There’s a lot of buzz around a certain word: engagement. It’s not Prince Harry that we’re thinking of, but the importance of marketing engagement with your customers and business prospects. If you’re a business owner, you know how important it is to have a fully-integrated marketing plan. Besides being a savvy CRM, Salesmanna is designed to be a key piece of software for executing your email marketing strategy. Our team knows that if you combine the management of customer relationships with strategic digital communication, you can measure engagement and capitalize on active leads.
One of the key components of a strong marketing plan is to create and incorporate a targeted email marketing campaign. This means that you’ll select the messaging that’s most relevant to driving business and connect those messages to active customers or prospects. What are some of the best ways to make sure your email marketing is effective? First, remember that Salesmanna has an email marketing system built into our software. It’s one of the key pieces that sets us apart from other CRM’s. Here are some of the things that you can do with Salesmanna’s marketing features:
Create an Email Newsletter. Our templates make it easy to create a friendly, engaging email newsletter or e-blast. You can send communication to select contacts or everyone in your Salesmanna database. You don’t have to worry about missing an important prospect, or knowing if they received it, because Salesmanna monitors delivery for you!
See your results. You can track the number of people that open the email and engage with it. You can see if customers have engagement with one or multiple emails, or if different topics are more appealing than others to your targeted email list.
Perfect your Email Marketing Plan. Maybe a specific kind of message creates more engagement than others. Maybe contacts are more receptive to receive your messages on certain days. There may be trends that you see that change the structure of how you create and send communication. Often, this may tell you more about when to reach out and how to be most effective in your sales efforts.
When you spend the time to create and engage with your customers and prospects through targeted email communication, you’ll set yourself apart from your competition. You’ll build brand loyalty, and you’ll become a resource for your customers. In today’s world of many messages, one clear message needs to stand out…yours. Salesmanna is designed to be your go-to CRM software behind the scenes, and the forefront of your strategic digital communication efforts in front of customers. Salesmanna will help you create the engagement you need to drive business and maximize your business potential.
Ever heard the phrase “Ask the right question, get the right answer”? Web Forms are one of the top ways we can learn about a potential customer or prospect before we even make contact.
One of the key goals of a web form is to help you identify the wants of someone who interacts with you. They’re looking for a desired outcome, and it’s your job to help guide them down that path. What are some of the key tips to understanding web form success?
Make the form easy to understand. Studies show that the shorter the length of the form, the more likely you are to have someone answer all the questions.
Ask questions that show distinction between clients. The last thing a client wants is to have their time wasted. Look to add questions that distinguish your customer’s needs so that you’re specific and credible when you follow up with them.
Don’t always ask yes or no questions. It’s easier to help identify the unique nature of the request and garner better specifics for follow up if you know a touch more than yes or no.
Make contact information a required field. This seems easy enough, but it’s easy to forget that the ability to follow up is the most pertinent information you need. Don’t forget that you can ask additional questions such as preferred mode of communication and how to reach someone.
Bring value to desired outcomes. Ask the prospect how they’d like to receive follow up. Maybe they would like immediate attention, or maybe just to be added to your email list. You never know until you ask.
Send an immediate follow-up before responding. A form email is fine, but specify in the email your thanks for their submission and when someone will respond.
Lastly, remember that the form is just one strong tool in the sales process. The most important piece in the process, is you, the seller. How you react to that information and how you follow up will be the key to converting prospects into clients.
Just a few years ago, one prediction for business success in the coming years would be that sales and marketing processes would become more integrated. Why? According to a study published by Gartner research, most consumers are over 50% through the purchasing process before they talk with a vendor. That means your product positioning NEEDS to be incorporated prominently into your sales process.
That’s one of the many reasons why Salesmanna was designed with built-in marketing features. Your prospects want to see value, and they want you to demonstrate that. Through categorized email blasts, you can prospect and market at the same time. You provide the information that is needed, and in just a few steps, you’ve got a solid marketing message created.
You have the ability to create campaigns that reach your targets, and you have the ability to track their engagement in multiple ways. First, you can see your reach by geography. Are some of your local, regional, or national prospects responding more to your campaigns? You can also see your list of “hottest prospects”. How can we tell this? Because for each newsletter that you send out, we measure engagement. If a prospect opens multiple emails, they’re more likely to be a customer. You can even call them and ask how they liked the communication they sent, which might open the door to closing a sale.
So what are the business intelligence predictions for the years ahead? In a nutshell, expect technology that is intuitive, and most importantly, that is easy to use. That’s why we’re constantly fine-tuning Salesmanna to make sure we provide an easy-to-use software for better customer development.
How to Design Emails –
For Marketers who Aren’t Designers
We all agree that sending personalized, well-timed, well-planned emails can benefit your marketing efforts in a huge way. Salesmanna makes it possible to plan out these campaigns well in advance or send quick newsletters at your convenience.
We have been over how to have catchy subject lines that grab attention and that you shouldn’t use all pictures or “salesy” language… But what about how the email looks? Most marketers aren’t designers, and many small businesses can’t afford a full-time designer to send out emails for them.
This leaves us designing emails ourselves. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing, as long as all of the non-designers who are designing these emails can have a basic set of rules.
1. Format
Header
Body
Footer
Try to stick with this tried and true, elementary process of writing. A catchy header, likely including your logo and a catchy phrase or title, at the top will get attention.
The body should be as concise as possible. We can’t say that the body of every email should be short, because there are some really great, beautiful emails with a lot of content. The key is only including the content you think readers will actually want to read.
Don’t put anything unnecessary in the email- you can always put more information in a landing page that you link within the body. I suggest using photos and text, and making it clear to visually navigate. If the email looks confusing to you, I promise it will be less effective!
The footer will usually wrap up what you’d like to get across and have your company’s information as well as social links.
2. Fonts
This is one of the easiest tips to get right! It is extremely simple – only use 2 fonts MAXIMUM. Header text is larger and sometimes a different font. Or you can use your second font to add emphasis to a section of your email.
Whatever you do, please don’t switch to a new font with every line! This is visually unappealing which encourages readers to click away faster.
Another pointer is to keep your body text around 16px. The larger, bolder your body text is, the most it feels like the reader is being screamed at. Nobody wants to be screamed at.
3. Obvious Call-To-Actions
Anyone sending an email knows you need some kind of call to action. Usually this is a button within your email. The button can encourage readers to RSVP to your event, buy a new product, share with friends, or direct them to a new page. If you have buttons on your page, make it clear.
It would be a huge mistake to spend time and effort on a good email but make it harder for the reader to take action! Unfortunately, this is a trend with bad design. If your reader doesn’t know precisely where to click or what to do next, your email is simply informative and has little value to both sender and recipient.
4. Quality Photos
The most effective photos are high quality and relevant. Ideally, you’re using your own photos. If you don’t have your own high quality photos, you’re either buying them from a trusted site online or you’re attributing credit to the source. If this isn’t the case, stop using that photo! To use someone else’s art without giving them credit online is illegal- and it discredits your brand. The good news is that there are tons of great websites that give away high-quality photos that you can use for free or a very cheap price! Here is a list of a few good ones.
Keep It Simple
When in doubt, always refer to the tried and true method of “keeping it simple.” If you read your own newsletter and it seems jumbled and wordy, listen to your heart. Try to condense the message and increase white space. Simplify your headers and photos, make the layout more appealing by simplifying colors and photos.
If you’re still struggling to create beautiful emails, don’t hesitate to contact a marketing consultant at Salesmanna! Together, we’ll help your business send great emails and simply sell more.
It is quite rare, these days, that small businesses would allocate a large portion of their budget towards marketing. There are pros and cons to this, but if you’re a DIY marketing type, are just getting off the ground, and want to keep your budget as slim as possible, there is hope! You’ll eventually need to think through Marketing as a more serious part of your long-term strategy. Until you can consult a professional, there are steps you can take to be as efficient as possible.
Have a goal
Every business has specific needs. Do you want more sales? What about brand awareness? Do you want it all? Pick a specific goal and go for it. If you don’t know how to achieve your goals, meet with a Marketing guru. It will be worth more than you pay, because in the end your business meeting it’s goals is invaluable.
Having a goal helps you cut down on unnecessary spending in wasteful areas.
Know Your Target Demographic
If you want to be aggressive and efficient you must know who your target demographic is and where they are. Are you targeting professionals or businesses? Make sure you’re available on LinkedIn. Do you want to get the attention of middle aged women? Have an interactive Facebook page. Do you want teenagers to notice you? Make a statement on Snapchat. There are so many options when it comes to social media.
The good news is that social media is something you can do yourself! Practice makes perfect. As long as you’re focusing on the right things and not trying to do it all, you’ll be able to narrow your focus on what your consumer like and want.
Analyze your Results
What if you’re spending time and money on a Google Adwords account but not getting any actual leads? Or Facebook just isn’t delivering what you expected? Take a break! If something isn’t working, change it! One of the worst mistakes small businesses make is that they assume their marketing is going fine, and never tweak it. If you’re running a business you’ve already learned that you have to be flexible. Marketing is no different. Be flexible in what you’re trying. We advise that you check in with what you’re doing every 3 months. If you aren’t getting any expected results, give it 3 more months (especially if you’re creating content or a blog), and at 6 months if it still looks like a money pit, take your hiatus. Focus on areas that are performing how you want. If you can put more energy into something for 3 months you might be able to come back and recognize your mistake or find a new platform that is better for your business.
Automate Whenever Possible
A great example of automation is with email. You can plan and organize an email campaign that will work on its own over as long or short of a period as you want. By spending a few hours on Monday morning doing this, you can forget about marketing for the rest of the week or month! There are social platforms that let you decide what you’d like to post and schedule it in advance, as well. Buffer is a tool we use here at Salesmanna and it works great! You can even use the free version for just a couple of accounts.
The more you automate, the more you can prioritize your schedule. If you can plan and execute an entire week of marketing in just a few hours, why not? This lets you spend hours of Tuesday-Friday on uninterrupted tasks. Studies show that when you have a schedule (not checking your email constantly!) and refuse to get distracted (hello, Facebook) you are much more productive.
Sometimes marketing can feel hopeless- especially with a small budget, little time, and very little immediate return. This is even more true when you’re creating content that isn’t getting much feedback. But keep going! It takes an average of 6 months of blogging fresh content for your website to be noticed by most people and search engines. You won’t regret starting now, especially when you’re meeting sales goals by the end of the year.
We would love to hear from you! Drop a line any time.
