B2B Marketing ROI

I highly recommend you click over to Tamara’s recent post on open rates at BeRelevant, an email marketing blog, for a quick and easy explanation of how open rates are calculated.

I frequently speak with marketers who aren’t aware that open rates are based on images being loaded or that they can’t be tracked at all for text-only emails.  These facts make open rates a highly unreliable marker of success - and it’s likely that if you’re presenting these numbers to your boss, you’re actually selling yourself way short!

A recent Subscriber Experiences report from Return Path shoes that marketers are missing the boat on targeted e-mail marketing.

The study claims that 85% of marketers don’t personalize emails from the initial interaction. It also finds that it can take an average of 9 days for a new subscriber to receive their first email.

With modern email marketing technology, there is no reason for these oversights to occur. With automation software, it only takes a few simple clicks to ensure prompt, personalized messages are delivered to your subscribers. Here’s what you can do to make sure your prospects are feeling the love:

Choose an email tool that allows you to set up automated rules.
Web-automation suites often include email functionality in their features package. Using one system to integrate your subscription forms with your emails means you can segment lists based on a prospect’s subscription selection and deploy the appropriate email within minutes, automatically.

Use autoresponder emails.
If you know there will be a delay between the time a prospect submits a request and the time they receive the material, set up an autoresponder email that will act as a thank you message and acknowledge their submission. This works especially well if a customer is requesting support or follow-up by phone, which may take longer than email responses.

Personalize emails with dynamic tags.
Similar to a mail merge, most email engines allow you to dynamically insert prospect information like first name in to a template. Though the email may not be completely unique and targeted, adding tags to insert a few key pieces of personalized information like name or company can go a long way to making an email appear less generic. Additionally, tags can be used to make a message appear to be sent from a prospect’s assigned sales representative, helping to build key relationships.

It takes a lot of work to get a prospect to your website. You probably put hours of effort in to crafting a compelling white paper or creating a fancy flash demo to lure visitors in to filling out your form. So once you’ve got them there, don’t let go! Urge them along by offering other items that may interest your target audience. This can be additional white papers, a special offer or a link to a free trial.

Guiding prospects to valuable items that require the visitor to complete another form allows you to use conditional fields, meaning you can collect a new round of prospect data points the second time, third or even fourth time around. This progressive profiling helps to build a more well-rounded customer profile for your sales team.

Even if you don’t have a large library of “locked-down” content to offer your prospects, providing links to other sections of your website can help you continue tracking your visitors and gain additional insight in to their level of interest. Additionally, providing links in the email you send your prospects upon form completion provides another opportunity to reengage those who have already left your site.

It all boils down to this: there is no reason to have your “thank you message” consist of nothing but a thank you. Encourage your prospects to continue the interaction by offering up additional opportunities for them to explore your company. If you are truly providing valuable content, it can only lead to a positive exchange of information for everyone involved.