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How to Use Document Tracking to Maximize Your Marketing

added: 03.09.2015, by Hiro Kataoka

The new PowerPoint presentation is perfect, and the final draft of the white paper you commissioned presents a compelling argument for your product. You email the presentation to your clients and send them a link to your website to download the white paper. Now what? Do you know how many of your customers downloaded the documents? More important, do you know how many actually opened them?

Too often the answer to these questions are “no.” In many cases, the pitch in the email attachment goes unopened, and that white paper that you invested time and money in doesn’t even get downloaded. That’s not good; but what is worse is that you don’t even know if your marketing efforts are working or not.

Many of our customers use HoGo to protect documents from being illegally copied or shared. But did you know that you can use HoGo to maximize your marketing efforts as well? Using HoGo’s tracking capabilities you can see who downloaded your documents, who opened your documents and when they were opened. With that knowledge you can tailor your follow-up with prospects as well as understand what materials are have appeal and which do not.

Here is a quick guide on how you can do this.

1. Prepare your material as PDF, Word, Excel or PowerPoint files. Upload them to HoGo, and then select the “Open With Microsoft Office/Adobe Reader” option in the Send Wizard.
2. Check the “Do not specify recipients” box, and then set the other permissions based on your needs. Be sure to allow enough downloads so that all of your prospective clients can access your documents.
3. On the next page you will see the link to your documents. Copy this to your clipboard, and send the link via email or your web site. Now when people click on the link they will be shown the list of your documents for download. When a document is downloaded, that person will be asked to input their email address. This email address is also used to authenticate the user when the document is first opened, so it must be valid.
4. On the left side of your HoGo screen, click on “History” and select the appropriate entry for your link by clicking on the “Detail” icon. This will display the “Package Detail” screen that allows you to see who has downloaded which files, which have been opened, and when. You can also download the list of email addresses as a .csv file which you can import into Excel.

By sending your marketing material with HoGo, you are in control. By knowing who has or hasn’t seen your documents, you can take appropriate follow up action. And since HoGo documents are protected, you will know everyone that has opened your document. No forwarded emails without you knowing, no shared downloads. Take control of your online marketing documents with HoGo.