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Use Sales Insights to Send Emails Prospects Actually Read

Mar 2014/in /by

Much of the time, your first contact with a prospect will be through email. However, sending out shoddy messages that appear mass-produced and untailored to the specific business can wreak havoc on your sales productivity. You have to treat each email like it’s a conversation, because that’s how your prospect will be thinking about it. Sending out a generic template just won’t cut it.

For instance, a typical email may tout the company, talk about your services and end with a call-to-action. This could literally be sent out to anyone, and probably is. Instead, you need to do a better job of targeting it.

Sympathize With Your Prospect

In Inc., sales expert Geoffrey James notes that if you think about how your emails look from the customer’s perspective, it may start to make more sense as to why leads aren’t biting. Most likely, they’re asking, “what does this have to do with me?” They may be wondering why you are reaching out to them at all, and they may even be truly annoyed that you wasted their time with spam. In each case, you’ve all but lost your prospect before you’ve begun.

Prioritize Customer Research 

It may seem like a no-brainer, but you need to do some work figuring out who your prospect is before shooting off an email. Once again, a cursory look at their homepage probably won’t be enough. You want is to exceed their expectations, not barely meet them—so you need to dig deeper. Customer intelligence analytics allow you to not only see what your customer has been doing, but what’s going on in their marketplace.

How to Use Sales Insights to Write Messages

Generally, prospects are more likely to respond when a message is relevant to their interests. This means it’s best to contact someone who has been looking around your site. You should not only mention their presence on your page, but exactly what they looked at. However, intelligence gives you the details that can make a cold email work. For instance, it enables you to see trigger events that create new product needs. According to HubSpot, events like this can be an excellent way to open an email.

Now that you have a better idea of their industry, and what it takes to excel in this environment, you will have a much easier time getting into the client’s perspective and understanding what will compel them to respond to your email. Keep things simple. James suggests that you give examples, not just of businesses you’ve worked with, but what you’ve done for them. Even better, align this small pitch to their specific market niche.

Another tip HubSpot offers is that with the first email, you’re really looking for a response, not a sale. Try to establish yourself as a trustworthy source who cares about the outcome of their company rather than going after the pitch right away.

Other suggestions:

  • Start by saying something about them, not yourself. This will grab their attention. Now would be a good time to mention that big market event you learned about.
  • Leverage personal connections if you have them. These should also go near the top of your email. If a mutual colleague suggested you get in touch, absolutely mention this.
  • Keep it short. Prospects are busy people, and the best of us can be overwhelmed by an unbroken wall of text. Make it digestible, clear and direct.

When you take the time to understand your customers, you can write messages that they really respond to.

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Traits of Modern-Day Marketers

Jan 2014/in /by

Now that we’ve just crossed the threshold into 2014, it’s a good time to reassess marketing and sales strategies to keep up with changing times. Here’s a hint – it’s not bourbon-swilling ad men in expensive suits. Is your marketing team up to scratch now that we are roughly a decade and a half into the 21st century? Here are a few traits that characterize the modern-day marketer:

Data Artisan Marketing professionals need to be able to stay on track with customer data, but they also need to understand how to implement this knowledge into a successful campaign, and that still requires a great deal of creativity. As Matt Wesson noted on Salesforce blog, marketing no longer lionizes creativity above all else, although it’s still a large part of what makes a successful marketer. These days, marketers who aren’t taking advantage of customer intelligence analytics and other data points may be seriously missing the mark.

Customer-oriented When it comes to information consumption, clients are increasingly omnivorous, switching quickly between multiple channels. From social media to email to online video, if you’re not keeping up with consumers, you’re not doing it right. The customer is king. In this media-saturated world, knowing your customers is essential. Use customer intelligence to keep an eye on trends in your customer’s industry. It’s no longer adequate to have just a preliminary understanding of your clients. They’ll expect you to know more. Predict their needs in advance and your marketing campaigns will be far more successful.

Social Media Maven The contemporary marketer understands that it’s crucial not to overplay the role of “me” in social media. There are no Don Drapers here. Social platforms are all about connection and communication, not about self-serving status updates and calls to action. Marketers can help themselves by helping others on Facebook and Twitter. Serve as a resource and listen for potential clients that need help. In the same spirit, it’s important to remember that the marketing department doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it’s part of a team. Collaboration is essential in ensuring that campaigns provide return on investment. A survey from CRM Essentials cited in Destination CRM found that small and medium-sized business executives were more successful in social media campaigns when they took a holistic approach. Rather than having separate departments firing out social posts, they worked together to roll out a strategic plan.

Mobile-driven If emails and websites are not optimized for mobile viewing, they won’t be successful. A lot of people view email on mobile devices on the go. According to an infographic from Position2, almost half of all emails are opened on mobile devices. Decision makers are busy people, and if they can’t check their inbox at a time that’s convenient for them, you may have lost out on a sale. The infographic also shows that 80 percent of recipients will delete an email that doesn’t look good on their mobile device. Just think of how users are deterred by a website that transitions poorly to a tablet or smartphone! In 2014, there’s no excuse for this.

Good Communicators This point is somewhat built into some of the earlier ones. After all, in order to have a collaborative spirit, you need to be able to communicate. According to Maria Pergolino for Marketo, any marketing position will require you to wear multiple hats - when you’re not generating leads, you may be writing a blog, speaking at an event or networking. Communication skills are, therefore, vital to success. You will need to converse effectively with prospects, colleagues and managers about your company and products.

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How to use video for lead generation

Jan 2014/in , /by

Video is a fun and engaging way to find sales opportunities, and it’s not just for B2C anymore. B2B companies can harness the power of movie as well. According to Janine Popick for Inc., 92 percent of B2B customers watch videos online, and 43 percent of B2B customers watch videos when researching products and services.

You don’t have to outsource a video production company to make a great video, although that’s certainly an option. You just need to create content that people want to watch. Put someone in front of a camera, and demonstrate what a font of knowledge they are. Sales reps are generally pretty dynamic individuals, so get one of them to be your spokesperson. Having a genuine employee in front of the camera will also make you appear more authentic.

Here are some tips for engaging your customers and generating leads with video:

Create awesome content

If you can’t come up with a reason to use video marketing, you probably shouldn’t do it. If you don’t have a wealth of information you’re dying to share, video is useless. However, if you have tons of ideas and need an engaging outlet to reach your audience, video is perfect.

If you need ideas, using customer intelligence analytics can help you determine what kind of information your customers really need. The best content will anticipate the problems customers have and provide them with solutions.

Make the video engaging

According to Jeff Molander in Target Marketing Magazine, many marketers fail using video because they overthink what they are saying and forget to consider how they will say it. It may be easier said than done, but in order to be successful on this channel, you need content that really says something interesting while keeping the viewer’s attention.

Try telling a story. The human brain is programmed to respond to narratives, and they tend to be more memorable than straight facts. In the Salesforce Blog, Jeff Ogden notes how popular television show The Walking Dead consistently gains more viewers than the NFL. This compelling narrative of a small group of survivors outrunning bloodthirsty zombies tells a story that is both gripping and visually engaging. Just remember, you don’t need gore to create videos that users want to watch.

Generate leads

Finish off videos with a clear call to action to find potential buyers. Once you’ve hooked users on your fantastic video channel, you can even require a user registration so that visitors have to give you an email address in order to continue. YouTube allows you to overlay ads if you are a Google Adwords advertiser, according to Popick.

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Use Twitter for sales intelligence

Dec 2013/in , /by

Getting exhausted by tired old methods for finding sales leads and connecting with customers? Twitter is a fresh alternative to waiting for email registrations, and it’s a great way to provide better service to your current clients. The best sales resource is knowing your customers. In this regard, social media can be a great complement to customer intelligence analytics. Twitter’s features make it a good choice for sales reps who want to get plugged into their consumer market.

Find prospects
The best way to maximize the service is to get a platform like TweetDeck to help you organize the people you follow.

First, you’ll need to identify leads. It may take a while to build a following, but it will be worth it in the long run. Start by using the search function to look for words buyers of your product might use, says Anna Bratton for Salesforce. Follow the people who fit your customer profile.

Another good idea is to check out your competitor’s Twitter feed. If you’re lucky, they may have already done the legwork for you. If they’re not on Twitter yet, well, that’s good for you too.

Once you’ve generated a list of people to follow, organize them into lists. For instance, your competitors can have their own category. These indexes can also be used to organize potential clients by where they are in the sales cycle, suggests Bryan Kramer on the Salesforce blog. Twitter is a great tool for keeping prospects on your radar.

Look for signals
Use the search function on Twitter to identify businesses that are looking to buy a service you offer. Twitter benefits both buyers and sellers by providing a large community to answer questions. Look for users who are asking for recommendations. They will be particularly pleased to get a quick answer from you. Search for terms like “anyone recommend” or “any advice on,” says Bratton.

Keep on eye on various signals. Once again, list functions work perfectly for this. On TweetDeck you can create a list that compiles any tweet containing words you’ve identified. Look for tweets that mention name of your company, or a keyword that best represents what you do. Having a list devoted to competitors is never a bad idea. If a user mentions a competitor, specifically a negative experience with one, you have an opening to jump in and suggest your services instead.

Optimize the experience
No one likes a self-serving Twitter feed. The point of social media is to generate conversation and engagement, not to promote your own company ad nauseam.

This platform is ideal for companies seeking a thought leadership role. This means that most of what you tweet shouldn’t be directly about you at all. On Marketo’s blog, Heidi Bullock provides a useful guideline, called the 4-1-1 rule. For every tweet your company makes to promote itself, you should retweet someone else (but don’t cheat by retweeting another user’s complimentary words about your services). In addition, you should share four pieces of content from other sources. Provide insightful articles with digestible headlines that are under 140 characters. Actually, the less characters you use, the easier it will be for other to retweet you with your words intact.

Promoted posts are another strategy to consider, although this service may not even be necessary. You can use promoted tweets to target specific users. Since this is a slightly more invasive strategy than targeting users who seem specifically interested in buying, it may be wise to test the waters before rolling these out on a wide scale. Wait until there’s a big industry event underway and provide timely and engaging content like a white paper or e-book for those who may be associated with the occasion.

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