Written by Ken Quigley

June 30 2020

As most of our customers know, the Keystroke Team is comprised of approximately 60% Canadians, 30% Americans, and about 10% International. This week is a special one for the North American staff in that there are separate statutory holidays for both Canada and the Unite States, July 1st (Canada Day) and July 3rd (Independence Day).On July 1st...

Written by Ken Quigley

June 29 2020

Anyone in sales right now will acknowledge business leads are becoming increasingly scarce during this pandemic, which is why it’s more important than ever to convert what few leads there are, as quickly as possible.And while many may debate what constitutes a good lead or the best source for them, there is no disputing the fact that people...

Written by Intro by Billy Clark

June 22 2020

IntroductionBy default Act! Marketing Automation does not fully authenticate their email servers against your domain.  While this still allows for inbox placement for a great number of your recipients, it can make sending email to public domains like Yahoo, Google, or AOL difficult.  Those systems are constantly fighting against...

Written by Ken Quigley

June 17 2020

PC Mag defines marketing automation as "the smarter and more powerful older sibling of email marketing. Marketing automation lets marketers plan extended customer interactions without requiring manual intervention.”The problem with this explanation is most Act! users already confess to using only a small portion of their CRM's...

Written by Ken Quigley

June 15 2020

Act! users understand the power and simplicity of Opportunities for managing their sales pipeline, but most have had to use Microsoft Word or Excel to render their customer-facing quotes. Sure, the process is simple enough for these users, but most acknowledge it is slower, creates duplication of work, and doesn't track the quoting process well...

Written by Ken Quigley

June 15 2020

Recent evidence has shown that world pandemics, civil unrest, and a tanking global economy has not deterred email scammers one iota. Anyone that naively thought that these fraudsters would be swayed by a conscience have misunderstood their foe. These people are criminals, plain and simple, and as such prey upon people's vulnerabilities, so these...

Written by Ken Quigley

June 12 2020

When Billy Clark first joined Keystroke in late March of this year, we knew it was just a formality for him to become a MaaS Certified Consultant. He was, after all, one of the leading authorities in Act! Marketing Automation in the world, and the guy most Act! Consultants got escalated to for troubleshooting when he was with...

Written by Mike Muhney

June 11 2020

As the Co-Inventor of ACT!, the product that literally created the software category known as Contact Managers, and is the product that has been acknowledged as the catalyst that started the entire CRM industry, you might expect me to be pro-CRM. I’m not. As is the case with so many things in life, we as people are often more likely to point the...

Written by Ken Quigley

June 02 2020

ATTENTION: (June 15th, 2020) Swiftpage has advised that a hotfix will be released on Friday, June 19th which will address some identified issues with the new refactored Outlook integration. Keystroke is advising v22 users to wait for this hotfix before updating. Users looking to upgrade from previous Act! versions, namely v21 or older, can...

Written by Ken Quigley

June 01 2020

The #1 Factor for Inbox PlacementInbox placement is instrumental to email marketing effectiveness, so it makes sense to manage the influencing factors. Inbox placement is largely determined by your sender reputation, and whether or not the recipient server correlates your past email behavior with unwanted email. Obtaining explicit permission...