Date Range Searches In Google Apps

The Google Gmail search box is powerful in helping to find past emails and information quickly from your repository of current and archived emails.  There is logic within the search box which you can use to further define your searches.  One is searching on a date range.  You can do this by using the syntaxes:

before:YYYY/MM/DD  

after:YYYY/MM/DD       

Both lines can be used in a single search query string to designate a range of emails.

From there, you can check all of the emails to apply a certain action such as: Delete, Archive, Mark As Read, etc.

 

SomnoMed Inbound Marketing Systems And Sales Process

SomnoMed produces a dental device to alleviate sleep apnea. They work with dental and sleep professionals across the country to educate and partner with them on how to fabricate and sell their custom devices.

Their field sales team worked with dentists and sleep professionals to move them through an educational process which was necessary for driving distribution and sales. AscendWorks worked to design the sales processes for lead qualification and pipeline management. This involved customization of Salesforce.com designed around a channel sales strategy.

The sales process took shape after an extensive Salesforce roadmap design. From the roadmap, we worked through specific communications and sales role activities. We custom developed integrations with Salesforce.com to handle trade show leads and their geographic and demographic information from a kiosk. The sales and marketing teams were able to use their database to access ready information for the sales conversation in real-time.

Next, training of the SomnoMed sales team and management helped drive adoption as well as track pipeline results for forecasting. The results was a higher level of control of both inbound leads from marketing and inside sales lead generation.

Inbound Marketing Systems

A precursor to being able to sell the products SomnoMed promoted was educating their prospective customers. AscendWorks was retained to develop a marketing automation system on somnomedacademy.com based on the marketing team’s specific requirements.

Our project management process involved collaboration with marketing management and driving specific steps in the registration, follow-up and nurturing of new leads on the landing site. AscendWorks designed the branding elements and integrated various parts of systems for signing up new event attendees and collecting payment via an integrated merchant service gateway.

Automatic nurturing via lead flow logic allowed for those who wanted more information to build trust over time with SomnoMed’s value proposition. Leads were captured within an integrated Salesforce.com process for follow up by sales.

We trained the marketing team on using the customized functionality and tool sets we developed which they continue to use for managing ongoing events across the country.

In all, SomnoMed drove a dramatically higher registration and payment system to drive revenue from education events while having a sales process within Salesforce.com for effective engagement and nurturing. The project’s success realigned the sales and marketing functions within the organization to act in a more responsive and relevant way while positioning their brand for new prospects to build trust.

Executive Staffing Firm Uses Marketing Automation For Prospecting

Delta Dallas is an executive staffing firm in Dallas, TX which works with talent in the areas of accounting, finance, information technology and human resources. Our team at AscendWorks was hired to develop specific marketing automation lead nurturing processes for connecting with decision makers for hiring in medium to large enterprises.

We designed two different landing sites which were used in marketing campaigns and outbound sales processes to initiate trust building with prospective executive clients. As new leads registered on the specific landing pages, lead nurturing took place within a logic tree defined by multiple choices based on the buyer’s profile and lead score. Triggered emails were sent to leads based on their preferences and online behaviors.

AscendWorks designed the strategy for how new leads were handled and what nurturing strategies commenced to drive a sales appointment to discuss staffing needs. Each lead was ascribed a score which would increment based on their behaviors on various pages and calls to action.

All of the content, design, email templates and site logic had to be mapped out and created within a 4 week timeframe. AscendWorks met the timeframe and design requirements.

As the marketing automation campaigns expired, Delta Dallas absorbed the content assets into their main site for retaining their assets and continually driving inbound marketing traffic. Thus, the utility of marketing automation for specific marketing campaigns had an ongoing life in the context of indexed content assets for natural search and social media traffic.

Android Phone Gmail Setup

androidA Google Android phone is ideal for working with Google Apps.  On an initial setup of the phone, a respective Gmail or Google Apps account needs to be associated with the phone for integration with the Android Applications, namely, Calendar, Contacts, Gmail and Google Talk.

If you are setting up a new domain to act as the primary Gmail for the phone, you must reset the Google Apps on the phone.  Here is how:

  1. Navigate to Settings->Applications->Manage Applications
  2. Select Gmail->Clear Data
  3. Next select Gmail Storage->Clear Data
  4. Then select Google Apps->Clear Data

Go to Gmail, you will be asked to sign in.

Your phone is now associated with a new Google account.

GMinder Calendar Reminders

Google Calendar currently does not have a sound reminder.  There is a pop-up based on the reminder set in the calendar.GMinder Reminder

GMinder is a program which can manage multiple calendars and triggers a sound alert before an appointment as a reminder.  This program sits quietly in your system tray and prompts you for an appointment based on the settings you create in the program.  It syncs with your Google Calendar and keeps you up to date.  Try it to see how it works in your workflow.

Star = Action

Every day you will be inundated with email. This creates work for you because you have to apply attention and do something.   An email requires one of two things:

  1. Action
  2. Decision

You typically have to do something or decide on something.  It is a game of hot potato as a knowledge worker. You move information to one of these two ends.

In Google Apps, a best practice is to keep a zero inbox.  Your inbox does not have meaning.  It is merely a container.  There is one of four things to do with an email:

  1. Delete it (this is 90% of your incoming email)
  2. Delegate it (forwarding to another person to act on)
  3. Do it (if it takes less than 2 minutes)
  4. Defer it

starredEach email requires attention.  Opening it more than once means that you did not apply attention and make a decision.  It is wasteful.

For those emails that need to be deferred, simply:

  1. Star It
  2. Archive It

This will filter it by the Star symbol and then move it out of your inbox.  Click on the Starred items frequently in order to review your list of action items.

You can even set up a filter to email yourself tasks and Star and Archive it.  This will allow you to do quick brain dumps and know where your actions are.  When you get time, act on the Starred items and remove the Star when it is complete.

Now you will have a fluid personal process to improve your productivity.  Act with speed and precision to keep clear on your work.

 

Changing Fonts In Google Apps Permanently

To change the default text styling fonts in Google Apps permanently, you can manage this from your Gmail Settings as follows:

  • Make sure Default Text Styling is enabled (see below).
  • Follow the Settings link in Gmail.
  • Go to the General tab. Gmail Default Text Style
  • Use the Bold, Italic, Font, Size and Text Color buttons under Default text styleto specify the desired formatting.
    • Click the Remove Text Formatting to reset the font face and color to the default.
  • Click Save Changes.

To enable Default Text Styling in Gmail:

  • Select Settings in Gmail.
  • Go to the Labs tab.
  • Make sure Enable is selected for Default Text Styling.
  • Click Save Changes.

 

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