One of the chores people hate most when using computers? Reentering information from one system into another system. After all, you're typing on the same computer, right? And data should be shared right? So why have to virtually schlep things like contact information from one system to another to another to another to get your work done? This week, at least two companies upgraded virtual schlepping to automated contact sharing.
Intuit QuickBooks, the leading accounting package for small businesses, has a program called the Intuit Partner Program to make data from within QuickBooks available to other applications. This is smart, because while Intuit has a lot of programmers, thousands of other companies and their programmers would like to make QuickBooks more useful for specific groups of customers. VerticalResponse now makes it a snap, or rather a click, to pull all your QB contact names and details into your VerticalResponse e-mail marketing contact database.
If you're not familiar with e-mail marketing tools in general or VerticalResponse in particular, take a look at my recent Adventures in E-Mail Marketing. A woefully small percentage of small businesses take advantage of tools like these, but a wonderfully large percentage will benefit when they catch on. Will you catch on sooner or later?
There's no extra cost from VerticalResponse or QuickBooks for this new feature. If you're a non-profit, check out all the free services VerticalResponse gives to approved 501(c)3 companies, like 10,000 free e-mails per month.
Right now, the data comes out of QuickBooks into VerticalResponse, but doesn't go the other direction. But if you're like most QB users, everything possible happens inside QB. Making it a snap to get QB info over to your marketing program will help you increase sales and customer satisfaction.
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