A few short years ago, the idea of automating marketing efforts sounded a little far-fetched. People have never liked to be sold anything and with the power of the internet, they don’t have to fall for sales pitches anymore. When you make marketing more automated, it sounds like you are moving farther and farther away from personalization.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, marketing automation has become a vital component of B2B marketing because it can be more personal and give more power to the decision making buyers. While many uninformed B2B marketers are treating their online campaigns just like advertising done years ago, others have found a way to accomplish these three important goals:
1. Recognize that prospects no longer rely on sales people and marketing collateral for information. They do most of the research long before they ever make contact with a sales person.
2. Give prospects a way to “raise their hand” to let you know they have some interest in your product or service.
3. Improve the success of your sales staff by developing a system that allows them to work only with qualified prospects. Meanwhile, the company can nurture any prospects that are not quite ready to speak to sales professionals.
Those three goals have been accomplished over and over again with enormous success. This article will give you a brief overview. You can access a complete 6-part Sales Growth Series to get the details.
What You Can Automate
Emails: Never pitch your product or service in the email. It is a sure way to get your email deleted or ignored. Instead, write a very personal note asking about the pain that your clients had before finding your solution. Do not give them the solution in the email. (You will need to do a little homework to get a clear idea about your ideal prospect description and the pains they experience. Entire segments in the Sales Growth Series cover those subjects.)
Content Pieces: When you have done your homework on the pain your clients experience, you will want to write content pieces (300-600 words) that give details on how to resolve the pain and why. You still don’t want to sell your product and service in these content pieces. Instead, you have two goals. One goal is to educate the prospect buyer to make a good decision – whether it is buying from you or not. The second goal is to nourish the relationship. When they feel you really do know...
