Transcript E-mail Marketing - ClearEdge Marketing

You Don’t Have to Go Broke
to Have Great Marketing
Presented by:
Leslie Vickrey, President & Founder
ClearEdge Marketing
© 2009 ClearEdge Marketing. Confidential information.
Premise for Today’s Call
 To provide insights that will help you spend less on
marketing while…
o Increasing the value of current investments
o Filling pipeline with strong, actionable leads
o Protecting and gaining market share
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Content
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Who is ClearEdge Marketing?
Marketing’s Recession Value: A History
The Lesson, the Reality
Five Proven Recession Marketing Tactics
 Outline of each topic
 Real-world examples: Marketing in Action
 Q&A
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Who is ClearEdge Marketing?
 Outsourced marketing services provider offering extensive
specialization in IT services and solutions
 Clients include…
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Marketing’s Recession Value:
A History
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Marketing’s Recession Value
 American Business Press study—1974-75 recession
 Companies that did not cut marketing…
o Doubled sales numbers by 1977
o Tripled profits by 1977
 Companies that did cut marketing…
o Sales recovered to 50 percent by 1977
o Doubled profits by 1977
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Marketing’s Recession Value
 McGraw Hill Study—1981-82 recession
 Increased marketing spending resulted in…
o Higher sales during the recession
o Higher sales in the three years after the
recession
 2002 McKinsey Study
 1,000 businesses from 1982-1999
 Top performing companies increased marketing
spend during 1990-91 recession
o Outspent competitors
o Recession budgets exceeded non-recession
budgets
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The Lesson, the Reality
 The Lesson
 Not Marketing is Not an Option
 If you don’t market you will...
o Lose competitive ground
o Delay your company’s recovery
o Put opportunities on hold
 The Reality
 Marketing budgets, like everything need
to shrink
 Your option…
o Smarter marketing, less investment,
greater return
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Five Tactics for Recession
Marketing Sucess
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Tactic #1:
List Development & Cold Calling
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List Development & Cold Calling
 Focus: A well-defined list of prospects
grounds your efforts
 Clarity: There is little guessing about
who you are going after
 Results: An accurate list quadruples the
effectiveness of a cold calling campaign
 Appointments: You won’t have an
opportunity to get a meeting if you
don’t call and ask for one
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List Creation & Management
 Define your ideal client
 Size
 Location
 Industry
 Job function/title
 Create a list to match your ideal client
 Purchase a list
 Build a list in house
 Keep the list updated and growing
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Cold Calling Best Practices
 Create voicemail/phone scripts
 Go for warm calls, leverage social
networking sites and reference a possible
mutual acquaintance
 Point to a newsworthy article
 Highlight a blog or press release on their
Web site
 Prepare for objections or concerns
 Rehearse to build confidence and
enthusiasm
 Offer sales staff cold calling incentives
(contest, blitz)
 Involve everyone—junior and senior sales
professionals
 Keep calling...
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Cold Calling Best Practices
MAKE THE 5th CALL...
 Make at least 5 total call attempts to each prospect
 44% of salespeople will stop calling after the first call
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Another 22% stop calling after the second call
14% more will stop calling after the third call
An additional 12% will stop after the fourth call
This means 92% of salespeople quit after the fourth call
70% of the population needs at least 5 contacts before they'll trust
you enough to grant you an appointment
If you want to beat 92% of your competition,
make that fifth call!
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Required for Success
 Your sales staff
 Focus, motivate and measure their cold calling efforts
 Inactive clients
 Refresh contact details and hit the phones
 Your value proposition
 Highlight your uniqueness
 Your industry knowledge
 Use your insights from networking events and client
appointments to build rapport and credibility
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Tactic #2:
E-mail Marketing
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E-mail Marketing
 Consequences
 Decrease in industry-wide
response metrics
(open/click-through rates)
 Decline in subscriber
tolerance
 Improved results for
quality e-mail programs
 Plan of attack
 Convey clear value
proposition
 Vow to stop sending bad
e-mail
 Invest in e-mail marketing
technology
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The Value of E-mail Marketing
 Cost-effective:
 Requires a minimal investment to create and manage
 Simplicity:
 Whether you manage it in house or use a third party, the tools
are very easy to use and measure
 Accessibility:
 Nearly everyone has an e-mail address and can be reached via
this medium
 Frequency:
 With some discipline, it allows you to regularly stay in front of
your clients
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E-mail Marketing
 Provide thoughtful, valuable business content by e-mail
 E-newsletter
 Keep-in-touch program
 E-cards
 More…
 Invest in a generic, but branded template that can be
recycled
 Create and manage the campaign in-house
 Discipline and consistency are key
 Consider a third-party service, such as Vertical Response
or Constant Contact
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Required for Success
 “Home grown” thought leadership
 Articles, case studies, white papers, blogs
 Your list!
 Use your refreshed list as targets for your e-mail campaign
 Your Web site
 Post your articles, case studies and white papers
 Link to the materials on your site to increase traffic
 Post your e-mail newsletter to your site
“By simply reducing untargeted, low-impact e-mails, you can actually fund the development
of new programs that drive significant ROI and help you stand out in the inbox.”
-2009 Trends Almanac, Exact Target
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Tactic #3:
Referrals & Testimonials
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Referrals & Testimonials
 Trust: This is a peer-to-peer
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conversation
Authenticity: “Sales” feel
completely eliminated
Honesty: Unbarred, unedited,
unmonitored conversation. They can
ask whatever they like
Track Record: First-hand proof of
business success, results and client
satisfaction
The Results: What do you do when
you have a reference or two from a
trusted source?
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Referrals & Testimonials
 Make requesting a reference part of sales best
practices
 Why sales?
o Accountability
o Direct beneficiaries
o They KNOW people—who would be a good reference
 The approach:
o Check in 2-3 months after the service/solution has been
implemented
o Confirm project/consultant is succeeding
o Ask if they would be willing to be a reference
o Offer options…
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Examples
 Peer-to-peer reference
 Willing to be on a call list for potential clients with similar
roles/positions?
o Be sure to emphasize that the client’s name will be used
sparingly so as not to send a flood of work and phone calls to a
busy, valued client
 Attend an event
 Open house/in-house event for your company where a case
study of your solution is discussed
 Industry roundtable event/panel
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Examples
 Testimonials
 A statement written by the client about your service/solutions
 Case study
 A summary of the service/solution written by your marketing team
and including a quote/statement from the client
 Unpublished client list
 Shown during presentations
 Published client list
 On Web site and sales literature
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Required for Success
 Your sales staff
 They KNOW who would be a good reference
 They are direct beneficiaries of solid referrals and testimonials
 Written and verbal feedback
 Ask a client for permission to use their comments
 Satisfaction surveys
 An “additional comments” box can reveal some insights that
can be shared with a client’s permission
o Marketing in Action to Come!
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Tactic #4:
Events
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The Value of Events
 Many legs
 Provides multiple avenues for building brand recognition, gives
you a reason to contact a client, you can be creative!
 Demonstrates thought leadership
 Gives you clout as an expert in a particular area
 Direct contact
 Allows you to get in front of prospects
 Insight
 Lets you learn more about a prospect’s pain points or business
needs
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Event Examples
 What are your event options?
 Host a Webinar
 Attend meetings or events hosted by your local trade and
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industry associations
Participate in community-based events (arts, charities, sports
etc.)
Partner with an association to host or sponsor a local event and
roundtable
Job fair
Be creative: Dinner groups, social networking
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Required for Success
 Association memberships
 Take advantage of the investment you’ve already made
 Your teleconferencing provider
 Many offer Webcasting capabilities as part of their services and
as an established customer you may be able to negotiate very
reasonable pricing
 Your community
 Establish a reciprocating relationship with organizations that
can benefit from your career-based expertise
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Marketing in Action
The Company: Hollstadt & Associates
 An award-winning management
consulting firm
 Headquartered in Minneapolis/St.
Paul, MN
The Objective:
 To involve staff, consultants and
clients in philanthropic efforts
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Hollstadt & Associates
The Program:
Hollstadt’s Big Give
 Two non-profit organizations chosen
to receive $2,500 each
 Private appreciation event to
announce winners
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Hollstadt & Associates
Program Results:
 Nearly 20 charity nominations by clients and
consultants
 More than 100 attendees at the appreciation event
 Opportunity to communicate on a more personal level
 Boosted relationship building and retention efforts
 Created anticipation for next year’s nomination process
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Tactic #5:
Public Relations
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The Value of Public Relations
 Validation: A third party is using you as the expert
 Visibility: Provides another avenue to establish
brand recognition
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Public Relations
 Provide business updates and introduce experts
 Buzz that will get noticed by potential and existing clients
 Build relationships with media
 Identify publication targets
 Local newspapers
 Trade/industry newspapers and magazines
 Be on the lookout for newsworthy information
 Community involvement
 New hires/promotions/acquisitions/mergers
 New business
 New services
 Events
 Awards
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Required for Success
 In-house experts
 Use your own expertise or that of your staff to
become a reliable resource for the media
 Awards
 Good PR topics that can be added to brochures,
company profiles and Web site to bring distinction
and credibility
 Places to look:
o Industry associations
o Clients and vendors
o Local media outlets
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Marketing in Action
The Company: The Armada Group
 A premier Silicon Valley-based IT
consulting firm
The Objective:
 Increase brand recognition in the
community
 Build upon reputation of “quality
provider of IT services”
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Case Study: The Armada Group
The Program:
Armada’s Client and Consultant Satisfaction
Surveys
 Measure clients’ and consultants’
satisfaction
 Gather quantifiable data regarding brand
 Results press release distributed to
targeted media, posted on Web site and
Facebook page, e-mailed to clients and
candidates, included in monthly enewsletter
The Results:
 Article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel
 Feature Article in SI Review
 Provided the validation needed to win
the SI Review Excellence Award, which
allowed for additional PR efforts
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In Summary…
 Five fundamental marketing programs provide plenty of
opportunity with little to no cost using resources you
already have
 Take an inventory of what you do have
 Highly satisfied customers
 Local associations you belong to
 Existing thought leadership
 Knowledgeable professionals on your staff
 Make the investment in marketing today in preparation
for the market turnaround
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Your Turn
Questions?
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Thank You!
Leslie Vickrey
President & Founder
ClearEdge Marketing
312.731.3149 * [email protected]
www.clearedgemarketing.com
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