Email is one of the most basic and reliable forms of online communication that has relentlessly maintained its importance in the business world. In recent news people have claimed that email is “Dying” merely because, in our minds, something that seems as old and rudimentary as email should be dying. In reality the effectiveness of email is still on top, especially within multi-channel engagement strategies. Although we acknowledge the importance of email, using it effectively continues to elude many of us.
Leaving the Past Behind
Email is constantly evolving, and the problems that were previously hindering it have been brought to light. In the past there was never a way to tell if an email was even opened, let alone if the content within was effective. Overflowing inboxes and unrelatable content are issues of email that can be resolved using the right platform and proper sales and marketing alignment.
Potential to be Great
When used properly, email can be a key aspect of the marketing and sales process, and it has been proven that email marketing programs outperform other channels in increasing sales, driving traffic, and building loyalty. It is the most effective way to accurately target mass amounts of people as 91% of consumers use emails at least once a day. (Source: Exact Target)
These so called “rumors” about a lack of effectiveness in current day can be put to rest with the reliable and positive results of email. The average return on email marketing is $44.25 for every $1 spent. (Source: Net Atlantic)
Using Email Effectively
A well composed email can be harder to develop than one might realize. Each stage of connecting with a client requires you to play your cards right in order to move forward. Initially you need the proper customer acquisition strategy to select the most suitable people to contact. These can be differentiated by inbound (Marketing) and outbound (Sales).
Capturing Email Addresses (Customer Acquisition)
Inbound: Marketing teams work towards obtaining emails by creating engaging content online that will bring potential buyers in. They make your company easy to be found through search engine optimization, social media accounts and blogs. It may seem marketers have it easy but they have the added pressure of making content that is appealing enough to attract customers without having to reach out to them first.
Outbound: Sometimes attempting outreach can be difficult when you are unsure of the best method to connect with prospects. Personal email addresses are sometimes shown on a company website or within other social media accounts. You can also capture emails from collateral written by the prospect or simply from face to face interactions. This kind of acquisition is primarily the role of the Sales team.
First Interaction
Inbound: When the first touch comes from an intrigued customer it is the job of the marketing team to reel them in. Depending on where the prospects read about us, Marketers will respond accordingly. They will then steer them into a specific channel with the right content to put the sale in motion by nurturing the lead to becoming an MQL. Much of this occurs in a Marketing Automation system, and is largely influenced by the forms captured in the last step.
Outbound: Sending off the introductory email sets a tone for the rest of the communication that will be taking place. We all know those emails that give off a boring vibe before you even read it, but there are plenty of ways around that dull initiation. Sending relatable content under an eye catching subject line means more opens and more clicks. 33% of people say they open an email based solely on the subject line. (Source: Salesforce) Unlike Marketers who possess inbound form data, Sales Reps must rely on research, their own intuition, and insightful conversation with the buyer over time.
Follow Up
Inbound: At this stage in the sales cycle your marketing team can relax a little. Marketing automation systems will keep track of the status of each sale and follow up with clients automatically. If no responses are received there are timed replies that reach out attempting to grab their attention one last time. Automation helps nurture MQLs to the point that they are ready for sales to take over.
Outbound: There is no shame in a quality follow up email; it shows you are putting in real effort to grab their attention. Be genuinely interested and ask questions to identify the problem within their company, and then provide a solution. Sales Reps have a challenging task of managing their interactions, mapping content to buyers, and ensuring that they’re reaching out effectively and consistently.
Ideally, a skilled Rep can progress the conversation at the buyer’s own pace, regardless of the time between touches, and facilitate a final sale that helps a buyer achieve their business objectives.
Retention
Gaining the clients interest is a challenge in itself but the work is not done there. Post-sale service is how you maintain a valued customer and create a good reputation for your company. People truly appreciate good service after a sale, so sending opinion surveys or new content tailored to them will help you exceed in customer satisfaction.
It is 6-7 times more costly to attract a new customer than it is to retain an existing one, proving how much value each current clients hold. (Source: Salesforce) As well, 89% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company after experiencing poor customer service. (Source: RightNow Technologies)
Win-back
Losing customers is bound to happen at some point but email provides a simple way to tip toe back into their consideration process. Sending harmless reminders or interesting content gives the opportunity to win-back an old client.
It’s not all about Strategy
Email is a flexible tool that has maintained importance despite many technological advances through continued effectiveness. That is, if it is being used to its full potential. To create success out of emails you have to deliver the right content, to the right person, through the right channel.
Content Matters
Whether your marketing material is B2B or B2C, email has the potential to grab your target’s attention and steer them in a direction that will benefit your company. Multi-channel engagement allows businesses to interact with customers on multiple platforms suiting the needs of the buyer, and progressing the decision journey through any channel.
Email meshes beautifully into this method because you can direct your audience towards white papers, blog posts, and other relevant content at a relatively low cost. There is no doubt email is worth your time as 73% of marketers agree that email marketing is core to their business. (Source: Salesforce) The top three content formats that B2B buyers seek out to research a purchase decision are: White papers (78%), Case Studies (73%), and webinars (67%), all of which can be shown to customers via email. (Source: Hubspot)
The Right Content?
In an ideal world your target audience would pay attention to every piece of collateral you throw their way, but we all know it does not work that way. With endless amounts of information in front of us every day, the goal is to stand out. Emailing by itself does not have what it takes to reel in the buyer, so it all comes down to content.
Doing research on an individual or company before attaching content is extremely important for making sure it is relatable to their current situation. If it doesn’t apply to them it won’t get read. Depending where your target is in the sales process or where they stand as a client, your content is either aiming to raise awareness of your company or engage them into doing business with you.
Marketing VS. Sales for Content Accuracy
Although your marketing and sales team should work as a unit, they both experience very different sides of the sales process. Marketers have the privilege of having marketing automation systems do their dirty work for them. They are supplied with a platform that allows them to effectively market on multiple channels and automate repetitive tasks.
Salespeople don’t receive that luxury and have to work harder to get the same level of effectiveness. Reaching out and finding content can be challenging with limitations on what channels and content they can access at the right time. Many times sales reps go in blind hoping for the best but with no guarantee of success.
Anyone Can Benefit
Email opens up the power to advertise your company while also creating an opportunity to engage a broad audience. Regardless of how their attention is captured, any sort of trigger has the potential to put the consumer into the consideration process. Choose your content wisely and you’ll be one step closer to making the sale.
Enabling Sales Reps with Email Effectiveness
As it was established above, Marketing teams use Marketing Automation to enable their teams to capture details of a buyer, associate content to their behaviour, engage on a multi-channel basis, and consistently progress the buyer decision journey.
Sales Reps do not gain many advantages from the Marketing Automation system, in fact, they lose out, even when the Marketing team (inbound) had the first touch. This is because the functionality of Marketing Automation ends when an MQL is handed off to Sales Reps. Enabling your sales reps starts in the prospecting stage and carries all the way into their sales presentation.
The Right Tools for Reps
Sales and Marketing alignment can help alleviate some of this disparity, but real effectiveness comes from the use of a different technology function:
Device Agnostic Content Sharing is an adaptive sales enablement tool that allows sales rep to send any piece of content, to any recipient, through any channel, at any time. The buyer can be anyone, and that lead can come at any time, and any point in the decision journey. This kind of content management software ensures that a Sales Rep can deliver to any buyer, any time.
Closed Loop Marketing is a function that ties in a CRM and Marketing Automation system to the content interactions of a Sales Rep at the end of the funnel. These insights help the Sales Rep determine what the buyer found interesting without needing to ask. The added benefit of integrating the CRM system is enhancing the visibility of content consumption for the marketing team.
Email for the Win!
Email has had its issues in the past but is far from outdated. It can be used to gather feedback, steer customers towards the relevant content, and reinforce other means of communication in the multi-channel approach. It is evident that email is not dead and it should never be overlooked in the business world.
Content plays a crucial role in the acquisition, retention, and win back processes, which means that Sales Reps must possess content management and insight tools that allow them to be as capable with content as the Marketing team.
Once this is realized, greater Sales and Marketing alignment becomes a light at the end of the tunnel, not a fancy phrase thrown around unproductive meetings.
Feel like there is something missing within your sales and marketing team? Seeing your sales rep work hard but not work smart? Adaptive sales enablement will fill in the missing link.
