Lead Generation

Overview

This guide outlines the necessary steps for you to go live with Extole:

1. Brand your Domain and Links
2. Tag your Website
3. Connect your CRM
4. Design your Experience
5. Reward your Customers

Brand your Domain and Links

Create a CNAME for your Domain

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Task Duration

This task will typically take an IT/Ops engineering team 10–15 minutes to complete.

You'll want to create a CNAME for your domain so that you can create branded Promotion Links and Share Links.

To set up your CNAME, please complete the steps outlined in Extole DNS Requirements.

Send from Your Branded Email

The referral program will send program emails from you to your customers:

• Welcome Email
• Advocate Stats Email
• Earned Reward Email

The from address for this will typically be something similar to [email protected]. Once this email has been identified, Extole can check if it is configured to allow Extole to send emails from this address.

For details on how to update your SPF DNS records and install Extole DKIM keys, please reference Extole DNS Requirements.

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Related Content

• Find your domain in the settings page of My Extole
• How to set up your program domain

Tag your Website

Extole works with your site using lightweight JavaScript tags. The core tag must be included on every page of your site and contains Extole's JavaScript Library.

Extole tags can go anywhere in the HTML of the page and do not need to be loaded in any specific order. They are asynchronous to ensure fast page loading.

Marketing tags display CTA s inline on your page. These tags will reference a specific span tag by id and should be placed into the HTML inline where they will be displayed.

Add the Core Tag (Extole's JavaScript Library)

Extole's JavaScript library must be placed on all of your pages using the core tag. This tag is used to activate the Extole system and ensures that any other Extole tags on your page work properly.

The core tag can be found under your program’s branded domain (refer.brand.com). If you haven't set up your branded domain yet, you can load the tag from the Extole unbranded domain.

Find your active referral domain and use that for your core tag. It will look like brand.extole.io (unbranded) or refer.brand.com (branded).

<!-- BRANDED -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://refer.brand.com/core.js" fetchpriority="high" async></script>

<!-- UNBRANDED -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://brand.extole.io/core.js" fetchpriority="high" async></script>

var extoleScript = document.createElement('script');
extoleScript.setAttribute('type', 'text/javascript');
extoleScript.setAttribute('async', 'async');
extoleScript.setAttribute('src', 'https://origin.extole.io/brand/core.js');
document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0].appendChild(extoleScript);

Add Marketing Tags

In order to drive participation, Extole displays CTAs that promote the program. For example, a global_header CTA will add a banner element to the top of the screen that will say something like “Refer a friend.” When clicked or tapped, the banner will take the user to the Share Experience.

Marketing tags tell Extole where to serve CTAs onto your website. These CTAs are clickable entities that advertise your program to your customers and visitors. These marketing tags also enable tracking, so that you can know which marketing placements are driving participation in the program.

Extole campaigns come with the following standard marketing tags:

• global_header
• global_footer
• product
• confirmation
• overlay

It's easy to create additional marketing tags if you want to add CTAs to additional pages like your blog, help pages, and so on. As you're getting started, contact your Customer Success Manager to help learn how to create these additional tags.

Marketing Tag Placement

There is a span section that goes into your web page where the content will appear. This is typically done through your CMS or on site. It is required for all tags that put content inline (but not required for overlay and confirmation tags).

<span id="extole_zone_global_header"></span>

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Pass in Customer Information

When you have information about a customer, if they are logged-in for example, you should pass that into the tag to make sharing easier.

Additionally, there is the script tag that loads the targeted content from the program and inserts it onto the page in the span tag.

Below is an example of a global_header tag:

<span id="extole_zone_global_header"></span>
<script type="text/javascript">
  /* Start Extole */
  (function(c,e,k,l,a){c[e]=c[e]||{};for(c[e].q=c[e].q||[];a<l.length;)k(l[a++],c[e])})(window,"extole",function(c,e){e[c]=e[c]||function(){e.q.push([c,arguments])}},["createZone"],0);
  /* End Extole */

   extole.createZone({
     name: 'global_header',
     element_id: 'extole_zone_global_header',
     data: {
       "partner_user_id":"00O40000004SA1AA", // RECOMMENDED IF AVAILABLE
       "email": "[email protected]",  // RECOMMENDED IF AVAILABLE
       "first_name": "April",  // RECOMMENDED IF AVAILABLE
       "last_name": "Advocate"  // RECOMMENDED IF AVAILABLE
     }     
  });
</script>

Track Online Leads

In order to reward advocates when a friend makes a purchase, you need to communicate to Extole when leads are created and purchases are made. Online leads are tracked by adding the registration tag after successful lead form completion?

The registration tag passes information about the lead to allow Extole to connect referred leads to advocates, run quality rules, and run reward rules.

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Important Note

Make certain that you fire the Extole tag for all registrations so Extole will correctly attribute referrals and manage the fraud and business rules. Extole ignores leads that are not connected to an advocate when reward and quality rules run.

<script type="text/javascript">
  /* Start Extole */
  (function(c,e,k,l,a){c[e]=c[e]||{};for(c[e].q=c[e].q||[];a<l.length;)k(l[a++],c[e])})(window,"extole",function(c,e){e[c]=e[c]||function(){e.q.push([c,arguments])}},["createZone"],0);
  /* End Extole */

   extole.createZone({
     name: 'registration',
     data: {
       "first_name":"Julio", // RECOMMENDED DYNAMIC VALUE
       "last_name":"Friend", // RECOMMENDED DYNAMIC VALUE
       "email":"[email protected]", // REQUIRED DYNAMIC VALUE
       "partner_user_id":"00O40000004SQbO", // REQUIRED DYNAMIC VALUE
       "advocate_code":"QA754AZ" // RECOMMENDED IF AVAILABLE
     }
  });
</script>

Connect your CRM

A lead generation referral program supports leads being created from phone calls and in person. Because leads are turned into sales by your sales consultants and sales agents, the conversions are tracked through your CRM and sent to Extole.

To create referred leads from phone calls and in-person conversations as well as track conversion requests from your CRM to Extole, you will need to generate API keys with Extole and make a REST API call to track the following events:

• Lead Created in CRM
• Lead Converted in CRM

Create Extole API Keys

Extole requires API calls from the account systems to authenticate with an API identifier provided in the header (OAuth key).

Your keys are managed through the My Extole in the Security Center.

Create your first key via the "Create New Access Token" button. Extole temporarily displays the newly created and random key for you.

Once your API key is created, you can test successful authentication using the Client API method:

curl --user 1-2:0000 https://api.extole.io/v2/me/clients

[
  {
    "client_id": "1",
    "name": "Demo"
  }
]

Implement Salesforce Sales Cloud Triggers

Extole does not provide an AppExchange app or plugin for Salesforce, but Salesforce triggers are simple to write by a Salesforce developer who can make sure the important Salesforce events are passed to Extole.

Here is an example trigger to fire an Opportunity Closed/Won event to Extole:

trigger ConversionCreatorOnOpportunityClose on Opportunity (after update) {
  if (trigger.new.size() == 1) {
    List<Opportunity> oldOpportunities = Trigger.old;
    List<Opportunity> newOpportunities = Trigger.new;

    if (oldOpportunities.size() == 1 && newOpportunities.size() == 1) {
      Opportunity oldOpportunity = oldOpportunities[0];
      Opportunity newOpportunity = newOpportunities[0];

      if (newOpportunity.StageName == 'Closed Won' && newOpportunity.StageName != oldOpportunity.StageName) {
        Contact[] contactsForOpportunity = [
           SELECT Id, FirstName, LastName, Email, Extole_Advocate_Code__c
             FROM Contact
            WHERE AccountId = :newOpportunity.AccountId
        ];

        if (contactsForOpportunity.size() == 1) {
          Contact contactForOpportunity = contactsForOpportunity[0];
          ConversionCreator.createConversion(contactForOpportunity.Id,
            contactForOpportunity.Email,
            contactForOpportunity.FirstName,
            contactForOpportunity.LastName,
            contactForOpportunity.Extole_Advocate_Code__c);
          }
        }
      }
    }    
}

Track Phone and Offline Leads

Share messages sent through email and social will prominently display an Advocate Code (referral code) that can be used to help capture a referred lead. Your internal tools used by a phone agent or sales agent to capture a new lead should also ask for and allow your sales team to enter advocate codes with the records.

Track Lead Creation with Registration API Calls

When leads are created in your CRM, you should call the Extole Registration API. This should happen for all leads, even if you don't have an advocate code, Extole handles attributing referrals, removing duplicates, and discarding data that doesn't apply.

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Important Note

Make certain that you fire the Extole tag for all leads so Extole will correctly detect referrals and manage the fraud and business rules. Extole ignores the signups that are not attributed to a referral after processing rules.

POST https://api.extole.io/v5/events
{
  "event_name": "lead_created",
  "data": {
    "first_name": REPLACE,
    "last_name": REPLACE,
    "email": REPLACE,
    "lead_id": REPLACE,
    "advocate_code": REPLACE
  }
}

{"input_event_id":"6324678551458903928"}

Track Conversions with Conversion API Calls

All leads that turn into sales inside of your CRM should call the Extole Conversion API. This should happen for all leads, even if you don't have an advocate code, Extole handles attributing referrals, removing duplicates, and discarding data that doesn't apply.

POST https://api.extole.io/v5/events
{
  "event_name": "conversion",
  "data": {
    "first_name": REPLACE,
    "last_name": REPLACE,
    "email": REPLACE,
    "lead_id": REPLACE,
    "advocate_code": REPLACE,
    "conversion_id": REPLACE,
    "cart_value": REPLACE
  }
}

{"event_id":"6324678551458903931"}

Design your Experience

Your entire referral consumer experience can be configured in the My.Extole Admin tool. This part of setting up the solution can be done entirely by your marketing and creative team and doesn't require technical involvement. Each template is a comprehensive guide for your designer or marketer to customize.

Reward your Customers

After the conversion if complete, Extole will reward the advocate and friend by emailing them a digital gift card.

Your business team manage setting up the gift cards in Extole and providing funding to Extole for the cost of the gift cards.

Recommended Additional Steps

Uncommon Additional Steps