PromoPilot - Blog #Zoho

Why Promo Distributors Need a BI Platform (and Why Zoho Analytics is a Smart Pick)

Wed, 28 May 2025 17:20:31 -0600

Let’s be honest – most distributors in print and promo aren’t hurting for data. It’s all over the place: commonsku, CRM, spreadsheets, Google Analytics, QuickBooks... you get the idea. The real problem is making sense of it all. That’s where a Business Intelligence (BI) platform steps in and savvy distributors are picking Zoho Analytics as their BI platform of choice.

What is BI?

BI is just a fancy way of saying: “Let’s take all that scattered data and turn it into something useful.” With a good BI tool, you don’t have to guess how your business is doing – you can actually see it. BI platforms connect to your many systems, combine your data, and give you visual dashboards and reports that make it easy to spot what’s working, what’s not, and what’s coming next.

Think of it like your car’s dashboard. You wouldn’t drive around without knowing your speed or gas level. BI gives you that kind of visibility into your business.

Why BI Matters for Print and Promo Distributors

Our industry moves fast. There’s a ton of moving parts: product catalogs, client campaigns, seasonal spikes, supplier delays. It’s easy to get stuck reacting to problems instead of planning ahead. The time spent simply searching for data is a time vampire. BI helps flip the script.

Here’s how:

See everything in one place. Sales, customer activity, website data, financials – you can bring it all together. No more bouncing between apps or stitching together reports in Excel.
Spot trends and plan ahead. Forecasting tools help you see where things are heading – so you can stock up before a rush or adjust before a slump.
Custom dashboards for your team and even your clients. Everyone from sales to ops can get a real-time view tailored to their job. When it comes to your customers, dashboards provide an incredible value add to savvy buyers who desire measurable success.

Why We Like Zoho Analytics

There are plenty of BI platforms out there, but Zoho Analytics hits the sweet spot: it’s powerful, but still approachable for non-tech folks. Here’s what makes it stand out:

1. Data Blending Without the Headache

Zoho Analytics comes loaded with connectors for a huge range of tools you’re probably already using. That includes CRMs like Zoho CRM and HubSpot, finance tools like QuickBooks and Xero, e-commerce platforms like Shopify, email tools like Mailchimp, and cloud storage like Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox. It also connects with SQL databases, Google Analytics, and dozens more – out of the box.

You can pull in data from just about anywhere – Zoho apps, spreadsheets, third-party tools – and it doesn’t just dump it all in one place. It actually helps you connect the dots. That means you can, for example, see how ad spend is affecting sales or track customer support issues alongside revenue.

2. Dashboards That Make Sense

The drag-and-drop builder is simple enough for anyone to use. You can set up charts, filters, and custom views without needing IT. And everything stays up to date automatically. You can even throw it on a TV screen for a live KPI wall.

Dashboards aren’t just helpful internally – they can also be a value-add for your clients. Say you’re running a gift redemption site: you could build a custom dashboard for the client that shows real-time data like how many people have redeemed their gift, how many have opted out, the status of shipments, and even a heat map of where those gifts are going. That kind of transparency builds trust.

Distributors all pull from the same supply chain. What sets you apart is how you help clients see the impact of their spend. A clean, branded dashboard makes your work visible. It shows clients their merch campaign is actually doing something – and gives them the numbers to prove it.

3. Forecasting That’s Actually Useful

You don’t have to be a data scientist to use the forecasting features. Click a button, and Zoho will project future sales or inventory needs based on your past data. It’s great for planning and avoids surprises.

But the real value of forecasting is in how it lets you stay proactive instead of reactive. Say you’re tracking sales of seasonal promo kits – Zoho can show you when demand is likely to spike based on previous years, helping you prep inventory and staffing ahead of time. Or maybe you run a print-on-demand program and want to anticipate order volume by client segment – forecasting helps you see which customers might need outreach or support before a downturn hits.

You can also run multiple scenarios: what happens if you increase email campaigns by 20%? What if your top three clients each place 15% fewer orders next quarter? Zoho’s forecasting and what-if analysis features help you model the impact of those possibilities so you can prepare with confidence.

These tools let you ask better questions, spot patterns earlier, and take action faster. For distributors juggling lots of variables, that's a serious advantage.

4. Clean Data, Less Manual Work

Zoho DataPrep (which works hand-in-hand with Zoho Analytics) helps you clean up messy data before it hits your dashboards. That means less time fixing spreadsheets and more time making decisions.

You can automatically detect and fix inconsistencies – like duplicates, formatting mismatches, or missing values – before they cause problems in your reports. It’s especially handy when you’re pulling data from different systems that don’t always speak the same language.

For example, say you're importing customer lists from three different sources and each one records state names differently – some use abbreviations, some use full names. DataPrep can flag those inconsistencies and help you standardize everything with just a few clicks.

You can also schedule recurring clean-up routines, so your data stays accurate day after day without manual effort. For promo distributors juggling lots of vendors, product SKUs, and campaign reports, this automation saves serious time and headaches. If you're interested in learning how to connect promo industry apps like Liftoff to Zoho DataPrep, check out this tutorial!

5. AI That Doesn’t Feel Gimmicky

Zia, Zoho’s AI assistant, lets you ask questions in plain English like, “What were our top-selling products last month?” and get instant answers – charts included. It’s genuinely helpful, especially for folks who don’t want to mess with filters or formulas.

Zia can also surface trends you didn’t even think to look for. For example, it might flag that a certain category of products is trending up in a specific region. Or it might point out that your average order value dipped last week, prompting a deeper look.

You can even set alerts – Zia will ping you when a key metric, like margin, jumps or drops. It’s like having a data analyst watching your business 24/7, minus the payroll.

BI isn’t just for big companies or data nerds. For distributors, it’s a practical way to get more from the systems you’re already using. It helps you make smarter decisions, move faster, and stay ahead of the chaos.

If you’re looking for a BI tool that fits the way you work, Zoho Analytics deserves a look. It’s affordable, it plays well with others, and it helps you turn your data into real, usable insight. If it's not right for you, check out Sisence, Power BI, or Tableau.

7 No-Code Tools for Promo Product Companies

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 14:52:54 -0600

Streamlining business processes doesn’t have to be complicated. No-code tools are perfect for promotional product companies looking to save time and increase efficiency without needing advanced technical skills. Let’s explore seven tools that can make your day-to-day operations smoother:

Zapier: Automates workflows across 7,000+ apps for tasks like order processing and marketing.
Knack: Custom database creation for inventory and customer management.
PromoPilot: Tailored automation consulting for promo businesses.
Zoho CRM: CRM and sales tools to manage leads and customer relationships seamlessly.
Zoho Analytics: Comprehensive data visualization and reporting for actionable insights.
Softr.io: Build custom apps and workflows for better client and project management.
Airtable: Combines spreadsheets with databases for organizing campaigns and inventory.

These tools empower small teams to modernize processes, leaving more time for growth and customer service.

1. Zapier

Zapier simplifies operations for promo product companies by automating workflows across thousands of apps. It connects industry apps like commonsku, Liftoff Commerce, BrightStores and more to the other apps in your technology stack. Zapier is an essential no-code automation tool that can help you automate processes and get maximum value from the SaaS apps you subscribe to.

Business Benefits:

Automate a multitude of processes and apps, without needing to sling code.
Document your processes with Zapier Canvas, a process mapping tool.
Spend more time on profit generating tasks, not data entry.

Zapier is more than just process automation – it's an ecosystem for automating business operations and features tools for data storage through Zapier Tables, building bespoke apps with their Interfaces product, and leveraging artificial intelligence at your business. Fun Fact: all of the no-code tools below are supported by Zapier to help you get even more value from them.

2. Knack

Knack lets you build custom databases tailored to your operational needs. It’s great for managing inventory, tracking customer data, and building dashboards, all without writing a single line of code. If you've ever used visual database tools like FileMaker Pro, you'll quickly grasp Knack.

Key Features:

Custom Databases: Ideal for organizing products, orders, or client information.
Workflow Automation: Notifications, reminders, and approvals are built right in.
Integration Options: Links with payment processors and other tools.
Custom Front-Ends: Build front-ends to present your data to the public or managed users.

Knack’s simple interface allows anyone on your team to quickly create and manage systems for daily operations. I've personally used Knack to build solutions for franchise co-op budget management and even an internal portal to help disseminate supplier information to sales teams, share resources, and track spend.

3. PromoPilot

Hey, that's us! Please excuse the self-plug. 😄 PromoPilot specializes in no-code automation consulting for the promo products industry. With deep experience in this space, PromoPilot focuses on helping distributors integrate and optimize their existing tools.

What PromoPilot Offers:

Expert automation coaching to maximize efficiency.
Custom integrations that connect your business apps.
Workflows designed to minimize manual tasks.

As you navigate the world of Zapier and no-code automation, we're your Certified Zapier Expert, here to help when you need it.

4. Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is a feature-rich platform designed to help businesses manage leads, improve customer engagement, and close sales more effectively. With its focus on simplicity and scalability, Zoho CRM is an excellent fit for businesses of all sizes.

Key Features for Promo Businesses:

Lead and Contact Management: Easily track potential clients and manage communication across all stages of the sales process.
Sales Pipelines: Visualize and manage your deals in an intuitive pipeline, ensuring no opportunity is missed.
Automation Workflows: Set up triggers for follow-ups, lead assignments, and reminders to streamline your team's efforts. All without coding.
Customizable Dashboards: Build tailored views to monitor your business metrics, from revenue growth to campaign success.
Integration Ready: Connect Zoho CRM with tools like Zapier, email marketing platforms, and inventory management systems.

By automating repetitive tasks and providing a clear view of your sales process, Zoho CRM empowers your team to focus on building strong client relationships. I've been impressed with the level of customization that distributors are able to implement with Zoho CRM – no programming required.

5. Zoho Analytics

Zoho Analytics is a powerful tool for promotional product companies that want to dig deeper into their business data. With its easy-to-use interface, Zoho Analytics enables you to create detailed reports and dashboards, helping you make informed decisions.

How Zoho Analytics Helps Your Business:

Unified Data Platform: Connect data from multiple sources like your CRM, e-commerce tools, and Google Analytics for a complete view of your operations.
Custom Reports and Dashboards: Use the drag-and-drop builder to visualize key metrics like sales trends, inventory levels, and campaign ROI.
Advanced Analytics: Predict future trends with AI-powered forecasting and gain insights into seasonal demand and product performance.
Collaboration and Sharing: Share dashboards with your team or clients to ensure everyone stays on the same page.
Real-Time Monitoring: Keep tabs on critical KPIs with up-to-the-minute updates and alerts.

Zoho Analytics makes it easy to spot trends, identify growth opportunities, and optimize your operations—all without needing a background in data analysis. If you find yourself constantly asking SaaS providers for custom reports, consider adopting a business intelligence tool like Zoho Analytics to build your own!

6. Softr

Softr.io is a no-code platform that lets promotional product companies build custom apps, manage client workflows, and automate key business processes—all without hiring a developer. Its intuitive interface and versatility make it a great choice for businesses juggling multiple client relationships and projects.

Why Softr.io Stands Out:

Custom App Building: Quickly create tools for managing client portals, sales pipelines, or project timelines using pre-built templates.
Workflow Automation: Set up automated follow-ups, status updates, and task assignments to keep your team organized and efficient.
Client Portals: Provide clients with secure access to order statuses, proposals, and other key information through beautifully designed portals.
Seamless Integrations: Link Softr.io with your CRM, inventory system, or payment gateway to create a fully connected ecosystem.
Scalable for Growth: Start with a small project, then expand your Softr.io apps as your business needs evolve.

Whether you’re managing projects or coordinating with multiple suppliers, Softr.io helps you streamline the process while delivering a professional experience to your clients.

7. Airtable

Airtable combines the familiarity of spreadsheets with the power of databases. It’s perfect for managing inventory, organizing campaigns, or planning product launches.

Standout Features:

Customizable Views: Use grids, calendars, or kanban boards.
Automations: Simplify inventory updates and communication workflows.
Collaboration Tools: Keep your team aligned on projects.

Whether you’re managing a product catalog or tracking sales campaigns, Airtable keeps everything organized and accessible.

Final Thoughts

No-code tools open the door to smarter, more efficient operations. Start by addressing your most pressing challenges—whether that’s automating order processing with Zapier or building custom dashboards with Zoho Analytics. Once you’ve got a handle on one tool, explore others to continue optimizing your workflow.

The key is to take small, purposeful steps. With the right tools, you’ll have more time to focus on growing your business and connecting with customers.

Leverage ASI’s Ad Impressions Study Insights for Sales and Marketing

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:25:11 -0600

Tailoring Product Recommendations

The study breaks down data by product category, demographics, and geographic regions. This means you can tailor your recommendations to fit the specific needs and preferences of your client’s target audience. Whether it’s apparel that resonates well in urban areas or tech gadgets that appeal to millennials, you’ve got the data to back up your suggestions.

Building Trust and Credibility

Leveraging a reputable source like ASI adds credibility to your pitch. Clients are more likely to trust your expertise when they see you’re not just making claims but are backed by industry-leading research. It shows you’re invested in their success and are providing well-researched solutions.

Enhancing ROI Discussions

Budget is always a concern. By utilizing ASI’s data, you can effectively demonstrate the ROI of promotional products. Highlighting how cost-effective these items are in comparison to other advertising mediums can help sway budget discussions in your favor. For example, the cost per impression for a branded hat is incredibly low compared to traditional advertising.

Educating Clients on Trends

ASI’s study offers insights into trending products and emerging categories. This knowledge allows you to keep your clients ahead of the curve by recommending the latest and most impactful promotional items. It’s a great way to show that you’re proactive and innovative in your approach.

Justifying Premium Products

Sometimes clients are hesitant to invest in premium promotional items. The study’s findings can help justify these choices by showing that higher-quality items often have a longer retention rate and higher impression count. Explaining that a premium branded backpack can be a walking billboard for years can make a compelling case.

Implementing Data Into Your Sales and Marketing Process

Leveraging the insights from ASI’s Ad Impressions Study can transform your sales and marketing strategies, making them more effective and impactful. Here are some practical ways to incorporate this valuable data:

Regular Conversations with Clients

Make it a habit to share relevant data during your regular check-ins with clients. Highlighting key statistics, such as the average number of impressions for specific promotional items, can help illustrate the long-term value of their investments. This not only informs but also reinforces your role as a knowledgeable advisor. ASI produces some fantastic infographics that you can share.

Enhance Your Presentations and Look Books

Including research data in your presentations and look books adds a layer of credibility and professionalism. Use charts, graphs, and infographics from the ASI study to visually demonstrate the effectiveness of promotional products. This can make your proposals more compelling and easier for clients to understand.

Incorporate Data into Quotes

When sending quotes, include relevant data points that underscore the value of the products you're quoting. For instance, if a branded mug generates a high number of impressions over its lifespan, include this information in the quote. This helps clients feel more confident about their purchasing decisions and provides them with data to justify their choices to stakeholders.

Social Media Content

Share snippets of ASI data on your social media platforms to attract and educate a broader audience. Use eye-catching graphics and concise messages to convey key points. This not only enhances your online presence but also drives engagement and interest in your offerings.

Training and Development

Ensure that your sales team is well-versed in the insights from the ASI study. Regular training sessions can help them understand how to use this data effectively in their client interactions. Consider incorporating this data into your LMS. This will make your team more confident and persuasive in their sales efforts.

Use in Email Marketing Campaigns

Integrating ASI data into your email newsletters can keep your clients informed and engaged. Highlight a different statistic or trend in each newsletter to educate your audience continually. For example, you can share insights about the most effective promotional items for different industries or seasons. This not only adds value but also positions you as an expert in the field.

Zoho Campaigns' Bookmarks feature is a powerful tool for streamlining your email marketing efforts. With Bookmarks, you can create and save content blocks that feature data from ASI's Ad Impressions Study, making it easy to reuse these blocks in future campaigns.

This not only saves you and your team valuable time but also ensures consistency in your messaging. By setting these saved content blocks for future use, you can effortlessly make insightful data a regular part of your email marketing strategy.

This approach not only enhances the value of your emails but also positions you as a knowledgeable and resourceful partner to your clients. If you're not using Zoho Campaigns, check with your email provider to see if they offer a similar feature to Bookmarks.

Conclusion

Incorporating ASI’s Ad Impressions Study data into your sales and marketing strategies can significantly boost your effectiveness and client satisfaction. By consistently providing valuable insights during client interactions, enhancing presentations, and streamlining your email campaigns with tools like Zoho Campaigns' Bookmarks feature, you position yourself as a knowledgeable and trustworthy partner. This not only builds stronger client relationships but also drives better business outcomes. Start leveraging this powerful data today and watch your promotional product business thrive.

Download the Free Ad Impressions Study

How to Import Liftoff Commerce Data into Zoho DataPrep

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 09:55:32 -0600

Zoho DataPrep is an intuitive data preparation tool designed to simplify the process of cleaning, transforming, and enriching data. For print and promo product distributors, DataPrep can import your data from various sources like CRMs, spreadsheets, databases, and even APIs – making data management much easier.

You can quickly remove duplicates, correct errors and handle missing values, saving time and ensuring data accuracy. For instance, distributors could use Zoho DataPrep to consolidate customer data from multiple platforms into a single clean data set, making it easier to track customer activity and trends across sales channels.

You can also transform and combine data to generate insightful reports or prepare imports into other platforms. By streamlining these processes, distributors can focus on growing their businesses rather than getting bogged down by data issues.

Zoho DataPrep has a free plan that you can use to get started with, and later upgrade if you need more power. If you'd like to try it, please use the button at the end of this article. It will support what we're doing at PromoPilot and you'll also get a $100 credit from Zoho that can be used for any of their apps.

Connecting Liftoff to Zoho DataPrep

As you begin to kick the tires on DataPrep, you can easily create datasets from any spreadsheets you have or by using any of their 50+ native connections. But DataPrep has a powerful feature worth exploring. With its URL connector, you can bring in data from any of your SaaS tools that have an API. To demonstrate this, let's review the process for getting Liftoff Commerce order data into DataPrep.

Note: In this brief tutorial you'll encounter some concepts related to APIs that we won't go in depth on. My goal is to get you seeing Liftoff data in DataPrep as quickly as possible. I'll show you where to click and what to put into each field to get started, but I highly recommend that you explore topics like JSON, API basics like call methods, parameters, and headers. Working with APIs does not require coding knowledge but it will elevate your no-code work tremendously!

When you first log into DataPrep, you're going to be asked to create a workspace. Workspaces hold the various datasets and rulesets imported into Zoho DataPrep.

Give your new workspace a name and then choose a data source – for connecting to the Liftoff Commerce API, we'll choose URL.

Configure the Dataset

On the connection configuration screen you are asked to provide the dataset with a name. Call it what you please – but because any Liftoff API connection is tied to a specific account (store) I recommend naming it something like "ACCOUNT_NAME Liftoff Orders" using your own account name.

Next, define your method as GET and, for Liftoff orders, we use the endpoint at https://odata.liftoff.shop/odata/v1/Order. For more information on the Liftoff Commerce API and this endpoint, visit the Liftoff Commerce developer documentation site.

Click on the Pagination. Pagination in APIs refers to the process of dividing a large set of data into discrete pages to be retrieved sequentially or based on specific criteria, improving efficiency and manageability. The Liftoff API has a maximum limit of 100 items that it can respond to your API call with. So if you have 300 orders, you would need to make 3 requests. There are a few ways different APIs can handle pagination. For Liftoff we need to configure this screen like so:

Paginate using: Offset and limit
Offset parameter: $skip
Limit parameter: $top
Initial value: 0
Limit value: 100
Number of requests: 1

We'll only make 1 request for now, retrieving up to 100 orders. Your Pagination configuration page should now look like this:

The last step to configure our connection is to provide authorization details. Accessing an API is just like accessing any of your applications. For that reason we need something like a username and password. Like pagination, APIs can use a number of methods for authorization.

Click on Authorization and choose Basic Auth as your authorization method. Provide your connection with a name – again, I like to note the account, app, and what kind of data I am retrieving. Connections are saved by DataPrep and can be used again when configuring new data sources.

For the Username, you will use your Liftoff account code for the store you wish to receive order data from. Your password will be your admin user's API key. Both of these can be found in the Liftoff Commerce admin interface. Note: The API key for the admin user must have the right permissions to retrieve the desired data from the account you are retrieving from.

Your Authorization screen should look like the image below. Click the blue Import button to retrieve your data.

Transforming Your Data

You should now have a table of data. Nice! But – it doesn't look very useful. However, if we look at the data in the second column, we can see bits of order data. We need to transform this data into something that looks more like an order report.

On the right side of each column header, there is a small down arrow. If you click this arrow, you'll be provided with a menu of the many transforms that you can perform in DataPrep. All of our order data is here in this one column on this one row – we need to first get each order's data onto its own row. Click the arrow in the value column header and choose Extract from List.

When you choose Extract from List, on the right sidebar, you'll be asked to convert the list items to columns or rows. Select Rows, and give the new column a name like 'Data.' You'll notice on the left side of the screen that DataPrep shows you a preview of your transform and it's beginning to look more like what we expected! Each order's data on its own row. But that Data column still looks weird. The data we want is there, we just need it on their own columns.

Navigate again to the transform menu of our new Data column and choose Extract from Map. In the right sidebar you are asked to select the keys to move into columns. In our Data column you may have noticed text like "Status":"Shipped". Status is the key and Shipped is the value. All of the properties for each order are in the Data column like this. To extract them, in the Key column of the sidebar, you can click into the text field and DataPrep will provide you with a list of available keys to choose from. Once you select one, you can give the resulting new column a name, click the + icon and continue selecting keys this way. As you work, your screen will look like this:

It's worth pointing out that in order to extract the billing information for the order, we need to take an extra step when defining the keys for that data. This is because the billing values are nested in the data. If we were to look at the raw data for an order, it would look like this:

Notice that for the billing information we have keys like Name, Address1, Address2, etc. under Billing. As a result, if we want columns for that billing information, when selecting the keys for that billing data we will first choose Billing from the drop down. DataPrep automatically recognizes that there are additional keys under billing and so you can now choose which key, nested under Billing, you'd like to create a column for.

After you've selected all your keys and have the preview looking how you want it, click the blue Apply button.

From here there is any number of additional transforms you could perform like find and replace, changing date formats, etc. Many of the transforms you'll find are similar to what you would do in Excel.

Saving, Exporting, and Importing Rulesets

Now, we just did a bunch of work to get this Liftoff order data looking how we want it. The prospect of having to do this every time we want to bring in new order data is daunting. Fortunately DataPrep kept track of what we were doing all along as we built out our ruleset. This ruleset can be saved as a template, and even exported from one DataPrep account into another. This makes performing the same transforms on data that is imported in the same format fast and easy. In fact, I've exported my own ruleset for Liftoff orders and you can download it here.

Conclusion

I hope that I've introduced you to a new tool that is helpful for the work you're doing at your print and promo company, and provided you with a jumpstart on how to get data into Zoho DataPrep so that you can explore all that it has to offer. If you don't use Liftoff Commerce, the same principals apply to any SaaS app with an API. Or, you can bring in Excel documents from other reports that you might have, and begin to do some of the same transforms and see what DataPrep is really capable of.

If you decide to give DataPrep a try, please click the link below. It helps support content like this, and you'll get a $100 credit with Zoho should you decide to buy.

Get Started with Zoho DataPrep