Let's recap. Four Step Marketing businesses realize the importance
of their marketing message. They study their customers and gather
feedback through surveys. They compare themselves to
competitors and look for ways to do things better. Innovation leads
them to identify or create powerful Unique Selling Points , which
become their overall marketing message. They create free Offers
that are shared on their Platforms , or everywhere the business
comes into contact with its prospects and customers. The Marketing
Arsenal is launched with purpose. It is carefully measured. Any form
of marketing that doesn't generate a return is scrapped. Wasteful
marketing dollars are then allocated to marketing with a better
return on investment. The Marketing Arsenal drives sales, but it also
points prospects and customers to the company's free Offer . As
prospects and customers request the free Offer , they consent to
receiving communication from the company and their personal
contact information is securely stored in the company's database.
That leads us to step 4, Marketing Automation , and the systematic
process for how we'll follow-up in the future.
In step 4, Marketing Automation , we'll implement a communication
system, ensuring no one slips through the cracks. The truth is, most
businesses know they should be doing a better job following up
with prospects and customers. The reason they don't follow up is
because they simply don't know where to start. The first obstacle is
building a database. We covered that in chapter 2, Platforms and
Offers . We learned by giving away a great Offer , customers and
prospects will be willing to share their personal contact
information. Now, everyone who requests your free Offer will be
added to your database. The second obstacle that businesses face
is how to manage, segment and automate their communication.
That's what we'll cover in this chapter.
Marketing Automation Doesn't Just Mean Email
First of all, Marketing Automation isn't limited strictly to email.
Whatever personal information that is provided when someone
takes you up on your Offer can now be used for follow-up
communication. In other words, if we have their email address,
obviously we can email them. If we have collected their mailing
address, we can follow-up by sending direct mail. If we have their
phone number, we have the option to send texts and voicemail
messages. Remember, they gave us this permission to
communicate when they requested our free Offer . Even though we
own this information in our database, we realize that if it is abused,
we'll ruin the relationship. So, we won't email them every day. If we
do call or text them, we'd better have something very good to say.
If we're sending direct mail, our message must be precise and on
target. Regardless of our communication method, it is critical to
remember that they gave us permission to reach out. Whenever we
communicate, we must provide value or they'll revoke our
permission to communicate. What then will we be saying? Ah—
remember chapter 1? That's right! Whenever we speak we'll be
sharing exactly what prospects and customers care about with our
Unique Selling Points .
At this point, you might be shaking your head in disbelief. In fact,
some readers don't follow up with prospects and customers on
purpose. Your excuse is that you believe that they don't want to
hear from you. The truth is, you're right, not everyone wants to
hear from you. However, don't throw the baby out with the bath
water. If you've provided value with your free Offer , then the law of
reciprocation is already at work. Most good hearted people will
allow you to communicate with them if your communication is
personal and continues to provide value or information they care
about. Believe us! We've heard all of the objections and excuses
before, and we know that proactive communication is like walking a
tightrope. It must be done correctly or you'll plummet to your
death. That being said, if you have objections to following up, it's
because you've probably been on the receiving end and have
experienced it being done incorrectly.
The Two BIG No-No's in Marketing Automation
The first no-no that most businesses are familiar with is over
communicating. Though we have their contact information and
permission to follow-up, we won't abuse it or use high pressure
tactics to get them to convert. Just like in any relationship, acting in
this manner would hurt our chances and drive them further away.
In fact, when we do communicate, we'll be abundantly clear that
they can STOP us from communicating if they're sick of hearing
from us. That's right. We'll openly give them the option to reject us
and break off the relationship through an OPT-OUT mechanism in
each piece of communication we send them. Because they can opt
out through email, direct mail, voicemail, and every other type of
communication, we must be precise in what we share. This sounds
like common sense, but we're always amazed how billion dollar
businesses allow their marketing teams to send out emails every
single day. Though each industry's follow-up schedule will be
different, please realize that your business should NEVER use
automation to contact their database every single day.
The second no-no is ignoring your database. Remember, they gave
us permission to follow-up and shared with us their personal email,
cell phone or perhaps even their mailing address. This is the
honeymoon stage! We've provided them with something valuable
and it is our window to engage them. If we neglect the relationship
and seldom communicate with them, we're showing them that
they're not that important. Worse yet, if we don't communicate, we
risk that a competitor who is communicating, will court our
prospects and customers. So failing to follow-up with our database
is almost as bad as over communicating. Both will damage the
relationship and actually have a negative impact on your business.
Having a Plan in Place: The Marketing Funnel
So what's the balance then? The secret is planning out your
communication ahead of time. If we're going to follow up and share
our Unique Selling Points , we'll need a plan of action. This plan is
called a marketing funnel and it is the communication plan your
business will follow. Your marketing funnel will nurture prospect
relationships with your Unique Selling Points until they become
customers. If your business only has a customer list, or prospect list
converting to customers, we'll also create a plan. The customer
marketing funnel would carefully communicate new special offers
and other customer benefits. Our goal is to encourage them to stay
committed to the relationship and become lifetime customers. A
marketing funnel is simply an outline of your company's
communication. Here's a sample Marketing Automation plan for a
company that has prospect relationships.
Sample Prospect USP Campaign
Instant Delivery - Email - Thank you & Offer Delivery
Day 4 - Post Card - USP 1 - Special for New Customers
Day 5 - Email - USP 1 - Special Bonus Postcard Reminder
Day 9 - Voicemail - USP 1 - Special Bonus Voicemail
Day 12 - Email - USP 2 - Company Comparison Chart
Day 13 - Letter - USP 2 - Company Comparison Chart
Day 17 - SMS Message - Personalized Text Message
Day 21 - Email - USP 3 - Our Technology is Better
Day 25 - Personal Call - Sales Call Follow-up
Day 27 - Email - USP 4 - Personalized Service
Day 31 - Post Card - USP 3-4 - Technology
A Call to Action for All Communication
We're not communicating just for the sake of talking. Remember,
we're following up because we want prospects to buy and
customers to buy more often. Marketing funnels can be longer or
shorter depending on your industry's buying cycle. If your business
model only has customers then you wouldn't need a prospect
funnel as well. The main point is that all communication is timed
out in advance with crystal clear objectives. Every time we
communicate, there should be a visible call to action. When we
communicate with prospects, we'll share our Unique Selling Points ,
but also point them to the next step in the relationship.
Communication for customers might include specials on new
products, services, and perhaps even asking them for an online
review. No matter who we are communicating with, there should
always be a clear next step, which is your call to action.
The Who, What, When and How of a Marketing Funnel
So how do you plan out your marketing funnels? It really comes
down to your business model. However, in every Marketing
Automation campaign, you'll need to clarify and understand four
key components before getting started. These four components
will help you build your marketing funnels and ensure you're saying
the right things, to the right people.
The Who - Who is receiving the automation? Is it prospects?
Customers? Depending on the business, this could become very
complex. For example, are we communicating to prospects
interested in red widgets? Or perhaps communicating to customers
who bought blue widgets? In our sample marketing funnel, we
created a campaign that was targeted for general prospects. While
each industry and business is different, the main point is to realize
that each marketing sequence and marketing funnel must have a
target audience.
The What - What are they receiving? In our example, we listed out
what type of communication was being used and what was being
said. For example, the "what" might be an email with the
company's second Unique Selling Point. Each marketing funnel
documents what will be received. It is important to note that
Marketing Automation may include various forms of communication
as listed in our example. However, you'll only be able to
communicate by phone, direct mail, and email if you have collected
that information.
In other words, you can't send direct mail if you don't have the
prospect's mailing address. Obtaining that information is handled
in step 2, Platforms and Offers . Prospects and customers will only
give up their personal information if the Offer is valuable. The more
personal information you request from someone is directly
comparable to the value your Offer must provide.
The When - When will the communication be delivered? What is
acceptable in one industry might not be acceptable in another.
Every business model will have a different timeline for follow-up
with prospects and customers. For example, the first couple weeks
of prospect follow-up might be more intensive if that is typically
when a buying decision is made. The sequence might then slow
down substantially after that period and become less intrusive.
Customer follow-up sequences will also be scheduled according to
the industry. For example, it may be perfectly fine for a coffee shop
or retailer to communicate every week because their customers
buy more frequently. However, if a real estate agent sent out
weekly or daily updates, it wouldn't be received well because
buying a home isn't a weekly event. Obviously, scheduling your
follow-up is more of an art than a science. Minor changes and
tweaks will be required based upon feedback. Every business
should measure their churn rate, or the rate at which their
database is adding and losing subscribers.
The How - How are users moved to different marketing funnels?
Remember, every time we follow-up with a prospect or a customer,
there should be a clear call to action. For example, when we
communicate to one of our prospects with a Unique Selling Point,
we'll point them to the logical next step. So what happens when the
prospect buys? Obviously, they should no longer be treated as
prospects or receive prospect communication. Instead they should
now be treated as customers and go into the customer marketing
funnel. For Marketing Automation to work effectively, the how must
be clearly defined. When a prospect buys, how are they removed
from the prospect funnel and added to the customer funnel? Is this
an automated process? Is it manual? Regardless of how it happens,
it must be consistent so that everyone receives the correct
communication. Without getting into the technical weeds of
automation, remember that the "how" will be the trigger that
moves them from one marketing funnel to another.
Simplifying the Marketing Automation Solution
We realize there's a lot of misconceptions and confusion when it
comes to Marketing Automation . Few businesses realize how
powerful and personal it can really be. Marketing Automation also
doesn't have to be complicated to be effective. Think of your
database as a bucket that's hosted on the internet. When prospects
and customers request your Offer , their personal data is
automatically stored securely online. Additionally, it's very easy to
automate the delivery of your free Offers . Think of this system as
rules that are programmed ahead of time. When someone joins the
database, they're scheduled to receive communication according to
your marketing funnel plan. The technology is actually fairly simple
and there's dozens of mainstream and affordable applications that
will help you communicate. For the sake of simplicity, we call it
Marketing Automation and it includes the database software that
sends the emails, letters, postcards, SMS messages, and even
pre-recorded phone messages. When used correctly it makes your
follow-up process bulletproof and ensures your prospects and
customers can clearly see your Unique Selling Points.
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