In this competitive world of customer acquisition, it’s vital to use a reliable CRM that helps you automate multiple business processes. Salesforce is used by some of the biggest companies in the world, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. However, you should be aware that Salesforce may not have everything you need in one handy package; it is important to know about available Salesforce integrations so you can scale according to your business needs.
With so many to choose from, we’ve handpicked the 10 best integrations to help small and medium-sized businesses.
1. Zapier
Although Salesforce has many direct integrations, the remainder are facilitated by the integration platforms like Zapier that handle all the synchronization between Salesforce and third-party tools.
With Zapier, you can automate many repetitive tasks without needing to rely on developers to build the integration for you. It takes just a few clicks to connect Salesforce to external apps like Google Sheets or Mailchimp.
2. flair
flair is a unique platform that turns Salesforce into a versatile human resources powerhouse. Time tracking, OKRs, recruiting, talent management — flair allows organizations to manage it all within an already familiar Salesforce interface. Every flair subscription also comes with an “Employee Hub”, where employees can request absences, plan shifts, fill out evaluation templates, or track their goals.
As long as your company already uses the Salesforce platform (most likely for sales), you can add a flair subscription on top at an affordable price. Both your HR and finance departments are going to love it.
3. Paperform
For any SMB, lead generation is a pivotal marketing discipline. So, every SMB needs a reliable tool that collects lead data with minimal effort and maintenance, allowing them to focus on the real day-to-day running of the business. Contact forms, lead magnets, and promotional landing pages are all disparate elements that need to be integrated into one handy process.
However, trying to synchronise all the data between different tools often proves troublesome. That’s when Paperform comes to the rescue: with over 3,000 integrations (including with Salesforce) and it is one of the top 20 forms of automation software 2020 by Capterra.
An example use case for Paperform is to collect lead data and automatically send it to Salesforce. Getting started is easy, as Paperform offers more than 650 ready-made form templates for different industries and use-cases.
4. Acquire
Customer service is the glue that binds a business and its bottom line together. It is so important for SMBs to integrate their Salesforce CRM system with customer service tools that make the lead generation process easier, and Acquire is one of the best out there.
Allowing customer service agents to capture new leads directly from chats, strengthens relationships with customers, while also enabling personalization through emails and SMS messages. Also, it’s worth noting that Acquire has a handy feature for creating chat transcripts. Displaying and summarizing these customer conversions in the Salesforce dashboard is a great way to amass small and salient points to make the agents’ work easier.
5. ActiveCampaign
There is so much focus on social media as a way to capture leads, but email marketing is still the most effective sales channel for SMBs. Capturing leads with a form builder is only the first stage of a strong lead generation campaign. You also need a reliable tool to communicate with customers and subscribers in an effective and streamlined manner, which is where ActiveCampaign comes in.
SMBs can use ActiveCampaign to push newly created Salesforce leads and contacts into ActiveCampaign and vice versa, making for a symbiotic system for contacts and leads. Its integration with Salesforce is second to none. With the ability to set up Dynamic Field Mapping, as well as the ActiveCampaign CX Automation component to send a campaign created in ActiveCampaign to a lead or contact, it is the icing on the cake of email marketing tools for Salesforce.
6. Outfunnel
Newer Salesforce integrations can get short shrift in comparison to their well-established counterparts. Outfunnel, while a new kid on the block, has lots of potential and great features that will make it one to watch in the months to come.
Boasting the essential features all SMBs need, such as workflows, personalization, and syncing engagement practices, Outfunnel has the ability for deep integration between Salesforce CRM and MailChimp, making it a one-stop-shop for email campaigners who are looking to drill deep into very specific customer habits. For example, if you wanted to target customers who visited your website within the past 24 hours, you can use Outfunnel to send emails to those individuals.
7. Xero
From basic accounting practices to creating invoices, it is a huge timesaver for SMBs to integrate Salesforce and accounting software to streamline back-office processes.
If you need to create invoices seamlessly and synchronize the information on deals in the Salesforce pipeline, Xero is a popular piece of accounting software that can be essential for a business looking to keep track of its finances. For SMBs that are constantly looking at every penny they spend, using Xero can help keep track of inventory, expenses, bank reconciliation, and improve the filing system.
8. HubSpot
HubSpot is already known as a popular and versatile marketing automation platform, which can put it in direct competition with Salesforce. While it does have some overlapping features with Salesforce, the two products working together could provide a big boost to your business.
Salesforce applications focus on sales, service, and marketing, while HubSpot comprises Sales Hub, Marketing Hub, Service Hub, and CMS Hub software applications. To top it off, the sales analytics tools in HubSpot gives your business the ability to track each individual customer habit, allowing you greater insight. Integrating these products will allow your business to leverage the best of both tools.
9. Facebook
Facebook already has a multitude of insight tools for businesses looking to get deeper into potential buyer habits and prospective approaches, but Salesforce integration allows you to go further.
When done correctly, data can migrate from Facebook to Salesforce and vice versa, helping your business utilize this popular social media platform. Using ads created with Facebook Custom Audiences and Salesforce generates very high engagement, and can help you easily retarget your prospects.
Using Facebook Custom Audiences with Salesforce allows you to create ads targeted at people who are more likely to benefit from your products or services, and exclude those who are not likely to convert. It also gives you the opportunity to respond quickly. Being able to send messages to incoming leads as they sign up will further increase your conversion rates.
10. Slack
In light of the events of 2020, modern SMBs are having to embrace remote collaboration tools like Slack more readily. Being able to use a communications tool that comprises video, audio, and various web chat functions can be vital to help individuals collaborate efficiently, ensuring every employee is on the same page.
As Slack users can view the messages in Slack when an event happens in Salesforce, it helps teams to coordinate their efforts. The real-time engagement among employees and between customers, and the opportunity for users to create and edit Salesforce objects from the Slack platform makes for a transparent and efficient process. Being able to automatically post updates from Salesforce will keep every member of the team on the same page, which helps everyone, no matter how far removed they are physically, feel like part of the team.
We expect Slack and Salesforce platform integration to get even tighter following Salesforce’s acquisition of Slack.
Summary
Increasing the value of your business in terms of its efficiency and productivity has never been more important. Using CRM tools like Salesforce guarantees that you keep ahead of the pack, but while Salesforce has a lot of functionality and features, integrating it with other software can give your business the edge over your competitors.
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