P.S. I’m coming to a city near you and would love to see you.  My Freedom Formula events are filling up, but there are still seats available.  Check it out here.  The goal is to show you how to grow by millions.  What got you to where you’re at won’t get you to where you need to go.  But once your marketing is dialed in the right way, you can start growing by millions.  See you there.

Here’s a quick video showing how this is done and why its so important. Click the image below to play the video.

Share your thoughts/reactions in the comments below.

Since my young teenage years, I’ve wanted to surf the hollow, fast Indonesian waves I often admired in surf magazines.  I longingly read the articles and stared at the pictures of fortunate souls who seemed to “live the life” in the these tropical heavens.  Last week I was able to fulfill that teenage dream.  But, even more fulfilling than actually surfing the waves, was being there with my amazing wife and children.  Paddling into heavy surf with your own sons is both exhilarating and a bit nerve-wracking.  I’ll expound on that at another time.

After one of our best surf sessions, by two oldest boys and I trekked back up the beach and down a small road lined with shops at the end of an open-air market.  The vendors desperately tried to get our attention.  Noticing our surfboards and dripping hair, they clamored with offers of Billabong t-shirts, Vans sunglasses, and other “surf” attire.  As we reached the end of the market, the approaches changed.  They must have realized that we weren’t interested in their wares, but were instead seeking a ride back to our hotel.  The calls almost immediately shifted to “Taxi?”, “You need taxi?”.  “Yes!”, I responded.  And they yelled down the way to Dewa.

Dewa met us with a smile at the end of the market, his van clean and ready.  As is the custom in Bali, we negotiated a price.  He started at 60,000 rupiah (around $6).  I had paid 30,000 that same morning to come the opposite direction.  After a bit of haggling, we settled at 30,000.

But, something strange happened during that short ride, and I ended up giving him 50,000 rupiah.  It wasn’t an act of pity or charity.  I felt he had truly earned and deserved more than what he was willing to charge.

Dewa became a person I really like in about 60 seconds.  By the end of our 8 minute ride, he was a friend.  A friend I hope to stay in contact with for the rest of my life.

How did he do it?  I wish I knew the exact formula.  I wish I could break it down into 5 easy steps.  But it’s not that easy.  I’ve ridden in hundreds of taxis.  Usually I’m tired (as I was after some good surf) and I just want to be left alone.  So, I’m often bothered by taxi drivers’ lame attempts at small talk.

In Bali, as in many places, taxi drivers don’t make much money.  They generally scrape a measly existence from their earning.  Dewa is no different.  I learned a lot about Dewa and from him in our 8 minute ride.

The first thing he did was relate to me.  He noticed I had my sons with me and asked how many I had.  I replied that I had 3 sons and the youngest was back at the hotel.  He shared that he had two daughters, one 7 years old, one three, and his wife was 6 months pregnant with their third and he hoped it was a boy.  He talked briefly about how his wife wasn’t working any more and its now tough for him to provide since he alone is the breadwinner.  He wasn’t begging or having a pity party.  He was just stating the facts.

Dewa asked how our trip was going and what other plans we had.  I told him we planned on going to the zoo the next day (by the way, the Bali zoo is a university in upselling – check it out if you ever get the chance).  Dewa offered to take us, but we had already arranged transport with a package from the hotel.

Dewa gave me a business card at the end of our ride and encouraged me to call him if we needed another ride anywhere else.  I had really enjoyed our ride with Dewa, but I didn’t think much of it at the time.  We had ridden in a few other taxis and I was gathering a small collection of business cards on our hotel desk.  Dewa’s card ended up on the desk in the pile along with the rest.

Two days later we went surfing at the same spot.  As we passed by the market it began to rain, hard.  The vendors immediately realized our plight and called to us, “Taxi?”.  “Yes!”, was again our reply.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Dewa waiting with a smile and his van door open.  We hopped in, immediately defiling his pristine van with rain water, salt water, sand, and mud.  I felt bad.  But Dewa instantly made us feel at home by saying “Hi Tyler, how was the surf?”.  How did he remember my name?  It had been two days and surely he had driven many other customers to and fro having similar conversations.  He also realized that my second son was not with us.  He wondered where he was.  And, to top it off, he asked how we had enjoyed the zoo the day before.  Dewa had remembered everything about us.  He had truly cared.  I think that was the key to his ability to form a bond and have a great conversation with us during the first ride.  He cared.  He was genuine in his concern for us.  He wasn’t just driving us to make a buck.  He loved doing it.

Again during our trip back to the hotel, he reminded me that we could call him if we needed anything.  We had been planning a trip to the other side of the island and I told him that I’d give him a call the next day to schedule with him.  I still had his card in the pile on the hotel desk.

The next day we went as a family to the open-air market where we met Dewa.  My wife wanted to do some shopping and my boys wanted a souvenir.  Dewa wasn’t there.  I was genuinely sad to not see him.  He was driving another customer on a day trip.  But I called him later that day to schedule our trip for the next day.  450,000 rupiah for the day was the price we agreed to (about $45).

I could write another 20 pages about the amazing day trip we had with Dewa and what eventually led to me paying him 1,300,000 rupiah instead of 450,000, but here’s a short list of how it went:

He was not a taxi driver.  He was a full-service tour guide.  He taught us about the culture, the temples we passed, the strange sights and smells.  He answered our every inquiry about Hinduism, their daily offerings, family culture (in which boys are more important than girls), and more.

He served as protector.  He watched over the surf boards tied on top of the van to ensure they were safe while we shopped an sight-saw.  He protected us from the mischievous monkeys at the Pura Uluwatu temple that were masters at stealing everything from sunglasses to food to flip-flops from tourists.  We saw one monkey steal a flip-flop right off of a tourists foot.  As she freaked out to her friends, another monkey stole the other flip-flop off her other foot.  Dewa kept us safe and taught us about the sacred part of the temple where they only enter wearing full white ceremonial clothing.

He shared much more about his family, the village where he’s from, why he came to the city, about his wife and his children.  He was real.  He told us that his wife is very pretty, but right now “about 50/50″ since she is pregnant.  We laughed and told him that she must be more pretty since she’s pregnant.  He shared pictures of his girls and his wife.  Beautiful family.

He told us how he used to work for hotels doing cleaning work and odd jobs.  But, even though he makes less money driving, he’d rather do it because he doesn’t like a boss telling him what to do.  Of course I connected with that right away.  Dewa is an entrepreneur.  He said “8 hours feels like a year” when you’re working for someone else.  I couldn’t agree more.

I was shocked to learn that he owned his van.  I had noticed that other drivers were renting cars or were driving cars owned by someone else.  He shared that he had saved the equivalent of $5,000 for a downpayment and it then took him 5 years to pay off the rest.  He had just paid it off last year.  I could see the relief in his eyes as he talked about paying off his van and the pride in ownership and accomplishing that task.  His van is immaculate.  He’s kept extremely good care of his 6 year old van.

When we went to dinner I begged him to come with us.  He declined as he maintained his duty to watch over the surfboards still strapped to the top of the van.

When he dropped us off, I gave him a hug, just like I would any one of my close friends.  Dewa will always be a close friend to me.  I could scientifically try and break down how that relationship formed so quickly and so deeply, but its a futile effort since it seems there was almost something magical about it.

But, I can tell you a few things about how Dewa has converted himself from a poor farmer’s son into a relatively successful and extremely happy taxi driver:

• Affiliate Business – Dewa has a relationship with the vendors in the open air market.  He brings them eager shoppers with fat wallets.  They bring him tired shoppers (and surfers) ready for a ride home.
• Self Promotion – Dewa doesn’t hesitate to hand you his card and ask you to call him.  He knows he’s got to ask for the business.
• Unexpected Service – Dewa drives a taxi, but he doesn’t consider himself a taxi driver.  His business card says “Tour Service”, and that’s what you get.  Five star service at a one star rate.  It doesn’t cost him any more to be friendly and nice, just a bit of effort.
• Genuine Care – Dewa cares deeply about his customers.  It shows the minute you get into his van.  The van is kept clean to make the customers feel comfortable.  As soon as he talks with you, it is evident that he cares more about you than the fare he is charging (even though he desperately needs that fare to feed his family).
• Referrals and Repeat Business -   As we parted last night, Dewa asked me to recommend him to any friends that might travel to Bali and he made sure I still had his card so that I could call him again if we return.  Again, Dewa asks for the business and I know he gets it. (Dewa’s information is below – I’m recommending him to you now.)

These are simple reminders of basic business principles often forgotten.  His business model reflects perfectly Infusionsoft’s Perfect Customer Lifecycle.  If you’re a small business owner and not yet an Infusionsoft customer, you should check out a demo today or contact me for more info.  The software is not only transformational in what it can do for your business, but in what it teaches you about your business.

Dewa, thank you for helping us have a great vacation and for reminding me of these powerful business principles.

If you’re ever in Bali, connect with Dewa.  He’s the best.  His info is below:
Dewa – connect on Facebook
+6285 238 753 545

Every small business owner can learn a thing or two from Shackleton.  In addition to leading the expedition, he had to organize funding and manage all the affairs of the “business”.  It was during the lead up to World War I when Shackleton was trying to get his expedition up and running.  He ran into every obstacle possible.  It appeared impossible to raise the funds.

This audio clip shows the exchange between Shackleton and one of the wealthy men he petitioned for funding. Press the play button to listen.

I’m not the type that would recommend putting an expedition, or a business, before family, but in this clip Shackleton shows his perseverance. Against all odds, he pushed forward.

This is the type of attitude and mental toughness that every entrepreneur must have in order to be successful. Shackleton realized that NOTHING could be an excuse to failure. Failure was not an option for him. He knew it would be hard because others didn’t understand what he was doing. That tends to be the case with most ground-breaking businesses.

If things are hard in your business, let that excite you. Don’t take no for an answer. Don’t allow failure to be an option.

That is the only way!

First, take a moment to watch this amazing ad. Then, we’ll discuss what’s going on behind the scenes and why it’s so powerful.

1. Curiosity/Suspense/Entertainment: First, the ad creates an element of suspense. You want to watch in order to find out what happens. Good ads will always have some kind of hook to keep prospects watching, listening, or reading.
2. Unexpected Twist: This ad takes a very unexpected twist. It’s important to note that the twist is not random. It is aimed directly at making the point of the ad. This hooks the prospect in deeper. Now the prospect wants to know the meaning of it all.
3. Juxtapositioning: The most powerful part of the ad is what I call “juxtapositioning”. Often times, it actually decreases the power of your message if you explicitly state what you’re all about. For example, you wouldn’t put up an ad that said “Cheap lawyer for people who don’t want to pay”. Being the “cheap lawyer” isn’t good for your brand, even if that’s exactly what you are. In this case, just saying “We treat you well” would have no power whatsoever. But, “de-positioning” the competition, or as I like to say by juxtapositioning your benefits against the competition’s weaknesses, you put yourself into a position of power. In this ad, the competition is implied to be ravenous wolves, only caring about their bottom line and not about the customer. But Shangri-La Hotels is different. They’ll embrace the stranger because that’s who they are.

The power is in the subtlety. If you can fully grasp the concept of juxtapositioning, and use it in your messaging, you’ll see fantastic results.

Comment below to share other examples of this powerful technique or even share your own.

As I was there I got into a conversation with a couple of young guys starting new businesses – Elliot and Philip.  Philip is starting a mobile app business and Elliot has a catering business.  After some small talk, and after they realized that I’ve been doing Internet Marketing since they were 7 years old, Philip asked the golden question:

“Would you mind if I picked your brain about marketing some time?  I’d really like to understand how to tap into our market a bit better.”

Elliot, on the other hand, had asked a very different question earlier in the evening:

“Do you ever host parties where you need catering services?

Look at the difference.  Philip’s question shows that he’s l0oking at the bigger picture – How do I set up marketing systems to attract lots of clients in the future?  Elliot’s question “might” have gotten him one client last night.  They’re both trying to do the same thing, but they’re taking very different approaches.

Elliot’s comment later was even more indicative of his short-term mindset.  He said:

“I don’t need marketing, I need business!”

Often, the urgent need for business drives us to act in ways that only pay off in the short-term.  But, if you simultaneously focus on longer-term marketing strategy, that’s what will determine if your business will be around in the future.

What’s your current mindset?

Are you focusing on your marketing strategy in a way that will produce customers for months and years to come?

Or are you focused on getting business now and neglecting your future?

Here’s a handy little tip: Just ask yourself if your activities today are helping you bring in masses of customers or individual customers.  The answer to that question should tell you if you’re heading down the right path or not.

But, before you read this amazing description of what it feels like to be an entrepreneur, I’d like to offer my thoughts on the cure for this entrepreneurial terror.

I believe the terror is unavoidable, but the best cure of the terror is work, the right work.  Certainly not “busy work”.  99% of the worlds population keeps themselves busy in order to avoid failure.

Think about it.  How often do you sit down, make a list of all the things you need to do, and then you start with the easiest first?  You end up doing all the things on the list except the most important.  Why?  Why would we behave so irrationally?  Because we don’t want to fail.

Fear of failure is the drive that keeps us doing all the unimportant things first.  It causes us to make excuses for why we can’t get the important stuff done.  We’ll procrastinate the important things until its too late.  But at least we didn’t fail.

Fear of failure is not the terror that Harrell talks about below.  No, it’s different.  But, conquering the fear of failure by tackling the important items first puts us to work in a way that reduces the terror.  Try it.  Make your list.  Sort it by order of importance, in other words, by order of what will make you the most money.  Do the things that will make you the most money first.  You’ll feel a lot better.  The terror will be momentarily at bay.

Now, enjoy Harrell’s amazing description of entrepreneurship:

Starting a company? Get ready for the most terrifying experience of your life.

I would like to address a few words to a particular group of readers, to those of you, young and not so young, who are starting your first company. By that act, you have joined a very special organization. Admission is automatic; permission is neither needed nor sought; tenure is indefinite. Welcome to the Club of Terror.

I myself have been a member of this club, and have known this terror, for close to 35 years. I can assure you that it is unlike anything you have ever experienced before. No longer do you have to be bothered with such ordinary feelings as concern, or frustration, or even fear. Those gentle things are the least of your troubles now. You can put them away as a child puts away toys. From now on, you will be in the grip of a human emotion that the good Lord, or more likely his nemesis, created just for entrepreneurs.

Now, I realize that you didn’t bargain on this when you started your company. Terror is something that entrepreneurs don’t expect, can’t escape, and have no way of preparing for. You won’t find any college course on the subject — Handling Terror 101 and 102, or whatever. Nor are there any on-the-job training programs. To my knowledge, nothing has ever been written about it, either, and few people even talk about it. The truth is that those of us who have experienced entrepreneurial terror seldom admit to it. As a result, it remains a deep, dark secret.

The terror is so secret, in fact, that each of us thinks he or she is the only one who’s ever felt it. That’s understandable. After all, an entrepreneur is, by definition, a risk-taker who “ain’t afraid of nothin’,” right? Phooey. Terror is our constant companion, and it scares the hell out of every one of us. If you don’t believe me, try something. The next time you meet a fellow entrepreneur — young or old, big or small, male or female — just ask, “So, how are you coping with terror?” You’ll probably get a look of surprise or even shock. But if you gaze deep into the other person’s eyes, you’ll also see a warm expression of recognition. He may smile, or grin, or laugh out loud, if he’s got the monster corralled for the time being. Then again, he may cry, depending on the status of his current venture. One thing is for sure, though: he’ll know from whence you came.

Let me be clear that by terror I do not mean simply an intense kind of fear. The two are quite different. Fear is the sudden rush of adrenaline let loose when her boyfriend walks in, or when you almost get hit by a drunk driver. It’s usually accidental, unexpected, and short-lived. Entrepreneurial terror, on the other hand, is self-inflicted. It occurs when an otherwise normal person makes a conscious decision that carries him over the threshold of fear into a private world filled with monsters sucking at every morsel of his being. There can be no sleep in this world, just wide-awake nightmares. The terror you feel has its own taste (bile), its own smell (putrid), and its own gut-wrenching pain. And it doesn’t go away as long as you remain an entrepreneur.

I have often tried to figure out what causes this terror, what breathes life into these monsters in the first place. It’s not the money. As any successful entrepreneur will tell you, money is just a by-product of accomplishment, and its loss is, well, one of the risks you take, usually with your eyes open. “Fear of failure” is a better explanation, although the phrase seems awfully inadequate to anyone who has ever felt entrepreneurial terror, like saying you hate a guy because he wears white socks. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that the terror comes from the same thing that leads us to start companies in the first place — some basic, semiconscious need to make our mark in the world, to leave our footprints in the sands of time. What we really fear, I suspect, is that we might become another member of the herd and pass into oblivion.

Wherever the terror comes from, it is awfully hard to imagine unless you have been through it. I certainly had no idea what lay ahead when I started my first company in 1953, although I had had some experience with fear. That experience came as a fighter pilot during World War II, when I was shot down behind enemy lines. There, badly burned,I was picked up by members of the French Underground, who devised a unique and cynical way to hide me from the Germans: they buried me in a cornfield with a hose stuck in my mouth so I could breathe. The first time they buried me, I lay there for four hours — time enough to consider all the bleak possibilities. I figured the Germans would (1) stick a bayonet through the dirt and into me; (2) riddle the hole with bullets; (3) accidentally ick the hose; or, worst of all, (4) turn on the faucet. For eight days in succession, I was buried; for eight days, I lived with a new and unwanted friend — stark, raving fear.

But I also discovered something else during that period, a kind of exhilaration I had never experienced before. Each time the french partisans dug me up, I was amazed at how high I felt. I was elated. I had conquered fear, and I knew it. Of course, it helped quite a bit that I was still alive.

When I was repatriated, I believed that I had experienced the ultimate in fear — which was probably true. What I didn’t realize, and couldn’t possibly imagine, was that I was headed for a career filled with experiences every bit as grueling. In the future, moreover, I would put myself through this torture of my own free will.

The truth began to sink in shortly after I started my first company, a food brokerage representing companies that wanted to sell their products on military bases in Europe and the Near East. Kraft Foods Co. appointed me its representative, and almost immdiately sales went out of sight. Everything I did turned into more and more sales for Kraft. I was flying high and making money hand over fist.

Then one day, when I was visiting the company’s executive offices in Chicago, Kraft’s president, J. Clyde Loftis, invited me in for a chat. The meeting was great for about 10 minutes, as he heaped praise on me for my selling efforts. The next 2 minutes weren’t so great, as he calmly announced that Kraft was letting its own salespeople take over the military market in Germany — which happened to represent about half of my total commission from sales. He assured me that, naturally, I could continue representing Kraft in the other areas, countries like Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Libya.

I sat there stunned. I felt like a fly on an elephant’s ass. My income was about to be cut by 50%, and my profit by 100%. Without Kraft, I was pretty near out of business. My mind was going 90 miles an hour. I could see exactly what had happened: I had sold myself out of a job. I had made it look so easy that some smart aleck had been able to convince Kraft’s management its own salespeople could do the work better and cheaper. But maybe Loftis himself had doubts. Taking a deep breath, I said, “Mr. Loftis, if you take over in Germany, I’m going to let you take over everywhere.”

He looked at me. I looked at him. Absolute silence. I had, of course, stopped breathing and was in desperate need of a pacemaker. Terror had just joined the meeting.

After what seemed an eternity, he said, “Are you sure?” Since I couldn’t speak, I just nodded. “We’ll let you know,” he said.

It took him a month to make up his mind. During every moment of those 30 days and 30 nights, I lived with a terror as vivid and as horrifying as anything I had experienced in the French cornfield. When the letter arrived from Kraft, my hands were shaking so badly I couldn’t open it. My secretary read it — and let out a shout: “You did it! You did it!” Kraft had backed down. At that moment, my exhilaration was so overwhelming, the high so intense, that I almost passed out.

Was it worth it? You’re damn right it was — a hundred-thousandfold. Thirty years later, my old food-broker company still represents Kraft Inc., not only in Europe, but in the Far East and many other places. What’s more, that account became the cornerstone of what eventually grew into the largest military-representative organization in the business. Two years ago, I sold it for more than $4 million.

I suppose it was this episode that confirmed me as an entrepreneur and kept me coming back for more. Aside from the terror, the experience also taught me the second secret of entrepreneurship — its reward. I realized then that the elation you feel more than makes up for the pain you have suffered. That high, like the terror, is an emotion especially reserved for those of us who start companies. It is food for our spirit — the sustenance that keeps us going from one encounter to the next.

Some people might call this an addiction. I prefer to think of it as a roller-coaster ride. In the beginning, you pull yourself slowly up the first incline, making the tough decisions with a growing sense of excitement and foreboding. When you hit the top, there is a brief, frightening moment of anticipation before all hell breaks loose. Terror takes over as you go screaming into the unknown. For a while, you feel nothing but incredible fear, interrupted only by a few bumps along the way. Then, suddenly, the ride is over, and the terror is gone, and the exhilaration is all that remains. It’s time to buy another ticket. Somehow, though, you know that your first encounter was the worst. You have, to a degree, learned how to handle terror. Thereafter, the intensity diminishes a bit — unless you find a bigger roller coaster or take up, say, skydiving.

The important thing, obviously, is to get through that first encounter, as some of you are trying to do right now. Don’t be alarmed if it seems to be more than you can stand. Recognize the terror for what it is, and get used to it, because it could be yours for life. Learn to look it squarely in the eye and spit on it. If you don’t, you probably won’t make the club, at least not this time. Of course, there’s no limit to the number of times you can join.

Now, I realize that I haven’t said a damn thing to help you deal with the terror or make it go away. Unfortunately, I don’t have any practical tips to give you. The only technique that I’ve found useful is to get in my car, all alone, and ride around cursing with every four-letter word in my vocabulary. If, by chance, you don’t know many bad words, write me, and I’ll send you my list. Then set aside a day or so, because it will take you that long to say all of them.

But cursing aside, let me offer a couple of pieces of advice. First, never try to share your feelings of terror with a friend. You will only be passing along the stuff of which ulcers are made. The other person, after all, may never have been on the roller coaster and may not be a member of the club. The chances are that he or she won’t be able to deal with the feelings you describe. By sharing the terror, moreover, you are — in effect — asking the other person to share the blame in case something goes wrong. That’s against the rules of the club. It is conduct unbecoming an entrepreneur. Leave that to the big companies, which have a builtin structure for sharing terror (or whatever its Fortune 500 counterpart might be). They call it a “committee,” or sometimes “the office of the president.”

Above all, don’t take terror home with you. No matter how sorely tempted you are, do not under any circumstances share terror with people you love, unless they happen to be partners in your company. It will only make them despondent and maybe even sick. They put up with enough just living around an entrepreneur. Besides, you need the experience.

There is, however, something you can, and should, share with the people you love. I’m talking about the entrepreneurial high. By all means, take that home with you.

Back to my Kraft story for a moment. My wife will always remember that episode, not so much because I was such a miserable son of a bitch during the 30 days I was waiting for the reply, but because of what happened afterward. We were living in Frankfurt, Germany, at the time. As soon as I got my love letter from Kraft, I called her with the news and asked her for a date. She accepted. The day of our celebration, I took her to the Frankfurt airport and we boarded a plane to Paris, where I’d made reservations at the most exclusive and outrageously expensive restaurant in Europe. I started the dinner by ordering a 60-year-old bottle of wine, which cost about $500. The maitre d’ dimmed all the lights and served the wine with great ceremony. I’ve forgotten how the wine tasted, but I will never forget the way my wife looked at me. The dinner lasted three days. We shared the high.

You will have your own highs to share once you have conquered your terror. In the meantime, you should at least be aware that you are not alone — far from it. There is a whole gang of us out here living with the same monster. And you can take some comfort in knowing that terror is an integral and necessary part of every new business started by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Which means that, for every company in existence, there is, or was, some poor soul who bore the cross of terror for all of the people who have benefited. Whether the name was Mr. Kraft, Mr. Pillsbury, Mr. Ford, or Joe Blow, they all shook hands with the devil and joined the club.

My own belief is that the ability to handle terror, to live with it, is the single most important — and, yes, necessary — ingredient of entrepreneurial success. I also believe that it is the lonely entrepreneur living with his or her personal terror who breathes life and excitement into an otherwise dull and mundane world. From that perspective, the Club of Terror is a very exclusive one. Welcome.

• Works on new forms (Campaign Builder) AND Classic Web forms
• Reduced need for extra custom fields
• Enforces better lead source naming conventions
• Dynamically accepts the lead source category for new forms
• No longer requires url.jquery.js plugin and no longer conflicts with Prototype

I’ll be doing a webinar soon to explain the changes and teach how to use this script properly.

Disclaimer: This is not an official Infusionsoft application. The code is not endorsed by Infusionsoft. This is simply one of the ways I contribute to the Infusionsoft community. I’ve had the benefit of amazing lead tracking (by lead source) for many years. For Infusionsoft customers it has been a bit difficult to get those benefits because implementation hasn’t been easy. What I’m giving you below makes it MUCH easier. This is the new way of doing what I described about 4 years ago in this post about lead tracking.

Let me explain what we’re solving for here. In Infusionsoft, you can assign a lead source to every contact record. You can tie expenses and other valuable information to the lead source records. There is a report under Marketing Reports that will show you the number of leads, cost per lead, expenses, revenue generated, and ROI of all your lead sources. Many users don’t know this functionality exists, so they don’t use it. I believe it is one of the most powerful Infusionsoft features.

In the Summer 2012 Release, Infusionsoft updated the capability of the new webforms to be able to accept dynamic lead sources. The Lead Source ROI report was also enhanced and now provides more complete and understandable data.

So, what I’ve created below is an automatic and dynamic way of enriching your Google Analytics data, and tying that data to your contact records, and being able to track your contacts by lead source. This gives you the ability to really KNOW what’s working and what’s not working in your marketing efforts.

Here’s the step-by-step process to make it happen:

1. Make sure Google Analytics is installed on your site.
2. (This step is not required) Next, go set up a custom field in your Infusionsoft contact record. Here is a help article that shows you how to do it. You’re going to set up one fields for Term (To capture keywords people use to search for you.) You don’t need to set a custom field up for Lead Source because it’s already a field. With the new web forms (in the campaign builder) you need to add the custom fields mentioned above to the forms as hidden fields. If you don’t the values will not be passed.
3. Next, on the same page where you create your custom fields in Infusionsoft, click the link that says “View the database field names (for the API)”. It’s at the upper right of the table. Copy the name of the term field that you just created, and paste it into the form below. Don’t include any prefix under scores – just the fields name please.

   Term:

   Generating custom code…

4. Once you paste your field name into the form above, and click “Give me my tracking code”, copy the code and go put it on your site right after your Google Analytics code. Make sure GA and this tracking code is installed on EVERY page of your site. This is easy to do with Content Management systems like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Etc.

Now, the next step is to use links in your promotions that feed in the necessary information. For example, what if I want to do a social media campaign to drive people to my new ebook? Tweets that are clicked on in a desktop app like Tweetdeck are seen by Google Analytics as “direct” traffic to your site because there isn’t a referring URL. But, we can pass in the source – GA will pick it up and report on it and so will Infusionsoft.

So, if you want to create links to track your promotional, marketing, or social media efforts, just enter the info below and you’ll get links you can use:

i.e. If I were going to do a Twitter campaign to drive downloads of my ebook on Marketing, I might put “Twitter” as my source, “ebook” as my Campaign, “tweet” (or “social media”) as my medium, and “free ebook” as my content.

In the meantime, here are 11 things you should know about the Infusionsoft Campaign Builder.  Hopefully these tidbits of info will help you become more familiar with it faster.

• In the decision node, you can only route people based on custom fields that are of the dropdown type.  You cannot use any other custom field type. 
• When a goal is completed, it stops ALL sequences leading to that goal (even if they’re not connected directly).  If  Sequence A is connected to Goal A and Goal A leads to Sequence B and Sequence B leads to Goal B and Goal B is completed, BOTH Sequence A and Sequence B will be stopped.  Anything that Goal B leads to will be started at the same time.
• Goal methods are currently global.  If you use the Tag Applied goal method, the tag does not need to be applied within the current campaign.  The goal is a “global listener”.  It will be triggered if a person receives that tag, no matter how the tag is applied.
• When a goal leads to two or more sequences, it will always create a decision node.  If you don’t configure the decision node, the contact will end up in all sequences.
• If a contact has entered a sequence in a campaign, they cannot be entered into that sequence again.  Even if the preceding goal is achieved again.  These prevents infinite loops.
• When you connect a “Traffic Source” to a goal such as a web form, it does NOT set the lead source in the form.
• You cannot branch a flow within a sequence.  You can only branch (which decision nodes) at the campaign level.
• A goal cannot be connected to another goal.  This is a good thing.  Even if you don’t want to run a sequence of communications between two goals, put a sequence in the middle to tag the contact for achieving the first goal.  That way you can track progress through the process.
• When the little squares at the ends of the connectors are blue, you can disconnect the items and reconnect them elsewhere without causing trouble.  If the little squares are red, you cannot disconnect them without causing problems.  This typically happens with decision nodes.  If you disconnect a goal that leads to a decision node (maybe you want to put a sequence in between), it will destroy the decision node and you’ll have to build it again (which might be a royal pain).
• To move the entire canvas, right-click and drag (on a PC) or Control-click and drag (on a Mac).
• To move more than one item on the canvas, click and drag to select all the items you want to move.  Once they’re selected, you can click and drag them to their new location.

If you’re not already on my list, head to the home page and fill out the form.  I have some videos in the members area that will show you a bunch of tips & tricks with the campaign builder.  Primarily my “Jailbreak” video which will show you how to unlock the power of the campaign builder by connecting it to the Legacy features so you can do all the things you’re used to doing.

I was at Infusionsoft a few weeks meeting with the Product Management team giving feedback on the lead source tracking features they’re building as well as the functionality of the new campaign builder (this part of their normal process of getting feedback from users to ensure they’re building the right features).  They showed me some of their current ideas for reporting they’re working on for the campaign builder in a few months.  I’m so jazzed about what’s coming I can’t stand it.

They also mentioned the basic Campaign Builder reporting that has just been released.  Let me walk you through a few screenshots.

First is a new column in the list of campaigns that will show the number of active contacts in a campaign.

When you click on that number, you get a list of those people. This is great if you want to send a broadcast, stop the campaign, tag them, etc.

You can filter that search down to people who are active/inactive, in a particular sequence within the campaign, and by tags. This is VERY cool.

On the contact record you’ll be able to see each individual contact’s activity within a campaign. This view will show you the campaign history (completed campaign steps) as well as upcoming campaign items.

This is a great step in the right direction. But, it’s nothing compared to what I imagine Infusionsoft will build in the future.