All Forum Posts by: Collin Goodwin

Greetings, @Tony Gunter! Mind blowing is defiantly right... 

To fully understand the concept you have described, we need to separate 2 types of workflows: 

1. Outbound Communications

2. Inbound Communications

By using Zapier, Webhooks & API's, you have probably figured out the huge potential of automating outbound communications such as direct mail, voicemail, sms text, email, etc. What I am picking up on your Boolean String reference is the ability to search for and update items through inbound communications. Am I correct on this? 

@Brandon Yeager excited to read this for many reasons, but mainly because it's pretty complex! I luckily have found a pretty good solution for this and have been implementing it for quite some time. I'll shoot you a PM with a link

@Moshe Wolfe right inline with @Trevor Ewen... it's not the software that defines the process, but the process that defines the software. Software platforms can be huge rabbit holes, gobbling up years of time in the process. I have been fortunate to be able to structure, organize and automate several large REI businesses. I can tell you with full transparency that not a single development that we have done has ever been the same. Why? Established companies have process. I would recommend taking a look at your process first, growth objectives second, and see what software platform you can use now to stay lean and efficient, while giving you the ability to scale when you need. In my case, this is Podio + ActiveCampaign 90% of the time.

 Good call and way to take action. Here is my take... Podio will allow you exponential expansion capabilities as you scale your skill set and business. As you grow into the platform, you'll understand the native Podio features and extensions with Globiflow. You'll be able to take care of the majority of your needs with a bit of sweat equity and learning the platform (it doesnt always come fast). Yet, Podio is flexible enough in working with external softwares to if you ever get to the point where you want added functionality, you can easily link high-powered software platforms with Podio, and use Podio as your database. Great move!

Hey @Mark W Carpenter, just came across this thread... sounds like this may no longer an issue! Awesome connecting with you yesterday

@Kashif Riaz for outbound marketing, lead gen and prospecting... ActiveCampaign hands down!

@Kashif Riaz there are a million and one software suites/tools available and it can definately be overwhelming. Most do have a learning curve, so the fact that you are doing your research is important as you will end up committing time and resources to the platform you choose. For me personally, I use a combination of Podio and ActiveCampaign... Podio is a great data aggregator while ActiveCampaign is a super powerful tag-based marketing automation system... amazing for outbound direct mail, drip campaigns, text, sly broadcast, etc.... To be honest, if you are looking for a single-source platform for outbound marketing, i'd start with ActiveCampaign and you'll be able to make the future decision on whether or not you'd like to expand into other platforms... if you'd like, feel free to reach out to me and I can set you up with a free account. 

 Not saying they're bad. At all. I'm saying there is an opportunity. There are hundreds of factors that influence SEO... no one thing will make you're website dominant. It's about having a solid framework, and maximizing the on-page and off-page factors using solid SEO strategies (many of which you mentioned above). 

@John Jones There will be an initial learning curve, but definatly not hard. Just needing to learn the ins and outs of podio and globiflow. It is worth the investment of time and research as you'll find it will open up doors and you'll know how to make things happen. I must warn you, it's addicting once you figure it out!

@Kelly Iannone sure thing!

@Paul T. it really comes down to where you are in your journey as a business owner. I have been fortunate enough to work with some awesome REIs across the country who have outgrown "out-of-the-box" CRM offerings for a multitude of reasons... In these cases, building a custom Podio suite that is fully tailored to their business and processes is 100% the absolute best solution as it provides flexibility, leverage and a proprietary asset that no one else in their market has access too. With that said, if you're not at that stage, it can be very frustrating if you're trying to have some simple funtionality here and there; this might be a good use case for a "out-of-the-box solution".

With this said, I know how you feel. I started in Podio nearly 7 years ago and used it as no more than a glorified excel spreadsheet for nearly 3 years. I slowly picked up tips and tricks and added functionality to my workspaces and apps. I now have seen the flip side (huge automation stacks, calculations and automations) and know that competing with a fine-tuned custom built podio suite is hard to beat. 

For your case, I would recommend sticking with it. I always challenge my clients to scrub their data BEFORE putting it into Podio. Excel has some very easy duplicate deletion features that can help you do this. In the even that your adding to existing Podio data, Podio does have a primary key/unique record solution when uploading data... but the trick is creating unique identifiers (first name is not sufficient as there are 100s of "Mary's" on a list, phone numbers can be difficult from multiple traces) so it's important to use Excel to create these unique identifiers. We could dive into this deep, but just to make a point... create a "Unique ID" field in excel that combines the last name plus first 3 numbers of the address (ex. Mary Smith at 123 Main St. would be "smith123" -- by doing this, you can use this column as your unique identifier to avoid adding duplicates. 

Now, for the second portion of your question.... when it comes to outbound communication and if/then actions, Podio does not have many native features that make this easy... If you've seen my posts, you will know that the day that I was able to pair ActiveCampaign to Podio, for this very reason, was one of the best days of my life! Since then, i've had the opportunity to work with ActiveCampaign corporate to find awesome solutions for Real Estate Investors... if you'd like, I can get you an account for free, as well as an REI walk-through to help you with this exact function.

Hope this helps!