Advanced B2B email marketing workshop
For the Masses
2011 B2B Marketing Masters Webinar Series
Online Workshop August 25, 2011
SalesFUSION’s clients have an average “active life span” of 2.5 years
About SalesFUSION
Leading SaaS marketing automation solution HQ – Atlanta, GA, offices in Philadelphia Focus on Marketing to Sales integration Operating in 11 countries MarketingUnlimited program Innovative client service model 200+ Clients, 40 Partners 90% Product dev. – customer driven High growth – 110 new clients in 2010
About the Speaker – Kevin Miller EVP Marketing Principal at SalesFUSION 18 Years of database marketing, marketing promotions
experience Developed Consumer Promotion Campaigns for Sony, Toyota,
Guinness, Discovery Channel, NASCAR, WWF, TNT Direct Marketing practitioner Built and executed over 300 Webinar Campaigns since 1999 Involved with B2B Marketing Automation since inception Former user of many email & marketing software apps–
Constant Contact, Vertical Response, Emma, MailChimp, CheetahMail, Unica, NuEdge Systems, Marketbright
Connect with me on LinkedIn or Follow on Twitter, Follow us on Facebook
Professional Marketing Philosophy: “Marketing is about results…period. Without tangible metrics to prove the efficacy of a campaign through the realization of increased revenue….we are simply throwing darts at a board and hoping for the best”
7 Deadly sins of email marketing
1. Using an email vendor that affixes “This email sent by “VENDOR NAME”
2. Call to action is sales brochure or home page3. Sending attachments or flash 4. Subject lines that include…“Viagara” or “I have unclaimed
funds in a Nigerian Bank for you “…OK just kidding5. Mass emailing your database a general message more than 3
times in a month6. Using the “OH BOY THEY OPENED IT” design philosophy
(more on this later)7. Sending blast emails from your woefully under-designed CRM
email tool – don’t8. Giving access to the email tool to sales personnel (that’s
really #7 because #4 was a joke)
Marketing automation technology combines technology and best practices from virtually all marketing disciplines and forces the end-user to become moderately fluent in all aspects of b2b marketing
About the Marketing Masters Series Focused on advanced-level b2b marketing topics Education on how to best leverage emerging marketing
technology Series based on the industry best-practices and over 200+
companies Complemented with Live, Public demonstrations of marketing
automation software technology Guest speakers/industry leaders
110% client focused
Dedicated client services
Unlimited training
Today’s Session Advanced B2B email marketing B2B email trends worth following Defining email marketing in 2011 and beyond The nature of nurture-based campaigns Back to the basics
Subject line do’s/don’ts Deliverability & CAN SPAM Working with email templates/WYSIWYG Testing, A/B, metrics Setting up trigger-based campaign Social media and email marketing Building a strong call-to-action
Integrating with CRM Q&A
In the arms race of software features, we sometimes build so far ahead of what the majority of our user community can digest at one time, we render a large portion of our solutions under-utilized
Advanced b2b email marketing Trade your bullhorn for a multi-tool Linear messaging replaced with non-linear, branched, reactive,
personalized, relevant communication Age old adage – right message, right recipient, right time Combine Trigger-based campaigns, drip-based campaigns,
branched campaigns and multi-step, multi-conditional campaigns
It’s not THAT Hard……it just requires tools and training
Email marketing challenges 2010/11 Content Getting through to a
crowed inbox Campaign ROI Building opt-in
Appliance-level SPAM filters (Postini, Barracuda…etc) will almost immediately interpret “sent by vendor” domains as Spam and will drop them in a junkmail folder
What is b2b email marketing in 2011? Rapid migration away from low-end email blast tools to
nurture-style campaigns The Constant Contact Effect = Fatigued Inbox &
Overworked Spam Filters lead to weak messages/campaigns
Focus on delivering content and value in email Multi-step campaigns designed to “Hold the Reader’s
Attention” Integrated with CRM Part of a larger communication strategy Messaging is moving away from “buy me now”….to “I want
to teach you first…and sell you when you’re ready”
Email marketers who recognize and act on the changes that have taken place in the ways their customers choose to communicate with them and with each other will be in the best position to adapt their email programs and stay relevant.
The changing nature of b2b email - 2011
1. Social Media/Network Adoption: Facebook is approaching 600 million users and Twitter 150 million. Social commerce is about to explode. Social is simply a game changer. 2. Mobile: Smartphones are expected to outsell PCs for the first time in 2011. Forrester Research is predicting tablet sales in the U.S. will overtake netbook sales by 2012, and desktop sales by 2015. Mobile is a platform, not a channel. 3. Social Inbox: Facebook, AOL and other ISPs and email clients are finally moving toward a multichannel inbox. Email's battle for consumer mindshare begins moving to the inbox itself.
Source – Email Insider
Email marketers who recognize and act on the changes that have taken place in the ways their customers choose to communicate with them and with each other will be in the best position to adapt their email programs and stay relevant.
Email Campaign TypesBulk /Broadcast email – Single, linear email with 1 message and 1 call to action sent en masse to a list or segment.
Drip – Series of pre-built emails sent on calendar dates to groups of people for a specific reason. Examples are webinar invitations and monthly newsletter. They key is “Calendar Date”
Trigger- Single email (auto-responder) sent to an individual based on the activation of some form of trigger. The send date/time is relative to the action or relative to the previous trigger email
Jupiter Research (in “The ROI of E-mail Relevance”) found that behaviorally-targeted trigger email campaigns get 30% higher open and click-through rates and three times the conversion rates of broadcast email
Some report open rates as much as 70% higher than broadcast email
Email marketers who recognize and act on the changes that have taken place in the ways their customers choose to communicate with them and with each other will be in the best position to adapt their email programs and stay relevant.
The Nature of Nurture-based campaignsNurture marketing is – a non linear sequence of communications that are initiated by your prospects through web interaction, form completion or dynamic segmentation
Key Elements of Nurture-based email
Use a combination of trigger/drip/forms/segmentation/profile Communications are highly relevant and personalized Emails are typically triggered based on some initial event or
change in profile Campaign goals
Stay top of mind Be the vendor of choice when decision time comes
Back to basics – an email marketing deep dive
Subject Lines Single biggest driver of open rates Keep short, simple and decisive 45-65 characters max Avoid obvious issues – Free, Offer, Expire – or adjectives that
are over the top (Massive, huge) Avoid Characters in subject lines *&%$@!
In the junk folder because of the subject line
Back to basics – an email marketing deep dive
Deliverability and CAN SPAM B2B deliverability is based on your ability to get through
Appliance-level filters – Postini, Barracuda…etc. Black Listing is not as applicable in B2B – more relevant for
public ISP – AOL, GMAIL….etc. “Sent on behalf of” email domain is a spam filter death
sentence Once a filter flags an ESP like this as spam….anyone hitting
that filter…even from a different company goes into spam…. This is the Constant Contact Effect
Jeff Kaplan <[email protected]>; on behalf of; Jeff Kaplan <[email protected]>
The Constant Contact Effect
ABC, Inc.
Corp
ora
te S
pam
Filter
• 1 Company uses CC
• Saturates persons at Company ABC, Inc. with email with CCS domain
• Person flags CCS domain as spam
• All other companies using Constant contact – marketing to ABC, Inc. no longer get through
Back to basics – an email marketing deep dive
What is SPAMRequirements of the CAN-SPAM Act
There must be a clear and conspicuous remove function available to the recipient for 30 days after the email was sent. This is also known as an “Opt Out” function.
Implement opt-out requests within 10 business days. Opt-outs must be communicated to all customer contact points within your company, added to your suppression lists
Provide a valid physical postal address of the sender so that potential clients or prospects can mail you their request for opting out. The law requires just a postal address.
The CAN-SPAM Act requires that you clearly “label” your email as an advertisement. This is not required for those who have already opted in to receive information from your company. This requirement is for those non-opted-in clients and for all prospect emailing campaigns.
You must use a valid sender or header information. The CAN-SPAM Act requires that both of these fields are not misleading or false in any way.
You must use valid subject information. the Subject line must reflect the intent of the e-mail message and not be misleading in any way.
Back to basics – an email marketing deep dive
Working with HTML Templates Off the shelf templates – from the
ESP vendor or 3rd-party sources. Cool vendor - http://
themeforest.net/category/marketing/email-templates
Use WYSIWYG editor to modify Note – some templates (wizard-
driven) can be very restrictive Most templates are best modified
via tables or CSS
Back to basics – an email marketing deep dive
Working with HTML Editors – for non HTML people Image sizing – know the size of the image you are replacing –
re-size your image before loading into the editor Adding new content – should be done via adding tables within
tables Get 1-4 good templates created and re-use Settle on a standard banner
Back to basics – an email marketing deep dive
Email Design basics Main image banner – top Main text/message body – left Images/call to action right Use summary/bullet points Shoot for attention span of @
25-35 seconds Think AdWords landing page
design Images on right because of
outlook preview pane
Back to basics – an email marketing deep dive
Email Design basics Email should be designed
with Outlook preview pane in mind
Unsubscribe comes through VERY nicely though???
Emails that are image heavy on left don’t look good in preview mode
Too many images may scare people into not opening
This text should have rendered in the preview pane
Back to basics – an email marketing deep dive
Testing before you send Use a quality Spam rule checking solution against your finished HTML Review rules on the open-source SpamAssassin Test against multiple email clients – but stay focused on Outlook Have an internal seed list – 3-4 people – to give an email sanity check For larger volume campaigns – consider an A/B Test against subject
lines at a minimum
http://spamassassin.apache.org/tests_3_3_x.html
Back to basics – an email marketing deep dive
Social Media and Email Don’t believe the hype – Social is not replacing email….like
everything else, it is driving change Email marketing is NOT dead – it’s use is growing exponentially
(see Constant Contact Effect) Social is another channel into your site Your site’s purpose in life should be to capture leads Once leads are captures, we use trigger-based nurture email
campaigns
Back to basics – an email marketing deep dive
Building a strong call to action There can be only one Limit/eliminate links to your website in emails Use big buttons – include text link underneath For assets like white papers – use thumbnail images Assets don’t necessarily require forms if you have the click
metrics If using forms for assets like white papers – use trigger emails
to fulfill Cool tool – www.mycoolbutton.com
Click to download
B2B Campaigns – Trigger/nurture based email There can be only one Limit/eliminate links to your website in emails Use big buttons – include text link underneath For assets like white papers – use thumbnail images Assets don’t necessarily require forms if you have the click
metrics If using forms for assets like white papers – use trigger emails
to fulfill Cool tool – www.mycoolbutton.com
Trigger email results
In b2b – triggers are lower volume but very high open rates
Use triggers to reinforce brand/message Continually reinforce consistent messages/call to actions
Practical Application of Trigger email in B2B
Forms-driven triggersMarketing Asset Auto-Responder
• Capture email/contact• Send asset via email• Trigger email
Link to PDF Click to see demo Click to view other
resources
Practical Application of Trigger email in B2BMarketing Asset Auto-Responder with Branched Logic
• Capture email/contact• Mutliple choice question• Answer triggers a 3-step
campaign Email 1 – 0 Trigger days Email 2 – 5 Trigger days Email 3 – 14 Trigger
days
Practical Application of Trigger email in B2BImplicit action – trigger campaign enrollment
• Lead scoring models behavior
• Behavior = points• Point value range = group• Group actions = Trigger
Implicit behavior scoring is a powerful methodology used to communicate broad-based messages to groups of people based on their overall behavior
Practical Application of Trigger email in B2BCRM/Sales Driven – Field value change/populate triggers
• Trigger campaign enrollment based on concept of “listening” to designated CRM fields
• Update/Enter of a “listened” field will result in adding the lead/contact to a single or multi-step campaign
• Used to offload the act of “tickler” emails from sales to marketing
• Don’t rely on sales to use follow up tasks in CRM to nurture leads
• Example – lead status changes from “Open” to “Nurture” – system auto-enrolls lead into ongoing campaign
Personalization & dynamic content
Good trigger based email marketing is relevant to the consumer/prospect
Personalization adds value to the email.
Dynamic content can be leveraged to dramatically improve the personalized look, feel and message of the email
Before you pull the trigger….
• Get your content in order – trigger campaigns can eat up content• Create a content map for each trigger campaign• Consider the length of the campaign vs. timeliness of content• Don’t throw content out there for the sake of doing so• Mix in multi-media/channel content – video/social/blog• All content should still point to the same outcome/call to action• Planning trigger campaigns should always focus on the goal/call-
to-action
Plan + Content/Technology = Trigger marketing
Creating content maps
• Trigger Campaign – Website – White Paper
Website – White Paper A
Email 1 – Send white paper link
Email 2 – 7-trigger days – Offer webinar video
Email 3– 14 -trigger days – Offer – product brochure
Offer /Form Demo/Sales Meeting
Offer /Form Demo/Sales Meeting
Offer /Form Demo/Sales Meeting
Marketing Automation versus ESP
Bulk and Drip-based
Trigger & Nurture
based email
Multichannel
Social, PPC, all channels
Integrated lead capture
forms
Integrated
All info connected
to CRM
Interconnected features
within platform
Marketing Automation Platform – Includes all marketing functions in one app
ESP Application
• Bulk email • Some social
sharing• Metrics• Not tied to
CRM• Shared IP• 12-month
solution
Marketing ToolsNot integrated to
CRM
CRM Systems aredata entry only
Marketing data is non-existent or not
useful to sales
Revenue lossLower CRM adoption
Weak funnel
Email Marketing and Lead Management
Inside Sales use of trigger campaignsWebsite
monitoringResearch
anonymous visitors – append with contacts –
enroll in campaigns
Pop email alert when high-value activity occurs – assign task for
call
If no phone contact made – enroll in trigger
campaign
Receive on-going alerts when lead
returns to site/responds
Inside Sales Teams are leveraging new email marketing tools for b2b• Respond to leads with HTML
email templates• Enroll new suspects in intro
nurture campaigns• Enroll cold but not dead leads in
nurture campaigns• Increased touch-points with
larger number of suspects
Generate Leads
Capture Leads
Route Leads
Track Sales Opportuniti
es
Revenue Analysis
• Email Marketing• Nurture Marketing• Social Media• Online/Offline
Marketing
• Landing Pages
• Web visitor tracking
• Lead Scoring • Lead Routing• Real time
alerts
• Feedback loop from CRM to FUSION CRM
• Dashboards• Linked to
CRM oppt.• Real-time
analytics• Campaign
spend analysis
What does SalesFUSION Offer?
B2B email marketing and CRM
Provide meaningful info to Sales in CRM, improve user experience Information in CRM is valuable to sales in prospecting Change perception from data entry, to value Fully automated - Allows for better lead lifecycle tracking
Focused 100% on integrating Marketing and CRM Clients are raving fans of hands-on service Most aggressive pricing in market 30-day Live Trial Pre-integrated to more CRM systems than any other vendors
in our space
Thank you! Q&A Sign up for a 1/1 demo of SalesFUSION Visit our online resource center PDF Materials & Video will be available White paper – Published on 9/15 Visit our online resource center More “Marketing Masters” series webinars coming through
Q3/Q4