When people talk about email marketing automation the first thing they think of is the world of B2C, few take into consideration what is a big part of the market, that is the B2B.
During the Growth Chat agenda held by Mailmodo, a leading international e-mail marketing company, our CMO Ignazio Morici dissected the most controversial points and misconceptions behind the use of automation in B2B marketing and beyond.
This meeting discussed lead qualification and the tools to select potential customers in the B2B world through the use of marketing automation.
Based on every B2B email marketing campaign is planning, to implement a good performing strategy. By taking into account the data collected and the main objectives, you can improve the way you approach your target audience.
As in B2C, in B2B marketing automation there are three basic objectives:
When used in the right way, e-mail marketing automation is a powerful and fundamental tool of B2B marketing. But it is important to establish KPIs to clearly measure what goals are being met, through reading the data. Many KPIs can be mutated by B2C strategies:
The Lead qualification in B2B marketing is a process of assessing who your potential customers are and what stage they are at, whether they are already ready to make the purchase, or whether they will be in the future. Factors such as this depend a lot on the business role held by the stakeholder, in terms of budget and decision-making.
It is important to note that if a potential customer is not yet interested in our products, it is not certain that they will not be in the future. You should create suitable content to show at a precise stage of the user lifecycle, starting a path aimed at later conversion.
What has just been described is a part of the model already presented during the third Ninja Wrap up that takes the name Flywheel, or Volano. Using a flywheel model to maintain the relationship with a contact, instead of a funnel, the relationship with the customer does not passively end with a purchase but continues in a virtuous spiral that aims at a new sale and enticing word-of-mouth, reducingacquisition costs, since it leverages a customer who is already within our system.
Call qualification is the perfect opportunity to establish a lasting relationship with the customer. Often, however, in the rush to close the sale at all costs we forget one key thing, listening.
During a sales qualification call you already know that person represents a lead for you to qualify from a sales perspective, so it would be helpful to focus on listening and understanding what they are really asking for. Aspects to focus on for a successful qualification call are budget, authority, time, and the user's needs.
In this case, email marketing automation can be a functional solution to replace qualification during calls, if used in the right way.
You should start in the meantime by avoiding sending an automated email if not needed. By using special tools it is possible to collect information at different times in the relationship with the client, first just the name, then the job and so on so as not to be too intrusive.
The email the customer receives must containadded value, or provide content that is actually useful. One can choose what to send by segmenting the data and the various types of customers based on behavior, studying the way they interact with us.
Building a data-driven model is the best way to put this system into practice, making use of software such as iubenda,to collect consents, all information will be recorded in accordance with the law and GDPR.
"The Lead magnets are a key," explains Ignatius Morici, "especially when deployed using progressive field forms. Through progressive fields in forms, you'll be able to ask your users for only the information that is not yet in the database: making it easier to fill out and collect the data that really may interest you.
Through the use of a CRM, such as HubSpot, you can then also:
An alternative segmentation method that leverages CRM platforms, although more difficult, is to score based on a potential customer's behavior,whether they interact with your content by downloading ebooks, opening emails, filling out forms, etc.
In the end, you will have the ability to segment your audience even better and you will be able to send customized content based on various categories.
83% of people are more willing to share their data with companies if they have a personalized experience.
"Is email marketing automation more effective than sales in qualifying leads?" It depends.
Direct contact between people is definitely different and it is easier to establish a relationship, so in cases of high-spending customers, sales may be the best solution.
If you are talking about a low-medium price range, theemail marketing automation is a great qualification system that can keep the standard high and at the same time convert, saving a lot of time.
Let's come to a practical example: a company sends manually customized emails every week, combining content with different purposes news, information for nurturing and lead qualification.
This method is ineffective in the long run; in fact, users may change their attitude over time depending on the interactions they have with the proposed content and your company. Result? They may stop reading the newsletter they may have subscribed to.
The message was no longer being delivered to the right people who were interested in new topics over time. The solution? Create three different buyer personas to keep in mind when writing emails and to whom the different messages should be addressed, with the right timing.This new strategy resulted in a 30 percent increase in open rate and a nearly half decrease in bounce rate.
Through this strategy, you can avoid phenomena such as graymail, in which people get used to seeing your content to the point of ignoring it, no longer perceiving it as valuable, completely nullifying interactions.
Knowing when to stop sending emails and start again at the right time is one way to surprise the customer and push them to interact more with your company.
The relationship with your customers must evolve over time and adapt to the changes in behavior and interest that may occur, only in this way will you be sure that the content you create truly matches the needs of those who are receiving it.
The email automation in B2B marketing may seem complex to put into practice, but with the help of an experienced and reliable partner like power2Cloud, it can prove to be a fast and effective way to implement your strategy and get the most out of your customers!