the three options for the from field
    • 09:55 – bcc
      • 10:05 – We can send this to the owner of the contact or hardcode something
      • 10:10 – There are challenges with using owner, outlined here
    • 11:05 – delete
      • 11:10 – This is a true or false field
      • 11:49 – The default for this field should be false
      • 12:30 – Why care about the delete field?—Because if you send a large volume of emails and they have various cc’s and bcc’s that do not exist (and you’re constantly deleting the cc’s and bcc’s, but sending the emails to the same people over and over), every time you recreate the email you’ll be incrementing your contactId really quickly
    • 13:25 – Talking about the Email Anyone Anytime sequence
    • 13:35 – Looking at the email template, there are a couple of things to know
      • 13:40 – Not only can we override the from and to fields, but we can also override the subject line (13:58) and body of the email (15:05) by using Standard Fields or Advanced Merge Field Notation
    • 17:31 – The delivered email
    • 18:38 – Kim’s contact information

  • How To Send Email to Staff But Link to Contact

    Summary:

    In the How to Send Email to Staff but Link to Contact video, 2014 Infusionsoft Partner of the Year Kim Snider provides a quick run-through of how users can overcome Infusionsoft email builder’s tendency to automatically populate form fields with the information of the email recipient as opposed to the information of the contact going through the campaign.

    How To Send Email to Staff But Link to Contact

    Time Stamped Show Notes:

    • 00:15 – Introduction of topic: How to send a hardcoded email to staff with a link containing the information for a contact going through a campaign
    • 00:42 – The start of Kim’s first example
    • 01:21 – The challenge of today’s assignment? – Infusionsoft email builder automatically attaches the contact information of the person the email is being sent to
      • 02:01 – What does not work when trying to accomplish this goal
      • 02:26 – The portion of the campaign used in Campaign Builder
    • 02:34 – Kim defines the scenario and the sequence-used in Campaign Builder
    • 03:12 – Form for scheduling with unpopulated fields
    • 03:30 – Do not create an automation link, that will not work
      • 04:14 – What happens if an automation link is used
    • 04:57 – Hard-coding the link will not work either
    • 06:12 – The HTML snippet is key to actually making this whole process work
      • 06:35 – The link that Kim creates
    • 07:05 – The URL to the scheduling form
    • 07:11 – Kim defines the query string within the HTML snippet and highlights the string values
    • 08:30 – What happens when the email is sent
      • 08:40 – The email address associated with the contact record will not receive the email
      • 09:05 – How the email is sent
    • 09:35 – The entire command sequence outlined in Campaign Builder
      • 09:55 – Application of the tag to fire the sequence
    • 10:12 – Delivered email
      • 10:45 – Query string Kim created has replaced merge fields with information from the contact’s record and pre-populated the form
      • 11:14 – Remember: If field information is not included in the query string, the field will remain unpopulated on the form
    • 11:23 – Inputting supplemental information into fields that did not pre-populate
    • 12:22 – Kim’s contact information

  • How To Prepend to Person Notes

    Summary:

    In the How to Prepend to Person Notes video, 2014 Infusionsoft Partner of the Year Kim Snider provides the audience with a quick demonstration of the proper technique behind prepending person notes in Campaign Builder.

    How To Prepend to Person Notes

    Time Stamped Show Notes:

    • 00:16 – Person Notes is a tab located within a given contact record in Campaign Builder; they contain a large area for collecting information
    • 00:25 – The objective here is to add additional information to the contact’s (Dritte Dawg is the contact in the demo video) Person Notes—essentially the aim is to create and keep a running, time-stamped log file in reverse chronological order of contact field changes
    • 00:50 – This is a great way to retain mission critical data being changed by a form or track changes in a sequence
  • 01:14 – Definition of prepend
    • 01:25 – Any Text Anywhere Pocket Developer plug-in is key to this process
  • 01:33 – Within Campaign Builder, go to the Pocket Developer demo/testing area à Click edit
  • 02:09– Within the Any Text Anywhere plug-in, Click the Prepend Contact Notes button
  • 02:20 – In any post, there is the URL and any number of Name/Value pairs
    • 03:05 – The definition of Prefetch Notation
  • 03:37 – Contact.ContactNotes is the merge field name for the Contact’s Person Notes
    • 03:52 – Contact.ContactNotes will be assigned to a name using the prefetch notation of [contactNotes]
    • 04:04 – Whatever is currently in Contact.ContactNotes (the existing Person Notes) is fetched using this prefetch notation
  • 04:08 – This demo also fetches whatever is in Contact.MiddleName using the prefetch notation of [middleName]
  • 05:25 – The saveTo field can never have tildes
  • 05:33 – textToSave notation sample defined and explained
    • 06:19 – Tying it back to the prefetch[middleName] notation
  • 06:33 – When working in Pocket Developer, everything is case sensitive!!!
  • 07:01 – The content pulled for textToSave will be saved to Contact.ContactNotes which (remember) is the Person Notes field within the contact record
  • 07:18 – The final product…what it should look like

  • Secrets & Lies: How To Build Infusionsoft Campaigns Like the Top 1% Do

    Summary:

    In Secrets & Lies – How to Build Campaigns Like the Top 1% Do, 2014 Infusionsoft Most Helpful Partner, Kim Snider, explains how developing world class skills with Infusionsoft can lead to world class profits for Infusionsoft professionals and power users. Kim also provides a high-level introduction to The Art of Campaign Building Mastery Course, and answers an avalanche of questions from a highly engaged audience.

    Sponsored By:

    The Art of Campaign Building Mastery Course – A course for Infusionsoft professionals who want to catapult themselves into the Top 1% of Infusionsoft users, thereby making 2015 a watershed year, both personally and professionally.

    Webinar Replay

    Show Notes:

    • 00:15 – Kim’s Introduction
    • 01:12 – Webinar topic introduction
    • 01:25 – What the webinar will cover specifically
    • 02:20 – Lie #1 – Infusionsoft Can’t
    • 02:35 – Can’t is a lazy word, Infusionsoft can do anything
    • 07:10 – Reporting is not the strong suit of Infusionsoft
    • 07:50 – ProTip – Best of Breed, Hub and Spoke Framework
    • 09:50 – It’s easy to say “no, it can’t” when it comes to Infusionsoft, but the truth is it usually can
    • 10:13 – “Can” can save the deal
    • 10:24 – “Can” positions you as an expert who can command expert fees
    • 10:44 – “Can” helps you realize the full power and potential of Infusionsoft
    • 11:05 – “Can” allows you to find money and produce ROI
    • 11:15 – We are going to banish the word “can’t” and start working towards “can”
    • 11:35 – Secret #1 – You CAN do the same work in half the time and make twice the money
    • 12:40 – There are two things that help accomplish Secret #1
      • 12:45 – Take advantage of tools
        • 13:02 – Productivity Tools
        • 14:22 – Best of Breed Integrations
        • 15:45 – Automation Tools
        • 16:00 – Campaign Builder Tools
      • 16:38 – Access the rest of Infusionsoft
        • 19:00 – Demo of this concept
        • 24:50 – Demo #2 of this concept
        • 28:35 – Tying it ALL together
      • 29:30 – Kim begins discussing The Art of Campaign Building Mastery Course
      • 30:23 – What is The Art of Campaign Building Mastery Course?
      • 31:20 – Kim’s run-through of the Mastery Course curriculum
      • 31:45 – Kim teaches the course herself and it is 20+ hours of direct training from her spread over two weeks
      • 32:28 – Copies of all the campaigns used in the course will be transferred to your app at the conclusion of the class.
      • 33:36 – The Art of Campaign Building Mastery Course is not 100% Pocket Developer all the time
      • 34:20 – All sessions are 2-3 hours and start at 5PM EST
      • 37:03 – 100% Money Back Guarantee on the course
      • 41:00 – Start of Questions
      • 41:19 – Question #1 from the Audience
        • Where do we have the productivity list? I would love to see what you use.
        • 41:28 – Answer
      • 43:00 – Question #2 from the Audience
        • Do we get the library of merge fields as part of the course?
        • 43:20 – Answer
      • 45:02 – Question #3 from the Audience
        • Is it too early for me to try and learn such advanced techniques? Are there any other courses you’d recommend for more intermediate students?
        • 45:20 – Answer
      • 47:49 – Question #4 from the Audience
        • Why shouldn’t we start a campaign with a tag?
        • 47:52 – Answer
      • 49:55 – Question #5 From the Audience
        • So my correct understanding is you’re not using up custom fields by using the strategies you just showed?
        • 50:05 – Answer
      • 50:32 – Question #6 from the Audience
        • [Is the plug-in message on Facebook meant to be public or private?]
        • 50:39 – Answer
      • 50:57 – Question #7 from the Audience
        • Are the advanced merge fields available to any or all Pocket Developer mods?
        • 51:02 – Answer
      • 51:46 – Question #8 from the Audience
        • Is the Pocket Developer Any Date, Any Format, Anywhere plug-in the one you were using earlier in the Demo?
        • 51:51 – Answer
      • 52:25 – Question #9 from the Audience
        • If we purchase Pocket Developer suite can it be used in multiple apps such as your clients?
        • 52:30 – Answer
      • 52:54 – Question #10 from the Audience
        • Most of my campaigns are started with goals and I’ve been using Infusionsoft for 8 years…
        • 53:02 – Answer
      • 54:09 – Question #11 from the Audience
        • With the option to purchase the Power-User Suite on this course, it mentions new plug-ins to be released within the next 3 months. Are you able to give us an idea of the cool new ones on the way or is that secret-squirrel for the moment?
        • 55:00 – Answer
      • 56:38 – Question #12 from the Audience
        • What plug-in would be best to optimize a free sample hard-good shipped, mainly for sample consumption follow-up?
        • 56:47 – Answer
      • 57:45 – The Big Secret—The one word that is key to earning more money and becoming one of the top 1%’ers…
      • 57:52 – VALUE
      • 58:05 – To properly understand value you need to understand the meaning of fee
      • 58:30 – The main mistakes consultants make
        • 59:00 – Trading Time for Money is a terrible way to do business
        • 59:21 – Failing to understand the value equation
        • 60:34 – Failing to translate the importance of your advice into long-term benefits for the client
        • 61:50 – Failing to have the courage to demand fees that are commensurate with the value you are providing to the client
      • 63:10 – Positioning to provide higher perceived value—It’s all about image!
      • 66:38 – Defining what it means to be a Top 1%er
      • 67:55 – Kim’s closing and contact information

    5 Key Points:

    1. “Can’t” is a lazy word. Anyone can say “Can’t”. Finding your way to “Can” is where the big money is.
    2. Maximize the effectiveness of Infusionsoft by taking advantage of tools and accessing Infusionsoft in its entirety.
    3. Value is the one word that is indispensible when it comes to earning more money and joining the Top 1%ers
    4. Trading time for money is a terrible way to do business.
    5. Better position yourself for success by projecting a high-value image.

  • How to Speak CEO (Part I) – Archive With Notes

    Summary:

    In How to Speak CEO, 2014 Infusionsoft Most Helpful Partner, Kim Snider, gives an in-depth presentation on the nuances of thinking, speaking and acting like a CEO. Kim shares powerful insights on the importance of quantifying and verbalizing value in order to achieve business objectives.

    Sponsored By:

    The Art of Campaign Building Mastery Course – A course for Infusionsoft professionals who want to catapult themselves into the Top 1% of Infusionsoft users, thereby making 2015 a watershed year, both personally and professionally.

    Webinar Replay

    This video is no longer available.

    Time Stamped Show Notes:

    • 01:05 – Introduction of Kim Snider, the President of The API Guys
    • 01:55 – This webinar is about more than just “selling”
    • 02:00 – The webinar is about making sure you get paid for the value that you bring, with the ultimate goal being earning more money with less effort
    • 02:35 – The API Guys Manifesto
    • 04:07 – Clearly articulating value is absolutely paramount to growing your business and revenue
    • 06:20 – A brief look into Kim Snider’s background
    • 07:00 – It’s easy to get down in the weeds (stressing technical abilities, etc.), but it’s more important to quantify and verbalize the ROI for your client
    • 11:40 – The Payback Period Example
    • 12:35 – Burdened Cost is the in-depth analysis of labor cost, not just paid salary
    • 15:00 – The math of the Payback Period
    • 16:18 – Do not overlook the importance of stressing Opportunity Cost
    • 17:30 – Return on Investment (ROI ) example
    • 21:50 – Remember that money is a tool; give money the most efficient job available
    • 22:35 – What does money cost?
    • 23:14 – Risk Adjusted Return example
    • 26:00 – What affects the probability of return?
    • 28:21 – Where can you obtain 100% probability for your customer?—The backend
    • 29:19 – Hope is a bad investment strategy
    • 36:19 – The first question from the audience pertains to Burdened Cost:
      • If we’re talking with a prospective client on the back-office side of things is a $100 per hour something you’ve seen before?
    • 36:43 – Kim’s answer to Question #1
    • 40:24 – Bottlenecks: Identify them and eliminate them
    • 41:15 – Using manufacturing to demonstrate the damaging effects of a bottleneck
    • 43:05 – Emotion versus Math; the math says eliminate the bottleneck but the emotion is always to resist spending the money to get rid of it
    • 44:00 – Find ways to establish the baseline numbers of a business or project
    • 47:06 – At the end of the day, it’s all about talking to people; knowing how to verbalize strategically is key
      • 47:30 – Tell me more about that
      • 48:00 – It doesn’t make sense for us to spend time on this if the solution I’m going to propose costs more than it is worth to you
      • 49:12 – What would it mean if we could do “X” for you?
    • 52:30 – The worst trade in the world…
      • 52:37 – Trading time for money
    • 54:00 – Questions
      • 54:50 – Businesses have different issues, concerns, etcetera; have you [Kim] always found success by always saying some boilerplate phrase to demonstrate your value at the start of the conversation?
      • 57:10 – Are there any phrases that your prospects say that make you [Kim] back away?
      • 58:03 – Would you [Kim] have a ROI verses backend optimization conversation with a small-business client?
      • 59:40 – Are you [Kim] selling Infusionsoft, a solution or yourself when you speak with a prospective client?
      • 60:00 – Where can people get more information on you [Kim Snider] and The API Guys?
    • 60:28 – The How to Speak CEO webinar is a “slimmed down version” of Day 1 of the Art of Campaign Building Mastery Course

    5 Key Points:

    1. It’s not about trading time for money; it’s about trading value for money
    2. Clearly articulating value is key to finding success in business
    3. Remember that money is – at its most basic level – a tool
    4. Look for bottlenecks – often the CEO or founder – these are generally guaranteed ROI.
    5. The worst trade in the world?—Trading time for money

    Credits:

  • About Advanced Merge Field Notation

  • About HTTP Posts and Pocket Developer

  • How To Use .Sum to Add Values Across Records With Pocket Developer

    Summary:

    In the How to Use .SUM to Add Values Across Records with Pocket Developer video, 2014 Infusionsoft Partner of the Year Kim Snider shows Pocket Developer users how to take advantage of the Advanced Merge Field Notation, .SUM and its quantitative prowess.

    How to Use .SUM to Add Values Across Records with Pocket Developer

    Time Stamped Show Notes

    • 00:05 – Introduction from Kim
    • 00:19 – Demoing .SUM as an Advanced Merge Field Notation
    • 00:28 – TheAPIGuys Learning Center → Pocket Developer Documentation → Advanced Merge Field Notation → How to Use It → Directives → .SUM
      • 01:03 – SUM returns the sum of the total of all values returned by the Advanced Merge Field Query
    • 01:30 – All core plug-ins from The API Guys will use Advanced Merge Field Notation
      • 02:25 – For this specific demo, Kim will use the Any Text, Anywhere and Field Math plug-ins
    • 02:42 – This demo assumes three things:
      • 02:46 – You (the user) know how to install plug-ins from The API Guys
      • 02:53 – You (the user) understand HTTP Post snippets
      • 03:02 – You (the user) have basic working knowledge of Advanced Merge Field Notations
    • 03:50 – All Pocket Developer plug-ins run from Campaign Builder
      • 04:00 – The URL tells Campaign Builder which plug-in is to be used
      • 04:25 – Name/Value pairs are what tell Pocket Developer what, specifically, to do
    • 04:30 – Kim defines the specifics of the example in the video
      • 05:27 – In this example, the contact has four opportunities with four different projected revenues
      • 05:37 – When given the command, .SUM will sum these four different projected revenues and place that total within the user-specified field
      • 05:58 – In this example, the .SUM sequence will be fired by a tag
      • 06:04 – Kim applies and runs the tag run qualifier
    • 06:25 – The result of the example?—All four projected revenues are now clearly visible in the Contact Record
      • 06:40 – The .SUM did not need to be written to the Contact Record, it could have been written anywhere
    • 08:22 – At the bottom of every plug-in description within The API Guys store is a Schedule Now button that allows Infusionsoft users to schedule a 30-miinute appointment with Kim Snider.
    • 08:40 – Kim Snider’s contact information