To sync your CRM leads and contacts with Act-On Contacts, you’ll need to map your data fields first. Continue reading for complete instructions to set up your account.

Instructions

To get started, first, make sure your CRM is connected to Act-On.

Next, go to Settings > Data Management > Contact Mapping tab 

• Some CRM fields will be automatically mapped to Act-On's Standard fields
• Others will require you to create a custom field in Act-On

Step 1: Map Act-On Standard Fields

First, you will map fields from your CRM to Act-On Standard Fields. Act-On uses standard fields to complete marketing automation tasks like sending emails, SMS, and including personalizations in your messages. Using a standard field when appropriate will also result in the best possible experience when working with your data in segmentation, personalization, and elsewhere.

We’ve given you a head start by mapping the most commonly used fields, so review these mappings.

To delete any fields you don’t want to include in your Act-On Contacts, hover over the field and click on the trash can to the right.

After reviewing the mapped fields, check for any additional Act-On Standard fields you want to add.

1. Scroll down to the bottom of the mapped fields to the first available Select Destination field
2. Select the additional field from the right column dropdown
3. Then, select the corresponding CRM fields from the left column(s), if you wish to sync this field data

Some things to know about this step:

• Depending on your CRM, you may have separate columns for Leads and Contacts or just Contacts. Standard Fields are listed in the drop-down in alphabetical order.
• Be sure to add any Standard Fields that are currently used to calculate scores or used in personalization in any existing templates or emails.
• You are not required to map all the Act-On Contacts fields to CRM fields. You are welcome to store additional data in fields in Act-On Contacts that don’t have an equivalent in your CRM - just select the field in the right column but leave it unmapped on the left side.
• You must map an email field to your CRM.
• You must map at least one score field to your CRM.
  • Ask your CRM Administrator to create a custom field in your CRM to accept the data if you don't have this already. It can be a Text or Number field.
  • Hover over this field mapping to choose which score sheet you would like to use.
  • Act-On will automatically populate the score for the record based on the selected score sheet and pass this to your CRM.
  • If you wish to sync multiple score sheets, just add more fields to your CRM to map these too.

Tip: Related CRM Objects such as Account (which connects Contacts to Company Name), Owner (which connects Leads & Contacts to Sales Owners), and Opportunities will be linked automatically. You do not need to map the Account ID, Owner ID, or other joined fields. In addition, all CRM contacts will get the External ID and Type (Contact vs. Lead) automatically.

Step 2: Create and Map Custom Fields

If you need to add a field that is not available in the Act-On Standard fields drop-down,

1. Scroll down to the lower half of the screen to the Act-On Custom Fields section
2. Create custom fields to store additional data by entering a field name where "Destination Field" is shown.
   • These could be:
     • Standard fields in your CRM
     • Custom fields that you have created in your CRM
     • Custom fields that you will use in Act-On only and not sync to your CRM
     • Fields that are coming from another data source
3. If you have corresponding CRM fields for Leads or Contacts, select them in the left columns
4. If not, just leave those columns on Select Source
5. Finally, select the appropriate Data Type for the field
   • The Data Type drop-down will let you pick from Boolean, Date, Datetime, Text, Number, Score, Email, or Multi-Text
   • The data type should match the field’s data type in the CRM.

Tip: If you aren’t sure what the data looks like in a particular CRM field, you can see a sample of records in the CRM Entities tab by clicking on the record count bubble next to the Lead or Contacts entity. Ask your CRM Administrator for help if you need to determine a data type for your CRM fields.

Be sure to add any Custom Fields that are currently used to calculate scores or used in personalization in any existing templates or emails.

Step 3:  Set Push Policy

The default policy is to allow a 2-way sync between Act-On and your CRM. This means if data changes in your CRM, the change will be reflected in Act-On at the next sync. If data changes in Act-On, it will pushed to the CRM.  

Contact data could change in Act-On if a user edits the contact, a list maintenance or automated program is set to update a field, or a Form submission updates the contact record and overwrites data in a field.

You can change the default push policy, or select individual fields that should not push updates to the CRM.

To change the default policy, click Edit on the CRM Data Sync Setting box at the top of the Contact Mapping screen (Your CRM will be depicted in this screen).

To change an individual field, toggle the "allow push" option.  In the example below, Score and Email can be pushed to the CRM, but Company can not.

Note: The allow push setting impacts updates to existing contacts only.  If Act-On is creating new contacts in your CRM via form submit or automated program, all mapped fields will be populated.

Score fields can not be toggled off.  If you don't want the score to push to the CRM, remove the mapping.

Step 4: Save and Schedule CRM Syncs

Save your CRM Field Mapping

Once you’ve mapped all your fields, save your changes. Click Save in the top banner.

This will trigger Act-On to create some custom segments to get you started, including one for All Act-On Contacts.

Depending on your CRM, Act-On will create segments for each of your CRM entities, such as:

• All Leads
• All Contacts
• Affiliated with Leads
• Affiliated with Prospects
• Affiliated with Customers
• Unaffiliated
  
  

Schedule Syncs with your CRM

To populate your Act-On Contacts list, you’ll need to sync with your CRM. This will import your contacts and their data.

To run your first sync, go to the Sync Schedule tab and click Sync Now.

To schedule a recurring sync with your CRM, choose a schedule and click Save in the top banner. This is required for many features.

The sync schedule configured here will control how often Act-On pulls contact data changes from the CRM and pushes scores and opt-outs to the CRM.    Act-On will immediately push other mapped data changes on CRM contacts as they occur, regardless of this schedule.   

Act-On will never delete a contact in the CRM, and will only add new contacts to the CRM if specifically designated via the Push to CRM setting in forms or a Create in CRM step in Automated Programs.   Contacts that are deleted in the CRM will be deleted in Act-On on the next sync.