Pulling the Trigger on email marketing

Email marketing has come a long way since it began receiving the attention of b2b marketers in and around the year 2000.  Savvy marketers realized the power and convenience, not to mention the low cost, that email marketing afforded.  Eleven years removed, we have seen email marketing’s use in b2b literally explode.  Today, you are not in business if you are not communicating digitally with your clients and prospects.  With all of the hype that newer channels such as social media receive, email may seem a bit antiquated as a useful  marketing tool.  Quite the contrary!  Different uses of email marketing have gained traction within the last several years and loosely fall into the category called “Nurture Marketing”.
The term “Nurture Marketing” is a bit broad and mis-used in some cases, leading to confusion and reticence in those who may otherwise benefit from the techniques employed by nurture marketing.   This blog post is meant to introduce you to the concept of  trigger-based email marketing as it relates to B2B lead gen and Marketing to Sales integration in CRM.
Trigger-based emails get their name from the fact that and email is “triggered” by some activity.  Trigger emails began as auto-responders in eCommerce.  They were used to send validation of account creation and confirmation of purchase details.  These auto-responders were an effective way of securing a login to a web/commerce application.  Today, trigger-based emails are used as a core component of nurture marketing campaigns in b2b.  There are a myriad of ways to use trigger based emails and this post will explore some of the more common and easy to implement campaigns driven by trigger based emails.
Defining a trigger-based email:  A trigger-based email is a personalized and automated email communicaton sent to an individual when an action occurs.  Actions can be defined as form submissions, field value changes in CRM, accessing materials via the web…and many more.  The trigger email is pre-built with content that is relevant to the action (trigger).  The email is then activated so when the criteria, a simple form of workflow, is met, the email is physically executed.  Triggers are typically tied to a particular marketing asset (white paper) and  include a moderate to extensive amount of personalization within the subject line/body of the email.  Personalization involves the insertion of merge fields for values such as name, company, sales person-signature.
Again, triggers have their origins in eCommerce with Auto-responders.  Marketers began using the auto-responders for collateral fulfillment.  Today’s savvy b2b marketers have taken triggers to the next level with multi-step and multi-variate trigger emails.  The simplest way to define these trigger campaigns is to think of a string of trigger emails that start with “first action” and continue with timed emails that contain content relevant to the first email.  Each subsequent email tends to be slightly more detailed than the last and the “call to actions” contained within the emails become more direct and sales oriented.
The value of trigger-based email campaigns to b2b lead generation cannot be understated.  Think of your website as a lead generation entity in and of itself.  As leads interact with your website, trigger-based email campaigns execute when high-value actions occur.  Imagine you have a white paper posted on your site and the white paper is specific to a vertical market your company sells into.  A well built, and suprisngly easy campaign may look something like this.

1. A prospect downloads a white paper on your website
2. A trigger email sends a link to download the white paper to the prospect
3. Three trigger-days later, a complimentary marketing asset is offered via trigger email
4. Five trigger days later, the prospect receives a personal email from a sales person offering a product brochure
5. Seven trigger days later, the prospect receives another email  that invites them to participate in a discovery call

This simple yet effective string of communications is pre-built and 100% automated.  It ensures that each incoming web lead receives a high-level of touches in a short period of time.  No leads fall through the cracks!  As the prospect interacts with the email campaign by opening, clicking…etc, the interactions are logged to the lead record in Dynamics and the sales person receives email alerts if and when the prospect comes back to the website….triggering a phone call.
You can take this a step further and apply workflow that creates sales tasks such as follow up calls, assigned to a rep in CRM if and when the prospect continues to interact with you via the trigger campaign.
Put simply, this is a b2b marketer’s dream!  The workflow is easy to set up and very logical.  Marketing can be sure that proper follow up is occuring for all leads and lead leakage is virtually eliminated from the equation.  Sales is happy because they are communicating with prospects without lifting a finger…freeing them up to work on deal closure.
SalesFUSION works with many companies in this fashion.  The results from trigger based emails are telling.  Statistically speaking, an email blast or bulk email campaign will typically produce open rates (percent of people who receive the email and physically open it) of 4% to 8%.  Those are good averages.  Trigger based campaigns, on the other hand, enjoy open rates of 35%, 50% and 65% on average.  While you may not be sending thousands of emails at one time, the nurturing effect of trigger based emails means more meaningful touches with valuable prospects.
About SalesFUSION:  SalesFUSION provides an enterprise-class b2b marketing solution that is directly integrated into Dynamics CRM.  A Five-Star rated app on PinPoint, SalesFUSION delivers all of the key functionality b2b marketers need in today’s fast-paced web 2.0 world, at a price that companies of all sizes can afford.  Learn about our marketing to Dynamics CRM work in our online resource center.

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SalesFUSION Scores Breakout Year In 2010, With Customer Count, Partner Base Climbing

SalesFUSION Scores Breakout Year In 2010, With Customer Count, Partner Base Climbing

Using Trigger/Nurture-based email campaigns to improve PPC Lead Conversion

Pay Per Click usage in B2B environment is growing rapidly. Spending on networks such as AdWords is becoming a significant part of the B2B marketer’s Budget. Pay Per Click, or any online form of paid advertising, has a single goal – Capture the lead information and begin the b2b lead qualification process. As a marketer, when you pay for an ad, clicks or conversions, you are essentially purchasing a highly targeted lead list, one lead at a time.

When you engage in any form of online paid marketing activity, you need to follow some basic steps and answer some key questions before you begin placing ads and paying for ad-space in online properties.

• Have a clear Call To Action – every ad you place must have a clear call to action. This should be well defined in the Ad and it should be clearly and concisely communicated to anyone clicking on the Ad.

• Have a quality lead capture form or landing page (tips for landing page/lead capture form is included in the next section)

• Have a well defined lead follow up plan. Are you going to email fulfill the offer from the Ad? Are you going to call all leads? Send them confirmation emails? If you will be triggering emails, how is that process handled? If you’re offering a high-value asset (which you should) such as a white paper/research paper/case study, then you should ensure you capture valid email addresses from the leads and fulfill the asset as a follow up email. This will ensure you get better email data from responders.

Implementing Trigger Email Campaigns

Trigger emails are simple auto-responder emails that are tied to and execute from the submission of a lead capture form. Lead capture forms that are tied to an enterprise marketing automation solution, such as SalesFUSION360, provide for a high-degree of flexibility and automation in responding to online Advertising leads. A trigger email is defined by the content specificity and one-one nature of the email.

Triggers can be as simple as an A/B follow up email path – assuming there are two possible content paths. Content paths can be broken out to the nth degree, depending on the variables in the form’s questions. Most content-driven email triggered from multiple choice responses to questions.

By pre-planning simple trigger-based follow up email campaigns such as the one above, you will greatly improve your ability to convert leads from online advertising to active leads to be worked by your sales team. Statistically, open rates for content-specific trigger emails are more the 3 times higher than email blasts. We commonly see open rates as high as 50-60% in content-relevant triggers. This assumes the triggers are sent within 3-5 business days from the initial inquiry.

Trigger based emails, as a response channel for PPC and online advertising is a powerful solution for your business. It allows you to cover more ground, automate the follow up process to ensure EVERY lead is touched and maximize the pre-qualification touch-points prior to sending a lead over to sales.

Tips for better trigger emails….

• Personalize the subject line – include the recipients First Name in the subject line and make the subject line informal. For Example: Subject “Hi Kevin, please check out some follow up materials from your recent inquiry”.

• Reference the original asset download in the subject line or early in the email.

• Send both text and html versions

• Ensure you don’t ask for the same information twice – when sending a link to another download page, leverage advanced dialogs to auto-fill known information on the form.

The B2B Pay Per Click marketer’s mantra

When creating a PPC campaign – remember these key points and you will perform better:

• Sending clicks to home page is a complete waste of time and budget

• The only objective of a PPC advertisement in B2B is lead capture

• Tracking ROI with no landing pages is not possible

• In B2B the lead capture is the beginning of the campaign…not the end

• Preserve the Lead Source at all costs! Ensure you can track lead source in CRM

• Think of your PPC Campaigns as the purchase of a highly targeted lead list – one lead at a time

Optimized Landing Pages

Before creating your ads and ad groups and planning great campaigns in AdWords, you should start with an optimized landing page. An optimized landing page or lead capture page is the destination for the “Click” in your PPC advertisement. Clicks that are sent to the company home page are, for lack of a better term, a complete waste of budget dollars. If you DO NOT have a landing page for your ad, turn your ad off and create one. To create a landing page that optimizes click through, follow these simple steps.

1. Keyword Matching – the header and URL should have an exact keyword match to the keyword(s) you have assigned to an ad group. This will ensure better positioning. Whatever your keyword is, repeat the keyword exactly in the header of your landing page.

2. Keep the Landing page simple – remove or greatly understate external links in the landing page. People are often tempted to have links to the home page and other assets in the landing page. Resist putting any external links in a landing page as it reduces conversion.

3. Keep surveys and forms simple – only ask the questions you need to know to begin a digital conversation

4. Keep the form/survey on the same page – don’t require the lead to click a link to get to the survey/form as it negatively impacts conversion rates.

5. Keep the form/survey above the fold

6. Provide a brief “privacy policy” on the form

7. Explain exactly what the lead will get in exchange for filling out the form

8. Provide value to the lead in exchange for filling out the form – white paper, research…etc.

9. Direct to a thank you page upon form submission

10. Reinforce that they are getting what they asked for in the thank you page

11. Use the thank you page as a cross-promotional page – offer complimentary assets, link to the home page…etc. It’s OK to have lots of information and links in the thank-you page because you’ve already captured what you need.

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Email marketing has certainly matured as a b2b communication and lead generation tool over the past several years.  Historically, email was that tool that allowed marketers to mass message lists and segments, often pulled from our CRM.  While useful in many respects, email blasting or bulk email delivery has failed as a true lead generation medium in a b2b environment.  To be clear, by failed, I mean that email blasting, in and of itself does not lead to a high number of lead conversions.  By conversions I mean leads who click through the email and ultimately convert to a sales opportunity in CRM.

I learned everything about b2b marketing from infomercials!

I learned everything I need to know about b2b marketing from watching Infomercial!

OK, so I'm spinning a bit of a lie.  I didn't learn lead scoring or progressive profiling or email design from infomercials, but in the spirit of catchy subjects, that seemed to work well.  The point is, however, that we can learn a lot of valuable and practical strategy for developing b2b marketing campaigns by paying close attention to the structure, language and flow of an infomercial, particularly the short ones (7-15 minutes).  Forget the late night 30-minute sessions.  I'm talking Sham-Wow, OxiClean and Ginsu Knives.  These 10-15 minute vignettes are constructed with a great deal of planning, purpose and the single minded goal of getting the sales.

Our b2b marketing campaigns can learn a lot from the late great Billy Mays. One of the consistencies you will find in any infomercial is that they are crafted  very much the same way as a typical b2b pitch is crafted.  Whether the pitchmen are selling cleaners, onion choppers or the next great cell phone holder, they are adhere to the a strict format in selling their products

• Situation
• Pain 
• Solution

This simplified version of the popular "Solution Selling" model found in ever b2b company, is carried out with rigorous process and attention to detail in the infomercial.  Each infomercial begins much the same way.  Let's take the fictional OnionChopper2000 as an example.  The infomercial opens with a frustrated cook attempting to cut raw onions with small knife (situation).  The cook is frustrated, the onion is making their eye's tear (pain) and the announce clearly states the problems with the current solution to onion chopping.

Enter the OnionChopper2000.  It is the solution to the pain and situation created by the lack of adequate onion chopping tools.  The infomercial dazzles the viewer with the numerous ways one may chop an onion (or pretty much anything in your fridge).  The features/benefits of the OC2000 are clearly stated and the problems each feature solves are directly related to the various pain points established in the situation portion of the infomercial.

Now, as a direct marketer for many years, I watch these shows with professional curiosity. I also respect the producers for creating a natural pain/solution chain in 20 minutes.  This is what every good b2b salesperson should aspire towards.  Beyond being a good lesson for a b2b salesperson, these vignettes also provide a blueprint for how b2b marketers should approach our campaigns.

Situation
Pain
Solution

In breaking down these 3 areas, we can relate how each can and should apply to creating good campaigns that illicit high response and lead conversion for our companies.

Situation:  What is the situation our clients face that causes business (financial) pain?  Let's take the healthcare space an example.  If you sell to hospitals, you must understand that the "Situation" (not to be confused with the endearing Jersey  Shore character) hospitals face is about money and the ever-changing regulations to reimbursement from both government and insurers.  This "Situation" causes pain for your prospective buyers.  This pain creates need.  The need is for solutions that maximize their reimbursement without sacrificing patient care.

In creating campaigns for this market, you have to build your campaign around this model.   Campaigns must paint the picture of the problem and quickly tie the solution to the pain you provide, caused by the situation.  Simple examples are a white paper outlining best practices for managing claim denials from Medicare.  The situation outlined in the campaign is "Reimbursement Changes Increase Denials".  The solution is providing a software application that manages claims more effectively by incorporating new regulations.

Too often, marketers fall into a trap that a lot of junior b2b sales persons fall into.  Show up and throw up is a phenomena wherein a salesperson comes to a meeting, throws up a powerpoint and blindly presents all of the great things that their solution can do for the prospect....without asking questions and identifying the situation/pain.

When designing an email campaign or a landing page, for example, how many times have you over-designed the email or the landing page to include a not-so-small subset of everything on your website?  I have seen this time and again in PPC landing pages in particular.  The marketer behaves like a dog chasing a car....when you catch it, you're so excited you don't know what to do with it!  The same holds true for a landing page or email....you design because you're excited someone has actually opened it or clicked on it...and you try to cram tons of extraneous information into it.  Your campaign will suffer because it is not focused on the task at hand. 

It is much more productive to create several micro-campaigns than one big all encompassing one.  Reason being is the conversion rates on the emails, landing pages, direct mail will be much higher when the message is focused on the 3 elements mentioned above.

So, before you hit send on that next campaign.....watch and infomercial first.....and take heed to just how focused the messaging is on those somewhat corny....yet extremely effective advertising vignettes!  And don't laugh...they're on TV because they MAKE MONEY.

Email marketing's evolution challenges some popular notions about new marketing channels

So email marketing is a dying channel? Social media has taken over and now rules the roost?  Not so fast.
In the trenches, where actual marketing and lead gen occurs, outside of the scope of industry articles and blogs that state otherwise, email is growing in use at an exponential rate among b2b marketers.

While the days of generalist mass email blasts are going the way of the dinosaur, the use of email as a nurture marketing and content delivery vehicle are rapidly expanding.  We may not see a similar volume of email, but the usage by savvy marketers is certainly growing fast.  This post explores the new ways smart b2b marketers are using email to increase their lead conversion and improve their overall marketing  presence.

Get personal - the b2b marketer should rethink email marketing firstly from the perspective of what it is attempting to communicate to the potential buyer.  Personalization in email is not a new concept.  Marketers have been applying personalization to email for some time.  So what do I mean when I say "get personal"?  I mean get personal in the the content you deliver and how you deliver it with email.  Go beyond dropping the person's name/company in the email and start to deliver the right content to the right people at the right time.  That is the essence of getting personal in email marketing.   In order to execute a more personalized chain of communications, you need data.  What data you needs depends on how automated you want to go or how deep your content catalog is.  A simple example is you have solutions that support 3 vertical market segments.  A lead comes to your website and downloads a white paper relevant to Vertical segment 1.  You will then execute a series of follow up emails (usually automatically based on triggers) that provide supporting and relevant content.
A typical email trigger series may look like this:

Action - Download vertical white paper 1

• Trigger 1 - "Thank you for accessing white paper - cross promote white paper 2"
• Trigger 2 - "Thanks for accessing white paper - here is a link for product data sheet for vertical 1
• Trigger 3 - "Promote webinar/event relevant to vertical 1

In this example, you will need the basic name/email and the information about the asset that was downloaded.  this information will then trigger the subsequent communications.

Save Time and Money with Triggers
Trigger-based emails are becoming extremely popular amongst savvy marketers.  The reason is simple, Triggers never sleep.  While you're on vacation, in a meeting, at a trade show, home sick....whatever, you're triggers are sitting there, faithfully doing what was once a rote task that you had to be there for.  Well, I'm here to tell you that while they may sound simple, trigger-based emails are not as easy as an auto-responder.  Like any good campaign, they should have expected outcomes, planning and follow up actions.  Trigger-based emails, like the ones found in SalesFUSION, are often tied to the website.  You're website is presenting content out to the masses.  Someone comes in and accesses an asset.  The trigger-based email fulfills the asset automatically, then waits a day, thanks them, waits a few more days, thanks them again.

The importance of triggers cannot be understated.  They allow the marketer to always be on.  They also enable you to make actionable the content on your website.  You can also ensure that all leads that hit your website are treated equally, at least initially.  This has a real and measurable impact in your lead conversion rates. 

Drip Campaigns 
Unlike trigger campaigns, drip-based marketing campaigns are used more as a series of communications that are related to each other.  The primary difference between drip-based email and trigger-based email is who receives it and when.  In drip campaigns, you are communicating initially with a group, segment or list on a specific calendar date and time.  Most typically, the drip campaigns have specific follow up emails that are sent to groups who have behaved or interacted with the previous email in a certain way.  This string of communications can be relatively short (say 30-days) or long (90-days).  The benefit of drip campaigns is that they allow for continuous branding and messaging of relevant content to a group of people over time.

Email marketing has not succumbed to social media, or any other channel for that matter.  It is rapidly growing in usage amongst b2b marketers.   Email is being used more efficiently and effectively and has grown up in its overall efficacy as a marketing channel in and of itself.