Overview
Once you create a Sona account and set up tracking, you can start identifying your anonymous website visitors and tracking customer journeys in just a few steps. This guide walks you through the essentials: creating your account, connecting your CRM, and installing the Sona tracking script, then shows you where your visitor and account data appears. Follow the steps in order, or skip ahead to any step you have already completed.
Step 1: Create an account
To start, create an account and verify your email address. If you already have an account, log in and continue from Step 2.
Step 2: Connect your CRM
Connecting your CRM to Sona is not mandatory, but we highly recommend it to unlock several benefits:
Understand engagement and intent for accounts: synchronize activity data with the contacts and companies in your CRM, so account owners can view and filter their target accounts alongside intent signals, key milestone events, and engagement levels.
Identify new accounts visiting your website: by de-anonymizing your website traffic, Sona identifies net-new accounts that fit your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). You can then synchronize these accounts with your CRM and assign account owners.
Gain insight into marketing impact: after adding the Sona SDK, you can see how marketing touches affect both existing accounts and net-new ones browsing your website.
Click Connectors from the main menu to set up new integrations. On the Connectors page, click New Connector, or click Connect if the list of available platforms is already shown. If you did not connect your HubSpot account during onboarding, you can do it now, and you can connect your Slack account to get notifications about identified visitors.
Note: the standard Sona integration supports Salesforce and HubSpot, and Sona also supports Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, Close, Pipedrive, and spreadsheets. To enable a non-standard CRM connector, contact [email protected].
Step 3: Install the Sona SDK
We highly recommend installing the Sona tracking script everywhere users interact with your business, including all pages of your marketing website, web application, and documentation. This lets Sona surface intent and engagement for individual visitors and their associated accounts.
Although you can install the tracking script with Google Tag Manager, we recommend installing it manually by pasting it between the <head> tags on each page of your website. This keeps the script from being disabled by ad blockers. If you cannot edit your website's HTML, ask your web developer to make the change.
Tip: set up a Custom Tracking Domain with your domain provider to load the tracking script from your own subdomain instead of a Sona domain, which also helps keep ad blockers from disabling it.
What's next
After Sona starts collecting visitor data, you can see all tracked visitor profiles on the Web Visitors page. Sona also looks for each visitor's associated company and lists identified accounts on the Accounts page. Each account profile is enriched with associated employees and key people, including their contact information, giving you more potential leads.
Once data flows in, you will see a graph comparing tracked visitors with the accounts Sona identified. Below the graph, you can invite your team members to sign up for Sona.
Tip: click the question mark icon in the bottom-left to show or hide the help sidebar, and click the left arrow to collapse or expand the main menu. To learn more, see the Essential Tips and Platform Overview pages.
FAQs
Do I have to connect a CRM to use Sona?
Do I have to connect a CRM to use Sona?
No. Connecting a CRM is optional, but it is highly recommended. A connected CRM lets Sona synchronize activity data with your contacts and companies, identify net-new accounts that fit your ICP, and show how marketing touches influence both existing and new accounts. You can connect a CRM during onboarding or later from the Connectors page.
Should I install the tracking script manually or with Google Tag Manager?
Should I install the tracking script manually or with Google Tag Manager?
Both work, but we recommend installing it manually by pasting it between the <head> tags on each page. A manual install is less likely to be disabled by ad blockers than one delivered through Google Tag Manager. If you cannot edit your site's HTML, ask your web developer to add the script.
Why set up a custom tracking domain?
Why set up a custom tracking domain?
A custom tracking domain (CNAME) loads the tracking script from your own subdomain instead of a Sona domain. Because the script appears to come from your site, ad blockers are less likely to disable it, which improves the completeness of your visitor data.
Where does my visitor data appear after setup?
Where does my visitor data appear after setup?
Tracked visitors appear on the Web Visitors page, and the companies Sona identifies from them appear on the Accounts page. Each account is further enriched with associated employees and key people, including their contact information, so you have more potential leads to work from.