Making email marketing effective in the lead nurturing process

Making email marketing effective in the lead nurturing process

May 20, 2015Claudette de la Cruz-Wilson

Today’s agenda

1. How CASL impacts your email marketing program2. How an email marketing program fits into and

enhances your sales process3. How to improve engagement with people you

already know and increase your sales-ready leads4. How to use email to nurture your leads throughout

your entire sales process

What is the goal of your email marketing?

Goals?

• Communicate?• Offer someone something?• Sell something?• Get someone to click through to your website?• Start a relationship?• Evolve a relationship?

The goal of email marketing is not to persuade. It’s to discover, educate and solve.

The importance of email marketing

• Returns $44 for every $1 spent (ROI of over 4300%)• Top email performers spend more time on strategy

than execution• Companies using email marketing effectively have a

well defined email policy and protocol in their organization

Myths about email marketing

1. Email marketing replaces cold calling2. Email marketing by itself can generate leads/sales

(you just need a big list)3. Email marketing is easy (once you hit send, your job

is finished)4. Email marketing is cheap5. Everyone loves receiving email

CASL

What is CASL?

CASL is the anti-spam law implemented July 1, 2014 that applies to all electronic messages (i.e. email, texts) organizations send in connection with a “commercial activity.” Its key feature requires Canadian and global organizations that send commercial electronic messages (CEMs) within, from or to Canada to receive consent from recipients before sending messages.

Implied vs. Express Consent

Implied Consent• Existing business relationship• Existing non-business relationship• Email address was published or provided to you

Express Consent• Provided to you orally or in writing (need a record of

this)

CASL Myth #1

I won’t be able to use email or my current email list to promote my products or services

Fact: You can continue to use email if you have express or implied consent from recipients. There is a 36 month transition period (July 1, 2014 to July 1, 2017).

CASL Myth #2

CASL will be expensive and hurt my business.

Fact: Maybe. Businesses that already comply with privacy laws and use common best practices for email marketing should require little effort to comply with CASL.

12 months in…

• CASL was officially legislated July 1st, 2014• To date three $1M fines have been issued to

companies that have flagrantly:– Continued to spam– Ignored spam reports– Made it impossible for people to unsubscribe

What has CASL done to the sales process?

• Made us rethink what we send, when we send and to whom we send

• Made us rethink lead nurturing • Made us think about business ethics

Growing your list in a CASL-compliant way• Provide value-added content that speaks to

problems, not products• Forms throughout your website• “Join my mailing list” on every form you have• Tweet out “join my mailing list”• Ask people to join in your email signature• Provide an incentive to join• Only email product information/receipts

MAKE IT REALLY EASY FOR PEOPLE TO UNSUBSCRIBE

CASL Best Practices

1. Create a policy of how your company is going to interpret and comply with CASL.

2. Designate an individual or team to be responsible for being up-to-date with CASL regulations. As time goes on, they have/will change.

3. Put a process in place to document consent – express or implied – that will be stored for the next 24+ months as CASL unfolds.

HOW TO IMPROVE ENGAGEMENT

To get real results you need the 3-Cs

1. Content2. Conversion3. Consistency

Communicating versus Marketing

• When you communicate, there is no action required on the part of the recipient.

• To get results you need to elicit a response or follow through on a call to action or conversion point.

• Your content must have a physical and measurable response in order to know if it’s working and get results.

How do you get personal?

Send the right message to the right person at the right time.

Company versus Customer

1. Content attracts people. Customers are not targets they are people who are interested in solving their own problem.

2. People don’t buy from companies; they buy from people. Content helps build relationships in a transparent way.

3. Marketers worry about their ability to build persuasive copy but persuasion is not authentic. Clarity is persuasion.

Three options when an email hits your inbox

1. Do I need to read this NOW?2. Should I save this for LATER?3. Can I delete this and NEVER read this?

Winning the battle of priorities

1. FROM – People look to see if email is from a trusted source.

2. SUBJECT LINE – What is this email about and is it relevant to me?

3. TIMING – When the email gets sent makes a big difference between the NOW or NEVER category.

The 2-2-2 Principle

• In 2 seconds do I know who this is from?• Can I understand the email in 2 words?• Why does it matter 2-day?

What does your buyer care about?

• Benefits• Value• Pricing• Language• Structure• Next step

Use a template

• Why are you writing this content?• What is your goal?• Who are you writing for?• Why should they care?• What are the best keywords for this content?• Identify location of links to other content• What is the call to action?

The truth about conversion rate…

>1%

Do the math…

• If you mail to a list of 5,000 people, standard open rate is 15-25% or 1,000

• Of this 1,000, 15% will do what is instructed, i.e. click through to your website

• Now 150 may end up on your website and less than 1% will convert based on the next step

• That’s 1.5 people

Find

Convert

Keep

Find

Convert

Keep

Too much $$ goes here

Small % say yes to fill funnel

Spend time and $$ with people you know and your funnel is always full at less $ and time

Old Way New Way

A new model for sales engagement

1 2 3 4 5

RavingFans

Customers Members

Prospects Suspects Disinterested

Always be aware of people moving from one bucket to the next

List segmentation

Sales process

• Identify all of the email touch points within your organization and the customer journey

• Map out the process for the end user with respect to their journey:– Leave a comment– Click on a link– Click through to your website– Download content or a coupon– Want to communicate with your company

Tie your sales process to a consistent program…

• Email marketing is not a campaign; it’s a journey• You need to always be testing• You need to plan out your campaigns• You need to keep at it• It may take 12 months to improve your results; are

you ready to get started?

What stage are you at in your relationship (with your list/s)?

• How well do you know them?• How often do you talk to them?• Do they like what you are sending?• What do they do with what you send today?

New friend?

• Make the content about them • Test what problems they may be having• Offer them something to make their job easier• Earn their trust

Old friend?

• Don’t insult them by talking to them about something they already know

• Segment content by job title • Offer something unique that is directly related to

already understanding what your company does

Casual acquaintance?

• Decide how often they want to hear from you• Use content to test what matters to them• Gage where they are in the buying process

Questions?

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Next Session

May 27th Understand Google Analytics to make better content decisions in your web presence• Presented by Marie Wiese• https://www.linkedin.com/in/marketingcopilot

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