Card View for Contacts and Custom Objects

About Card View

Applies to: All ONTRAPORT accounts. (Custom Objects are available in ONTRAPORT Pro and above).

Please watch this brief video for an important introduction to Card View before proceeding.

As you saw in this video, Card View makes it easier to visualize your data. Contact Records are displayed in a compact Card format, in columns corresponding to the steps or stages of your sales pipeline, marketing campaign or any internal process you designate. For ONTRAPORT Pro and above accounts, the Card View features are available for any Custom Object collection as well.

This article describes Card View using a tutorial format, including how to set up your first Card View dropdown field that identifies the stages. Already started with Card View? Our Card View Quick Reference article gives you quick tips instead!

Permissions

Card View displays the Contact Records on a per User, per Group basis.

The account owner is an Administrator by default, with full access, and does not need to worry about permissions. However, if you have team members with limited permissions that will be using Card View please see our article on Card View Permissions.

How Card View Works In Your ONTRAPORT Account

You can drag and drop a Contact Card to a new column manually, or use the power of ONTRAPORT automation to move your contacts through the stages. In Campaigns the Update Contact element is used to change the dropdown field value as your contact moves through the stage; it can be based on any Trigger, Goal or Condition.

In addition to the dropdown field that determines the stages in Card View, a new Color Field has been introduced to further segment and prioritize Contact Cards across all columns using a color bar on the Cards.

To create your first Card View follow the steps in this tutorial.

Creating Your Process

Identify the steps for your process. Here is an example:

Common Sales Stages

New Prospect
Qualified Lead
Demo Scheduled
Consideration
Committed
Closed - Won
Closed - Lost

You can use Card View for virtually any process that has steps you can define. This tutorial uses the most common sales pipeline steps so you can quickly understand and incorporate Card View into your other processes.

Create Your Dropdown Field

In the Contacts Collection, select the Group you want to apply Card View to. We do not recommend applying a Card View to your All Group until you are familiar with how it works.

Follow these steps when you have selected a Group:

Click the Card View icon at the top right. It is shown here selected.
The Card View Settings dialog should open. If it does not, click the gear icon to open it.
Under the Select a field to display as columns dropdown, select + Create New Field
You will be redirected to the Field Editor. Click + Add Field
Name the field and select Dropdown as the field type. We are naming it "Sales Stage" in this tutorial.
Click the + Add button to add each value in your process (the Common Sales Process values from above are used in this example).
Click and drag the arrow to arrange the values in the proper order. The first step of the process should be at the top followed by the rest of the values in order. You can change this later if needed.
Save the field.

Configure Card View Settings

You should return to the Card View Settings dialog. If not, click the gear icon to open the dialog. Use these settings for this tutorial:

Select a field to display as columns: Choose your Sales Stage dropdown field you just created.
Sort cards by: Select Manual Sort. We will explore other options later.
Card Settings: Select Full Card.
Select fields to display on card: Select the following fields by clicking the + Add button -
- Name
- Title
- Email
- Office Phone
- SMS Number
Select a color field: Leave this blank for now.
Click Save.

The card view settings dialog

The Card View display of your contacts appears.

Working with Card View

Card View will show the values in your dropdown field as columns. At the far left will be the "Uncategorized" column. Because you have not yet changed the value of the new dropdown field in your Contact Records all of your Contact Records in the Group will be in this column.

If the "Uncategorized" column is minimized as shown here click the Maximize Column button to expand it to see your Contacts.

Manually Moving Contacts Through Stages

Click and drag a Contact Card from the "Uncategorized" column into the "New Prospect" column. Open the Contact Record by double clicking on the card, and note the value for the dropdown field "Sales Stage" is now set to "New Prospect". Manually moving the card automatically updated the underlying field.

Click on the field and set the value to Qualified Lead, then click the back button at the top left to return to Card View. Note that the contact now appears in the "Qualified Lead" column.

Many sales people love the rewarding interactivity of moving a contact from stage to stage, and Card View becomes a kanban-esque funnel management tool for them. Others will prefer to change the dropdown field value directly instead. You can feel free using the method you prefer.

Moving Multiple Cards

Hover over a card to show the check box; select it to choose that card. You can use this familiar hover and click technique to select several cards, then drag one of the selected contacts to a new column. An orange indicator will show the number of Cards you are moving. When you drop the card on the new column the other selected contacts will join it there.

Select and drag multiple cards to a new column

Performing Actions in Card View

You can select multiple cards and perform the same actions on them that you can when selecting contacts in List View. To select all the cards in a column hover over the column heading and click the menu - the three vertical dots - and click on Select all in column. Then you can perform any contact action on them, like sending a broadcast email, adding a Tag, updating the value of any field including the Card View dropdown field, or adding them to a Facebook Custom Audience.

The plus sign adds a new contact to the column. But be careful; this is for brand new additions to your Contacts database only. ONTRAPORT allows you to duplicate a Contact Record via manual entry (this is often needed for businesses that cater to spouses that use the same email or children using their parent's email address). If you don't want the duplicate Contact Record, don't enter it here.

Automation to Move Cards Through Stages

The Campaign Element Update Contact can change the value of our dropdown field. Here's an example where our contact has filled out a Demo Request form. The Campaign Trigger fires on the submission of the form, and we use the Update Contact element to change the dropdown field value to "Qualified Lead". The Campaign then assigns a Task for one of our team members to schedule the demo:

using the Update Contact Campaign Element to change the value of the dropdown field

The next logical step would be to set a Goal for the completion of the Task. Then, using the Update Contact element again, move the contact to the "Demo Scheduled" column.

Stackign the Update Contact elements in a Campaign path can automate much of the sales funnel

Nearly any action your Contact takes can be used to fire a Trigger or complete a Goal. See our full list of Trigger Events and Goal Achievements in our Campaign Builder articles. You can use the Update Contact element anywhere on the Campaign Map, including after a Condition Element.

In this image we have a Condition that updates the field based on whether the contact has purchased or not:

Use a Condition to segment your Contacts and then apply the correct pipeline stage

You can automate every step of the Card View process if you like, but most of the time Card View will be used to move a small Group of contacts through a sales pipeline with a combination of manual and automated steps.

Now that we have the basics covered, let's look at some of the advanced display options of Card View.

Card View Header Icons

Notice that the header icons in the header at the top of the columns have changed. A refresh icon has been added that will indicate if any of the data in Card View has changed. An edit icon allows you to rearrange or edit the field values in your dropdown field without visiting the Field Editor. The gear icon displays the Column Settings for editing.

Card view header icons include one to refresh data, edit the dropdown field values and change the column settings

Refreshing the Data

The refresh icon indicates when new data is available with an exclamation point icon. Click it to refresh the view. How can the data change? ONTRAPORT automation works continuously, so it is possible for a form fill out, Tag addition, or any other automated activity to change the data in the Card View.

An exclamation point will appear in the circular refresh arrow when data should be refreshed

Changing the Dropdown Field Values

Click the pencil icon in the header to show the dropdown field in edit view. You can change the order of the values to change where the corresponding column appears (the top value is the first column in Card View). Or change the name of the value itself. The name change will cascade throughout ONTRAPORT wherever the dropdown field values are used in Campaigns.

If you delete the value all the contacts in that column will move the "Uncategorized" column. If you intend them to be in a different stage move them before deleting the field value.

Click the pencil icon to edit the drop down field values

Sorting Columns by Field Values

We set Sort cards by: to "Manual Sort", allowing us to manually move cards up and down in the columns. You can also set the sorting in each column by a Contact Record field. Let's set the sorting so that the contacts who have purchased the most from us appear at the top of each column. Click the gear icon in the header and change the Sort cards by: to the field Spent. Click the Descending button to show the highest spent values at the top. Add the Spent field to those that will show on the Cards and click Save.

Add a Contact Record field to sort by

The column headings now display the total Spent in that column. You can use any Contact Record field to sort the columns such as Score (Lead Score), or custom fields you create such as "Proposal Value".

Note: Calculated fields such as "Spent" require a lot of processing power. This is usually OK in Groups using Card View that have a few thousand contacts. Avoid using them in large Groups of contacts.

Other Card View Resources

Frank Hagan

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