Unless you have been hiding under a rock somewhere, you have been hearing about the marvelous results some companies are experiencing with marketing automation that uses targeted email campaigns. Just a few years ago, many were predicting the doom of email marketing because consumers have moved to internet search. The reality is literally the opposite bottom line result.
Perhaps it is because of the move to the internet companies have inadvertently discovered that marketing automation yields such enormous success. At the same time, the sales cycle has become much longer and the lead quality has plummeted. Effective email marketing has become a bridge to connect the internet savvy consumer to products and services. It becomes a powerful way to widen your lead nurturing efforts and bring more sales leads to closed sales.
Still, it is really, really easy to blow any efforts to profit from email marketing. Here are a few of the most obvious signs of bad email marketing:
Not Using Email Automation.
In today’s marketing world there is no excuse for overlooking the value of email marketing automation. A study performed by Epsilon and the Email Institute, they found that average email open rates are significantly increasing. The 4th quarter of 2012, the rate was 27.4 percent. The first quarter of 2013, the open rate had already climbed to 31.1 percent across all industries. In fact, this year’s open rate is the highest recorded by Epsilon who started gathering the data in the 3rd quarter of 2006.
Although an increased open rate is not a direct metric of sales success, they do indicate the larger number of people who see what you have to say to them. In marketing automation used for lead nurturing, the entire effort to nurture and convert the sales lead hinges on your ability to get recipients to open and read your email.
Writing a new email – repeatedly.
An individual email to sales leads is rarely a good idea. If you have targeted your sales process to the right prospects they have a lot in common. If you are not targeting your sales process to an ideal customer persona, that is your first step.
Since your sales leads meet the criteria of an ideal customer persona, the bulk of your messages to them will be similar in nature. Use this rule-of-thumb: If you have written a similar message in the past month, it needs to be loaded into your CRM and used repeatedly. Your goal should be to minimize originally written emails.
Poorly written emails and subject lines.
First, if your subject line is poorly written, it may not matter what is in the body copy of the email because no one will be reading it. How many emails do you delete without opening – based on the subject line?
Sales people naturally want to sell. Today’s internet-enabled buyer is naturally repelled by a sales pitch. The two perspectives do not meet each other in an email. If you don’t know how to lure the buyer with copy that educates the sales lead and nurtures their interest, hire an experienced writer. Sending sales messages is often a total waste of time. You can either learn how to appeal to today’s buyer or find someone who already knows.
Email inconsistency.
There are two ways to be dangerously inconsistent with your email marketing. The first is glaringly obvious…if you send emails in a hit-or-miss fashion, you will miss the opportunity to influence your sales leads. Implement a email automation that is integrated with an online CRM to make your message consistent and predictable.
The other type of email inconsistency is when your message is not consistent with the value you bring to your ultimate customer. Too often a company hires someone to write emails for them. While the emails may be clever, alluring and effective alone, if the message does not match what you have to offer, you look stupid anyway.
Automated email marketing is a powerful – and growing – component of reaching more sales leads in a time-effective manner. Using it properly can make or break a company’s profit. Learn how to do it well and the sales leads will love you for it.