It’s time for legacy email marketing systems to die.
Keep Doing Email Marketing
In 2018, email marketing remains a cost-effective tactic overall, and your monthly or quarterly e-newsletter remains a critical component of your marketing mix.
Yet, technology and market developments now render your Constant Contact or MailChimp system obsolete. Tools and systems once available only to the enterprise are now simply a smarter choice for smaller businesses. Contact Relationship Management (CRM) and Marketing Automation systems such as Infusionsoft® have rendered legacy email marketing systems about as relevant as Slimline phones and standard-definition TVs.
What is a CRM System?
Contact Relationship Management systems are the 21st century version of the Rolodex (Your Rolodex is in the storeroom, in a box, next to the Slimline phone. It’s okay to throw away that whole box. Same for the VCR on top of which that box sits. Please recycle.) Small businesses who maintain databases of contacts — customers, vendors, referral partners, etc. — likely do so using Excel, Access, a white board, sticky notes, or simply enter them individually into Outlook or their email marketing tool.
(Small businesses who do not maintain databases of contacts are already out of business; some just haven’t read that memo.)
Your Outlook or Excel database provides critical information, including Name, Business, Title, Phone, and Email, maybe a note on how you met or type of contact. Here’s what information, in addition to all that, is available at-a-glance in Infusionsoft CRM and accessible from any Internet-connected computer or app-enabled smart phone:
- Recent Activity – When did you speak last? What notes are available from that conversation?
- Lead Score – How should your sales team, especially if it’s a team of one, and even more so if that one is you, prioritize its time and energy? Scoring your opportunities brings clarity to your sales efforts.
- Documents – Need to check language in the agreement? No need to access a shared drive. Every document you’ve ever sent this person is available in a File Box on their Contact Profile in Infusionsoft.
- Relevant Detailed Information – When should you send a Happy Birthday card? What are their passions? Family? What music do they enjoy? Fill in the blank. Understanding your contacts on this level helps you find affinity and relate to each other as people.
- What’s Next? – Did you commit to a phone call? Is an agreement coming up for renewal? Do you need to meet a deadline? Are you expecting a decision, or a signature? Set reminders, then have all relevant information in front of you with a click.
- Integrations – With Outlook, accounting software, electronic scheduling tools, your website (of course) and just about anything at which you can or cannot shake a stick.
- Yes, there’s more. But how long do you really want this article to be?
Why Marketing Automation?
When it comes time to deliver the monthly burst e-newsletter, you are uploading and/or auditing your list(s), from however many databases, and enduring delays generated by typos, little errors because your spreadsheet is in the wrong format or has a single blank cell or something, matching fields, etc. This tedium is exactly why so many small businesses start an e-newsletter and then stop it. And you probably continue to pay the monthly fee for the service you’re not using, because you feel like someday you’ll hate it less and need it just as much.
Toss out this whole mess with the rest of the aforementioned box, and shift that money and (a whole lot less) time into a system that generates positive impact for your business.
Infusionsoft CRM and Marketing Automation replaces data entry and uploads with a few clicks. Want to see how? Let’s schedule a demonstration for you.
“Right Time” Marketing – Beyond the E-Newsletter
Your e-newsletter has something for everyone, right? Well, in our current on-demand society, how about an e-newsletter that’s just for me?
So your prospective client just told you that the project was moving forward—after a six-month delay. How do you stay top of mind without being a pest or creating random tedium in your day, i.e., “Oh, yeah, it’s been a month; I should send her an email. What could I say besides, ‘Hello?’ What could I say that adds some value for her?”
Instead, how about:
- With a couple of clicks, classify this opportunity as “On Hold,” or “Long-term Nuture,” or whatever your preferred nomenclature dictates.
- Include links to your blog articles or in-line notes directly relevant to her industry, her area of interest, things about your company that she likes, etc.
- With a series of drag-and-drops, create an automated campaign.
- your timing and sequence(s) for delivery.
- Take out the garbage / Finish taking that box to the recycler.
The process is just as easy and nearly identical for other journeys you might create. Want to understand your new customer’s satisfaction level after her first service was completed? Like, before her fingertips find their way to Yelp? For the Infusionsoft CRM and Marketing Automation user, that campaign might look something like this:
Get Your Marketing Upgrade
Increase prospect velocity through your pipeline. Win more business. Be more organized. Get out of data entry and automate recurring tasks. Elevate your expectations for what email marketing can do for your business. Expect more from your systems. In today’s business environment, the victories go to those who evolve. This competitive advantage is available. Reach out and grab it.
Or get tossed out like an old TV.
