Purpose
As an Allbound Administrator user, this article explains how to use Allbound's Partner Locator feature. Also listed are our recommended best practices/tips and frequently asked questions about this feature.
Introduction
The Partner Locator feature allows you to utilize the data you already collect and maintain about your partners and display it on your public website. Prospects on your website can view, search and gather contact information — taking them directly to your partner!
To access Partner Locator, click on the Settings Gear in top toolbar and then click "Partner Locator"
Partner Locator Configuration
- Your company’s website
- Your company’s contact page
- The primary color you would like the Partner Locator to be
Filterable Fields
These fields must come from your Company Admin. Form (the fields brought over from your CRM if integrating, or manually added if not.) If there are fields and filters you would like displayed here and you are integrating, please ask your Integration Specialist and/or Open a Support Ticket to add the required fields to your Company Admin Form.
You can then decide if it is a requirement for the Partners that are shown, to display their company logo or have a company description shown. You may toggle these settings "on" or "off:"
Partner Visibility
For Partner Visibility, you can decide to show all partners and/or exclude partners from certain criteria:
Or, do not show all partners, but pick and choose the ones you want from the relevant criteria:
Once you have added a filter, you can then pick from it:
When you are happy with all the information provided, you may then copy the JavaScript and HTML snippets to be added to the <body>Place Your Code Here</body> of your website:
*Note: As you are integrated with your CRM, but updating any fields, this will automatically update the Partner Locator. If not, then you will have to re-copy the code snippet every time there is an update
How To Use Allbound's JavaScript & HTML snippets
To test your Partner Locator Configuration please follow these steps:
- Copy and paste your JavaScript and HTML snippets into a text editor
- You must make sure that your JavaScript and HTML snippets are saved within the <body></body>
- The screenshot above shows an example of the JavaScript and HTML snippets being used within the <body> tags used on lines 3 and 38
- Save your text file as an .html file and open your new .html file in your web browser
- Go to the location of your .html file
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- Right click your .html file
- Chose the option for "Open with"
- Open your .html file with your desired web browser
Preview your .HTML file
Once your .html file has opened in the web browser you should then see a preview of your Partner Locator.
*Note: that if the .html file does not display in your web browser then you will need to ensure the Partner Locator options are enabled on the Partner Locator Configuration page
- The top bar provides the user with a search engine that will reduce the listing or partners as the user searches for a specific result
- Under the search bar users will be able to filter for partner types (this is enabled by editing your filtering options on the Partner Locator Configuration page.)
Example Preview Image of the Partner Locator
Best Practices/Tips
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Follow these best practices to strategically set up your Partner Locator:
- Determine how you need to and want to define how partners appear in the Locator. If it is tied to a tier or partner level, for example, do yourself a favor and have that added to your CRM integration with Allbound.
- Think about how prospects will interact with the Locator, particularly how they may want to filter down partners in their results. Will they prefer to work with one of your partners based on proximity, a product or solution offering or some other parameter? Then make sure that that information is on your Company Admin form and added as your filterable fields.
- Make sure you are communicating to your partners if you need any information from them, i.e. a logo or company description. The Partner Locator is a great vehicle for publicity for them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Does the Partner Locator description box accept markdown language?
A. The Partner Locator description box does not accept markdown language; it is a rich text editing box
Q. When a partner adds their information (either Company Logo and/or Company Description) does it undergo a "check" before it is added?
A. No, there is no "check"
Q. How do I get buy-in from my Web development team?
A. Allbound’s Partner Locator can be easily incorporated into any web page without the need of a developer. Once you have all of your settings in place within the Allbound Partner Locator settings, you just need to send the HTML and JS snippets (on the right side of your Settings) to your team to add to the appropriate web page. It really is that simple!
Q. Where does the information in the Partner Locator come from?
A. The information that is displayed in the Partner Locator is coming from your Company Admin. Form within the Allbound platform. If you have an integration, that information is managed within your CRM. So, while the information may be sourced originally from your CRM, the Partner Locator will display what is currently in the Allbound platform. In some cases, customers have chosen to have partners manage their company logo and description in the Allbound platform, which can absolutely be done.
You can set up the ability for users in a Manager or Executive role in their primary company the ability to upload/edit their logo and their company description. Users in Sales roles will not have this capability. Users can find these settings in the My Company link in their Profile dropdown
Q. Which kinds of fields are required for Partner Locator?
A. It is best practice to only use drop-down and/or multi-select fields for Partner Locator
Q. Can we create multiple Partner Locator pages? (Example: One for Tech. partners and one for System Integrators?)
A. No, only one page is available. You may use the filters to search for the partner type
Q. With Partner Locator, can you directly link to a partner's pop-up page?
A. You may add the URL within the description box, but it would not be a link. However, when you click "Learn More" it provides the phone number, address and website for the partner
Q. Can we apply our own CSS styling to Partner Locator?
A. Within the portal, Allbound does not provide any styling. However, once you embed the Partner Locator code into your own website, you may stylize as you wish (fonts, colors, etc.)
Q. Can we change the order of how the partner companies are displayed within the Partner Locator?
A. Unfortunately, you currently cannot change the order of the partner companies within the Partner Locator. The order is based on the partner company's name in alphabetical order
Q. Can we have more than one Partner Locator description box?
A. No, only one description box is available
If you still have questions, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or Open a Support Ticket.