Businesses and nonprofits have a whole suite of technological tools to make their lives easier - and their entities more successful. While you can manually track sales and customer interactions, it doesn’t make much sense. Customer relationship management software like Salesforce makes it much easier, more effective, and more accurate.

Of course, if you want to maximize Salesforce’s potential, you will need to integrate it with your website. This 5 step process for Drupal sites involves some minor coding. If you aren’t comfortable with performing this or other integrations, Inclind can work with you to make it happen through our custom integration development services. We’ll seamlessly connect your website with Salesforce to stream data to and from Salesforce.

At Inclind, we are proud to be an award-winning website design and development firm. We know that websites are necessary for any modern corporation or nonprofit - yet only some can build or maintain a site on their own. If you’d like to know more about our services - including website design, redesign, consulting, and maintenance, reach out today to talk to a team member.

What Is Salesforce and Why Should I Integrate It with My Site?

Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software. CRM technology is a way to manage interactions with both current and potential customers. It can help with a variety of tasks, including sales management, contact management, and agent productivity. Depending on the CRM platform, it can be used to manage customer relationships from marketing to sales to customer service.

CRM software like Salesforce allows a company to track all its customer interactions. This includes forms, text messages, social media posts, emails, quotes, and platforms. It can automate communication as it captures this critical data. Most modern businesses rely on CRM software to see how customers respond to sales and marketing tactics, segment leads, personalize recommendations, and automatically align data to ensure it is as up-to-date as possible.

When companies purchase CRM software, integrating it with their existing website is one of the first steps. This refers to the process of connecting the CRM system with the website content management system (CMS). The goal of integration is to streamline data collection and analysis.

Connecting your website to your CRM software lets your business track customer data in real-time, personalize the online experience, and improve customer service. It can also simplify automating lead generation, email marketing, and customer follow-ups.

For example, you can use the data gathered from interactions on your website to segment your audience (such as people who are most likely to buy a particular service). You can then use your CRM software to create targeted marketing campaigns. Doing this - rather than sending out a generic email to all contacts - can increase your conversion rate (the rate at which you convert leads into customers).

Integrating your CRM software with your website can help with other tasks, such as identifying customer pain points and improving customer satisfaction. It can also provide a centralized hub for all data so your employees can access and utilize the necessary information.

How to Set Up a Drupal Salesforce Integration

Drupal is a robust, open-source CMS that can be used to create and manage websites. It can be used with Salesforce by going through the integration process. While the process is straightforward, it can be technically complex. A website support and maintenance team can help with an integration if you need assistance.

Install The Salesforce Suite Module

If you have purchased Salesforce software, the first step in the Drupal integration process is installing the Salesforce Suite module onto your website. You will need to download this module and then execute the following code: composer requires Drupal/Salesforce.

Activate Salesforce Mapping

Next, you will need to activate salesforce_mapping. To get data from Salesforce to Drupal, enable “salesforce_pull.” To get data from Drupal to Salesforce, you will have to enable “salesforce_push.” You will be able to find these options while selecting submodules to install.

Connect Your Salesforce Account

Once you have taken these steps, you will need to log into your Salesforce account to connect the application. Go to setup, then create, and then select apps. Next, you will have to:

• Extract your key and certificate to create an Oauth-based JWT-connected app
• Check the “Enable OAuth Settings” box
• Set the callback URL to https://salesforce/oauth callback/yourhostname> (adding your website hostname at the end)
• You will then need to grant Offline plus Full or API access
• When you save the app, make sure that you write down your Consumer Key and Secret Key

Configure Authentication Keys

Now, it’s time to switch back to Drupal. You will need to configure your OAuth Provider. From the dashboard, select ADMIN, then CONFIG, then choose SALESFORCE and AUTH. Here, you will input your Consumer and Secret Keys into the form. 

Map Your Data

To start streaming data, you will have to create your data mappings as a final step. From the dashboard, go to ADMIN> STRUCTURE > SALESFORCE > MAPPINGS (https://yourhostname>/admin/structure/salesforce/mappings). Here, you can link your Drupal fields to your Salesforce fields.

If this process seems more than you can handle, have no fear. You don’t have to risk messing up your website OR your CRM software by incorrectly integrating the two platforms. At Inclind, we can help clients with all aspects and phases of website design and development. This includes custom integrations. We understand that not everyone can - or is comfortable with - this type of technical work. We help our clients get the most out of their websites AND their software by performing seamless integrations to help your business or nonprofit succeed.

Design, Build, Maintain, and Integrate Your Drupal Website with Inclind

Drupal is a great CMS that creates thousands of incredible websites (including major ones like Twitter!). But unlike some CMS platforms, it requires more coding and tech knowledge, making it intimidating for the average user. If you are considering using a Drupal website or want to integrate software like Salesforce into your current Drupal site, we can help.

Based in Delaware, Inclind works with membership organizations, nonprofits, real estate brokerages, businesses, healthcare systems, credit unions, higher education organizations, and more to help them build beautiful, functional websites. We offer a full range of website services, including ongoing maintenance, integrations, website redesigns, accessibility audits, and more.  

If you're interested in knowing more about our web design, development, and support services, we are always here to chat with you. You can fill out our online contact form or hit the live chat button to speak to one of our experts about your website design or redesign.