The purpose of this page is to provide insight into each production related role at SalesLabX so that we can all understand how to better work together towards our common goals.
Account Coordinators, or ACs, are the “face” of SLX. They spend a great deal of their time on video calls with clients, where they discuss goals, marketing strategy for the client’s brand, and generate ideas for projects that will then become tasks for the rest of us to work on. When they are not on client calls, they spend their time building and managing tasks in Asana, communicating with clients via Asana, email, phone, etc, and monitoring client asset performance and creating reports.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
Here’s a breakdown of a typical day for an AC:
8:30am – 9:30am – Reviewing correspondence from clients, including new task requests
9:30am – 10:00am – Attending team huddle, answering task questions from production roles
10:00am – 10:45am – Open Office Hours Each AC has open office hours, usually during the morning, to ensure that they are available for any task questions that did not get covered in the morning huddle.
11:00am – 11:30am – Weekly Check in Session, Client #1
11:45am – 12:30pm – Bi-weekly Strategy Session, Client #2
12:30pm – 1:30pm – Lunch
1:30pm – 2:00pm – Responding to chats and emails
2:00pm – 2:30pm – Weekly Check In Session, Client #3
3:00pm – 4:00pm – Building out client tasks in Asana to be assigned later in the week
4:00pm – 4:30pm – AC Huddle. Asking their AC Team Lead questions about process, brainstorming strategy and logistics in Pardot/SF, etc.
4:30pm – 5:00pm – Building Asana Tasks, catching up on emails and Asana messages
CLIENT CALLS
In the example below, we observe the AC working on client relationship building, discussing long term goals for the financial quarter, and determining details for projects to be completed over the next couple of weeks so the AC can assign to our team with all the correct details.
BUILDING ASANA TASKS
Here we see the AC referring to the notes from their client call to build the Asana tasks for the project discussed. They have task templates to help them remember all the information needed for each task, and will supplement this with the background knowledge they have of the client and their goals, the goals discussed during the call, and any other specifications mentioned by their client. They must remember to consider overall timeline when setting due dates, assign tasks to the correct team lead for delegation, and more.
Designers are the creators that bring the ideas and projects that the AC has collaborated with their client on to life. They take the information, assets compiled for them in the task, and the client’s brand profile to create something amazing for the client. Once the design is approved, the designers are responsible for packaging the design up to move it forward to our dev team for production. The bulk of the designers’ day is spent designing, when they are not designing they are either prepping exports for dev, or in design meetings.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
Here’s a breakdown of a typical day for a designer at SLX:
9:00am – 9:30am – Reviewing Tasks and checking assets provided to make sure everything needed is there. Sometimes exports for dev are done at this time when possible.
9:30am – 10:00am – Team huddle where task questions are presented and discussed.
10:00am – 10:45am – Priority tasks like exports, sends, or email schedules are taken care of.
11:00am – 12:30am – Designing & sending proofs to team lead for revisions
12:30pm – 1:30pm – Lunch
1:30pm – 2:00pm – Designing and reviewing remaining tasks to reach out for extensions if needed by 2
2:00pm – 2:30pm – Designing & sending proofs to team lead for revisions.
3:00pm – 4:00pm – Wrapping up designs & sending proofs to team lead for revisions.
4:00pm – 4:30pm – Wrapping up designs & sending approved proof to QA for revisions.
4:30pm – 5:00pm – Submitting FigJam links to AC for client to view.
THE DESIGN PROCESS
In the example below, we observe the designer reviewing their task, beginning work on the design, and submitting the first draft to the proper channels for approval.
DESIGNING EMAILS
Once the designer has received an email design task, they will open Figma, then they will navigate to the client’s Design Folder, and create a new design file. Inside of Figma, there is a plugin named Emailify, this is the plugin we use to design and build our emails at SLX. (Video EM.1.1)
Video EM.1.1 – Here the designer is uploading each image to the client’s Pardot so they can be hosted online.
For each client we have what are called Global templates. These are essentially files with pre built and tested sections of an email, that we can use so we don’t have to start from scratch every time. The designers will drop these in for sections that are used often like headers, footers, or common layouts a client may always use. (Video EM.1.2)
Video EM.1.2 – Here the designer is uploading each image to the client’s Pardot so they can be hosted online.
The designer will use emailify to build the email design, but will use a variety of other programs to create graphics for the email.
If imagery isn’t already provided, the designer will first explore stock image libraries like Adobe Stock, Freepik, unsplash, and others like those to find a stock image they can use as a starting point for the email graphic.
Next, depending on the design request, different programs will be used.
Programs like Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop will be used to create the graphics.
If the request is an animation or gif, Adobe Animate, Adobe After Effects, and other programs may be used. Majority of the time this is in combination with Illustrator or Photoshop, to create the graphic.
EXPORTING EMAILS FOR DEV
Once a designer has finished the initial design of an email and the client has approved the email for production, they will first go through and make sure all of the images in the email are hosted in the proper client’s Pardot.
This is done by exporting the email HTML in Emailify, then taking each image and uploading them to Pardot to get a URL to place back into Emailify. (Video D.1.1)
Video D.1.1 – Here the designer is exporting the HTML from emailify to get the images to upload to the correct Pardot.
Video D.1.2 – Here the designer is uploading each image to the client’s Pardot so they can be hosted online.
Once all images are hosted in the client’s Pardot, the designer will update all the image source links in emailify, export that email again, and post the link in the Export to Dev task for Dev to begin the Build and Test task.
SCHEDULING EMAIL SENDS
Opening the email and verifying send information
Once an email has been fully tested by Dev, and the client test has been approved by the client, the designer can schedule the email for sending.
For this, the designer takes the information given to them in the Schedule Send task to get started. They will login to the client’s Pardot, and open the link provided to the email draft (Video D.1.3).
Video D.1.3 – Here the designer is reviewing the send info in the task and opening the email in Pardot.
Once the draft is open, the designer will verify all the sending information that dev has set up is correct, and update any info needed.
Splitting Pardot send to lists
Next comes taking a look at the mailable prospects for each send to list to check if any lists are over 10,000. If there are no lists with over 10k mailable prospects, the design moves on to scheduling. Any lists over 10,000 required splitting. If a list requires splitting the designers will create as many splits as are needed.
We split lists in groups of 10,000 or less Mailable Prospects, making sure no list is over 10k. For example, a list with 164,500 would require 17 splits (Video D.1.4).
To split a list the designer will navigate to the list in Pardot, select it, and create splits from the list. We always just split the lists all evenly, instead of trying to make perfect groups of 10k. So that 164,500 list would have 17 splits, each with around 10,151 prospects.
Video D.1.4 – Here is an example of a designer splitting a large list for a split send.
With large lists it can take some time for Pardot to split it so this is when the designer will step away from this task to work on a different task and give time for the splitting, checking back periodically. Be more specific with how much time. It can take up to an hour.
Once all splits are done, we can get to scheduling the email.
Scheduling the List Email
To schedule the email, the designer will enter the date provided in the task description into the proper field, taking the timezone into account. Different client’s Pardots are in different timezones, and can request send times in any timezone they prefer, so it is important for the designer to verify this is correct. This is done by checking the user’s Pardot settings to see their timezone. A screenshot is taken of this as well so QA can verify the correct time. (Video D.1.5)
Taking the proper screenshots of information to give to QA for verification is a large part of the scheduling process. Date, time, Timezones, send to lists, supression lists, preheader text, subject, sender info, and completion actions, are all provided in screenshot form, as well as a live link to the email for QA to double check. This is done for each individual split as the designer schedules them. If it is an A/B send, the screenshots are taken for both the A and B version.
Once the email has been fully scheduled, the designer will comment in the task and tag QA with the basic send info and time. If there is splits then all splits will be listed. They will also attach all appropriate screenshots to the comment.
If there are any issues with the scheduling information, or the client comes with changes, the designer will have to unschedule the email, make the changes, and schedule again with new screenshots.
Video D.1.5 – Here is an example of a designer scheduling the email for the send.
SCHEDULING SOCIAL POSTS
We offer social media management for a couple clients here at SLX. All of the social media scheduling for posts is done using the platform Hootsuite.
To schedule a social media post, the designer will log into Hootsuite and navigate to the scheduler. They will take the approved image, whether created by our team, or provided by the client, and upload it to the Hootsuite scheduler. Then they will proceed to copy and past the approved caption for the post that is provided to them in the task description.
Next comes selecting the platforms for which to post. Different social media platforms have different character limits. This is taken into account when writing captions. If the caption is exactly the same for multiple platforms, the designer can select all the appropriate platforms at once to schedule. If there are different captions needed, the designer will schedule a post for each platform individually as needed.
After the appropriate platform is selected, the designer can select the date and time, keeping in mind that our Hootsuite account is in CST/CDT, as the client may have requested a different timezone. If needed, the designer will convert the time to the correct timezone for posting. Once all information is filled, the designer will hit schedule on the post. It is now queued to be posted.
Lastly, when all posts have been scheduled, then heads over to the calendar view, where they will take screenshots of each platform’s post for QA to check. Then designer will then comment in the task with the date and time of the social posts (including both timezones if a different one was requested) and tag QA with the screenshots.
In some cases, the client may want to verify the posts have been published, so there may be an additional task for the designer to quickly log into the client’s social platform after the schedule post time and verify it is in the feed.
This is what Developers do in a nutshell. More detail to come.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
Here’s a breakdown of a typical day for a developer at SLX:
8:30am – 9:30am – Stuff
9:30am – 10:00am – Stuff
10:00am – 10:45am – Stuff
11:00am – 11:30am – Stuff
11:45am – 12:30pm – Stuff
12:30pm – 1:30pm – Lunch
1:30pm – 2:00pm – Stuff
2:00pm – 2:30pm – Stuff
3:00pm – 4:00pm – Stuff
4:00pm – 4:30pm – Stuff
4:30pm – 5:00pm – Stuff
BUILDING PARDOT FORMS
A description will go here
TESTING EMAILS
Here’s how emails get tested (when designers are out of their depth)… more detail to come
BUILDING LANDING PAGES
Here’s how LPs get built & exported to Pardot… more detail to come
TROUBLESHOOTING
Here’s how troubleshooting custom client requests typically goes… more detail to come
