Marketing Automation Campaigns To Set Up Your Salesperson
Marketing Automation is the step after you attract a visitor. It is the nurturing which builds trust with a stranger. The temptation and illusion which a traditional salesperson finds difficult to resist is selling too early when the buyer is not ready. Marketing automation helps your buyer become ready for the sales conversation.
Old Mindsets
Premature selling is the root cause of many organizations who have not transitioned to the new economy. Their old mindsets have them doing the following:
- Interrupt prospects
- Continual follow up
- Sell, sell, sell
Effort is confused with results. Success is a low percentage. Typical numbers may be 2 out of 100 cold calls get a meeting or 2 out of 100 mailers got a call. All the while, the question of what happens to your brand with the other 98% is ignored. You damage your brand. You don't get a second shot to make a first impression. But, that matters little to someone who only cares about selling. It's part of the delusion in a sales mindset. The carnage and failure rate is ignored.
What About Buying?
Think about how you buy. When did you want a salesperson to call you about software, services or products you were not sure you needed yet? Likely later, rather than sooner. Here is how a buying process works:
- Have need
- Search for need
- Become aware of offerings
- Educate myself
- Look for value and content
- Subscribe
- Request meeting
- Confirm credibility
- Buy
The buyer is largely in a self-service mode to get to the goal you both want - a sale. How is this process managed effectively today? Marketing automation systems which are set up with multiple campaigns that nurture the buyer based on their preferences help your brand build trust in the mind of the buyer. It helps the buyer become ready to engage you and purchase.
Types of Marketing Automation Campaigns
Let's assume that the various marketing automation systems today can get the job done of nurturing and building trust. You will likely start with some standard automated marketing campaigns which are based on specific buyer profiles. In our marketing automation consulting, here are a few which nurture and convert leads to customers:
Education Campaign
Use Case Campaign
Branding Campaign
Buying Campaign
Imagine that a visitor to your site engages one of these funnels or another custom developed marketing automation process. Their nurturing can be measured for effectiveness by ongoing scoring and triggers in your CRM system. The respective buying funnel should be designed to help a smaller sales team engage when your system tells you who is ready. You will see the digital behaviors each nurtured lead has in their contact record. Clicks on your content, subscribing to additional value pieces or response to a call to action are more valuable in this system than a follow-up phone call with the buyers' guard up.
By the time sales engages, your buyer should relate to you and your brand with high trust. They know you and trust you because you provided value which connects in a relevant, personal and timely way.
What are the campaigns you believe your buyers care about and need to say, "Yes?" Feel free to comment below.