Email Marketing: An Evolutionary Tale

I suspect 2010 will be all a twitter (pun intended) regarding social media, and how it purports to enhance your relationships with your clients. A lot of it is hype, but no doubt, the way we communicate with our clients, and the manner in which we promote ourselves has evolved enormously.

In the beginning, well almost, we interacted with prospects face-to-face (an expensive, but active method), and obtained their contact information, which we then loaded into a database.

Eventually we realised, hey, we can also obtain this information via our websites (an affordable, but passive method), and have it automatically load into our database too.

This was when email newsletters exploded, and the premise upon which most email service providers (ESPs) established their businesses.

But the problem was that the process was one-way, and all communications were in the form of bulk messages. It was assumed that all prospects were at the same point in the sales cycle, and that they all had homogenous needs.

Fortunately that has all changed; we have evolved.

STOP

We have?

Well okay, most of us are still stuck in 2005. I frequently hear that many people would like to migrate to a communication strategy that is social media aware, but they cannot figure out what is relevant, how to go about it or who to turn to. Let's discuss these important points.

Consider the above diagram, which was a tough task to keep simple, as the true form is more matrix like. There are many hundreds of social media sites, serving a myriad purposes; I have chosen a few of the more common ones, to demonstrate how an evolved communication strategy should be established.

Online marketing serves the same purpose as traditional marketing, namely to perform as an effective component of your marketing mix. More specifically, to contribute to your promotion efforts (remember the 4 P's of marketing?) in a cost efficient way. Additionally, it serves to perpetually sustain top-of-the-mind brand awareness, so as to facilitate repeat business.

So how do we create and/or maintain this awareness?

Well for starters, get you head around the fact that you HAVE TO engage in dialogue. You need to offer value-adding information in exchange for actionable data. This is done through a combination of social media sites and direct communication. There are two mediums, used effectively, to gather actionable data; email (through the use of surveys) and telephone (through the use of a live operator). I know you can use two-way sms, but it isn't a medium of choice, due to recipient billing sensitivity. All your efforts must ultimately lead to the collection of actionable data, through the heavy use of these feedback mediums and finally, a transaction.

Now, as regards your combination of the myriad social media sites. These must all play a supporting role, all in a somewhat different way. Their primary purpose is brand promotion and awareness, and although you can do all of these things on your website, you will never get the same kind of search engine exposure. So it's kinda like investment diversification; spread it around. One of the end results must be the capturing of prospect contact details, which will allow your nurturing campaign to kick in, ultimately progressing towards a transaction. 

Instead of a newsletter, which is effectively lost to the outside world, you use a blog (Blogger, Wordpress or other). The search engines do a great job at indexing blog articles, so this already places you at an enhanced advantage. Let's not forget that a blog can also use a subscription form, to capture prospect contact details, which can be automatically loaded to your database.

When you research for your blog, invariably it involves reading a lot of source material. Some of this would be of interest to your prospects. So use a reader (Google Reader or other), bundle your sources together and share these articles with your prospects. Your public page gets indexed by the search engines as well.

Then convert your blog articles to pdf, and host online (Calameo, Scribd or other). These articles also get indexed; yes, there is a duplication, but it will catch prospects that do not find you via your blog. Plus, it gives the added advantage of providing a downloadable version. Also, don't overlook providing powerpoint presentations or pdf documents that may be of use to a prospect; manuals, expert opinion, case studies, surveys etc.

Anything that you do, be it blogging, uploading documents, hosting an event, launching a new product, remember to post a one line notice to Twitter. Twitter is an enigma to many. It is simply a 140 (designed for mobile use) character way of sending brief messages. Unlike sms, your twitter messages get indexed by the search engines. So if clearly written, and using a url shortener (Bit.ly or other), prospects can click a link and be diverted to a site of interest.

The same can be said of Facebook and LinkedIn; although you are usually more circumspect regarding the type of news that you upload to these sites. Facebook is usually better for interacting with prospects, and has the added advantages of being able to be an active medium (it can email fans), and it can capture prospect contact details, via a subscription form. LinkedIN has similar advantages, but is best used when targeting a business audience.

Then, of course, a picture tells a thousand words. It always enhances your communicaion if you can include a link to a video (You Tube or other), or to pictures and/or photos (Picasa or other) of relevant material. With photos, it is usually a good idea to show pictures with clients interacting with your brand.

Summary

You need to put it all together in a way that it simple enough for you to maintain. The glue is your email marketing. You use the social media sites to promote your company, and to drive prospects to provide you with information. This information, in turn, feeds your communication campaign, which perpetually encourages your prospects to engage with your brand. But do not restrict yourself to email only. Vary your contact media; use snail mail for birthdays for example. Don't allow your communication strategy to become predictable and mundane.

Finally, if it still remains overwhelming then contact Dialogue Marketing. We will put it all together for you, show you what and how to maintain the strategy (or do it for you).

Find a downloadable copy of the article here.

Drip Marketing: What Is It?

Geez, it seems marketers like to busy themselves coining new phrases, as if they have discovered a new light bulb, when in reality all they have done is highlight the obvious.

Drip Marketing is another of those phrases; as is Closed-Loop Marketing, but we will discuss that one next time.

Quite simply Drip Marketing is the technique that is applied to prospects, to nurture them towards a state where they are ready to transact. You might recall we discussed lead nurturing previously.

Essentially, Drip Marketing is a planned series of timed messages, that are dispatched to a targeted set of prospects. These dispatched messages could be in any form; the most common being email, sms, postcards, snail mail and the like. The purpose is to communicate product information and/or helpful advice, in order to keep your brand top-of-the-mind, so that when the prospect is ready to transact, they will be more inclined to remember, and select you.

That's it, short and sweet.

The good thing about Drip Marketing is that it forces you to actively create a system that caters for your prospects; which means actually thinking about the process.

Usually you would be best advised to use an automated service, due to the affordability thereof. It's also good to select a service provider who can help you establish you Drip Marketing strategy, and who will be able to customise your effort. Nobody likes to get messages that appear to have been designed for the masses. Make a little effort, and personalise them a tad.

Download a printable version here.

Don't Discount - Learn How To Get Your Price

This week I was pondering price objections, since we are all occasionally confronted with these; namely that our products or services are pricey in comparison to other competitors. Of course this necessitates painstakingly explaining the differences. So what is it that gets consumers to determine a "fair price"?

It's quite straightforward. Consider yourself, when you go shopping. Small, insignificant purchases, don't require you to make a value judgement. But larger purchases usually have you more involved; and what tends to happen is that you place a subjective "price" on the product or service.

If the price is below your "established price", you perceive the product to have value, and you need very little coaxing to purchase. Think of a new computer; you determine that a computer with the features you require is probably worth $500.00. If you walk into the store and find this at $350.00, you will feel that you found a "bargain", and vice versa.

The difference between reality and perception leads to a performance gap. This is the principle upon which a blowout sale works; pricing is so ridiculously low that transactions take place regardless of whether the customer has a definitive need or not. In other words the item is so cheap that the consumer doesn't think about the purchase, because his risk has been reduced. A performance gap can be either positive or negative.

A pricing benchmark is usually derived by loosely using a larger market participant as a benchmark. The problem is that this participant may be a market maker, in other words they have influenced the market to see things their way. It is logical to want to influence the market to the extent that your product offering is considered the standard by which everything is measured. But this may not suit your customer's reality; they just don't know it. Remember this maxim:

VALUE = PERCEIVED BENEFIT - PERCEIVED COST

In the case of a pricing objection, this will mean probing the prospect for the objection, and overcoming that by demonstrating your product or service benefits. In other words, comparing apples with apples.

In the earlier scenario this usually means focussing the prospects attention on his needs, and then highlighting the benefits of owning your product. This will usually get the prospect to stop measuring you relative to a competing product, and will justify your pricing.

Now, in a face-to-face sales environment, this is relatively easy to do, although seldom done properly. But what do you do when your prospect hasn't even displayed an interest in transacting yet?

You will recall our chat on Lead Nurturing and Closing A Sale, where we emphasised that it will invariably take more than one contact to secure a sale, and that this requires you to nurture your leads.

A large part of this nurturing process must focus on the benefits of using your product or service. Only through repeated emphasis, and guiding a prospect through a process of discovery designed to uncover needs, can you position yourself apart from your perceived competitors. And this positioning is achieved through the use of dialogue, in the form of closed probes, where you uncover a prospects needs and respond with appropriate satisfiers. All of this can be achieved automatically.

An alternative, instead of using a dynamic, prospect driven process, is to anticipate what many of the objections may be, and to provide a static solution on your website or blog, in the form of FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).

Your ultimate objective is to create a positive performance gap, where significant value is realised, by having the perceived benefits far exceed the price that you have determined. In order to do this requires you to present your offering in a way that allows you to differentiate yourself, by focussing on your strengths; those areas that give you a competitive advantage. There is no point competing with the large discount operators, on the basis of their price or their features.

Using Dialogue To Nurture Your Leads

Related Articles:
Do You Expect To Close On Your First Contact?
Alternatives To A Newsletter .... Demystifying The Mystified

This week I was helping a prospective client establish a communication strategy to acquire new business. The process sometimes seems confusing, so I have taken this opportunity to explain it in more detail.

It is extraordinarily rare that a prospect is ready to purchase, when you happen to make contact. Assuming you have a market, of course; usually you will make contact with a prospect somewhere in the sales cycle, just not where you need them to be. This can be best described as harvesting green bananas; and may account for 95% of your leads.

What this means is that if you do not nurture this prospect, until they are ready to transact, chances are they will be lost to a competitor. It is suggested that 80% of marketing expenditure, on lead generation, goes to waste, due to lack of discipline and commitment.

So what to do?

Well, that is the point of meaningful dialogue. You need to engage prospects consistently, and through value-added exchanges. I intentionally use the word dialogue, and exchange. There is no point simply blasting out newsletters, or emails. All this does is create work for you, and you end up operating in a vacuum. You never become better informed as to the state of the prospect; and you could well be hurting your brand.

So the objective is to share information with the right people, and in so doing establish a relationship. Ultimately, the ongoing, timely sharing of information maintains a brand awareness, which leads (pun intended) to a transaction. Dialogue marketing is more than just having a salesperson call every so often, to find out if a prospect is "ready to buy yet."

It has been demonstrated that 69% of buyers are more inclined to transact, where a salesperson has assumed the role of advisor. This means that it is important for you to share knowledge, and educate your prospects. Forget the scripted sales pitches; the cheesy verses that interrupt my dinner. Become the trusted advisor that your prospect calls, when they are ready to transact.

But how to do it?

Here we are going to refer to my diagram, above.

You probably have a source of leads; this could be advertising, trade enquiries, seminars, trade shows, or any myriad of sources.

Make sure you add your website and blog, to those sources. But ensure that your website and blog provide the ability to collect prospect information. This information, together with information sources from other areas, should be fed into a centralised database.

Now, and this is where the confusion comes in, there is always a tendancy to want to blast off a message, telling the prospect everything you can do. This is wrong. If you tell them everything upfront, not only are you pressure selling, but you haven't shared any knowledge and you destroy your the opportunity to communicate in the future, without repeating yourself.

You need to nurture them; gently. You send a message which discusses a topic relevant to their situation (call this Dialogue 1). Included therein could be a link to a related blog article, where you can lay the subject out in more detail. An important part of the dialogue, is to include an online (or email embedded) survey. If the survey questions (never more than 3) are answered, these give you an insight into the state of the prospect, and may provide a selling opportunity.

So, if you have 5 key areas that could cause a prospect to transact, instead of mentioning all 5 upfront, you break them up into 5 or more seperate communications, which are dispatched at timed intervals. Each contact relates to one of the key areas, which is supported by a blog article and an online survey. Last week I discussed Dialogue Marketing for Financial Services; this was one example of a value-added exchange.

Any response by a prospect, that produces a selling opportunity, takes the prospect to a different database, and a new series of messages.

It is important to place yourself in your prospect's position, think through what is important to them, and then create a meaningful communication strategy.

And The Results?

Close ratios are higher, sales pipelines are stronger, brand awareness is stronger, customer retention is 50% higher, and nurtured prospects produce 250% more qualified sales leads, than unnurtured prospects.

Download a printable version here.

Dialogue Marketing for Financial Services

This week I thought, "Enough with the theory and background explanations, lets share a real world example". So that is what we are going to do, work through how technology can assist somebody in, say, the financial services industry.

We all know about the financial services industry; it is much like the pre-owned car industry for the most part. You are faced with high pressure sales people, who palm themselves off as financial advisors. Everytime you hear from one of these guys, it is usually over dinner, or when you least want to hear from them. What is more, they have one purpose in mind; to sell you another product, and then, poof, not to be heard from again.

I have rarely dealt with the same financial advisor twice.

So the relationship appears lopsided, or asymetric. Now I know I am generalising. There are some excellent advisors out there, but for the most part that is not what people experience.

As a professional advisor, you have the opposing problem. How do you manage to prospect successfully when the perception people have is a poor one? All you want to do is be given the opportunity to show what you are capable of, but you need to secure an appointment first. How do you do this?

Surely there must be a way to finesse both sides of a strained relationship; where everybody gets what they want?

The answer is a resounding yes.

Imagine not having an advisor breathing down your neck. Imagine being able to have your situation assessed in private, and yet at the same time being provided with information that is valuable to you; like how much you may need to save each month.

But at the same time, imagine being the advisor, where you don't have to face telephonic rejection daily, yet are still able to engage in a dialogue; where you can still offer a valuable service, and at the same time be notified of potential opportunities.

This "win-win" situation can be accomplished with some imagination and the use of Dialogue Marketing. So without spoiling the fun, watch the video to see what is possible.

Do You Expect To Close On Your First Contact?

Are you one of those business people that believes that every encounter with a prospect requires you to close a sale; regardless of whether you have uncovered a need?

No?

Interesting, because I still encounter businesses everyday that use aggressive sales techniques to do business. I guess they don't bother with niceties, such as retention marketing; nor do they have a long term business vision.

Look, we would all like our prospects to transact with us, the first time they hear from us, but that ain't gonna happen. It is unrealistic to expect your prospects to all be primed, and ready to buy, unless you have one helluva "must have" product.

Consider these statistics for a moment.

48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect.

25% of sales people make a second contact, then stop.

12% of sales people only make three contacts, then stop.

10% of sales people make more than three contacts.

2% of sales are made on the first contact.

3% of sales are made on the second contact.

5% of sales are made on the third contact.

10% of sales are made on the fourth contact.

80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact.

I don't know if these statistics are from a valid study, or whether they have been derived from experience. The point is that it usually takes much more than one contact to close a sale. Think about it, how often have you been contacted multiple times to secure a sale? Very rarely. Even more important, how often have you been contacted by a salesperson you have done business with in the past? Almost never. Prime examples are the auto industry and the financial services sector. Both are reknowned for their high customer churn.

Yet if you analyse the top sales performers, you will notice a common thread, tenacity and perseverance. These stars know that it takes multiple contacts to secure a sale, and they have developed unique processes to cater for this.

In marketing this is commonly referred to as the "Law of 29", where it is anticipated that a prospect may have to view your marketing message 29 times before they transact. This may be excessive, however if we view the above statistics we see that 80 percent of sales are concluded after anywhere between 5 and 12 contacts. The number isn't important, except to grasp that you need to have a strategy to deal with multiple contacts.

So don't go splash some money on a one time advert. It is a waste. Rather develop an ongoing strategy, where you use a low cost, interactive technology to coax your prospect towards a sale. Why use technology you ask? Well it becomes an impossible task to manage a growing list of prospects, each with different communication requirements and needs.

By the way, I say interactive because unless you are gathering information, and responding accordingly, you will never be able to determine when your prospect has a need.

So, in a nutshell, expect to contact your prospects multiple times. Develop a series of messages, what I call a Sequence™, that are timed and triggered (more on this later). Use multiple mediums, instead of a repetitive and tedious one-way newsletter e.g. fax, sms, snail mail, cards, website and phone calls. But also know when enough is enough; I reckon if you haven't closed the sale after somewhere between 5 and 12 contacts, you probably aren't. So pick a cut-off, say 10 contacts, then call it a day with that prospect.

Profit Generation Through Dialogue Marketing

I know, my articles don't seem to follow a particular order. These are largely determined by events at work and/or reflect the workings of a disorganised mind. This article dovetails with a more detailed piece I wrote, which is available for download here.

Using the power of new technology isn't just about mass email, which is essentially an unsophisticated acquisition tactic. It is far more involved, personalised and interactive; and can greatly improve your ability to develop strategies for both customer acquisition and retention; not to mention enhance your profitability prospects. This is a brief discussion to put retention and acquisition into perspective.

Marketing continues to be the sum of all business activities involved in the transfer of goods and/or services, from the producer to the consumer.

Traditionally, marketing has been primarily outwardly focussed, namely on the acquisition of new consumers. So if you look at the diagram, that would mean that the efforts were mainly expended on acquiring grey dots.

More recently marketing has evolved to emphasise an inward focus too, namely the retention of existing consumers; or to put it simply, expending an effort to keep your coloured dots.

This has come about as a result of the cost advantages of retention versus acquisition. Moreover, in a fiercely competitive and increasingly fragmented market place, new "virgin" customers are not in abundance, with consumers becoming increasingly savvy.

Fortunately with the advent of new technologies both the tasks of acquisition and
retention can be easily and affordably facilitated. In fact, the new technologies allow your marketing strategies to become an omnipresent, personalised, 24/7 tool to keep your brand “top of the mind”, instead of the mass marketing, traditional mediums of yesteryear.

Marketing Acquisition

Marketing continues to perform the function of acquiring new consumers. Aside from the usual mass marketing approaches, this usually involves progressing a lead from suspect, through prospect, to first time consumer. This “lead nurturing” is easily enhanced through the use of new technology.

For a more detailed discussion of how technology can assist your acquisition efforts, click here.

Marketing Retention

Without proper care, any first-time customer, repeat customer, client, or advocate can become inactive or lost, causing the company substantial losses in sales and profit. In fact, your customers are constantly in a state of flux. It is up to you to determine what your loss rate will be. Of course you could take the "who cares" attitude, and continue to concentrate on acquisition; but at what cost?

Summary

There is no doubt that traditional marketing remains vital; what has happened is that the emphasis has shifted from the transaction to the relationship. In this context relationship does not refer to a deep, meaningful, interpersonal connection; rather it refers to a customer’s purchase history.

Of course during the acquisition stage there is no history. Here the objective is to get a prospect to make the transition to customer, in other words you coax the grey dots towards the funnel. Even those dots that do not become customers, should be nurtured until they become ready, given that it usually takes multiple contacts before a prospect is ready to transact.

During the retention stage you, and your customer, have a history. Hopefully it is a good one, and you can leverage off of it. Too few people do, and this is why so many customers defect to your competitors. You can implement some amazingly simple strategies that are effective at acknowledging the customer, creating a positive brand experience and reducing and post purchase cognitive dissonance. It is all about retaining your coloured dots; or at least slowing down the rate of attrition.

For a more detailed discussion, specifically how technology can help you (with examples), please click here.