Tracking
About Tracking
Like Activities, Tracking is a way to, yes, track important business development and marketing information attached to a company or contact record. Unlike Activities, you can use Tracking to record information for an unlimited number of tracking fields, tracking categories, and tracking dates. Each tracking record has its own set of values, such as a start date, due date, value, etc., and includes much more information than an Activity record.
CRM is not just a project, it's a strategy. The Tracking function in ContactEase can really kick your marketing and business development efforts into high gear. It takes a little work upfront, but once you've created your layouts (more about that in the next section), you can easily track program and you’re ready to really make it work for you. Utilizing the Tracking feature in ContactEase can really kick your marketing and business development efforts into high gear and allow you to show value. You can track marketing and business development activity at the firm and individual levels as well as monitor important dates, potential legal needs, cross-selling opportunities, litigation tracking, and so much more.
For more information on Tracking, and to see how some ContactEase clients use it, be sure to check out the following videos (registration may be required):
- Get More from Your Marketing with ContactEase Tracking
- Creating a Sales Pipeline with ContactEase Tracking
- Business Development Tracking and Reporting
Getting Started
To implement tracking, you must first define your layouts and then your templates. While you may edit templates and layouts at any time, it is good practice to think about what you would like to track and how it relates to your strategic goals. In the next step, we'll look at creating the layout.
Tracking Layout
Tracking is based on layouts in ContactEase. Firms use different layouts based on the types of activities they track. If you are only tracking RFPs, for example, you might only need one layout. Each layout can have a unique set of fields attached to it. These fields are created and formatted using the settings in Customize Fields (File > Preferences > Customize Fields > Tracking).
You must have at least one Tracking layout defined to use Tracking. To create a layout:
- Go to File > Preferences > Customize Fields. Under Tracking, select Layout.
- Click Add…
- Name the Layout (in our example, we’ll use MKTG – Corporate Newsletter).
- Click OK.
Next, you’ll choose the items you would like to display in your layout. There are three tabs
to consider: Top Left, Top Right, and Bottom. Only checked items will be displayed. As a
reminder, these include things you would like to track such as the status of an activity. You can
define your status types later when updating the text fields.
Once the initial layout is complete, you are ready to customize your tracking templates.
Customize Tracking Templates
Tracking templates are used to track various business development activities. You may wish to
use a single layout with several templates or a variety of layouts for the items you would like to track.
To add a template or modify an existing one:
- Go to Tracking > Customize Tracking Templates
- Highlight any existing template.
- Click Add…
- Enter the name of your new template (example: Chamber of Commerce Breakfasts).
- Click OK
- Select from one of the layouts you’ve already created (BD Event)
- Click Next
- Click OK