Successful Drip Nurturing Campaigns. Jeanne S. Jennings Consultant, Marketing Strategy

Transcription

1 Successful Drip Nurturing Campaigns Jeanne S. Jennings Consultant, Marketing Strategy

2 Presentation Overview What is a Drip Campaign? Case Studies PRWeb Nortel U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) XOsoft BreakingPoint Systems National Education Association (NEA) Jaspersoft Additional Resources April Showers Bring May Flowers But Drip Campaigns Drive Revenue!

3 Drip Campaigns Named after drip irrigation which saves resources by allowing water and fertilizer to drip slowly to the roots of plants through a network of valves, pipes, tubing and emitters Source: Wikipedia, September 2010

4 Drip Campaign A communication strategy that sends or drips a pre-written set of messages to customers or prospects over time marketing is the channel most commonly used 1. The timing of the messages follows a pre-determined course 2. The messages are dripped in a series applicable to a specific behavior or status of the recipient 3. Each message stands alone but also builds on those sent before

5 Benefits of Drip Campaigns Evergreen: build them once, use them on an ongoing basis Not Resource Intensive: automatically triggered Consistent Messaging: complete control over the information and how it is relayed Top of Mind Presence: build your case over time

6 Successful Drip Nurturing Campaigns CASE STUDY: PRWEB

7 Case Study: PRWeb Challenges Many visitors signed up for a free PRWeb account, but few went on to use the service No revenue is generated until the registrant uses PRWeb to send a press release Goal Increase the free-sign-up to paying-customer conversion rate Campaign Elements Existing Website content drip campaign welcome series 4 effort series sent to all new registrants over a 4 week period Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com, Inc.

8 Drip Campaign Message Map Key Features, Benefits and Advantages Reach beyond just journalists, also search engine visibility Extensive tracking and reporting to quantify results Overcoming Obstacles to Using PRWeb Ability to write a press release Determining which service level fit their needs Testimonials Didn t include these but should have! Incentive Significant upgrade on first press release send Urgency Deadline to quality for the upgrade Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com, Inc.

9 Results Increase in attendance at the New User Orientation Webinars More traffic to previously hidden help pages Significant lift in conversions from free registrants to paying users Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com. Inc.

10 Successful Drip Nurturing Campaigns CASE STUDY: NORTEL

11 Case Study: Nortel Challenge Nortel had recently filed bankruptcy and was in the process of being acquired Goals Overcome prospects temptations to wait and see what would happen with the company before buying Keep prospects eager to buy from signing with competitors Campaign Elements New microsite Paid search and social media In-person and online events nurturing 4 effort series sent to new prospects over a 6 week period Source: Marketing Down the Sales Funnel: How Nortel s Q4 Push Touched 30% of Pipeline and Helped Close Deals, MarketingSherpa, March 3, 2010

12 Drip Campaign Message Map Assurance Alleviate concerns about adopting Nortel tools and technology Highlight recent company growth and product innovations Rebuild Trust Focus on Nortel s reputation for quality equipment, service offerings, market share and history of innovation Urgency Emphasize strong product discounts and the importance of staying current with technology to overcome the wait and see obstacle What s Next for Nortel Give prospects a sense of the future of Nortel, including insights into technology development, industry consolidation and other trends Source: Marketing Down the Sales Funnel: How Nortel s Q4 Push Touched 30% of Pipeline and Helped Close Deals, MarketingSherpa, March 3, 2010

13 Drip Campaign Content Assurance Nortel s role in providing communications infrastructure for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic winter games Rebuild Trust Third-party analysis of the value of implementing VOIP networks Urgency Reminders of the special deals and discounts being offered for Q4 What s Next for Nortel An analyst report about trends in the IT industry, and how CIOs should evaluate the impact of mergers and acquisitions Source: Marketing Down the Sales Funnel: How Nortel s Q4 Push Touched 30% of Pipeline and Helped Close Deals, MarketingSherpa, March 3, 2010

14 Results Lead Nurturing Series Open Rates from 31.3% to 43.6% Click-through Rates from 7.1% to 17.0% 34% of revenue generated in November and December 2009 came from prospects that had interacted with this program Source: Marketing Down the Sales Funnel: How Nortel s Q4 Push Touched 30% of Pipeline and Helped Close Deals, MarketingSherpa, March 3, 2010

15 Successful Drip Nurturing Campaigns CASE STUDY: U.S. GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

16 Case Study: GSA Challenge Assist government procurement professionals with spending American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds Goals Educate procurement officers about GSA programs Encourage them to contact GSA for help Campaign Elements Drip Campaign Originally 10 messages, downsized to 6 Focused on 4 key requirements of ARRA spending Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com, Inc.

17 Drip Campaign Message Map Four Key ARRA Requirements Speed: meet accelerated timeframes for spending Value: provide the maximum benefit from funds Transparency: show fair and reasonable distribution of money Accountability: protect against fraud, waste, error and abuse Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com, Inc.

18 Strategic Plan 10 messages; 2 phases (5 messages each) Each phase includes: 1 general to set the tone (all 4 key requirements) 4 additional s, each focusing on one key requirement Speed Value Transparency Accountability Sent weekly over the course of 10 weeks Only 6 messages were actually sent Phase 1, 1 Phase 2, s 1 through 5 Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com, Inc.

19 Letter Format Lotus Notes It s not about images it s about the information Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com, Inc.

20 Content 1 Strategy General Info (same all efforts) 1. GSA logo 2. ARRA logo 3. Key Links in left column 4. Call to action Info specific to key requirement of the 5. Quote from peer 6. Timely fact about ARRA spending 7. Benefit-oriented bullet points 4 Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com, Inc.

21 Tracking and Reporting It s important to look at the performance of each effort individually And also the average performance over the entire campaign Phase Effort # Date Sent Send Q Bounce Rate Open Rate CTR (Unique) CTOR (Unique) Forward Rate Unsub Rate Spam Complaint Rate Epsilon Q Trends and Benchmarks; Business Products and NA 5.9% 29.1% 6.4% 22.0% NA < 0.5% NA (staggered) 52, % 14.3% 1.0% 7.2% 0.01% 0.2% 0.00% , 3:00 PM 52, % 12.6% 0.7% 5.9% 0.00% 0.2% 0.00% , 2:00 PM 52, % 12.6% 0.7% 5.2% 0.00% 0.2% 0.01% , 1:52 PM 47, % 13.8% 0.6% 4.6% 0.00% 0.2% 0.00% , 2:00 PM 47, % 13.3% 0.6% 4.7% 0.01% 0.2% 0.00% , 5:05 PM 47, % 11.9% 0.4% 3.4% 0.00% 0.1% 0.00% AVERAGES 49, % 13.1% 0.7% 5.2% 0.00% 0.2% 0.0% Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com, Inc.

22 Tracking and Reporting You should also look at overall campaign performance Average open rate over all efforts was 13.1% (11.9% to 14.3% range) The cumulative unique open rate shows the value of multiple sends A total of 12,772 unique people opened at least one in the series This is 28.9% of the average number of messages assumed delivered for each send With each send, the cumulative unique opens grew by an average of 10.6% Opens Send 1.1 Send 2.1 Send 2.2 Send 2.3 Send 2.4 Send 2.5 Unique Opens (cumulative) 6,541 8,547 9,944 11,199 12,068 12,772 Lift Send over Send (#) 2,006 1,397 1, Lift Send over Send (%) 31% 16% 13% 8% 6% Average Lift 10.6% Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com, Inc.

23 Tracking and Reporting A similar analysis of key link performance drives the point home The link to the GSA Advantage landing page was one of the top four links in all of the messages Click-through rates on individual efforts ranged from.07% to 0.18% A total of 359 unique people clicked on this link during the campaign This is nearly 5 times the number of clicks from the first effort The cumulative unique clicks grew by an average of 25.2% per send GSA Advantage Send 1.1 Send 2.1 Send 2.2 Send 2.3 Send 2.4 Send 2.5 Unique Clicks (cumulative) Lift Send over Send (#) Lift Send over Send (%) 105% 47% 29% 18% 7% Average Lift 25.2% Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com, Inc.

24 Successful Drip Nurturing Campaigns CASE STUDY: XOSOFT

25 Case Study: XOsoft Challenge Goal Find a cost-effective way to handle an onslaught of leads Suddenly 25% of unique Website visitors converting to leads Sales reps with limited time needed to focus on hot leads Convert a higher percentage of leads to genuine sales opportunities Campaign Elements Lead qualification system Targeted drip campaign based on prospect segment Source: Best Practices in Marketing Handbook (2009), MarketingSherpa

26 Is the Lead Qualified? Reps Contact all Leads -- 4 Questions 1. Existing Project Is there a real project in the works at the organization? 2. Budget Has the organization allocated a budget yet? 3. Tech Does the organization meet tech requirements? 4. Investigate Commitment Is the lead also examining our competitors? Source: Best Practices in Marketing Handbook (2009), MarketingSherpa Qualified leads immediately rose from 4% to 17%

27 Decision Tree Different communications based on: lead quality source title of prospect Source: Best Practices in Marketing Handbook (2009), MarketingSherpa

28 Informal Newsletter Format Goal: keep unqualified leads warm Informal style outperformed more traditional newsletter format 14% lift in open rate 48% vs. 42% 100% lift in click-through rate 16% vs. 8% 74% lift in click-to-open rate 33% vs. 19% Source: Best Practices in Marketing Handbook (2009), MarketingSherpa

29 Just Checking in Goal: keep unqualified leads warm Sent quarterly Results Conversions on qualified leads rose to 60% Source: Best Practices in Marketing Handbook (2009), MarketingSherpa

30 Successful Drip Nurturing Campaigns CASE STUDY: BREAKINGPOINT

31 Case Study: BreakingPoint Challenge Develop a successful lead generation program for a startup without a strong brand or established customer base Goals Create a powerful engine to generate a consistent stream of high quality inbound leads from the Web Campaign Elements Sales and Marketing Alignment Social Monitoring Prospecting Tools Content Engine Destination Website Company Social Network Presence Ready, Willing and Enabled Sales Team Drip Marketing Source: How to use Social Media and for Prospecting: 8 Essentials, MarketingSherpa, January 28, 2010

32 Using Social Media to Drive Acquisition Source: How to use Social Media and for Prospecting: 8 Essentials, MarketingSherpa, January 28, 2010

33 Successful Drip Nurturing Campaigns CASE STUDY: NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

34 Case Study: NEA Challenge Use drip campaigns to add relevance and respond to member behavior Goals Encourage members to add a beneficiary to their complementary life insurance plan Campaign Elements API to share information between the NEA database and Web analytics Drip campaign Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com, Inc.

35 Drip Campaign Flow Flow begins at Website registration Information passed from NEA Database immediately Behavior monitored after each send Appropriate followup messages are sent Source: Client Case Study, JeanneJennings.com, Inc.

36 Successful Drip Nurturing Campaigns CASE STUDY: JASPERSOFT

37 Case Study: Jaspersoft Challenge Communicate effectively with many different customer constituent groups Open source developers Customers using open source version Paying customers using professional edition Goals Develop a better way to segment the database and automatically provide relevant information to all groups Campaign Elements Customer profiling Database segmentation Automated/triggered/drip campaigns Outbound promotions Lead scoring Source: Lead-Gen Revamp with Automation and Scoring: 7 Steps to 190% Increase in Sales Conversions, MarketingSherpa, November 11, 2009

38 Drip Campaign Strategy Trial download triggered Five s over thirty day period Thank you/welcome Tools to help them use the software Links to online documentation and forums for support Final offering sales rep contact to discuss professional edition Recipients sent into sub-campaigns based on behavior (40 possible paths) Source: Lead-Gen Revamp with Automation and Scoring: 7 Steps to 190% Increase in Sales Conversions, MarketingSherpa, November 11, 2009

39 Successful Drip Nurturing Campaigns ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

40 Additional Resources MarketingSherpa Summit 2011 Las Vegas, January 24-26, 2011 MarketingSherpa Essentials Workshop Training 2010 Toronto, October 19, 2010 Miami, November 9, 2010 Los Angeles, December 7, 2010 MarketingSherpa 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report MarketingSherpa Marketing Benchmark Guide Taught by Jeanne Jennings

41 Additional Resources Clients Include: Jeanne Jennings: Independent consultant specializing in marketing strategy and tactics More than 20 years of experience in B2B and B2C online and marketing Sought-after writer and speaker on Marketing The Marketing Kit (Sitepoint) ClickZ Experts: Marketing The Jennings Report

42 Credits/Thank You Thank you all for attending! Thank you MarketingSherpa for inviting me to speak! Jeanne S. Jennings Consultant, Marketing Strategy JeanneJennings.com, Inc