Welcome back to our series on smarketing (sales + marketing). In our first post we explained what smarketing is and then we shared a Q&A with Hubspot sales rep, MJ, on how inbound marketing campaigns help her sell. This week we want to touch on some system set up items that should be done before your first smarketing meeting, to make sure it's productive.

Enter, "closed-loop marketing."

Connected Systems

What is closed-loop marketing, in non-jargon speak? It means we can easily see who is a visitor, lead, or customer in your online marketing database.

By Kristi Tan and @JackieClews

Welcome back! In the first part in this series we discussed my prior experiences with Basecamp and TeamworkPM, two popular project management software systems for agencies. I then told you the first reason why I love Podio is the easy customization with the apps. Here’s the second reason why I prefer it over other project management systems I’ve used:

By Kristi Tan and @JackieClews

Project management includes a lot of parts, especially when content is thrown into the mix. A million shared docs, a never-ending email thread, questions left unanswered — these things are what raise our blood pressure and sometimes make us want to throw our computers out the window. This is why a comprehensive, reliable, easy-to-use project management software is absolutely crucial to build in the early stages of a growing agency, as well many other businesses. So I wanted to share some feedback on other systems I've tried and Podio, the software DMD began using recently, to share how they all compare.

One of the most common questions that I get from non-designers is “What programs do you use? Are there any free options that are just as good?” I use Adobe and they are the industry standard in the design world. I honestly don’t know if there are any free options out there because I never cared to check. Once you use Adobe’s applications you will never use anything else.