This article was posted as a Guest Blog Post by our affiliates at OnBlastBlog.com
Let’s get one thing straight: email marketing is not dead, nor is it dying. It is still one of the most effective means of generating leads and conversions for a business. The old ways may have died, but there are new elements rising into the spotlight that change how we look at our email campaigns.
Today I’ll share several of the email marketing elements you should be using in 2016, followed by an infographic filled with the latest strategies that you can implement into your next campaign.
Today’s Top Email Marketing Trends and Strategies (Infographic)
Marketing automation such as drip campaigns and triggered message series are becoming more important to manage and nurture leads.
Segmenting your email lists based on a variety of factors (such as whether they’ve purchased or not) will ensure that your emails are personalized and relevant to each category.
Provide timely and relevant communication that addresses their needs.
Offer exclusive content they can’t get any other way.
Email marketing is a powerful tool in the right hands. Check out the infographic below for a closer look at today’s top strategies and let us know how it helps you in the comments!
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Database Segmentation: its meaning and how to apply it. A part of the series Buzzwords in Marketing Automation.
Many small businesses use tracking services to find information about their prospects or leads, be it contact information, age and gender, or even things like their buying behavior. Database segmentation refers to the organization of that data in a way that can then influence outreach such as email marketing campaigns, or strategic company decisions like selecting new product lines or determining pricing strategies. A few examples of ways to segment your data could be…
Lead quality – Within marketing automation software, leads can earn a score. Ten points for opening an email, 100 points for downloading content, 500 points for watching an entire video, etc. Lead qualification is a great way to segment. You could have different buckets according to lead score (i.e. 0-100 score, 101-500 score, 501-1000 score).
Ideal Buyers – Who are your ideal customers? Do they have certain job titles, company sizes, demographics or criteria. Ask your sales people, and then utilize your database segmentation tools. Once you’ve done that, you will be able to treat that group differently than you would a group that may not be as inclined to consume your product or services.
Geography – Maybe certain areas of the world are more important to you than others. Or perhaps they should just receive separate content that is specific to their region. The folks down in Austin might need to know when your new barbecue recipe is available, whereas the crowd up in Chicago are more interested in when your winter boots are on clearance.
What’s even better (and more effective) is that you can then combine these! Perhaps you would like to send a handwritten letter & company t-shirt out to only your highest scoring leads in California. If you’ve utilized the data segmentation features within your marketing automation tool, you can get that personalized content out to that specific group of prospects in no time.
We live in a time of extraordinary change. Marketing has come a long way in a small amount of time. And the industry is just continuing to refine itself! To be able to entirely appreciate the current state of marketing automation, it’s best to briefly acknowledge where it has been.
Marketing automation first came into existence in 1992, focusing on email alone. Businesses did not have a lot of online presence at the time, so there wasn’t really a huge opportunity for it to take off until the late 2000’s. Now, it has grown its capabilities so greatly that it is able to help companies deliver various marketing content through different channels to customers based on their online behavior.
As digital platforms become increasingly more powerful, there is more untapped data at our fingertips than ever. The need for organizing, integrating, and maximizing the benefits of that data has become essential. The phrase “work smarter, not harder” rings true. We have access to increasing demographic, psychographic, historical, and behavioral information. It’s information overload!
Marketing Automation now has the ability to capture all of this data, listen to it, interpret it, and utilize it in the most effective ways possible. The field of marketing automation is something that started small, exploded, and is now refining itself. Technology is more intuitive. Platforms are becoming easier to navigate. Consequently, the tools are more often used to their fullest potential. Companies such as us have mastered content personalization, customizable resource centers, and integration.
What’s to Come in Marketing Automation
The marketing automation industry is somewhat saturated. This can be beneficial to the end user, in that companies must listen to their clients’ needs, wishes, and dreams. Even more customization, personalization and integration (with systems like mail or additional CRMs) is in the near future.
Another thing that is fast-approaching is an upgrade to the customer journey, or more specifically customer journey optimization. Instead of combining many customers’ courses of action into a few general paths, automation is challenged to grow to support infinite customer journeys. According to industry expert David Raab, this is “quite different from pre-determining an ideal customer journey and trying to force customers to follow it.” The industry seems to be taking back control over the user experience, instead of just reacting to it.
It’s an exciting time in marketing automation. With every challenge comes greater exploration and innovation. What do you see on the horizon for the industry? We look forward to hearing your feedback below!
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The new enhancements extend Lead Liaison’s capabilities for use with Salesforce even further, adding support for Salesforce Person Accounts. With this new feature, Lead Liaison broadens its appeal to business-to-consumer (B2C) companies and educational institutions looking to use advanced marketing automation.
All of Lead Liaison’s functionality works with Person Accounts, including lead qualification, lead distribution, automation, tracking, content creation, and more. All Person Accounts (people) sync bi-directionally with Lead Liaison on a frequent basis. Marketers can use Person Accounts and their associated demographics/online activities as criteria to drive targeting, retargeting and segmenting in Lead Liaison’s marketing automation platform. With these enhancements, in addition to the recent announcement of handwritten letters as an offline marketing solution, customers can get more value out of the records they store in their CRM system when combined with advanced marketing methods. With access to data about person accounts, companies can do a much better job of tailoring and personalizing marketing to deliver a unique experience to each prospect, ultimately resulting in stronger relationships.
“Companies are looking to transform the way they connect with customers, partners and employees to thrive in the age of the customer,” said Todd Surdey, SVP, ISV Sales, Salesforce. “With this new feature in its app built on the Salesforce App Cloud, Lead Liaison provides customers with an exciting new way to use advanced marketing automation.”
The integration is generally available to customers with an active subscription to Lead Liaison’s Lead Management Automation (LMA)™. Lead Liaison’s Connector is available on the AppExchange by searching for “lead liaison.” To learn more about Salesforce Person Accounts visit Salesforce Community resources here.
About Lead Liaison Lead Liaison provides cloud-based sales and marketing automation solutions that helps businesses accelerate revenue by attracting, converting, closing and retaining more prospects. Filling a void in the small pool of marketing automation providers that focus on marketing-centric functionality, Lead Liaison gives equal focus to sales providing sophisticated visitor tracking and additional website engagement tools to boost sales effectiveness. Lead Liaison blends ease-of-use, a flexible business model, deep external integration, marketing across social, web, mobile, email and offline channels and powerful functionality, all specifically tailored for mid-sized businesses, into a single platform, called Revenue Generation Software®. Lead Liaison is headquartered in Allen, Texas, near Dallas. For more information, visit http://www.leadliaison.com or call 1-800-89-LEADS (895-3237).
About Salesforce AppExchange Salesforce AppExchange is the world’s leading enterprise apps marketplace that empowers companies to sell, service, market and engage in entirely new ways. With 3,000 partner apps and more than 3.5 million customer installs, it is the most comprehensive source of cloud, mobile, social, IoT and data science technologies for businesses.
Salesforce, AppExchange and others are among the trademarks of salesforce.com, inc.
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You have a prospect on the line, and now you just have to reel him or her in. Once you get him or her to shore, you’ll have money in your pocket and the admiration of your co-workers. While you could pick up the phone and beg the prospect to take the bait, handwritten sales follow-up letters are much more effective. Include the following components in your follow-up sales letter to increase your conversions, regardless of your industry.
Write About Benefits Instead of Features
Your handwritten sales follow-up letter should focus on the benefits you can offer instead of the features you provide. This is often referred to as selling the sizzle instead of the steak. Don’t tell people that the car you’re selling has an amazing engine. Tell them it will go fast. Don’t tell readers that your keyboard has low-profile keys. Instead, tell them it will speed up typing. Focusing on the benefits over the features will make your products stand out to the reader, which is a huge step in converting prospects.
Keep the Ball in Your Court
Control is an important part of sales. The person who has the control gets to take the lead. If you relinquish control, you will have to wait for the prospect to contact you, which might not happen. Maintain control by letting the prospect know what your next step will be, whether it will be a phone call, email, or another letter. Prospects can reach out to you before you take that next step, but if they don’t, you can follow up without feeling intrusive since they are expecting it.
Reference Past Communications
Personalization is key with sales. You will be more successful if you personalize your communications. With that in mind, reference past communications or interactions you’ve had with your prospects. If you make your prospects feel special, they will be more likely to take the next step and become customers.
Your sales letter is possibly the most important tool you have in your sales arsenal. If you use the tool wisely, you will turn a high number of prospects into paying customers. Consider using a service for your handwritten sales follow-up letters so you will have ample time to handle your other sales duties.
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This article was posted as a Guest Blog Post relating to Salesforce.com.
Does your mobile marketing match your consumers’ use of their devices? If you’re like most companies, the answer is “Probably not.”
There are different types of mobile users—regular, super, addicts, all of whom can be affected by mobile marketing in some way. How you reach them depends in part on the individual setups they have—push notifications, for example. Of course, push notifications equals more times opening an app. But push notifications can’t and shouldn’t be random. They should be designed to create an experience and action, as should SMS marketing.
The majority of customers wouldn’t mind more contact from brands using SMS marketing. Those messages get the attention of customers in a crowded world, and they often result in very quick review of a message.
There is a great gap between how much time we spend on our phones, and how much (or little) companies are investing in mobile advertising.
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Get Ready to Prospect Using Handwritten Letters – Be Different
With technology, people are always looking forward. They constantly think of new ways to tackle problems or attract customers. Sometimes, though, you need to take an old school approach to get the job done. That’s the case when it comes to prospecting. Instead of letting technology get in the way of your prospecting success, use handwritten letters. Once you know how to prospect using handwritten letters, you’ll wonder why you haven’t been using this method all along.
Write Letters That Are Easy to Scan
People are used to reading on the web, where articles include headlines and are easy to scan. You can provide the same experience with your handwritten letters. Make the paragraphs short and to the point and include bullet points, if needed. People should be able to glance at your letter and pick out the main points without any problems.
Use a Handwritten Envelope
Your letter will only be effective if the recipient opens it. People are more likely to open mail that has a handwritten envelope, so take the time to write the names and addresses out. If you don’t have the time, a service can do it for you.
Don’t Include Teaser Copy
Some people like to put what is often referred to as “teaser copy” on the envelope. They use words like “FREE” and “URGENT” on the envelope, thinking it will increase the open rates. Instead, it makes people think they have received junk mail.
Use the Letter as Part of an Automated Sequence
Handwritten letters are an excellent way to prospect, but you can’t expect people to respond to them. People aren’t going to sit down and write a letter back to you, and many people won’t pick up the phone and call. That’s why you need to make them a part of a sequence. Follow your handwritten prospecting letters up with phone calls or emails so people can respond. Putting the letters inside of a sequence also makes it easier to nurture your leads.
Now that you know how to prospect using handwritten letters, it’s time to get started. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to write a great sales letter or if you don’t have the time to put into the process. You can use a service to handle the letters for you. Services can even include the handwritten letter as part of an automated prospecting plan.
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Want to write better handwritten notes and letters? Handwritten notes provide an easy way to break down barriers between your company and your customers. When people receive a handwritten letter from you, they will be impressed that you went the extra mile to drop them a line. You can impress them even more by following some tips that will allow you to send out top-notch handwritten notes. These tips are easy to follow and will put you on the right track for customer service success.
Use High-Quality Stationary
Don’t get out your spiral notebook and fire off a letter to your customers. They deserve high-quality stationary, and they will judge you if they don’t get it. If you send handwritten notes out on subpar paper, they will think that you are either too cheap to spring for the good stuff or your business is in trouble. Put your best foot forward by using high-quality stationary every time you send out a note or letter.
Keep It Simple
People love the idea of receiving handwritten notes, but they don’t want to put aside an hour to read them. Keep your notes short and to the point. Remember, each customer’s time is precious and you don’t want to infringe on it any more than necessary. Get right to the point, say thank you, and let the customer be on his or her way.
Use the Right Type of Ink
Blue and black ink are considered professional. If you go with red, pink, green, or another color, your company will look unprofessional, which means your reputation might take a hit with your customers. Simply choosing the right type of ink will help you stand out for the right reasons. Then, when customers think back to the handwritten note, they’ll have positive memories, down to the type of ink you used.
It can be hard to remember everything that you need to do to write amazing notes. If you aren’t sure that you can keep everything straight, use a service for your handwritten notes. The service will write the notes and send them out to everyone. Some services even let you choose the gender of the letter writer, along with the type of handwriting the person uses. This type of customization ensures that your customers receive the perfect handwritten notes.
Learn how to send handwritten letters online with these insights. If you feel like technology has eliminated the personal touch, you aren’t alone. A lot of people complain that emails and printouts have replaced handwritten letters and other personal gestures. As much as you might miss the good old days, this change actually has its benefits. Now, if you do something personal, such as send out a handwritten letter, your business will stand out. The best part is you don’t actually have to write the letter yourself. You can send handwritten letters online through a service. Just make sure the company you choose provides authentic-looking handwritten letters or you won’t win over your customer base.
Real Handwriting
While some companies use a handwriting font and print the letters off, others actually handwrite them. They put pen to paper to create these letters so no one can deny the authenticity. When people see a real handwritten letter from your company, they will assume you took the time to take a piece of stationary out and write. They won’t realize that you used a service to send handwritten letters online.
Postmarked from Your Location
Savvy consumers will notice if a handwritten letter is postmarked from the wrong location. For instance, if your company is located in Florida and your handwritten letter is postmarked from California, that will stand out to someone who is observant. The person will automatically realize that you didn’t send the letter yourself, which means you will look untrustworthy.
That’s why some companies make sure the postmark comes from your location. This adds another layer of authenticity to the process and helps you build trust – and win points – with your customer base.
Fully Customizable
Handwritten letters are all about personalization and customization. You can take it one step further by adding your logo, headers, and other customization options to the letter. This is a great branding opportunity, and it will assure the recipient that the letter is authentic. You need to grab every branding opportunity that is available, so this is critical.
Instead of lamenting about how technology has changed the world, use it to reach out to your customers with handwritten letters. You will give your customers the personal touch they crave while benefiting from the speed and ease that technology provides.
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Miss Manners could probably write an entire column about the death of thank-you notes. Instead of thank-you notes, businesses fire off impersonal emails or send out bulk mailings to their customers. Emails end up in spam folders, and bulk mail-outs make their way into trashcans, so customers don’t realize they have been properly thanked. If you want to make Miss Manners proud, it’s time to consider handwritten thank-you notes. You can hire a service to create and send the notes for you, so you can enjoy the benefits without spending any time on the process.
Handwritten Thank-You Notes Show Appreciation
According to the Harvard Business Review, companies send out more than 100 emails each day, while young adults send or receive around 100 texts each day. At the same time, people receive approximately one personal letter every seven weeks. These numbers mean your thank-you emails and bulk mailings get lost in the shuffle, but your handwritten thank-you notes stick out to the recipients. They show appreciation in ways that other forms of communication don’t, making handwritten notes well worth sending.
Customer Loyalty Is Based on Beginnings and Endings
Most businesses put a lot of emphasis on the first impression with a customer. They go out of their way to ensure that customers like them from the get-go. Then, they make the sale and forget about the customer.
Endings are just as important as beginnings. If you end the transaction the right way, you will build customer loyalty. Customer loyalty translates into additional sales, plus referrals. The easiest way to build that loyalty is with a handwritten thank-you note.
These notes put a heartwarming end to the transaction. They make people think of your business in a favorable way, and those thoughts will stand out the next time they look for goods or services. They will also make people more likely to become advocates for your business.
Writing your own notes is time-consuming, but you can simplify the process by using a service. Services that provide handwritten thank-you notes handle all of the details so you’ll get the accolades without the hard work. It’s nice to get the credit without putting in the time, so don’t pass this opportunity up. Need help with what to put in your thank you note? Click here for more help.
