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What's Next

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MatchCraft Product Updates: September 2024

Learn about the opportunities and obstacles of digital advertising, and how MatchCraft, an advertising platform by Vendasta, can help you navigate this complex, yet important component of your business' success.
Accelerate Keyword Selection for Ad Campaigns with AI
Join Jeff Leach to learn how MatchCraft’s new AI-powered keyword suggestions tool helps you quickly choose the best keywords for your Google and Bing search campaigns.
Keyword Selection
Keywords determine when and where search ads are shown, and negative keywords help save money by avoiding expensive and irrelevant clicks. The right keywords put advertisers in front of their target customers, which lowers cost per click and increases return on ad spend.
MatchCraft helps accelerate campaign set-up, and handles the selection of an initial set of keywords. You can pick from over 6,000 business categories related to your advertiser. Each category added to a campaign comes with a starter set of ad copy and keywords to jumpstart campaign creation.
AI-Powered Suggestions
To automate and accelerate campaign creation even further, our AI-powered category suggestions recommend the appropriate category based on your website.
To customize the campaign for the specific advertiser, use the new AI-powered keyword suggestions tool. It pulls data directly from the advertiser's website to offer relevant keyword ideas beyond those that have already been added to the campaign, offering more options to help attract the ideal customers for your advertiser.
For more details on all updates to the MatchCraft advertising platform for September 2024, please contact us.
Automate Bid and Budget Management with MatchCraft
In case you missed it, Jeff recently reviewed how MatchCraft can help you get the most out of any digital advertising budget.

fixed

Business App

Task Manager

Partner Center

Sales & Success Center

Orders

CRM

APIs & Integrations

Platform

Product Fixes: 2024-09-05

[Business App] View Guides from
Business App > My Business > Guides
.
[Platform: APIs & Integrations] Call APIs with website urls beginning with http or https.
[Platform: CRM] Companies selected in
Partner Center > CRM > Companies
display as selected (checkboxes filled).
[Platform: Orders] Download order data as csv from
Partner Center > Commerce > Orders
.
[Platform: Orders] Order multiple instances of an add-on in one order.
[Platform: Task Manager] Create standalone Tasks without attaching them to a Project.

new

Business App

Partner Center

Campaigns

Orders

Platform

Now Available

What's New

What's New: 2024-08-29

This week, Kendall Johns shares updates to Campaigns Pro, Orders, and Vendasta’s Help Center.
NOW AVAILABLE: Send SMS campaigns from Campaigns Pro!
Send dedicated SMS campaigns, or build multi-step, mixed campaigns from Campaigns Pro in Business App, including email and SMS to boost engagement with promotions, invitations, review requests, and more.
SMS messages will be sent from the same local texting number that your clients in the U.S. and Canada are already using to communicate with customers from Inbox, and request reviews with Reputation Management Premium. With this add-on to Campaigns Pro, you’ll help local businesses increase engagement with their target audiences, while simplifying customer communication for their team!
The add-on is available in a range of denominations of 50-1,000 for both Canada and the US. Whether your clients estimate they’ll need 100 credits or 1,000, you can provide the right version for each of your clients, and they can always trade up as they grow. Learn more
Platform
  • [Orders] Create Sales Orders more quickly with several UI improvements:
  1. When selecting items for the order, products and packages load more quickly.
  2. When selecting packages for the order, click "view contents" to see which products are included in each package.
  3. Once items are added to the order, set-up fees on any products or packages are clearly indicated. You can also add new set-up fees at this time.
  4. To undo pricing edits, press “reset to default” to restore the original pricing and structure.
Help Center
August 30, 2024: Find resources more easily in the Help Center with its new look and feel. When you arrive on the home page, you’ll notice that the side bar navigation matches what you’re used to in the platform, making it easy to find the section you’re looking for.
You can also search for something specific, browse the categories displayed here, or check recent releases and updates. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, direct links will take you to ask the community, find a course, submit a ticket, or give product feedback.

fixed

Social Marketing

Automations

Multi-location

Business App

Snapshot Report

Inbox

Executive Report

Partner Center

Billing & Payments

Campaigns

CRM

Platform

Product Fixes: 2024-08-29

[Business App] Navigate seamlessly between Accounts in Business App.
[Business App: CRM] Contacts are auto-created in the CRM from submissions from Forms.
[Business App: Executive Report] Letter grade for Reviews calculates and displays correctly according to the percentile.
[Business App: Inbox] Preview and demo AI Web Chat from
Business App > Settings > Inbox Settings > My Listing Chat Widget > [toggle on Enable Web Chat] > Try it out today
.
[Business App: Multi-location] Executive Report formatting alignment has been improved for downloading to PDF and printing.
[Platform] Update partner billing details in
Partner Center > ​​Administration > My Billing & Payments > Add payment method
from your custom Partner Center domain.
[Platform: Automations] Assign Sales Tasks to the correct Salesperson via automation.
[Platform: Billing & Payments] View tax rates on each line item in an invoice.
[Platform: Campaigns] Rich text entered in an email does not carry forward to subsequent events in the campaign.
[Platform: Campaigns] View lists of delivered emails in
Partner Center > Marketing > Campaigns > [select a campaign] > Details > View email activity > Email Activity > [check "Delivered"]
.
[Platform: CRM] Sales representatives sync between Companies and Accounts.
[Platform: CRM] Change the Associated Parent Company of a Company.
[Platform: CRM] Associate Contacts with Companies.
[Platform: CRM] Add Facebook urls to Business Profiles in
Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts > Edit Business Details > Social > [enter Facebook URL] > Save
.
[Platform: Snapshot Report] Average review score displays correctly in the Reviews section of Snapshot Reports.
[Products: Social Marketing] Full urls in social posts when previewing posts.
[Products: Social Marketing] Email addresses in social posts are formatted correctly.
[Products: Reputation Management] Websites from Bing listings are displayed when set as a Primary Listing.

new

Local SEO

Marketplace

Reputation Management

Social Marketing

Automations

Multi-location

Business App

Inbox

Partner Center

Campaigns

CRM

AI

APIs & Integrations

Opportunities & Pipeline

Platform

What's Next

Coming Soon

Now Available

What's New

What's New & Next: 2024-08-22

This week, Caz Lim shares a mix of newly available and upcoming improvements across Partner Center and Business App.
Business App
  • [APIs & Integrations] Integrate PetExec, Paw Partner, Jobber, Housecall Pro, and PawLoyalty with Business App. Sync CRM data, automate review requesting, centralize communication, and much more.
    Est. early September 2024
  • [APIs & Integrations] Manage all Business App integrations from one place with all integrations on the old Connections page merged to the new Integrations page.
  • [Automations] Group and save Automation actions into sets to declutter workflows, and provide your teams with pre-made, clearly defined building blocks they can easily use to create the automations they need to do their best work.
    Est. early October 2024
  • [Campaigns Pro] Send SMS campaigns from Campaigns Pro. Build multi-step, mixed campaigns including email
    and
    SMS to optimize reach when welcoming new customers, looking to boost sales with a promotion, or building anticipation for a new product or upcoming event.
    Est. late August 2024
  • [Campaigns Pro] An email address or phone number will be mandatory for recipients depending on a campaign step’s delivery method of email or SMS, respectively. To ensure delivery of email and SMS campaigns, make sure your Contacts have both email and phone details on record in your CRM.
  • [Campaigns Pro] Preview sender name and email before sending email campaigns.
    Est. late August 2024
  • [CRM] Create dynamic and static Company and Contact lists in your CRM. Build lists based on certain criteria to facilitate targeted outreach, perform bulk actions, and automate workflows to trigger the right follow-ups and actions.
    Est. TBD
  • [Inbox] Customize the behavior of AI Web Chat to make it a true assistant and ambassador of a brand.
    NOW AVAILABLE
Provide Additional Instructions to inform the flow of conversation the AI Web Chat will have with each lead, with details on:
  1. What tone and personality to converse in.
  2. What language to use, including localized spelling.
  3. Which qualifying questions to ask.
  4. When to refer leads to a certain link.
  5. Which contact details to collect, and in what order.
We recommend using markdown format when entering instructions, with clear headers to help the AI understand how you would like it to use the information provided.
  • [Inbox] Personalize AI Web Chat with a custom name and avatar.
    NOW AVAILABLE
  • [Inbox] Capture more Contact fields from AI Web Chat conversations.
    NOW AVAILABLE
Fields that will auto-populate on the Contact's record in the CRM include:
  1. First name
  2. Last name
  3. Phone number
  4. Email address
  5. Street address - new
  6. City - new
  7. State/Province - new
  8. Zip/Postal code - new
  9. Country - new
  • [Opportunities & Pipeline] Offer Opportunity and Sales Pipeline Management in Business App.
    Est. late September 2024
Platform
  • [Automations] Group and save Automation actions into sets to declutter workflows, and provide your teams with pre-made, clearly defined building blocks they can easily use to create the automations they need to do their best work.
    Est. early October 2024
  • [Campaigns] Preview sender name and email before sending email campaigns.
    Est. late August 2024
  • [CRM] Create dynamic and static Company and Contact lists in your CRM. Build lists based on certain criteria to facilitate targeted outreach, perform bulk actions, and automate workflows to trigger the right follow-ups and actions.
    Est. late September 2024
  • [Inbox] Customize the behavior of AI Web Chat to make it a true assistant and ambassador of a brand.
    See more details above in Business App section.
    NOW AVAILABLE
  • [Inbox] Personalize AI Web Chat with a custom name and avatar.
    NOW AVAILABLE
  • [Inbox] Capture more Contact fields from web chat leads.
    See more details above in Business App section.
    NOW AVAILABLE
  • [Inbox] Communicate via SMS through Inbox in Partner Center.
    Est. late 2024
Products
  • [Local SEO] Help your local business clients understand the impact their SEO efforts are having across all of their locations with keyword reporting in multi-location Business App.
    Est. Fall 2024
Trusted Testers wanted for keyword reporting in multi-location Business App! If you have multi-location clients and are interested in getting access early and providing feedback, reach out to your Account Manager.
  • [Marketing Services] Sell Social Media Management Standard to help your clients manage their social media presence, with extra content and custom graphics, extended reach, and more.
    NOW AVAILABLE
    in Marketplace
  • [Marketing Services] Sell Review Responses Standard to ensure every review gets a response.
    NOW AVAILABLE
    in Marketplace
  • [Marketing Services] Sell more services and deliver more value with our August Heat promotion. For every templated website you purchase, you’ll receive three months of search engine optimization services PLUS a second, templated website—absolutely free!
    For more information, check out our product pages in the Marketplace or reach out to your Account Manager.

fixed

Local SEO

Reputation Management

Vendor Center

Automations

Multi-location

Business App

Partner Center

Billing & Payments

Campaigns

CRM

Platform

Product Fixes: 2024-08-22

[Business App: Multi-location] Full account name and link display in
Business App > Reputation Management > [select account]
.
[Partner Center] Company Name auto-populates in
Partner Center > Administration > Partner Branding > Company Name
and
Partner Center > Vendor Center > Business name
.
[Partner Center: Campaigns] Emails are sent promptly as scheduled, without processing delays.
[Partner Center: CRM] Remove associations between Contacts and Companies.
[Partner Center: Billing & Payments] Issue credit notes for "due" invoices.
[Products: Local SEO] Save Facebook URLs to Business Profiles.
[Products: Local SEO] Showmelocal listings display accurately.
[Products: Reputation Management] Review requests are sent once per trigger.
[Products: Reputation Management] Full street addresses from Mapquest listings are displayed when set as a Primary Listing.
[Products: Reputation Management] Live Showmelocal and TripAdvisor listings display accurately when set as a Primary Listing.
[Products: Reputation Management] Phone numbers from Facebook listings are displayed when set as a Primary Listing.

new

Marketplace

Reputation Management

Automations

Business App

Inbox

Partner Center

Billing & Payments

CRM

AI

Platform

Now Available

What's New

What's New: 2024-08-15

This week, Kendall Johns shares updates that help you and your local business clients build tailored customer experiences for any audience.
NOW AVAILABLE: Sell Inbox Pro using new white-label assets
Inbox Pro turns website visitors into leads for your clients, delivering them straight into a centralized inbox where all leads and messages—whether from Facebook Messenger, Instagram, website forms, or SMS—are managed in one place.
We’re thrilled to offer new tools to help you promote and sell Inbox Pro. Head to Inbox Pro in Marketplace to find a white-label video advertisement, sales deck, demo guide, “get started” video, and a high-quality asset kit. Download now
Business App
  • [Automations] Automate and customize the sales process for leads captured via AI web chat with the “When Web Chat captures a lead” trigger. Add steps like creating a task to prompt direct follow up by a salesperson, adding the contact to drip campaigns sent via email, and follow on actions tailored to each lead’s engagement. Advanced Users can push this data out to their own platforms by using the "Send a webhook" action. Learn more
  • [CRM] Import Companies and Contacts to the CRM in a single upload. Indicate whether a column’s data should be applied to a Company or Contact record, and then map each column header to a Company or Contact field in your CRM. Learn more
  • [Inbox Pro] Sell Inbox Pro using new white-label assets. Head to
    Partner Center > Marketplace > Inbox Pro > Screenshots & Files
    to find a white-label video advertisement, sales deck, demo guide, “get started” video, and a high-quality asset kit. Download now
Platform
  • [Automations] Automate and customize the sales process for leads captured via AI web chat with the “When Web Chat captures a lead” trigger. Add steps like creating a task to prompt direct follow up by a salesperson, adding the contact to drip campaigns sent via email, and follow on actions tailored to each lead’s engagement. Advanced Users can push this data out to their own platforms by using the "Send a webhook" action. Learn more
  • [Billing & Payments] Set up Vendasta Payments with an existing Stripe account. Now available in early access. Learn more or comment here for early access!
  • [CRM] Import Companies and Contacts to the CRM in a single upload. Indicate whether a column’s data should be applied to a Company or Contact record, and then map each column header to a Company or Contact field in your CRM. Learn more
  • [CRM] Filter the Activity Feed by owner to review a team member’s work and follow up if needed. This is a great tool for sales leaders working to hit higher sales targets through implementing new processes and coaching their teams to improve sales practices.
  • Sign into Vendasta's Partner Center with your Microsoft account. Single sign on with Microsoft is especially valuable for teams using Outlook as their email solution.
Products
  • [Reputation Management] Set scheduling logic for automated review requests. Learn more
  • [Reputation Management] Request reviews from industry-specific sources. Learn more

fixed

Local SEO

Marketplace

Social Marketing

Website Pro

Automations

Multi-location

Business App

Task Manager

Inbox

Partner Center

Billing & Payments

Campaigns

CRM

AI

APIs & Integrations

Opportunities & Pipeline

Platform

Product Fixes: 2024-08-15

[Business App] Edit business profiles in
Business App > My Business > Business Profile
.
[Business App: Automations] Edit automation templates.
[Business App: Campaigns Pro] Send multi-step email campaigns, triggered manually or through Automations.
[Business App: Inbox] When sending emails via Inbox, page breaks included in the message formed in Inbox are displayed accurately in the resulting email.
[Platform] Update Partner Name and Logo in
Partner Center > Administration > Partner Branding
.
[Platform] Edit business profiles in
Partner Center > Accounts > Manage accounts > [select account] > Business Details > Edit
.
[Platform: APIs & Integrations] Quickbooks connection buttons display correctly in
Partner Center > Administration > Integrations > Quickbooks > Add Connection
.
[Platform: Billing & Payments] View accurate invoice totals in monthly billing reports.
[Platform: Campaigns] Send multi-step email campaigns, triggered manually or through Automations.
[Platform: CRM] Emails logged to the CRM with AutoBCC.
[Platform: CRM] When selecting a salesperson for Opportunities created from Company profiles, salespeople are represented once in the dropdown rather than in duplicate or triplicate.
[Platform: Marketplace] Products can be purchased from public stores on mobile.
[Platform: Task Manager] Create single tasks, without unintended duplication.
[Platform: Task Manager] View assignees on socialize tasks in
Partner Center > Task Manager > Tasks > Active Tasks
.
[Platform: Task Manager] Create projects from templates in
Task Manager > Projects > Create project > Use project template
.
[Platform: User Management] Edit "Home" and "Social Connections" user permissions in
Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts > [select account] > Open kebab next to user Info > Edit Permissions > Drop down account > Toggle on "Home" and "Social Connections."
[Products: Local SEO] Edit business profiles in
Business App > Local SEO > Business Profile
.
[Products: Social Marketing] Use "write with AI" when composing social posts from Multi-Location Business App.
[Products: Website Pro] Images display correctly on webpages.
This week, Caz Lim gives a sneak peak at features coming soon to Social Marketing and Reputation Management.
Products
  • [Reputation Management] Send NPS surveys to customers by adding NPS blocks to review request emails. Get valuable feedback on the quality of a business’s customer experience that can be filtered in Reputation Management for actionable insight.
    Est. end of August 2024
  • [Social Marketing] Post blogs directly to Wordpress from Social Marketing. Connect a Wordpress website with Social Marketing via a Wordpress plug-in to make Wordpress an additional posting source.
    Est. late September 2024
  • [Social Marketing] View draft, scheduled, and published posts by switching between tabs in an improved single page view optimized for both desktop and mobile viewing.
    Est. September 2024

new

Local SEO

Reputation Management

Social Marketing

Automations

Multi-location

Business App

Snapshot Report

Inbox

Partner Center

Billing & Payments

CRM

AI

Platform

Now Available

What's New

What's New: 2024-08-01

This week, Kendall Johns shares improvements across Partner Center and Business App to help you engage with leads and customers.
Business App
  • [Inbox] Manage all SMS communication with a single local texting number. Businesses in the United States and Canada can respond to leads via Inbox and send review requests from Reputation Management Premium. When SMS comes to Campaigns Pro later this month, SMS campaigns will be sent from the same number. All replies to Review Request messages and - soon - Campaign responses will appear in Inbox, further centralizing customer communication for your clients. Learn more
  • [Inbox] Add dynamic content to message templates to maintain a personal touch without the manual effort. Learn more
Platform
  • [Automations] Automate the sales process for package leads captured through your store. Set up an Automation to see the enquiry details, immediately respond to the lead, and set the wheels in motion for a salesperson to follow up.
    Create a new automation now by following the steps at the end of this article.
  • [Billing & Payments] Customize the starting invoice number to maintain continuity for your financial records when transferring to Vendasta from a previous billing platform. Learn more
  • [CRM] View AI summaries on Company and Contact records in the CRM. It’ll provide a brief overview of what the company does or who the contact is, and their engagement with the business.
  • [CRM] Use quick filters to find Companies and Contacts in one click. New quick filters include salesperson, created date, last activity date, and lifecycle stage.
  • [Snapshot Report] Customize the Call to Action button that displays when viewing Snapshot Reports on mobile.
Products
  • [Local SEO] Use a business’s full url when monitoring organic search results. This is particularly valuable for multi-location businesses and brands with several businesses operating under one core website domain.
  • [Reputation Management] Manage all SMS communication with a single local texting number. Businesses in the United States and Canada can respond to leads via Inbox and send review requests from Reputation Management Premium. When SMS comes to Campaigns Pro later this month, SMS campaigns will be sent from the same number. All replies to Review Request messages and - soon - Campaign responses will appear in Inbox, further centralizing customer communication for your clients. Learn more
  • [Social Marketing] Encourage clients to upgrade to Social Marketing Pro with an enhanced upgrade path. Badges on Pro features clearly show users of Social Marketing Standard the benefits of upgrading. Learn more
Automate the Sales Process for Store Leads
  1. Go to Partner Center > Automations > My automations > Create automation.
  2. Add the trigger "When a user shows interest in a package.”
  3. Add the step "Get associated company."
  4. Add the step "Add a task to the company" and include dynamic content to pull details from the original enquiry.
  5. Add the step "Send a prompt to AI" to generate an auto-response to the lead. Include dynamic content to personalize the response for each lead.
  6. Add the step "Send an Inbox message" to send the AI-generated message to the lead via Inbox.
  7. Continue customizing the sales process with further triggers and actions.
  8. Turn on your new automation!
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