NGR's Blog

For years marketers have taken prescribed actions immediately upon observing particular triggers, in most cases some form of customer engagement sort of a phone call, purchase or direct mail inquiry. Of course, before the general public introduction of the internet  these kind of automatically approved activities took some time to reach the customer often weeks or more as we were conditioned to “permit 6-8 weeks for delivery” of our rebates, rewards and perhaps particular products and services. Today we're much less patient as customers and are demanding that even our small, local businesses react to our demands immediately.

A business cannot live by one outbound communication per year.  Chances are good you have probably wondered about your own communications strategy. Are you communicating enough?

Think about how many times during the year/quarter/month a customer needs you, or your products or services, and let that be your guide to determining how often to reach out and touch your audience. Think of this number as a minimum, then build from there.

Your business could be a marketing consulting firm, a software company, a nonprofit, an educational institution, a car dealership, a florist, a restaurant, a vineyard, a rock and roll band--you name it! Success and profitability is all about creating loyal customers (e.g. clients, users, donors, buyers, diners, drinkers, and fans) and driving interest, repeat business, and referrals.

Since it is roughly six to 12 times less expensive to sell to an existing customer than it is to acquire a new one, the value of customer loyalty and repeat business is just too compelling to ignore.

The complex B2B sale has some unique characteristics: higher average value, longer sales cycles, and a number of participants in the purchase process. And it is increasing in complexity. Buyer behaviour in B2B has changed dramatically in the past 5 years as the internet redefines how companies buy goods and services. Buyers are doing most of their initial research online before initiating conversations with vendors and are better informed at an earlier stage. Buyers are also more difficult to reach because of the increasing volume of electronic communications they receive. Traditional marketing and sales techniques are less effective for these reasons. We're moving from a focus on 'outbound' techniques like press advertising, mail shots and cold calling, to 'inbound' techniques based on websites, online ‘pay-per-click’ advertising and ‘content-based’ marketing. The changes present a threat to companies who don't adapt quickly to the new environment, but they offer a huge opportunity for those who learn how to use their online presence to generate demand effectively. The real promise of the new era of marketing and sales is the ability to use automated, repeatable processes to scale up the generation of high-quality sales leads - what we call 'demand generation' – leading to corresponding increases in sales conversions and revenue.

In the present stressful work environment, vacation trips are usually pushed off merely because people don’t have the time to devise a holiday and mistakenly believe that a travel agent is simply too expensive. While using the help of effective email marketing software, you can offer holiday possibilities and proposals to a large database without breaking your marketing budget. Email newsletters and reminder emails can ignite the imagination of thousands of possible clients and demonstrate how useful and essential your services are.

Email newsletters can deal with a wide range of different ideas rapidly, thereby attracting a much broader audience than a more targeted and inflexible marketing campaign. In the newsletter, you'll be able to discuss  affordable family holidays and discount last minute getaways as well as highlight luxury destinations, thus reaching clients of all economic levels. Additionally, you'll be able to use the newsletter to give travel tips and engaging stories, making the newsletter a pleasure to read to ensure that your communications are not only sought for within the  barrage of emails but also passed directly to others.

A client recently requested me for a quick example of ways I implement marketing automation with a representative example, or case study. Here's a version of my submission to his compilation…

Over time I've enjoyed designing, deploying, measuring and improving numerous automated marketing initiatives for brands and businesses of all sizes. Due to this fact, I’ve begun to frame these initiatives in a number of simple strategies, allowing me to quickly develop automated marketing campaigns to develop customer-brand relationships and drive revenue. These automated campaigns form a baseline of activity personalized for every customer to drive revenue each and every day, automatically and without manual intervention or having to “reinvent the wheel” with ad hoc campaigns season after season. Here's the general framework for the marketing automation designer.