The Act-On / NetSuite Plugin extends Act-On into the NetSuite CRM – giving CRM users access to a contact or lead’s activity history, extending the ability to use Act-On’s trackable email to message a lead or contact directly within the CRM, and adding Act-On’s Hot Prospect technology right into your NetSuite CRM Dashboard.
Prerequisites
- Act-On Marketing or Administrator credentials
- An active connection to NetSuite
Import & Sync with NetSuite
Create a Lead Score Field in NetSuite
If you plan to sync the Act-On Behavior Score (also called a Lead Score), you will need to create a field in your NetSuite account for this data to push to.
To create the field:
- Log in to NetSuite as an Administrator.
- Go to Customization > Lists, Records, & Fields > Entity Fields and click New.
- Enter a Label such as "Lead Score" or "Act-On Lead Score".
- For Type, use Free-Form Text (do not use Integer Number).
- For Applies to, select Contact.
- For Display, choose a location to display the field in NetSuite.
- For Validation & Defaulting and Sourcing & Filtering, these should be blank.
- For Access:
- Set Default Access as "View"
- Add the Role for the user you will use to connect to Act-On (eg Administrator) with the following settings:
- Access Level: Edit
- Level for Search/Reporting: Run
- Click Add.
- For Translation, also leave this blank.
- At the bottom of the page, click Save.
Data Management Setup and Sync
To view Data Management in Act-On, log in to Act-On as a Marketing or Admin user. Then, go to Settings > Data Management. This is where you can select fields to use in Personalization (eg outbound emails), sync Email Opt-outs, and import Opportunity and Revenue data for reporting.
A recurring sync is necessary for many CRM integration features such as Account-Based Marketing.
See Data Management Setup and FAQs for full instructions.
Import Marketing Lists
To start marketing to your NetSuite contacts, you will need to first import them into Act-On. To do this, go to Contacts > Marketing Lists and select the Import button that has the NetSuite logo on it.
You will have four different options to import:
- Affiliated with Customers -this is a contact whose affiliated company stage is set to Customer.
- Affiliated with Prospects – this is a contact whose affiliated company stage is set to Prospect.
- Affiliated with Leads – this is a contact whose affiliated company stage is set to Lead.
- Unaffiliated – any contact who is not affiliated with a company
Name your list. Selecting an option will put in a default name for the new list. The name can be changed and must be unique within Act-On.
After choosing a list to import, click Next.
Act-On will retrieve the fields available for import. Choose the fields that you would like to import. Important fields:
- Email – Act-On uses email as the key to track behavior, so this field is very important to include.
- Lead Score – This is the field you created to hold the Act-On Behavior score. If you would like your Sales Reps to see the lead score in NetSuite, then you must include this field in your selection set.
- Sales Rep - This is required for the Hot Prospects dashboard to reflect your most active Leads to their Sales Reps in NetSuite.
When you are done choosing fields, click Finish. Your new Marketing List will begin importing from NetSuite.
When the import completes, you can repeat these steps to import other lists.
Syncing Marketing Lists
If you wish to keep your Marketing Lists synchronized with NetSuite, you can schedule an automated sync.
- Go to Contacts > Marketing Lists.
- Find your NetSuite list, hover over it, and click the down arrow for list options.
- Go to Import and Export NetSuite CRM Sync Setup.
A new box will open. This is where you set up which fields to Push and Pull and when the sync occurs.
Typically, you will want to Push the Act-On lead score to NetSuite and Pull all of the other values.
Push to NetSuite:
- Data to Push. Decide what data you want to send from Act-On Marketing List to your CRM
- Add new Records to NetSuite CRM. Checked = on. This is sometimes unchecked if you have an Act-On Form capturing Leads and sending them to NetSuite.
- Update existing records > Click Select Push-Update Fields
- Check the box for Lead Score
- Click Save
- Push Trigger. This determines when new data is sent to NetSuite.
- Always will automatically send updates to NetSuite when the selected push fields change for your records in Act-On. This is also called Streaming Push.
- Scheduled will push data to NetSuite on the schedule set further down in this console.
Pull from NetSuite CRM:
- Add new records, if you would like new NetSuite contacts to be added to Act-On. Most customers select this.
- Update existing records, if you want to update specific fields in your Act-On list with new or updated data points in your NetSuite.
- Select Pull-Update Fields to select which fields to pull in from NetSuite.
- Remove records from this list, to remove contacts from Act-On that were removed/deleted or converted in NetSuite.
Execution:
- Click Schedule to set up when you want to Pull records from NetSuite. It can be set as often as every hour.
Act-On will also Push records to NetSuite at this time when you have Scheduled chose as your Push Trigger above.
Click Save to keep your selections.
Repeat these steps for the other Marketing Lists you would like to keep in sync.
Add New Fields to a Marketing List
After doing an import, you can add additional fields to a current list. To do this
- Go to the NetSuite CRM Sync Setup under the More menu and click the Add List Columns button.
- A dialog box will open, allowing you to choose the new fields to add.
Create in CRM Step from Automated Programs
The Automated Journey Builder provides a Create in CRM action step that you can use to define how you want to create or update records in Netsuite.
Note that while you can send data to the Customer object in Netsuite, it is required that you create a Contact. Act-On is unable to support 'Customer' as a primary object. Below is an example of a setup with the required configurations
Update Lead Score for NetSuite Contacts
In the above section, you already set up the lead score field to sync to NetSuite. Next, you must set up the field to update on your Act-On list using a List Maintenance program. This will update the value in your list so it will send an updated lead score to NetSuite.
- Go to Contacts > Marketing Lists.
- Hover over the list in question, click on the drop-down menu, and go to Maintenance > Setup Maintenance Program.
- Enter a name for the program, and a description if you like.
- Click on the add step button, and select Change Field Values.
- Enter the Step Name to something descriptive, such as "Update Lead Score in List".
- In the first section of the step, select the second radio button: "find the corresponding record"
- In the second section of the step:
- For the first drop-down, select your Lead Score field
- For the second drop-down, select Set Value to Behavioral Score
- Click Done.
- Click Save at the top of the List Maintenance Program.
- Click on the schedule button:
- Set the schedule as desired. (We recommend scheduling this to run 5 minutes prior to the list sync.).
- Click Save.
- Repeat steps 2-12 for any other lists that include the lead score.
If you wish to return to the Programs Listing, click the Listing button. This list is now fully set up to sync. Its listing will show the NetSuite icon on the left, and the gear icon for the maintenance program and calendar for the scheduled sync on the right.
Send Inbound Leads and Form Sign-ups to NetSuite
Act-On forms can push data directly to NetSuite in Step #2 of the form builder.
Push Sign-up Data to NetSuite when someone submits a form
- This option lets you set the system to automatically push submission data into NetSuite. Note that it's very important that your form fields map to your CRM fields; the label must be the same, including spelling and punctuation (watch out for variations such as "e-mail" and "email").
- If a company record does not exist, an "unaffiliated lead record" will be created.
- When checking this box, additional options will appear.
Overwrite existing Sign-up Data in NetSuite
- Electing this option directs Act-On to find the existing record in your CRM database and overwrite the record’s data with the form submission data.
- If you don’t want all fields to be updated, you can specify only certain fields to be overwritten by selecting Use signup list’s Push settings to select fields.
Add a Note to NetSuite
When checked, Act-On automatically documents the user's Activity History noting the form submission.
Email Message Activity Note
When sending a message to a NetSuite connected list, there is an option to attach a note to the contact in NetSuite:
- Act-On will attach a "Sent email" note in the contact’s activity history, where it can be seen by anyone reviewing the lead.
- By default the box will be checked and a note will be attached. If for any reason you prefer not to attach the note, just uncheck the box.
NetSuite CRM Saved Search/List View with Act-On Score
With the Act-On Lead Score being pushed to NetSuite, a saved search or a list view can be created that uses the lead score. This will enable the sales team to quickly focus on the most engaged targets.
- In NetSuite CRM, create a new Saved Search from List Menu > Search >Saved Searches.
- The results will display, sorted by Act-On Lead Score.
Install Act-On for NetSuite
Install the Act-On Bundle
- Log into your NetSuite Administrator account.
- Navigate to the Customization tab.
- Select the SuiteBundler, and the Search & Install Bundles.
- Search for Act-On
- Click Install Bundle and follow the steps.
Install the Act-On Tab
- Go to Customization > Centers and Tabs > Center Tabs and click on New
- Label: "Act-On"
- Center: All or Marketing Center, as you desire.
- In the content categories section, label “Act-On”, and in the Content Portlets section, select Custom Portlet, Column, Center, and Show, yes.
- Save
Set Up the Act-On Portlet
- Click on the Act-On Tab.
- On the Custom Content box - click the three dots > Set Up.
- Choose the source “Act-On Dashboard Portlet"
- Save
Set Up Hot Prospects
Each NetSuite Sales User who will use Hot Prospects should set this up on their own Dashboard.
- Navigate to Home > Personalize Dashboard.
- Drag the “Custom Portlet” to your desired location.
- On the Custom Content Pane you just added, click the down arrow > set-up entry.
- Select the “Act-On Hot Prospects Dashboard” and save.
Next Steps: To completely configure your Hot Prospects dashboard, see NetSuite Hot Prospects Setup Guide.
FAQs and Troubleshooting
Remove Duplicate Activity History
The Act-On bundle may create two subtabs for the Act-On Activity History. A NetSuite Administrator can remove the duplicate sub-tab following these instructions:
- In NetSuite, go to Customization > Forms > Entry Forms:
- Find the Preferred Entry Form for Customers/Leads/Prospects and click Edit:
- Scroll down to Subtabs and clear the selection for the duplicate Act-On Activity History:
- Click Save.
Repeat for the Preferred Entry Form for Contacts as needed.