Changelog
Follow up on the latest improvements and updates.
RSS
new
Business App
Inbox
AI
Opportunities & Pipeline
Now Available
November 2024: Increase New and Recurring Revenue with an Automated, AI-Assisted Sales Solution
Welcome to Vendasta's November 2024 Product Launch! Join Kendall for a tour through the automated, AI-assisted sales solution designed to help local businesses increase new and recurring revenue, and help your agency demonstrate undeniable proof of performance.
Nurture and Engage with AI-Powered SMS
With AI available to respond around the clock, customers are never left waiting. Whether it's nurturing leads to boost new revenue or managing responses to re-engagement campaigns designed to expand recurring revenue, your clients' AI assistant has it covered. Updates include:
- Respond to all SMS communication immediately with AI to ensure no leads are lost to competitors and no opportunities are left behind. The AI acts as a receptionist or sales assistant, ensuring customers are taken care of, day or night. Available now in Inbox Pro in Business App, and coming soon to Partner Center!Learn more
- Run targeted campaigns to nurture new leads, re-engage existing customers, and more by segmenting Contacts or Companies with Smart Lists in Business App. Smart Lists are always accurate, updating dynamically, and in real-time to only include the Contacts or Companies that meet the custom criteria set. Static lists can also be created. Learn more
- Request reviews directly within a conversation in Inbox Pro, or the Reputation Management page embedded in Business App.
- Use Business App on the go with improvements to mobile friendliness and more intuitive navigation.
- Set Business App to Dark Mode.
Automate Pipeline Management in Business App
While your client's AI assistant is managing customer communication, the resulting opportunities are tracked in their Business App CRM. Trigger nurturing campaigns and sales tasks along the way to move leads through the pipeline. Updates include:
- Set up Opportunity stages, custom-tailored to each client's business model. Learn more
- Automate the progression of an Opportunity through all stages from Created to Closed-Won based on customer behavior. Learn more
- Easily update an Opportunity's status with drag and drop in Business App > CRM > Opportunities > board view.
- Easily update a Sales Task's status when in Business App > CRM > Tasks > board view.
- Use the customizable, filterable Opportunities tool to demonstrate undeniable proof of performance by your agency as you keep your clients' pipelines healthy.
Dig deeper
into the impact AI assistants and integrated pipelines can have on your clients' local businesses, and your agency.
Optimize Digital Ad Performance with MatchCraft
Demystify digital advertising for your clients with MatchCraft, which gets the most out of any budget through AI-assisted keyword selection, and automated bidding optimization across platforms like Google and Bing. Updates include:
- Schedule pausing and resumption of campaigns to take advantage of high volume periods like weekends and holidays without manual intervention.
- Automatically optimize ad spend, keywords, and scheduling based on Google Ads conversion data. This is a particularly powerful addition for agencies looking to sell ad services to local businesses that already use Google Ads. Bring existing campaigns into Matchcraft, and start delivering value right away!
Stay On-Brand with Smarter AI in Social Marketing
Create compelling content for more clients in less time with Vendasta's AI-powered Social Marketing Pro. Updates include:
- Train Social Marketing Pro's AI on a business's website, business profile, and more to enable it to produce social content that is right on brand. Learn more
- Ensure consistent messaging across social content and customer communication with AI knowledge centralized in Business App to inform Inbox's AI web chat, AI SMS communication, and Social Marketing Pro.
- [Coming soon] Manage social media marketing from within Business App instead of launching the Social Marketing app separately. Est. late 2024/early 2025
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Ready to get started? Join us for these upcoming events!
TODAY: Vendasta Connect - Unleash AI to 10x Your Clients
Join us today at 11:00 AM EST to learn more about these updates, and get a sneak peek into our vision, showing you how AI can optimize customer acquisition and lifecycle marketing to help your local business clients grow, fast.
Whether you're aiming to acquire new clients, strengthen existing relationships, or both — Vendasta Connect will provide you with the AI-driven knowledge, tools, and strategies to propel your growth.
Join now
November 21st Webinar: Automate Lead Nurturing & Engagement with AI Workflow Recipes
Join us for a live webinar to learn how to automate the sales process with AI & Automations in Business App.
Register now
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Other Updates
- [Business App] Manage images on all of a business' listings from one place. Images can be accessed and updated on an account's Business Profile from Partner Center, in Business App, Local SEO, or Reputation Management. Any updates will be synced to the Business Profile's instance in all other locations.
- [Platform: CRM] Coming soon: Order more easily with a simplified sales order workflow. Improvements will include a reduction of steps to order submission, automatic saving, increased admin functionality, and many other quality of life improvements. Est. mid-Dec. 2024
- [Platform: CRM] Coming soon: Set specific end dates for each line item on an Order. The end date will deactivate the product and end retail subscription. Est. mid-Dec. 2024
new
Local SEO
Marketplace
Reputation Management
Automations
Multi-location
Business App
Inbox
Partner Center
Marketing Services
CRM
AI
APIs & Integrations
Platform
Now Available
What's New
October 2024: Boost Online Reputations and Build Customer Loyalty with NPS, Automatically
Welcome to Vendasta's October 2024 Product Launch! Join Kendall for a tour through the brand new product updates, available today, that you can sell and use to help your local business clients improve their online reputation and increase customer loyalty.
Gauge Customer Satisfaction with NPS
Send NPS surveys through Reputation Management Premium to help clients gauge each customer's satisfaction
before
inviting them to leave a public review. Updates include:- Collect feedback via NPS to help clients boost their online ratings, and understand who their best customers are. Leverage this insight to inform improvements to lead generation, account expansion, and customer retention. Learn more
- Set up email and SMS templates to collect NPS and reviews. To amplify positive experiences while addressing negative feedback to protect their reputation, set the template to invite customers who leave an NPS score greater than 7 to leave a public review, and ask the rest to submit private feedback. Learn more
Automate Feedback Collection with New Integrations
Connect industry-leading apps directly with Business App to sync customer data, automate NPS and review requests, and centralize communication. Updates include:
- Collect feedback automatically upon job completion or purchase. The requests will be sent according to the email and SMS templates set as default in Reputation Management. Learn more
- New integrations: PetExec, Paw Partner, PawLoyalty, Pet Resort Pro, and Gingr.
- Connect and manage all integrations with Business App from one place: the new: centralized Integrations page in Business App > Settings > Connections > Integrations.
Tailor the Customer Journey with Automations
Enhance the value of NPS data and integrated systems by setting personalized follow-ups based on NPS scores with Automations to deliver a tailored, scalable post-purchase experience. Updates include:
- Build post-purchase flows based on NPS scores. For promoters, for example, send a campaign inviting them to register for a loyalty account that offers discounts and other perks. For detractors, send a campaign thanking them for their feedback, and notify a team member to follow up with each customer.
- Group automation steps to simplify and organize even the most complex workflows organized. Learn more
- Save groups as Action Sets to easily add them to other automations. Learn more
Ready to get started?
This clip
will walk you through everything you need to know to get started with this powerful new solution—from creating NPS templates, sending surveys via email and SMS, to setting up automations that engage promoters and nurture detractors. Want to get your team up to speed? Have them take the
Reputation Management course
in the Academy!
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PROMO ALERT: Grow Your Revenue with Business App Pro
Vendasta’s AI-Powered Business App Pro Package delivers—a complete set of tools that acts like an AI-powered employee for your clients.
This package includes five key products your clients will love:
- Reputation Management Premiumhelps build stellar online reputations. With built-in AI, it handles review responses seamlessly and includes Vendasta’s new NPS and automated review request features.
- Social Marketing Proautomates social media content creation, building full content calendars with text and images tailored for each platform.
- Local SEO Proensures your client’s business info stays accurate across top sites, optimizing their profiles for better search rankings with the help of AI.
- Inbox Procaptures more leads with an AI-assisted webchat widget, answering questions in real-time and connecting qualified leads via SMS.
- Campaigns Prouses AI to create email and SMS campaigns that engage leads, revive cold prospects, and target the right people at the right time.
This package is a great opportunity to jump on the AI trend and grow your revenue. To make it even better, we’re offering an exclusive promo:
for every new AI Business App Pro package you sell before December 31st, 2024, you’ll earn up to 35% back in rebate credits for three months!
How does it work?
Each time you activate the full AI Business App Pro package for an account, it counts toward your total active packages. The more packages you activate, the bigger your rebate! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Products in the Marketplace
Check out these new products offered by Marketing Services:
- Duda Website: Get a beautifully created, 10-page website with included hosting and monthly support with Duda. This offering is perfect for website customers looking to jumpstart their online presence or customers with an existing website, looking for a refresh.Search "Duda" in theMarketplaceto see the services available.
- Email Marketing Standard/Plus: Get strategic guidance from our team of experts, newsletters, welcome emails, drip campaigns, A/B testing, automation, and performance tracking, all fulfilled using Vendasta’s Campaigns Pro! This offering is great for customers wanting to engage their customers and nurture new leads on a monthly basis without the hassle of creating, managing, and optimizing monthly email campaigns.Available October 25, 2024
Also now available in the Marketplace:
- Zoek: Get professional Wix website development services, designed to give your clients a stunning and effective online presence. Whether it's for small businesses or larger enterprises, Zoek makes it easy to create beautiful, responsive websites optimized for SEO. With affordable pricing and expert design, it's the perfect solution to help your clients stand out online.Search "Zoek" in theMarketplaceto see the services available.
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Vendasta Connect: Unleash AI to 10x Your Clients
Vendasta Connect is back on November 14th! You won’t want to miss it. We’ll be giving you a sneak peek into our vision, showing you how AI can optimize customer acquisition and lifecycle marketing, and giving you practical tools to help your local business clients grow, fast.
You’ll hear from top industry leaders and learn AI-driven strategies to win more customers. Whether you're aiming to acquire new clients, strengthen existing relationships, or both — Vendasta Connect will provide you with the AI-driven knowledge, tools, and strategies to propel your growth.
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Other Updates
- [Business App: Inbox] Track AI web chat events in Google Analytics using Tag Manager. Learn more
- [Platform: CRM] Segment and manage Contacts and Companies in bulk using a static and smart lists in Partner Center. Learn more
- [Products: Local SEO] View keyword tracking across all locations of a business in in one place in multi-location Business App. Learn more
- [Products: Social Marketing] Manage social media efficiently and on the go with core workflows optimized for mobile. Modernizations ensure seamless mobile usability when generating, composing, and scheduling social media content. Learn more
September 2024
— Vendasta is set to retire the Sales & Success Center on January 15, 2025
, as part of its commitment to continuous innovation and platform evolution. All partners are required to transition to Vendasta’s unified Partner Center CRM
by this date to continue utilizing the company’s powerful sales and client management tools.The Partner Center CRM, launched in November 2023, has quickly become the go-to solution for managing SMB clients, offering an all-in-one platform that supports both agencies with dedicated sales teams and those without. The transition reflects Vendasta’s strategic vision to provide partners with a more cohesive, efficient CRM experience, featuring integrated workflows, enhanced automation, and seamless customer management.
Key Dates and Transition Requirements:
- Sales & Success Centerwill no longer be accessible afterJanuary 15, 2025.
- Partners currently using Sales & Success Center should migrate to the Partner Center CRMas soon as possible.
- Proposal Builder document creation, one of the most requested features, has been fully migrated to the Partner Center CRM. Partners can now design documents using the same tools that were available in Sales & Success Center’s Proposal Builder, ensuring a smooth transition for teams relying on this functionality. Some incomplete features that saw low usage, like creating a sales order from Proposals, and sending proposals for comments, will not be carried over to the Partner Center CRM.
Vendasta has already onboarded new partners to Partner Center CRM since June 2024, and all existing partners must make the transition by January 2025 to continue accessing these features.
Why the Change?
Vendasta’s Partner Center CRM now offers feature parity and beyond with Sales & Success Center. This evolution includes significant enhancements, such as:
- [Now available] White-label experience for salesperson- Your sales team will see your agency’s branding within their Partner Center, from logging in to using the software.
- [Now available] Market permission- If a salesperson is limited to a specific market, those restrictions will be applied within the Partner Center CRM as well.
- [Now available] Proposal Builder document building features- Vendasta’s development team has successfully migrated the most requested part of Proposal Builder to Partner Center; partners can now design documents using the creation tools of Proposal Builder.
- [Coming soon] Ownership permission- ensures that users can only view the records they are directly assigned to, preventing access to records owned by other users. Currently, Sales & Success Center uses a 'Market-wide account' access setting, which applies to all users in the market. We are now introducing a more specific, user-based permission system, replacing the instance-wide setting with individual user record access control.
- [Coming soon] “Product” under “Resources”- ensures that salespersons know what products are available for them to sell and at what price.
Due to low usage, and to ensure users receive the best possible experience, some features currently only available in Sales & Success Center will be retired completely.
- [Retired] Creating a sales order from Proposals, and sending proposals for comments- Vendasta’s Proposal Builder in Sales & Success Center was primarily used to create documents, which users would commonly download as PDFs. As such, we’re removing the complicated sales order workflow as part of the migration of our Proposal Builder to Partner Center.
- [Retired] Chrome extension- Vendasta’s Sales & Success Center Chrome Extension was primarily used for autoBCC’ing and logging emails in the CRM. Yesware is now the better alternative for autoBCC’ing.
- [Retired] “Stores” and “Sales” under “Resources”- Provided as self-serve sales training materials, though the sales content hasn’t been actively maintained.
- [Retired] Impersonate as a salesperson- Previously, a partner could “mimic” what the salesperson is able to see. In order to do this with the new Partner Center CRM, a partner can create a salesperson account to go through the salesperson experience.
- [Retired] Calendar- This shows the sales tasks and meetings booked via the meeting scheduler, but it hasn’t been widely adopted due to the lack of integration with users' calendars, such as Google and Outlook. Note that Partner Center CRM users are still able to create their own meeting scheduler link, so prospects and clients can easily schedule appointments with them.
By consolidating these capabilities into a single, streamlined platform, Vendasta is eliminating the need for partners to switch between multiple systems, thus providing a more efficient user experience.
What’s New in the Partner Center CRM?
- Unified Sales Workflow:Manage sales cycles, capture leads, and launch email campaigns directly within Partner Center, without the need to toggle between different platforms.
- Enhanced Automation:Features like AI-assisted web chat, Form Builder for lead capture, and Zapier integrations for workflows streamline sales operations.
- Improved Customer Management:New "Companies" and "Contacts" tabs offer better data organization, with advanced filtering and AI-driven lead capture tools.
- Customizable White-label Experience:Sales teams can enjoy a fully branded interface, ensuring a consistent experience from log-in to CRM usage.
- Permission Controls:Sales teams can now access only the records assigned to them, enhancing security and data privacy.
The Path Forward: What Partners Should Do
Vendasta encourages all partners still using Sales & Success Center to begin their migration to Partner Center CRM immediately. Detailed training resources in our Academy and support documentation in our Help Center are available to assist partners in making a smooth transition.
For any assistance or to request additional support during the migration, partners are encouraged to reach out to their Vendasta account manager or contact support by emailing support@vendasta.com.
FAQs
Q: What’s the deadline to transition to the Partner Center CRM?
A:
All partners must complete the transition by January 15, 2025
, when Sales & Success Center will no longer be available.Q: What are the key benefits of switching to Partner Center CRM?
A:
Partner Center CRM offers integrated workflows, powerful automation, enhanced customer management tools, and a fully customizable white-label experience — all within one platform.Q: Will there be any pricing changes?
A:
No, there are no changes to pricing or contract terms as part of this transition.Q: Where can partners find additional resources for the transition?
A: Vendasta’s Help Center and Academy offer training resources. Partners can also reach out to their account manager for more personalized support.
Final Call to Action
To maintain access to Vendasta’s suite of CRM tools and continue benefiting from our cutting-edge platform, partners must transition to the Partner Center CRM by January 15, 2025. For questions or further assistance, contact your Vendasta account manager or visit the Help Center for detailed resources.
new
Advertising Intelligence
Business App
Inbox
Partner Center
CRM
Platform
Now Available
Product Updates: 2024-09-26
The following improvements are now available!
Business App
- [CRM] Export Contacts and Companies from a Business App CRM for upload to other software.
- [Inbox] Start an Inbox conversation with a Contact from their profile in a Business App CRM.
- [Inbox] Avoid duplicate SMS conversations with Inbox. Select existing contacts and conversations to pick up communication in the same thread
- [Inbox] See the name and avatar set for a business' AI web chat assistant in Inbox conversations for improved context on who is participating in a conversation.
- [Inbox] When an AI web chat assistant has been given a custom name, it will recognize and respond to its name when addressed in conversation with a lead on a website.
- [Inbox] View conversation summaries written from the perspective of the AI assistant who helped the lead to get better context on how the business was represented. The AI assistant will wait briefly before summarizing lead capture conversation for the business in case the lead continues the conversation with additional details about their needs
Platform
- [CRM] Export Contacts and Companies from your Partner Center CRM for upload to other software.
- [Inbox] Start an Inbox conversation with a Contact from their profile in your Partner Center CRM.
- [Inbox] Avoid duplicate SMS conversations with Inbox. Select existing contacts and conversations to pick up communication in the same thread
- [Inbox] See the name and avatar set for a business' AI web chat assistant in Inbox conversations for improved context on who is participating in a conversation.
- [Inbox] When an AI web chat assistant has been given a custom name, it will recognize and respond to its name when addressed in conversation with a lead on a website.
- [Inbox] View conversation summaries written from the perspective of the AI assistant who helped the lead to get better context on how the business was represented. The AI assistant will wait briefly before summarizing lead capture conversation for the business in case the lead continues the conversation with additional details about their needs
Products
- [Advertising Intelligence] Compare ad performance metrics across campaigns and ad networks to make informed decisions on adjustments, and get the most out of your clients' ad spend. Select and compare specific creatives, customize columns, sort, and filter to quickly identify top performers, and ads in need of refinement. Learn more
fixed
Reputation Management
Social Marketing
Multi-location
Business App
Partner Center
CRM
Platform
Product Fixes: 2024-09-26
[Business App] View files in Business App > My Business > Files.
[Business App: Multi-location] Use dark theme logo in Multi-Location Business App.
[Platform] View active products on Account pages in Partner Center.
[Platform: CRM] When salespeople assigned to a single market create Contacts, the Contacts will be assigned to that same market.
[Platform: Marketplace] White label icons display on add-ons.
[Platform: Marketplace] Icons display in marketing materials of packages.
[Products: Reputation Management] Send review requests to up to 100 Contacts at a time.
[Products: Social Marketing] Posts set to "Hidden Draft" retain that status when rescheduled.
[Products: Social Marketing] Use "Bulk create with AI" to create social posts, even if you only have one or two accounts.
new
What's New
What's New: 2024-09-19
This week, exciting news about how we share updates with you, our partners! For the past two years, we've been communicating all newly available products and features weekly through our What's New and Next series. Consisting of a summary video and an accompanying Changelog article (published right here!), it provided a one-stop shop for learning about improvements to the software you use and sell every day.
After speaking with partners to discover opportunities for improvement, we're excited to share that we're revamping how we communicate product updates to help you better understand the new capabilities being added to our solution. You'll learn why and how to sell the latest and greatest Vendasta has to offer, and find out how to get started!
What's Changing
We're saying goodbye to the What's New and Next series to introduce more focused content that will be easier to understand, and harder to forget. Weekly videos detailing each release will be replaced by monthly videos that tie together top releases to help you understand the unique value that's being added to your partnership with Vendasta.
What's Not Changing
Stay tuned right here, and you'll never miss an update. All product updates, big and small, will continue to be communicated through this Changelog. Weekly articles will share small improvements released recently. Once a month, we'll publish articles announcing the launch of releases that are bound to make a big contribution to the growth of your and your clients' businesses. Video summaries, resource articles, and more will be linked to ensure you have everything you'll need to start using and selling new products and updates right away.
fixed
Reputation Management
Social Marketing
Business App
Snapshot Report
Partner Center
Billing & Payments
Orders
Platform
Product Fixes: 2024-09-19
[Business App] View numerical data by hovering over the Impressions, Engagement and Leads graphs in
Business App > Home.
[Business App] Your clients can invite other users to their Business App account.
[Platform: Billing & Payments] Search for Invoices by Invoice Number in
Partner Center > Commerce > Invoices.
[Platform: Orders] Upload and save image files when creating Sales Orders.
[Platform: Snapshot Report] Snapshot Reports display accurate count of Instagram followers.
[Products: Reputation Management] Update the layout of a review widget with Review Widget Pro in
Reputation Management > Reviews > Review Widget > Layout.
[Products: Reputation Management] Import Contacts in bulk via .csv.
[Products: Reputation Management] Capture NPS scores submitted via mobile.
[Products: Social Marketing] Post to Linkedin.
[Products: Social Marketing] View post thumbnails when reviewing insights in
Social Marketing > Insights > Post Performance.
new
Business App
Inbox
AI
APIs & Integrations
Now Available
What's New
What's New: 2024-09-12
This week, Kendall Johns shares new integrations, and updates to AI web chat that encourage web visitors to engage.
Business App
- [APIs & Integrations] Integrate Jobber and Housecall Pro directly with Business App to sync CRM data, automate review requests, centralize communication, and more. Use Automations to further streamline workflows and create engaging post-purchases experiences for customers. Learn more
- [Inbox] On mobile, the AI web chat’s avatar pops up immediately with a greeting, complete with a green “online” indicator to encourage visitors to engage in a conversation.
- [Inbox] Position AI web chat to show in the bottom left or right corner of a website by setting the Web Chat bottom corner position field in Inbox > Inbox Settings > Configure Web Chat > Appearance > Web Chat bottom corner position.
- [Inbox] Web chat messages appear on screen more quickly to assure visitors that their enquiries are being captured and processed immediately.
fixed
Reputation Management
Social Marketing
Opportunities & Pipeline
Platform
Product Fixes: 2024-09-12
[Platform: Opportunities & Pipeline] View Opportunity totals in the Partner Center > CRM > Opportunities > board view.
[Products: Reputation Management] Questions display once in Reputation Management > Google Q&A.
[Products: Social Marketing] If a warnings banner appears on screen, view warnings requiring action by clicking "View Warnings."
new
AI
What's Next
Now Available
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.
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