SageCRM. The Benefits of Marketing as a Cost Effective Marketing Tool

Transcription

1 SageCRM The Benefits of Marketing as a Cost Effective Marketing Tool

2 If was a country, its 1.4 billion users would make it the largest in the world. Bigger than China, bigger than the populations of the USA and European Union combined. 1 Introduction Marketing departments across the globe today are under pressure to operate more effectively than ever, track and analyze each and every dollar, pound or euro spent, generate high-quality leads for the sales team and drive cross-sell opportunities with existing customers. Research recently conducted by Gartner 2 found that the bigger pressures for chief marketing officers are reducing agency costs, decreasing time to market, generating leads, managing budgets better and measuring performance, further underlining the critical need for marketing teams to be implementing cost-efficient lead generation activities. In this age of cost consciousness and accountability, marketers are increasingly turning towards e-marketing to help generate leads and drive sales. As one of the most cost effective forms of marketing, e-marketing enables businesses to communicate with customers and prospects around the world instantly, putting products and services in the forefront of customers minds ensuring that as soon as a new purchase decision arises, that offering is the first they think of. According to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), continues to deliver the highest return on investment (ROI) of any other marketing channel, at $43.62 for each dollar spent in This figure is more than twice the ROI from Internet search advertising, which came in second at $21.85 per dollar spent. 3 So Why Marketing? With marketing, you have the ability to profile your customer database, improve marketing communications, deliver targeted product and services messages and increase customer retention. With no printing, proofing, reprinting, finite release dates, or snail mail wait times, you can have your services and your brand in the decision maker s hands before your competitor s postcard reaches them. use is high with 78% of consumers in the US and UK using several times a day. The consumers appetite for marketing messages in their primary account remains high. 79% of US consumers surveyed stated that the marketing messages they opt into are sent to their primary personal account. 4 There has been much debate on whether as a marketing messaging channel is extinct and ineffective but as the statistics and quotes above show, it is very much alive and continues to be one of the most popular means of communication. This is due in part to the massive increase in businesses operating online and a rise in social media interaction. Almost everyone across the globe has an account or digital footprint, which they use to manage their communications and to which they expect to be kept up-to-date and informed of new products and services, existing account information and discounts or concessions. The key to a successful marketing strategy is to keep your readers engaged, keeping subscribers interested in the subject and acting on your messages in the ways you want and expect; opening, downloading, forwarding and even reposting to their social networks. This presents the perfect opportunity for businesses to include marketing as a means to increase engagement, deliver relevant content and build up mailing databases in a completely measurable and quantifiable way Marketing Reports (2009) What s Hot in CRM Applications in 2011 (March 2011) - Gartner 3 Annual Economic Impact Study, The Direct Marketing Association, October Forrester, US Marketing Forecast, 2009 To 2014 by David Daniels

3 Unlike direct marketing, marketing enables marketing users to quantify the effectiveness of campaigns by automatically tracking open, click and bounce rates at the touch of a button the minute the is sent. Inbox visibility and accurate ROI calculations largely depend on the quality of the message created and structure and content of the . Effective marketers will need to test campaigns and tweak content, structure and message accordingly for worthwhile and positive ROI. Benefits Easily measurable and quantifiable Open, click and bounce-rate statistics enable marketers to measure the effectiveness and success of campaigns. Instant, global reach s enable users to send messages to the other side of the world instantly ensuring that the message reaches all targets at the same time. Captive audience for up-sell and cross-sell opportunities Regular communication with customers ensures that brands are kept at front of mind with customers at all times. Low cost, high ROI A well planned and effectively targeted e-marketing campaign can reach the right customers at a much lower cost than traditional marketing methods. Simple execution Compared to print media, s can be quickly and easily personalized and sent to targets at the push of a button. Personalization s can be personalized and segmented to suit the target audience. The more the customer buys, the more the can be refined to the customer s profile and market. Critical Elements of a Successful E-marketing Campaign According to Marketing Sherpa s Marketing Benchmark Report, just in the Business/Financial services industry alone, 51% of companies increased their marketing budgets. These results also show that marketing tactics that take more time are that much more effective. Delivering content that is highly relevant to the segment at 50% increased effort is 70% percent more effective overall. 5 With all the massive benefits of marketing as a lead generation tool, there are critical areas that marketers need to focus on to ensure the success of a campaign. As more marketers turn to , recipients inboxes will become more cluttered. Sending relevant, targeted messages that incorporate standards and best practices to list members that have explicitly opted-in to receive them is the best way to be a successful marketer in 2011 and beyond. Data and privacy legislation varies from country to country across the world and these should be strictly adhered to. The main impact on marketers that it curtails the ability to contact prospects without prior consent and that it should be easy for recipients to remove themselves from subsequent mailings. Innovative marketers will rapidly adopt relevancy-empowering tactics to cut through the clutter and avoid wasting $144 million dollars in 2014 on marketing that never reaches the intended subscriber inbox because of erroneous blocking Maketing Benchmark Report - Marketing Sherpa 6 Forrester, US Marketing Forecast, 2009 To 2014 by David Daniels 3

4 One of the most important elements of an e-marketing campaign is the mailing list. This list should be composed of people who have chosen to receive communications from your company, either because they are interested in the offering or because they have already purchased products/ services. If your company is targeting people who have not bought from you previously, they should only be included in the mailing list, if they have indicated that they have an interest in your products or services. You need to ensure that the message you are sending is relevant to your target list. Nobody likes to receive an endless stream of irrelevant s clogging up their inbox day after day and the last thing you want is your messages ending up marked as spam and hitting the junk folder. If you spend time working on creating a selective and highly-targeted mailing list, your company will soon reap the rewards. A lot of people ask how they can build their database effectively to get better results. The success of a campaign boils down to the quality of your data. Businesses should take advantage of every face-to-face opportunity with propsects and existing customers to collect data. Use events to collect information and business cards and include a contact us form on your website with a tick box for prospects to opt-in to receive information or regular newsletters about your products and services. The design and copywriting of the is another critical element of the campaign. You need to ensure that you target your message to the right audience, keeping the text simple and with relevant links to your website. Research has found that sending the from a personal addresses as opposed to a general sales@ or info@ address generates more read rates. Ensure your copy is scannable with short and clear subject lines and a strong call to action. Spam filters are becoming more sophisticated so if you get past this road block, ensure that your subject line is attentiongrabbing so you don t lose the reader s attention straight away. Tips for Successful E-marketing Execution Don t send irrelevant offers to people in your database Build your list internally, even if it takes time, so the quality of your recipient list remains at a high level Keep an accurate audit of how your company received permission to contact the subscribers of the lists - some people forget they signed up to receive information Make membership of your list valuable by offering deals that non-members do not receive Provide subscribers with clear instructions of how to be removed from future mailings, and make sure that your privacy policy is easily accessible Don t send messages to anyone who did not request to receive information Don t purchase or rent lists of addresses from suppliers who are not reputable Don t sell or rent your lists to other organizations, unless you have been given specific permission to do so Technology and Social Media Extend to E-marketing Advancements in technology have greatly impacted the effectiveness of marketing teams and are a critical element in ensuring the successful implementation and delivery of lead generation campaigns. Gartner recently identified that Marketing teams are showing the most interest in new technologies compared to sales or customer service and in particular to help support improved digital marketing needs. The main focus for many B2B marketing organizations has moved beyond simple lead 4

5 generation to improving lead quality with better analysis and process management. 7 There are a wide range of e-marketing software vendors that offer varying features that are easyto-use, have detailed reporting and can be customized to suit your needs. A major advantage to marketers would be the ability to integrate the e-marketing software with the customer relationship management (CRM) database for a more holistic view of the customer and more effective and efficient management of marketing campaigns. Social media is another key communications channel for marketers today which empowers people to share information with a wide audience. Incorporating this channel into the marketing mix enables marketers to start an interactive dialogue with prospects which can be developed into a captive audience for maximum effect. Innovative marketers will use dialogues with these digital savvy individuals to their full advantage to incorporate these prospects into their marketing campaigns. Unleash the Power of E-marketing with SageCRM Typical businesses across the globe use a myriad of technologies to manage their marketing activity across lead generation, marketing and social media activity. Technologies that integrate all these activities through a single multichannel application enable marketing teams to operate to maximum efficiency ensuring consistent execution of campaigns and more closer relationships with customers. Sage E-marketing for SageCRM provides users with the opportunity to gain new customers and get closer to existing customers without ever having to leave SageCRM. It provides easy functionality to enable users to execute high-quality, targeted e-marketing campaigns to generate leads. Users can benefit from a simple 3-step wizard to easily create new e-marketing campaigns and a choice of over 90 templates to get started immediately. Seamless Setup With Sage E-marketing for SageCRM, users can create drip marketing campaigns quickly and easily, automatically delivering communications to the right people at the right time for maximum impact. Open, click and bounce rates are automatically tracked enabling marketers to calculate accurate ROI and deliver hot leads to the sales team. Campaigns can be cloned easily to allow users to share best practice with colleagues and for consistent execution of future campaigns. Personalization Made Easy With Sage E-marketing for SageCRM, users can quickly create personalized and targeted s using over 90 highly professional templates that cover all communication needs. Templates can be edited quickly and easily directed from within SageCRM allowing you to personalize them with your logo, contact details, hyperlinks and call to action. Intelligent Sending Options Users can also use mail merge fields to build templates that auto-fill the recipient s and sender s information so templates are ready to send right away. s can be sent on behalf of another user to help centralize campaign creation while ensuring recipients recognise the address in the from field. It is possible to run drip marketing campaigns quickly and easily thanks to Sage E-marketing for SageCRM. Drip marketing campaigns enable companies to build brand awareness quickly and cost effectively by sending a series of marketing messages to contacts automatically reaching the right 7 Gartner - What s hot in CRM Applications in 2011, March

6 people at the right time. Using the smart-sending features, users can run e-marketing campaigns based on a specific date, leave it to run perpetually or provide specific dates when it should be sent. Users can also preview e-marketing campaigns to ensure that all elements are in order before the is ready to be sent. Close the Loop with Telesales Targeted groups can be quickly and easily created within SageCRM using filtering features enabling users to segment campaigns to specific a group of prospects or existing customers. This ensures that all communications are focused on the groups that will provide the highest return and generate the most leads for the sales team. Once the e-marketing campaign has been executed, a telesales call list can be created based on e-marketing responses, closing the loop between and telesales. SageCRM web self-service can be linked to e-marketing campaign landing pages. This will not only help drive prospect and lead generation but will also assist with customer retention campaigns for existing customers. Track ROI and effectiveness of Campaigns With Sage E-Marketing for SageCRM, responses can be analyzed in real-time and campaigns can be tweaked continuously to ensure that companies get the maximum ROI from each and every campaign. From open rates to click and bounce tracking rate, this easy-to-use feature will not only help quantify the success of an e-marketing campaign but will allow users to pinpoint exactly how they can improve their communications and keep customers and prospects engaged. Social Media and SageCRM SageCRM for Twitter enables users to post or reply directly to a tweet from within SageCRM. Users can view twitter feeds for specific companies and people and can then save the contents of the tweet to a note within SageCRM. Not only is Twitter a great way to find people talking about things you re interested in (keyword searches) or to find people who live nearby (geographic searches), but it can also be used to track brand names, user mentions and company mentions, all from within SageCRM. Twitter accounts may be set up for marketing campaigns in SageCRM, and tweets may be viewed and posted from within the SageCRM marketing area for seamless social media campaign management. Prospects captured from social media campaigns can be recorded in SageCRM and relevant groups created. This enables users to effectively engage and connect with customers and prospects for future e-marketing campaigns directly through SageCRM. Conclusion E-marketing is a cost effective way to generate leads from prospects and drive cross-selling opportunities with existing customers. In an age when communicating with prospects and customers is key to building and strengthening relationships with customers, e-marketing is a measurable way to manage this in a cost effective manner. Recent research by McKinsey showed that though reaction to the economic downturn is varied, customer-focused companies are more likely than others to be planning to increase their marketing spending. And regardless of where they focus, companies that use best practices - such as ensuring that marketing spending is clearly allocated and well understood - are likelier than others to have plans to increase their spending. 8 8 Measuring marketing: McKinsey Global Survey Results, March McKinsey Quarterly 6

7 Innovative companies that stay ahead of the competition with cost-effective e-marketing solutions integrated into their CRM systems will reap the rewards. Don t get left behind. Speak to one of our business partners about your e-marketing requirements today. About SageCRM SageCRM is used by over 10,000 organizations in 70 countries worldwide to manage their critical sales, marketing and customer service activities every day. Award-winning SageCRM equips businesses with the tools they need to find new customers, close sales faster and build lasting, more profitable relationships across all channels. Regardless of how, when or where customers, partners and prospects choose to interact with your business, SageCRM provides a decisive advantage by delivering a comprehensive, easy-to-use system to successfully manage these relationships. Thanks to its ERP integration capabilities, the SageCRM front-office is powered by data from the back-office to give sales, marketing, customer service and other front-office staff a true 360 degree view of customers across front- and back-office functions, differentiating it from many other CRM solutions in the market today. Visit the SageCRM Ecosystem at to join the conversation on our user and partner communities and to access the full range of SageCRM apps and extras. The Sage Difference The leading supplier of CRM solutions to SMB organizations worldwide Over 6.3 million customers Over 3.1 million Sage CRM Solutions users worldwide Over 13,400 employees Over 30,000 Sage-certified partners specialising in business applications Direct presence in 24 countries Relationships with over 40,000 accountancy practices 30 years experience TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SAGE CRM, PLEASE VISIT Sage Group Plc. 7