Setting the Tone - The Initial One Two Punch

I have had a few customers ask me for advice regarding content to include in the initial email to a lead that has requested information. While I wouldn't call myself an expert, I have spoken with enough people on both sides to offer a few tips...

1) First, be prompt. Responding quickly (within one business day) helps place you in a favorable light. It's a potential indicator of how well you will respond once you acquire them as a customer.

2) Be courteous and follow their instructions. If they request email contact then do not consider responding by phone until you have at least attempted two emails.

3) Immediately address any specific points that the prospect has raised in the initial inquiry. If you have no information regarding their specific needs, then include some brief highlights of your product.

4) Ask them questions to further qualify them and position yourself as a consultant.

5) Keep it relatively brief. End with a question as well as asking them for a time to discuss further over the phone.

Hopefully, they will respond to this initial email and a conversation will ensue. If they do not respond, then try a follow-up email the next day and include the benefits of your solution, features that differentiate you from the competition as well as a success story of one of your current clients.

On the third day, follow up via phone. If you get through to them, great. Even if you do not, I would certainly add the email address to a dedicated email marketing campaign so they continue to receive periodic (monthly?) emails in case they have decided to put the project on hold, but may convert to a warner lead down the road. It is extremely common for someone to begin doing some product research, get sucked into something else, and then return to the product research weeks or months later. Be sure that you don't lose them in the meantime.

Minor Change Can Have Huge Impact

A customer of ours called me a few days ago, complaining that their conversion rate (percentage of clicks that convert to leads as evidenced by the lead completing a form on the vendor website) from Capterra had plummeted from around 10% in October/November to around 1% in December/January - a 90% decline. I checked his links and then went to his website. His website was fairly well laid out, he had calls to action (not great ones) and his entry form was nice and brief. So all in all everything looked OK.

I pressed him to think about any changes that may have happened on their end in the late November / early December time frame when it dawned on him that they had in fact tweaked their calls to action. Nothing seemingly major, but the impact it had was huge.

I just thought this served as a great reminder that continuously testing different calls to action (as well as ways of wording them) can have such a huge impact on the success of your marketing campaigns...and your bottom line.

Don't be a sucker like me

So one of my many weaknesses is that I can be any easy sell when it is a spur of the moment decision. Most recently, a guy came into our office and said he had some leftover paintings and offered them to us for a "rock bottom" price. While I have no use for them, I couldn't help but fork over the money. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time. While I have recognized this personal downfall, I have not quite identified what causes it. I think it may have to do with great salesmanship - the ability for the salesperson to develop a relationship very quickly. Anyway, knowing this about myself has caused me to at least attempt to be overly cautious for other purchases, particularly those for business.

On that note, how many marketers out there have fallen for the relationship sell and continue to pay ad dollars to channels that have not demonstrated a positive ROI? Whether it be print, tradeshow, radio, TV, you name it, have you stopped to wonder if the reason why you continue to market in certain venues is simply because of your relationship with the salesperson? Is that good business?

I know I'm not alone in Suckerville...

Marketing to the IT Department

For those of you who market to larger organizations, I just read a great piece by author Steve Martin on the importance of knowing what kind of IT department your prospect has before selling them new software. He categorizes IT departments into four different models: Consolidators, Consulters, Responders, or Bureaucrats, explains each and briefly discusses how your strategy needs to change depending on the model.

He also wrote a book called Heavy Hitter Selling which is obviously geared toward salespeople, but my guess is that many of the tactics are useful to marketers in their role of cultivating better leads for sales.

Just thought I'd pass it along.

Unrelated...I enjoyed the Super Bowl ads as always. Would love to hear your thoughts as to which ones were the most effective. Email me at ortner@capterra.com.

- Mike

Eliminate thy marketing budget!

Most software companies I speak with continue to have a set marketing budget that covers all of their expenditures. To me, this is a sign that they are probably not measuring the effectiveness of their campaigns.

If performing any given campaign is generating great leads, and these leads are reliably converting to sales, shouldn't they just keep increasing their spend so long as it generates sales? Why place a limit?

It is my opinion that a set annual marketing budget should be eliminated. Instead, two separate budgets should be created:

1) A set budget for experimenting with new marketing channels (that are unproven in their ability to generate leads) as well as media that are viewed more as brand building rather than lead generating.

2) A steadily increasing "budget" for campaigns that have already been proven to work. The only reason to cap these at all is to account for the lag between the initial point of contact with a potential sale and collecting money from am actual sale.

Placing an artificial budget on a lead generation activity that is proven to work is one of the surest ways to limit your growth. Thoughts?