Motorcoach Marketing Summer 2017

MOTORCOACH

ISSUE 03/ JULY 2017

MARKETING SUMMER 2017

Marketing and Sales Information Designed for the Motorcoach Industry

The Do’s & Don’ts of loyalty marketing

Here’s a super easy way

to grow your

small business Driving sales with

marketing automation

17 Examples of Fabulous Explainer Videos 4 Dangers of Digital Communication and 8 Tips to Avoid Them

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10 25 06

EMAIL STILL THE KING OF ROI, SAYS DMA/ Email marketing remains the best digital marketing channel for return on investment...

10

FOR BRANDS, TWITTER IS A MARATHON, NOT A SPRINT/

THE DO’S & DON’TS OF LOYALTY MARKETING/ Loyalty marketers have a tough job, with brands in a crowded retail space clamoring for the...

21

HERE’S A SUPER EASY WAY TO GROW YOUR SMALL BUSINESS/

43

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” That old saying is as true today as ever. When you want to...

If you’re one of the more than 3.5 million people who recently retweeted #NuggsForCarter to...

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25

4 DANGERS OF DIGITAL COMMUNICATION AND 8 TIPS TO AVOID THEM/ It’s no surprise that we use email and text for so many of our communications. It’s often...

29

DRIVING SALES WITH MARKETING AUTOMATION: PART TWO/

When it comes to digital marketing, efficiency is the name of the game.

You’re busy, and there’s...

The ‘Driving Sales with Marketing Automation’ series of three articles has been developed by Rishad...

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7 REASONS WHY CRM AND SALES ARE CORRELATED TO SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS GROWTH/

INFORMATION AND TRAINING FROM GO MOTORCOACH/

HOW TO GENERATE B2B LEADS WITH LINKEDIN’S SPONSORED INMAIL/ In the B2B space, marketing qualified leads are the metric of choice. Unfortunately, for...

For many entrepreneurs and business owners, moving from one stage of a thriving business to the next one...

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7 THINGS MARKETERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT GOOGLE’S SMART DISPLAY CAMPAIGNS, DIRECT FROM GOOGLE/

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17 EXAMPLES OF FABULOUS EXPLAINER VIDEOS/ Feel intimidated by the notion of creating an explainer video? There’s no need to be -- they just represent...

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ADVERTISING Motorcoach Marketing Council opportunities: Phone: 360.840.0779

Email: chris@gomotorcoach.org motorcoachmarketing.org

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The Motorcoach Marketing Council/ From the president.

It’s summer and it’s hot! Business is good, and from what we hear around the industry, companies are seeing the effects of the uptick in the economy. This upswing is great news and provides a chance for all of us to make important changes in our businesses. With numbers up, each of us has an opportunity to identify what’s actually bringing business to our doors. Are we doing something to generate additional demand for our services (marketing)? Or are we simply responding to increasing demand driven by other things such as the economy, reduction in competition, or other factors that we ultimately have no control over?

While we often think that any growth is good growth, we all know that sustainable growth is what we really want to see. We want to know that we’ll continue to grow even if there’s an economy hiccup, an increase in market competition, or if someone across town cuts their rates. This type of growth requires a growth mindset and a commitment to doing those things that ensure a bright future.

goal is to help you be more successful in your market.

We hope that you will utilize the council’s tools in your business and take advantage of everything we’ve worked to develop. I have used the tools and seen the results they generate. To be honest, I was hesitant in the beginning and joined the board to voice my skepticism. Since that time, however, I have used the tools, watched the videos, and attended the events. I have put into practice those things that fit my business and seen measurable progress as a result.

In the famous words of the Hair Club for Men: I am not only the President of the Motorcoach Marketing Council, I am also a client.

Give the tools a try. You won’t be disappointed!

-Jeff Rogers

The Motorcoach Marketing Council has been hard at work creating tools to help you achieve that kind of growth. From tools that you can use on your own, to the new suite of tools we’ve developed to use on your behalf, we know we have something that will improve your marketing efforts. Even though we’ll never be able to be your entire sales department or act as your private marketing firm, we want to continue to help make things easier for you as you sell more charters, to more people, for more money.

The council has just secured our venue for this year’s GlowMotorcoach party at UMA in San Antonio, and let me tell you: this year will be one to remember.

Tickets will once again be limited and available only on a first-come, first-serve basis.

We are also excited to publicly announce that this year we will be awarding the first annual Market Leader Award to a motorcoach operator who is doing the most to increase demand for their product or service.

Applications for this award will be available online in early September.

As a member of this council, and now as president, it is amazing to watch the board and Industry Steering Committee work together on your behalf. Our meetings and communications are singular in their mission and focus. We want everyone in our industry to reach the potential we all see is out there, and our

Jeff Rogers

MMC President.

Owner First Class Tours Houston, TX

MARKETING

Email StillThe King Of ROI, Says DMA /

BY JESS NELSON

Email marketing programs need to work in conjunction with additional marketing channels to give customers the best experience possible...

Email marketing remains the best digital marketing channel for return on investment, according to the Data & Marketing Association’s (DMA) latest Response Rate Report.

Email marketing was the top profit generator, per the annual benchmark report, with email’s cost-per-acquisition (CPA) the lowest of all media types evaluated in the report at $10.32.

Half of the 592 marketers polled

by the DMA expressed a plan to increase their use of email over the next year.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, online display ads had the lowest return on investment, although 16% more marketers utilized it this year compared to 2016. Social media witnessed the largest year-over-year increase in usage, jumping from 47% of respondents in 2016 to 69% in 2017. Paid search had the second-

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largest increased in usage, rising from 37% to 55%.

Virtual reality, on the other hand, lags in adoption. Only 7% of marketers are currently leveraging VR in their marketing campaigns.

The report also highlights the importance of mobile optimization, as more than 80% of respondents acknowledged that email open rates on mobile devices were either equal to or greater than open rates on desktop computers. This statistic reaffirms the importance of ensuring that email messages render correctly on any screen that they are being read on, which now might also include Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

A brand’s marketing program can no longer be viewed as channels-specific, and only 11% of marketers polled by DMA currently utilize only one digital marketing channel.

The average number of marketing channels in use in 2017 is 3.4 -- a jump from 2.7 in 2016.

Email marketing programs need to work in conjunction with additional marketing channels to give customers the best experience possible, and personalization is key for marketers that are eager to derive the maximum value from their email campaigns.

“Personalization leads to better customer experiences -- which leads to higher engagement, conversion rates and retention,” says T.J. Prebil, director of product marketing at Evergage. “True personalization is about relevance, discovery and anticipating the needs of customers so they have a positive experience with a brand. Email marketers need to move from delivering static content to delivering dynamic and truly relevant content.”

Prebil asserts that the power of personalization in email marketing comes down to relevancy.

“Leveraging information about each individual (such as website behavior, purchase history or download activity), email marketers can deliver emails that are truly relevant to the person and reflect their interests and intent,” says Prebil. 

READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE ONLINE CLICK HERE

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STRATEGY

For Brands, Twitter Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint/ Opinion: Twitter long ago stopped being a 140-character-only platform, and its more engaging features offer big possibilities for brands strategies.

BY: Justin Marshall

In fairness, many brands haven’t cracked the Twitter code yet,....

If you’re one of the more than 3.5 million people who recently retweeted #NuggsForCarter to support a young man’s recordbreaking quest for a free year of Wendy’s chicken nuggets, you might be surprised to learn that some believe Twitter is dead to brands.

•

50 percent of Twitter users follow brands.

•

They’re 45 percent more likely than other social media users to post opinions about brands.

•

41 percent provide opinions about products or services.

In fairness, many brands haven’t cracked the Twitter code yet, but much of the reason lies in their offthe-cuff strategies for it. Led astray by a successful Oreo tweet in 2013, they try to use the platform to spontaneously insert themselves into the cultural moment.

•

They’re 31 percent more likely than other social media users to convince others of their opinions (GlobalWebIndex).

•

Twitter drives twice the brand favorability of the same ads on TV.

Wendy’s is a little different. It creates its own cultural moments. #NuggsForCarter would never have happened without its long and careful attention to the platform.

Aside from running one of the more fluent brand feeds you’ll find, it offered up the first March Madness bracket on the platform and uses it as the launch point for a lot of its marketing. Success on Twitter, it turns out, is intentional rather than accidental, and the result of strategy rather than luck.

An unmatched engagement platform This matters because Twitter offers arguably the best opportunity for brands in social media today. People come to the platform in discovery mode, looking to learn what’s happening in the world. Once there, they’re open and receptive to everyone, including brands. A few data points bear this out:

In other words, brands have a much better chance of getting heard on Twitter. It’s live, public and global, which makes it a good place to make a meaningful impact and create big moments with consumers. But how can you accomplish that in 140 characters?

Beyond the tweet The short answer is that you don’t have to anymore. Twitter long ago stopped being a 140-character-only platform, and its more engaging features offer big possibilities for brands.

Probably the best new option is live video. Twitter has always been the go-to second screen, but now both screens reside in the same place.

More important, Twitter has a huge audience that self-segments, giving you both scale and quality of audience.

What’s more, people are getting used to watching video on Twitter.

In the first quarter of 2017, for example, more than 45 million people

An unmatched engagement platform This matters because Twitter offers arguably the best opportunity for brands in social media today.

Successful brands on Twitter craft stories that people care about and that can live and breathe over time.

globally watched live videos on Twitter, with 55 percent of them under the age of 25. As a result, live video can not only generate views, but also start a conversation between people that amplifies your message.

multiple tweets an as well as articles, content. Moments enabling you to cura to an ongoing nar incorporate tweets t

We can see this from Nike’s recent Breaking2, where millions of people came to Twitter (and a few other platforms) to watch a live stream of three athletes trying to break the two-hour barrier in a marathon. After that, #breaking2 served as hashtag for inspirational tweets about exercise.

While essentially an Moments is esp branded events. Mic wrapped up two day Build conference. Th videos of its keynote like HoloLens. Alon captured and surf including a tweet who was so excite a GIF of a cat ridin while holding a Mic

Another option is Moments. This feature takes as its starting point the idea that stories tend to unfold in

nd points of view, , videos and other s reflects that by ate and add content rrative and send or to modify it.

n unlimited canvas, pecially good for crosoft, for example, ys of Moments on its he company posted es and cool products ng the way, it also faced fan content, from an attendee ed that he posted ng a tyrannosaurus crosoft flag.

Path to success To take advantage of all this, however, brands must stop looking at the platform as a forum for one-off content. Twitter requires orchestration and curation. It’s not about the Oreo playbook and reacting in real-time.

It’s about charting out a narrative that grows and changes as events occur.

Successful brands on Twitter craft stories that people care about and that can live and breathe over time. Nike succeeded with Breaking2 because it made a bold stand and reminded people that it celebrates athletes in addition to apparel. Wendy’s capitalized on #NuggsForCarter because of its

long and authentic engagement with customers on the platform.

So, don’t worry. Twitter is still one of the Internet’s best audiences for brands. However, we need to think about it with a narrative focus. Winning on the platform is not a sprint, but a marathon—and definitely one that should take longer than two hours to complete. 

READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE ONLINE CLICK HERE

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T h e u l t i m a t e c l a s s.

In CaseYou Missed It/ Important Articles Written Exclusively for the Motorcoach Industry.

Compiling Your Marketing Tool Kit

Proactive Selling

Marketing is a big umbrella; everything from websites to t-shirts falls under it, and sometimes it can be difficult to know where to start. As I work with more and more...

The difference between doing anything proactively and doing it reactively is obvious. From vehicle maintenance to our own personal health, there are a myriad of reasons...

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Why What We Call Our Equipment Matters

The Next Generation of GoMotorcoach

What do you call something that drives in a bus lane, carries passengers, and offers groups the safest, most comfortablemeans of group transportation on the road...

For the past 4 years, it has been my pleasure to help the Motorcoach Marketing Council further its mission. We have been working to raise awareness regarding...

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Overcoming Phone Phobia

Using Gratitude to Grow

I am often asked what is the fastest way to grow my motorcoach business? While this question warms me to my core because it represents a genuine interest in...

Even though it may seem crazy, Thanksgiving is just around the corner. If tradition holds true, we will gather together to eat, drink, be merry, and take some...

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STRATEGY

The Do’s & Don’ts of Loyalty Marketing/

BY Jeff Sopko

Loyalty marketers have a tough job, with brands in a crowded retail space clamoring for the attention of consumers.

Many CMOs and CEOs are looking to loyalty for stability in a time defined by vacillating ideas, restless customers and volatile technologies.

Given the variable state of retail, the pressure on loyalty is warranted. It’s one of the few marketing programs left that broadly impacts all channels incrementally with measurable results.

Yet with that added pressure comes increased scrutiny. So here are a few Do’s and Don’ts to ensure that your program generates results.

to spend more and visit more frequently at companies that offer loyalty incentives.

Given these stats, it’s important that loyalty marketers…

Do: Focus customers.

incessantly

on

your

best

It’s the 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of program profits come from the top two deciles of your file. Focus on keeping them happy, increasing purchases and transitioning other members into those top two deciles. Retention and tier migration for the top 20% are the program’s backbone, and they deserve the most attention; they keep the program running.

Don’t: Worry about the little guys.

The customer When it comes to customer engagement, there’s a myriad different strategies for success that start with acquisition and stretch through retention. There’s even more debate over which strategies are most effective. Nonetheless, the importance of customer engagement can’t be overstated.

Likewise, the bottom 20% of the file is going to be classified as burnout once they’ve been there for a significant period. Some might cringe at the idea of letting these customers go but burnout is okay; it’s actually quite healthy for loyalty programs. Low-level members are just increasing liability and adding un-needed weight to the program without added benefit.

Starve them out or make them to jump up tiers.

According to Nielsen:

Hard and soft benefits

74% of loyalty program participants would be more likely to keep doing business with companies that offer such programs.

Many brands are reticent when it comes to either hard or soft benefits. With hard benefits, they’re scared of the liability or the discounting wars from the past decade. With soft, they’re

67% of program participants are more likely

afraid it won’t be enough; customers might leave the program over fluffy rewards.

You can find a happy medium for your brand if you…

Do: Get in touch with your emotions.

With loyalty, there are two ways to create behavior. Rewards create a stimulated motive.

A sale for 20% off the entire store makes you want to shop, for example. But emotion creates its own stimulus. The customer loves the brand; the stimulus is internal and doesn’t need a lever.

Emotional engagement is more than just soft benefits. It’s how those benefits align to the brand story, tone of voice, communications strategy and the product itself. Human beings are naturally drawn to great stories and loyalty has an audience willing to listen, engage and align to the brand based on those stories. Make sure soft benefits help support that end-goal.

Don’t: Forget the transaction.

In the end, rewards are still going to drive a vast portion of behavior, especially early in the program’s lifespan. While emotional engagement is much more powerful, it’s also narrower, focused on the top decile. Rewards are far-reaching, and they can complement emotional engagement and help prime members to become ambassadors. Remember that rewards are the most measurable portion of the program.

Measurement Analytics, ROI and measurement are perhaps the most complex parts of loyalty programs.

The hunt for incrementality is challenging without the right partners, systems and strategic approaches. Even so, it’s the most important part of loyalty -- you need results in today’s environment to get additional budget.

Do: Measure everything.

Measuring success isn’t about measuring totals and top-line growth. It’s meticulous and it happens at the customer level. To show success, you’ll need a 360-degree view of your

customer’s actions -- not just when they buy, but also what they click, what channels they use, ratings and reviews, share of wallet, and more. If it isn’t measurable, you can’t know what’s working and what isn’t, or what to improve and what to champion to the C-Suite.

Don’t: Rely on technology.

Technology partners will tell you they have dashboards that can house all your analytics needs. They don’t.

There are partners that understand loyalty marketing and have a clear plan of action to help you measure incremental gains and customer analytics, but they won’t be found in your technology or platform partner. Simply put, dashboards aren’t enough. Loyalty needs in-depth read-outs, consistent and meticulous attention to the small minutiae of customer interactions across complicated channels. Big cookie-cutter technology platforms can’t help you there.

Pressure is good In the end, remember that the pressure being placed on loyalty marketers is a good problem.

Loyalty is finally getting the recognition it deserves for putting the customer first, and understanding how brands can harness that sentiment and provide value back to members.

With robust strategies and great analytics, the industry can turn that pressure into unrivaled success.

Jeff Sopko is president of Baesman Insights & Marketing, a full-service agency that partners with retailers to create highly-targeted, datadriven customer marketing, loyalty and CRM programs. Baesman is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, with partnerships across the United States, including: American Girl, DSW, Rag & Bone, Shoe Carnival, Stanley Steemer, Rite Rug, and many more. 

READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE ONLINE CLICK HERE

In regards to the Motorcoach Marketing program, we love it. So far, we have made the 1000 postcards, and we did some full page handouts. We just got a stand up banner.

When I get some time, I’ll be making new rack cards for both offices. We made 500 church theme postcards and 500 in the safety theme.

We sent out the church cards through a local mailing company to every church within 50 miles. So far, we have had a great response and 4-5 people booked trips from it. I plan on using the safety ones soon by sending them to our new customers. All of our staff and drivers love the modern design and the finished products. Only one of my staff has watched the videos so far, but we will be working on that next month. So far I’m very happy with the service. It works well and looks great!

Chris Knittel

Owner/General Manager New Mexico Texas Coaches, LLC

We Help Operators Sell More Charters To More People.

Easier. Faster. Far More Effective.

MotorcoachMarketing.org

WEB

4 Dangers of Digital Com Avoid Them/

By Naphtali Hoff

mmunication and 8 Tips to It’s no surprise that we use email and text for so many of our communications.

It’s often faster, it’s neater, and it can easily be saved for future reference without paper sifting and clutter. Digital communication allows us to send and reply at our own convenience. And you can communicate with several people at one time, But there are also some serious dangers that, unless managed properly, will turn these advantages into a huge disadvantage.

Danger #1: Easy to misinterpret.

Without hearing a voice or seeing nonverbal cues, people often miss the intended meaning, tone, value and emphasis because so much of the way we normally share information and ideas includes nonverbal communication like inflections, hand gestures, facial tone, and body position.

A study by Professors Justin Kruger of New York University and Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago on how well sarcasm is detected in digital messages found that e-mail senders overestimate their ability to communicate feelings and recipients overrate their ability to correctly decode those feelings.

Tips: Use digital communication primarily for exchange of information, not resolving conflict.

Make time for face-toface communications on a regular basis. It will build a foundation to support your more impersonal digital communications.

Be alert to the possibility that your intentions might be misunderstood. If you get a response that is out of line with what you expected, check to see if your message was correctly understood.

Danger #2: Raises the temperature.

For many people, the distance of digital communication makes it feel safer to “yell” or to be critical. We can more easily muster up the gumption to criticize when we are typing words on our personal keyboards than when we have to look someone in the eye and share our feelings. Furthermore, the prospect of instantaneous communication creates a pressure to write quickly, which can lead to carelessness.

Tips: Develop the habit of responding to email at intervals rather than being always available.

Don’t dash off quick responses. Re-read your emails and texts for clarity before you hit send.

Danger #3: It can go anywhere.

The quick nature of email makes it easy to forget that our words actually matter and can really come back to bite us. Not only must we worry about how our message will be processed “in the moment,” but there is a chance that it will be forwarded or printed for others to see as well.

Tips: Never send an email with potentially negative implications without first showing it to one or two trusted colleagues.

Assume all your digital communications are public. Never send something you wouldn’t want your mother to read.

Danger #4: Creates distance.

Perhaps worst of all, dependence on digital communication creates a distance between colleagues, sometimes when only a wall or cubicle separates them. It might be easier to send a quick response than to get up and share a few words. Or you might not want to not disturb your busy coworkers, especially if they are in another conversation or on the phone. But it’s important to not fall into the habit of remaining distant. Personal rapport keeps relationships strong, especially in the face of conflict.

No matter how thoughtfully an email is crafted, its digital nature makes it feel distant and impersonal. You simply cannot compare the feel of an email with that of a face-to-face chat or a phone call.

Tips: Make time for face-to-face communications on a regular basis. It will build a foundation to support your more impersonal digital communications. As our jobs involve working with and getting things done with people, we have to be able to build healthy relationships. This requires a healthy dose of ongoing, in-person interactions, to get to know each other in real terms and how we each tick.

If you are avoiding a conversation or feeling uncomfortable, don’t try to deal with it electronically. This is exactly the right time to pick up the phone or have a face-to-face conversation. 

READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE ONLINE CLICK HERE

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MARKETING

Here’s a supereasy way to grow your small business/

By RHONDA ABRAMS

It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”

That old saying is as true today as ever. When you want to get ahead, it helps to know people.

So a key business skill every small business owner needs to master is “networking” — how to get

out in the world and make lots of acquaintances and friends.

And I do mean, “get out in the world.�

Sure, you can connect with tons of people through social media, but even with all the technology advances, meeting people face-toface has great power.

And networking can change your life. It sure changed mine. In the early years of my consulting business, I was a regular attendee at networking events. I landed my first clients through networking groups, got referral sources, learned more about my market, and eventually met the person who would lead me

to write my first book.

Yes, real-world networking takes time, and you — as a small business owner — probably think you don’t have time for such events. I understand. Every networking event took me away from my desk and “real work.” But, as hard as it was for me to leave my desk in the middle of the day, get on a bus to go downtown for a lunch networking meeting, and spend $25 or so that I barely had at the time, it sure paid off.

Networking is affordable and effective because people like doing business with people they

know. So the more people you know — and the more people who know what business you’re in — the more potential customers and referral sources you have.

At networking events, you’ll meet people who can help you grow your business by: •

Becoming themselves

•

Becoming referral sources and sending business your way

•

Helping you employees

customers

find

good

•

Providing products or services you need

•

Helping you learn about your market and/or industry

•

Partnering with you in some aspect of your business

Every community has its share of organizations where business owners and professionals come together. Types of groups you can join include: General entrepreneur’s or business groups. These are business organizations with attendees from many industries — like local startup groups or

Chambers of Commerce. They’re good for meeting lots of business people in your community.

If you want to make the time you spend networking really pay off, be sure to:

Industry-related groups. With more than 37,000 industry and professional associations in the U.S., there’s almost certainly an association related to your industry in your own town.

Participating in industry-related groups helps you improve your knowledge, skills and find more resources, as well as serving a networking function. I’ve compiled this list of many trade associations for you.

Practice your elevator pitch.

You’ll often be given 30 seconds to introduce yourself to other members or people will ask you what you do. You need a clear, concise description at the ready.

Group-specific entrepreneur associations. Some business organizations are aimed at specific demographic groups, such as specific ethnic or religious groups, women, youth, immigrants, and more. Examples include the U.S.Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Women Business Owners, National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce.

Come early, especially if you’re a “wallflower.” Early arrivers all start talking to one another before the crowd arrives.

Non-business groups. Of course, you can also meet people at groups based on shared interests, such as sports, alumni, non-profit organizations. Just don’t be too aggressive in soliciting others in a social or volunteer setting.

To find a group in your town, check local newspapers and websites of local papers, Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs), trade association websites, even the website Meetup.

Don’t just show up. If you want to get the most customers and referrals, don’t just attend one or two meetings. Come regularly.

Join committees. Volunteer to help out.

Follow up. Enter business cards you’ve collected into your contact management system.

Send personal emails to people you met. And if anyone wanted to know more, send catalogs, set up appointments, or follow up with a phone call.Although networking takes time and energy, it can be one of the most powerful tools in your small business toolkit.

READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE ONLINE CLICK HERE

Don’t just show up. If you want to get the most customers and referrals, don’t just attend one or two meetings.

Come regularly.

Join committees.

Volunteer to help out.

STRATEGY

Driving sales with marketing automation: Part two/

By SUE BARRETT

The ‘Driving Sales with Marketing Automation’ series of three articles has been developed by Rishad Sukhia, director of Brightlabs, and Sue Barrett, founder and chief executive of Barrett.

In the second article, Sukhia and Barrett look at five ways to implement marketing automation in your business.

Delivering effective sales and marketing strategies requires a disciplined approach. ‘Less is more’ is also a good reminder when looking at how to get the best results out of marketing automation.

Before you launch marketing automation you first need content that aligns with your sales strategy, your purpose, your story, your value proposition, your promise, your customers, and so on.

First think about: • What do want to communicate to your customers?

• How often do you want to communicate with your customers?

• What do you want your customers to do with that communication?

• What content and mediums do you want to use to engage your customers?

• How do you want to follow up with any leads that come into the business?

Once you have the answers to these questions you can look at how you are going to use marketing automation to drive new opportunities to your business.

Remember marketing automation is a tool not an end in of itself.

1. Automating repetitive tasks

Within email m campaigns can b of time to be rel your predetermi called drip camp be added so that your newsletter e-book, for exam be configured to lead by sending a related content.

As the name implies, these platforms automate repetitive tasks that would otherwise be manually completed.

Being a mode traditionally m marketing autom

Use this checklist to get you started.

marketing, multiple be scheduled ahead leased according to ined settings (also paigns). Triggers can t if a lead signs up to or downloads your mple, the system can o follow up with the an email containing

ern alternative to manual processes, mation distributes

your content in a streamlined, more organised way. This could potentially reduce time, labour and costs.

2. Prioritising leads via lead scoring Some companies have limited resources to dedicate towards following leads. Realistically, they can’t pursue every lead, and sifting through leads consumes time and energy that can be utilised more effectively.

Marketing automation helps companies follow the right leads by assigning ‘scores’ to each lead based on factors such as demographics, location and their level of interaction with your content. The lead scoring process allows companies to filter out dead leads (with low scores) and spend more time contacting stronger or more promising leads (with high scores).

From surveying users, VB Insight found that 80% of users noticed their number of leads increase, and 77% saw increased conversion rates after implementing marketing automation.

3. Lead nurturing and alerts Lead nurturing is another illustration of marketing automation. Instead of pressuring a lead to buy from the outset, marketing automation allows you to build relationships with leads over time until they are sales-ready.

Marketing automation platforms can automatically alert you when leads take certain actions such as visiting your website or submitting a form.

Setting up alerts in real time can be extremely valuable. It means hot leads can be followed up on immediately. Emailing the lead within an hour of them visiting your website while their interest is still fresh is likely to increase the chances of a sale.

Of course, statistics support this too.

The Annuitas Group observes that “nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads”.

Sales people can help here as well by sharing content online in the right social media channels, making comments or sending links to clients or prospects to stay in touch and be relevant. The ‘relevant’ part is key here. It must be relevant to the customer or prospect; something that will engage them and want them to follow up. The last thing you want is to be relegated to the ‘SPAM’ files. Less is more rings true here as well.

4.

Data collection and performance measurement Marketing automation can report on how well your campaigns are performing or how many new leads were generated from a particular piece of content.

Specific data questions:

answers

specific

• Are you contacting your users too often, or being too forceful? Check your unsubscribe rates and abuse complaints; • Are your customers finding your content interesting? Perhaps clickthrough rates and open rates might reveal this; and

• Who are your most engaged customers?

Watch response rates and engagement rates by segments With every action, there is a consumerdriven reaction. The data collected through marketing automation software provides the feedback needed to improve future campaigns.

This information must be shared with sales people and teams quickly and regularly to give them real time insights about how customers and prospects are reacting. Not all is lost if someone reacts badly to a digital contact. Sales people know that they can take alternative actions to proactively influence and win back disengaged prospects and customers. Sitting there and doing nothing is not an option.

While it is true that technology can often dehumanise certain processes, marketing ‘automation’ is by no means impersonal.

5. Personalisation While it is true that technology can often dehumanise certain processes, marketing ‘automation’ is by no means impersonal.

By collecting useful data on a user’s interests and purchasing behaviour, marketing automation facilitates targeted conversations with leads and gives companies the ability to tailor its content towards specific users.

An example of adding dynamic content is sending targeted offers based on a user’s website patterns. When you log into Amazon, you will find your name dynamically inserted around the page and new products presented to you based on predictive algorithms. Such ‘dynamic personalisation’ can be achieved with marketing automation.

If you are unsure where to start or what to do, find an experienced, strategic business consultant who specialises in sales strategy, sales process and selling in general to help

you develop an integrated sales strategy and go-to-market action plan. Then find a digital agency with an understanding of the digital content marketing and marketing automation landscape who can take your sales strategy information and help you in developing content and choosing a platform that offers you the right features in line with your sales strategy and then assist you along the way with the implementation process.

Remember everybody lives by selling something. 

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7 Reasons Why CRM And Sales Are Correlated To Sustainable Business Growth/

By Hassan Mansoor

For many entrepreneurs and business owners, moving from one stage of a thriving business to the next one can be quite a challenge.

Research shows that only a mere 0.1 percent of businesses hit the $250 million mark in annual sales. That number gets smaller for the billion-dollar group, with only 0.036 percent of companies making it to $1 billion in revenue.

These figures paint a grim future for ambitious businesses that look to compete and grow in the current cut-throat business environment.

offline channels. Following up with each lead on your CRM database gives your sales team an opportunity to nurture relationships and eventually turn leads into loyal customers. With strong relationships in the sales department and both current and potential customers, businesses are more likely to withstand the test of time and realize sustainable growth.

Sustainable business growth is an element that often eludes even the biggest of businesses.

Many entrepreneurs often find it easy to come up with and execute solid business ideas, only for the business to fizzle out within the first few years of existence. Achieving sustainable business is often the sum-total of different factors, but chiefly how well the business manages its sales pipeline, usually with a customer relationship management (CRM) platform.

In many organizations, the sales and marketing teams are often lumped into a single department, usually because they’re meant to feed off each other. The marketing team is ideally supposed to bring in and nurture leads while the sales team is often tasked with servicing customers and ensuring overall customer satisfaction. However, sustainable business growth requires these two departments – and other organizational departments for that matter – to work as a single, well-oiled machine.

CRM platforms enable businesses to manage their customer databases, giving teams an accurate forecast of their sales and marketing efforts. Here’s a little bit more of how CRM systems in sales departments are associated with sustainable business growth.

A CRM system enables sales and marketing teams to work together as members of one organization, which helps promote business growth. For instance, both marketing and sales teams have access to complete records of leads and customers, which makes it easier for them to target highly profitable prospects.

1. Enables businesses to follow up on each lead It makes no sense to invest heavily in getting visitors to your website using expensive customer acquisition tactics and waiting for them to make a purchase and become loyal customers. You need to keep tabs on any visitors that come to your site, ensuring you follow up on each visitor to find out why they did or didn’t complete their journey.

A CRM platform enables you to track and follow up on each potential lead that comes into contact with you – via both online and

2. Improves relationship between sales and marketing teams

3. Provides a better analytical view of individual clients A salesperson’s contacts are the biggest asset in the sales and marketing department. They act as valuable leads, potential customers, and can also be leveraged for more leads via networking.

In fact, a good number of marketers often feel that one of the main reasons why they fail to understand their target audience is the lack of a disparate source of data. This is where CRM systems often come in handy.

A CRM system gives sales and marketing teams

a single data source that can be used to provide useful information on individual clients. A contacts report on basic CRMs can give sales and marketing executives detailed information on a lead’s stage in the sales pipeline, contact date, demographics, channel or source, and other important information. This information can be used to find new networking opportunities, close new leads, and identify weak spots in the sales funnel.

4. Improved customer support Customer satisfaction has always played a major role in creating sustainable, profitable businesses. At its core is customer centricity, a key business strategy that brings together all the elements of customer experience to drive sustainable business growth. CRM systems are among the most effective platforms for managing leads and customers, making

them a useful addition to a customer-centric organization.

CRM systems enable sales and marketing teams to learn about different aspects of their customers’ requirements and pain points, helping to improve sales and customer loyalty.

5. Improved organizational efficiency Sales and marketing teams often work as part of a larger organization with different moving parts. To achieve organizational efficiency, different members of staff must work together as members of the same team to achieve a common goal. A CRM platform gives staff members an effective communication platform that enables everyone to keep track of the goings-on in the organization.

Staff members can use the CRM platform to

track developments in other departments.

Managers can use the CRM-enabled pipeline to develop effective growth strategies for the business by coming up with efficient organizational processes.

6. Improves targeted marketing efforts In a world where every marketing dollar counts, wasting precious resources on false impressions can be devastating. This is why it’s always important to ensure every resource that has been committed to finding leads brings in a respectable level of ROI. In fact, businesses have been shown to gain up to 30% in efficiency by simply taking control of wasted impressions.

Using CRM data in your targeting efforts can be a game-changer for sales and marketing departments. Your CRM data gives you access to both offline and online customers coming from multiple marketing channels, enabling you to target the right audience and save your precious marketing resources.

Allows segmentation of leads and customers Whenever you shop on some of the big online stores like Amazon, eBay, and Walmart, you often get buying suggestions based on your

shopping habits on these sites. These companies are able to implement such marketing tactics by automation and segmentation of their customer databases, often using CRM systems.

For smaller businesses, a CRM system helps the business increase efficiency by targeting segmented groups of leads and customers with appropriate sales proposals and marketing messages.

Bottom Line Implementing and managing a CRM system is only one of the many facets of a business on a sustainable growth curve. To guarantee sustainable growth, the CRM system must be maintained by regularly updating the system with relevant customer data and removing obsolete entries that might have a negative impact on the integrity of the system. 

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7 things marketers need to know about Google’s Smart display campaigns, direct from Google /

By Matt Lawson

When it comes to digital marketing, efficiency is the name of the game.

You’re busy, and there’s a neverending task list filled with budgets, creatives and audiences. What if you could automate them in one easy workflow? You can increase your productivity, spend more time on strategy and finally plan that summer getaway to Italy.

Two months ago, Google (my employer) launched Smart display

campaigns to automate display campaigns and scale performance.

Today, I wanted to answer some of the top questions we’ve heard from advertisers.

1. Do I still need to bother with regular campaigns now that Smart display campaigns exist?

It depends. Smart display campaigns can help save time and drive better performance by automating

bidding, targeting and creatives.

That means you don’t have to build extensive audience lists or create dozens of ads in different sizes and formats. Advertisers who use Smart display campaigns have seen an average 20 percent increase in conversions at the same CPA (cost per acquisition), compared to their other display campaigns, according to internal Google data.

If you need to manually control bidding, targeting or creatives, you should use regular display campaigns. There are four specific use cases that come to mind: You can’t measure conversions through AdWords tracking. To use Smart display campaigns, you need at least 50 display conversions or 100 search conversions in the last 30 days.

You have seasonal campaigns you turn on and off. If you need to change your budget very quickly within a short period of time (think Black Friday), just switch to manual bidding.

You want to create more customized audiences. Regular display campaigns let you build highly segmented lists for things like “past converters who spent over $1,000” or “shopping cart abandoners.”

You want full control over your creatives. Regular display campaigns let you fine-tune the colors, fonts or layouts used in the ads.

Finally, it’s possible to run both campaign types at once. Even better, the auction will favor

the better-performing ad. If your Smart display campaigns drive more conversions, you’ll see more volume from these campaigns than your regular display campaigns.

2. What types of targeting can I expect?

Smart display campaigns use a combination of remarketing, display keywords, topics, placements, in-market audiences and similar audiences.

3. How do Smart display campaigns optimize across multiple targeting types?

Smart display campaigns use machine learning to optimize for conversions in each and every ad auction. They look at unique data signals like performance history, creatives, website and remarketing lists.

Let’s say your remarketing drives killer conversion rates.

The algorithm will shift volume to remarketing to drive more conversions. Or let’s say the “Luxury Traveler” in-market audiences segment isn’t performing well. The algorithm will lower bids there or pause that segment.

4. Should I keep my existing remarketing campaigns?

If you already have highly segmented audience lists, you should keep your existing remarketing campaigns while trying out Smart display campaigns. If you have a simpler list structure (one or two lists),

use Smart display campaigns to run your remarketing. In fact, we’ve seen many advertisers drive better results compared to running remarketing alone.

Smart display campaigns build lists based on your current tags and are designed to drive as many conversions as possible at the target CPA. 5. How can I tell what’s happening with my Smart display campaigns?

You still get the same good old reports like the Display Summary report. You get a bonus report with Smart display campaigns — the Assets Report. This report ranks your creative assets as “Best,” “Good” or “Low” based on how many conversions those assets drive relative to one another.

It’s possible for your ad to get a “Learning” rating, which means the system is still learning and needs more conversions. It can take anywhere from a few days to two weeks for the algorithm to learn which ads work best.

We recommend you review this report on a bimonthly or monthly basis. For ads with the “Low” rating, you can swap them out for new creatives that are similar to your “Best” rated ads. For ads with the “Best” rating, you can apply your learnings (e.g., best headline and description combination) across your regular search and display campaigns. Pretty cool, huh?

6. How can I drive even better results?

You can use drafts and experiments

to test different CPA targets. For example, you can test increasing CPA targets to see if volume increases offset costs (and leads to higher profit). When testing, it’s important to keep your CPA target changes to 20 percent or less; it takes the algorithm longer to adjust to large, sudden changes.

the above image, I used two headlines, two descriptions, two marketing images and a few logos. Just like magic, you can see some of the output ad variations below.

Keep in mind it should take a few days for your account to adjust to your new goals. If your test is a success, you can scale it to other campaigns.

We know some content might not be right for every brand.

AdWords has built-in settings that help your ads show on the right content for your brand.

For example, gambling sites are opted out by default on Display Network campaigns.

The second thing you can do is focus on creative optimizations.

You have five headlines, five descriptions and five+ images that we’ll mix and match to find the best ad variation.

Try rotating in new descriptions, headlines and images.

Make sure your headlines are different from your descriptions.

This will help avoid redundant messaging.

You should also upload a logo to increase the number of placements you’ll be eligible for.

And if you have a product feed, you can also link that seamlessly into Smart display campaigns.

If there’s one thing to remember, it’s this: When you provide more assets, you give yourself thousands more ad copy tests for the system to optimize. It’s essentially ad copy testing at scale, which could uncover breakthrough winners.

In

7. But wait, how do I keep my ads from appearing on the wrong sites?

On top of these default settings, you can also opt into and out of sensitive content with site category exclusions in AdWords.

Let’s say you don’t want to show your ads on crime- or militaryrelated content. You can opt out of those specific categories.

You can also create an accountlevel placement exclusions list for off-brand domains. If you need ideas, take a look at your Placement Report. Keep in mind you have a 500-placement limit on account-level exclusions.

This includes both websites and mobile apps. Once your list is ready, use the Shared Library in AdWords to apply the exclusions list across your entire account.

Conclusion Smart display campaigns can be your new best friend. But don’t take my word for it. Create a Smart display campaign yourself to see if it works for you.

Smart display campaigns use a combination of remarketing, display keywords, topics, placements, inmarket audiences and similar audiences.

Here’s to a summer of productivity, automated tasks and finally taking that getaway to Italy! 

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STRATEGY

How to generate B2B leads with LinkedIn’s Sponsored InMail/ If you haven’t been taking advantage of Sponsored InMail, it may be time to hop onboard. Columnist Garrett Mehrguth dives into the ways it can benefit your B2B organization and drive leads.

BY: Garrett Mehrguth

Social media is no longer an important thing that you should probably be doing; it’s a critical part of your marketing funnel.

In the B2B space, marketing qualified leads are the metric of choice. Unfortunately, for marketing in B2B, the “qualified” part is what’s so difficult.

While search engine optimization is great, we still don’t have demographic data we can use to organically target our persona.

For paid search, we can assume our audience would “type” certain keywords for what we offer. The difficulty in B2B is that you can’t guarantee that the people who find you from search engines have at least 500 employees and work in a vertical that you have great case studies for.

With these issues at the bottom of the marketing funnel, B2B organizations are relying on referral partners, conferences, outbound sales, and — gasp! — social media.

Social media is no longer an important thing that you should probably be doing; it’s a critical part of your marketing funnel. Now, I’m not saying that you need to be sharing or tweeting three times a day (not that that’s a bad thing). I am saying that you need a targeted and affordable way to advertise to your exact persona, and Facebook and LinkedIn provide that to you.

On both platforms, you’re able to layer your targeting (you can’t do this very well on Twitter yet) so that you can, for instance, find people who work in computer software, have a title related to digital marketing, at a company with more than 500 employees, and then serve up a relevant ad.

By now, we all should understand why social media must be a critical part of your advertising strategy — so now, we’re going to dive into an even more direct way to use social advertising: LinkedIn’s Sponsored InMail.

As you can see, this is a direct and very personal way to target your B2B audience at a low cost. Below, we are going to go through: 1.

2.

3.

4.

Targeting Segmenting Messaging Call to action

Grab a coffee, and let’s begin!

1. Targeting for Sponsored InMail LinkedIn offers a wide variety of targeting for Sponsored InMail: audience targeting based on pages visited, list-based targeting directly from your CRM (customer relationship management platform) or demographic-based targeting around LinkedIn data.

All three of these have a place to be experimented with when running Sponsored InMail. But instead of running through how to click the buttons, here are two innovative ways you can use Sponsored InMail targeting to generate leads: You can upload a list of all your dead prospects from your CRM to re-engage with them in a new channel. You can also upload a list of all your current outbound sales prospects who are in your sequences/cadences and use Sponsored InMail to add a new layer of sales touches.

You can target people who have downloaded a specific report.

LinkedIn offers a wide variety of targeting for Sponsored InMail: audience targeting based on pages visited, listbased targeting directly from your CRM (customer relationship management platform) or demographicbased targeting around LinkedIn data.

Imagine you are in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. You can now target everyone who has gone to your landing page, then exclude everyone who converted. The same goes for any or all pages on your site. You can retarget users with Sponsored InMail, and then exclude all converters to retarget in a more personal and direct way.

With so many innovative ways you can target, these two ideas can get the ball rolling.

2. Segmenting in Sponsored InMail All the targeting in the world is useless if you do not segment and narrow your audience. Remember, Sponsored InMail is a personal and direct touch; at least it should be. So if you do not segment by vertical + persona, you will be left with poor conversions and performance.

I know, because I launched with only partial segmentation: vertical — and was left with no results. But, when segmenting into not just one desired vertical, but also personabased messaging, it worked.

As a side note, persona-based messaging means that you are appealing to each persona in your target accounts differently.

I have found CEOs want to know what opportunities they might be missing, while CMOs want to know benchmarks and trends, while managers want help executing.

Each has a unique need and requires a unique message.

Fortunately, you can do this quite easily in Sponsored InMail

by creating a campaign for each vertical + persona. So one might be B2B Software and VP of Marketing. Now, your messaging can be personalized and scaled up for that exact persona in that exact vertical.

Introduction/body

As you can see, you can get as granular or broad as you like, but the key is segmenting by at least two levels deep.

Next, you want to explain your firm’s unique value proposition and how it directly impacts them in no more than two sentences.

Notice that introduction and body are the same — you don’t want to be long-winded. If you don’t have a true value prop for an exact segment, why send anyway? It won’t work.

3. Messaging for Sponsored InMail Getting the messaging right is impossible without the segmentation talked about above.

But with great targeting and proper segmentation, messaging can be a breeze. Before we break down our learnings from outbound messaging, take a look at the copy below: Let’s break this down by subject line, introduction/body and conclusion.

Subject line I’ve tried countless subject lines over the years of doing outbound. From an open and replies standpoint, few have ever outperformed: “Hi FirstName, Hoping to Help.” But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experiment. A great experiment you can run is to appeal to your segment + persona in your subject line: How We Help VPs of Marketing at SaaS Firms Have fun, test these, but ensure you have a sure thing running so you don’t waste spend.

For the introduction, it’s critical that you use merge tags to personalize your message. You want to scale up personalization and retain the human element.

Conclusion/signature Your conclusion should have a simple and clean call to action. I purposely created a final piece to this called “call to action” because LinkedIn allows you to add a button.

But for the conclusion, you have to remember that people can’t actually respond to your Sponsored InMail. Because of this, I recommend adding your email and phone number in the signature. (I didn’t know this at the time I ran the above ad.) By doing this, you’re more likely to be contacted by them if they save your message for later. Oftentimes, the conversions come later, when a prospect finally reviews their messages.

4. Calls to action that work The call to action is the trickiest part of Sponsored InMail. Because you can’t reply to the message (makes no sense, in my opinion), it’s critical that you’re able to get

your contacts from interested to an inquiry.

Your conclusion should have a simple and clean call to action. I purposely created a final piece to this called “call to action” because LinkedIn allows you to add a button.

In my testing of this channel, I tried multiple things. First, I tried to do a traditional “Get Quote” call to action which went to my multistep form. No success. Second, I sent them to my best piece of content. Unsure of success. Third, I sent them to our case studies page. Limited success.

Frustrated, I went back to the drawing board. I knew that I wanted them to be able to simply and easily communicate with me in a manner that was as personal as the message I was sending.

After my first four failed attempts, I

decided to use a Calendly link.

With Calendly, the user could now click on the call-to-action button and immediately be able to schedule a meeting with me.

Within a couple of days, we had our first meeting, and now we are optimizing for more traction.

Hopefully, this post can show the value of social advertising and the impact that Sponsored InMail can have on your pipeline.

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STRATEGY

Feel intimidated by the notion of creating an explainer video? There’s no need to be -- they just represent another excellent way to get your content out to your target audience.

Besides the really big brands that we are all familiar with, a lot of lesser-known companies and even small startups are using them.

Even if you believe your product isn’t “cool” enough to become a fancy, interesting explainer video, there’s probably someone out there with a problem that can be solved by what you have to offer.

Sometimes a quick, easy, explanation is just what someone needs to help clearly understand how your product solves a problem.

Think you need a professional production team to create a worthwhile explainer video?

Think again. Compiling an explainer video doesn’t have to be more complicated than putting together a slide deck in a Powerpoint presentation. You decide what to say, find some relevant graphics to jazz things up, and record a voiceover.

Explainer videos should generally be 30-90 seconds in length, which translates into a

17 Examples of Fabulous Explainer Videos/

By LISA ISBELL

written script of around 200 words or less in most cases. To get a good feel for crafting your own video, start by gathering some inspiration from brands doing it right. You’re bound to find something that resonates with you as a good example for brainstorming your own.

Here are 17 fabulous explainer videos across a wide variety of industries, media outlets, and publications to jumpstart your own project.

You should have no trouble getting inspired to make an explainer video part of your marketing strategy. 

17 Examples of Fabul 1) Unroll.Me

4) Yum Yum Videos

2) What is AI? (HubSpot)

5) Dollar Shave Club

3) PandaDoc

6) What is an API? (Mu

lous Explainer Videos

uleSoft)

7) Mint.com

8) Spotify

9) How Deep is the Ocean? (Tech Insider)

10) SafeDrive

13) Pinterest

11) Final

14) BriefMe

12) Ethical Coffee Chain

15) Munzit

16) Stitch Fix

17) Water Mark

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