Mobile compatible marketing

Mobile compatible marketing -ABC guide

Mobile compatible marketing – ‘going mobile’ or being ‘mobile compatible’ is one of the most current topics in digital marketing. Customers often ask us to factor this in to our solutions and it is for all the right reasons.

This simple ABC gives you an overview of the main considerations that affect moving your communications into mobile territory

A – relevance

You should use the analytical information available to you to decide just how important mobile compatible marketing is. Often when we look at analytics for our clients, the results aren’t what our customers expect. This isn’t solely specific to the use of mobile either. It is surprising how many organisations still don’t use analytics to evaluate their online and digital marketing investments. It’s a free service and helps you make informed decisions about developing your online and email strategies.
Keep your choices in perspective.

B – design

The whole point of mobile compatible marketing is useability. Responsive websites and email work on the principle that on a smaller screen (than a desktop) they look different. This may mean bigger and fewer buttons, larger images and simplified navigation.
The general rule of thumb for us is – the rule of thumb. If a user has to use any more than their thumb to navigate your media, it has failed. If, however you can successfully navigate your media with the use of a single thumb, the design is ticking the first part of the ‘designed for mobile’ criteria. There are other considerations too, including colour choices, font sizes.
The primary focus is the rule of thumb.

C – investment

Going mobile doesn’t need to cost a fortune and you are able to adapt existing collateral relatively easy. Brand new collateral is even easier to achieve the cross over with many templates and themes being responsive out of the box. These form a strong set of foundations to edit and tweak to make them suit your needs exactly.
In terms of budgeting, you will need to allow additional resource for design and programming but its not something you need to do all at once. If you follow the advice in A and B you’ll find that your budget will stretch and accommodate a number of mobile optimised solutions without causing any major upsets.

In conclusion, moving to mobile compatible marketing is as easy as it is effective.

If you need help taking your collateral to mobile readiness, there’s plenty of help at hand.

By Ryan Mullins

Email marketing guide for novices

Email Marketing Guide

Email marketing is probably the most common form of marketing. Marketers in large companies, small companies and everything in between use email marketing. Email marketing crosses all sectors and is used for all sorts of communication. This Email marketing guide gives you an insight.

Why is email marketing so popular?

Which email platform should you choose?

In truth, you’ve likely already got a system in place. The first thing to do is make sure you’re utilising it to it’s full potential. The discipline of regular email marketing is something marketing teams must be well versed in. You should only consider changing what you’re already using if you’ve identified shortcomings. If you have, are they hindering results?

With so many variables what do you need to get right with email marketing? A point hotly debated by many, we at renew use an evidence-based approach as our standard.

Data

The number 1 critical factor with email marketing is data. The quality of your data determines the scope of your success. As such some sectors achieve great success, while others continue to struggle.

Subject line

Millions of emails don’t get past the subject line and go straight to the trash can. Your subject line is the first part of your email marketing that’s easy to test. It’s also easy to determine what works.

Responsiveness

Does your email marketing work on a mobile phone?

A huge proportion of email marketing is viewed on mobile. If you haven’t thought of your target audience and user, you risk the trash can. Why risk recipients unsubscribing by sending emails they can’t view on all devices.

Content

As with websites, is the content of your email focused on the recipient? First step is forget what you want to say and consider what the recipient wants to read. The more you bring content round in line with this, the greater your successes are likely to be.

Call to action

What should someone do upon reading your email? What action do you want them to take? What’s in it for the recipient? Your call to action needs to be obvious and direct. Make it easy for your recipients.

By using good data, a subject line that will grab the right kind of attention. A format that can be easily read, content that they’ll want and a clear call to action. The basic formula for successful email marketing.

At Renew Marketing, email marketing delivered for clients takes all this into account..

Our email marketing clients contact us because they want better results from their marketing.

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Complete the simple to use form for issuing a solid marketing brief to your team of choice.

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Video marketing

Rocking retro at Renew

Video Marketing

Video marketing is becoming a very popular means of reaching and appealing to customers. First of all, the statistics speak for themselves. YouTube now enjoy over one billion users worldwide. Nearly 60% of all digital impressions are being driven by visual content. A picture, as they say paints a thousand words.

Customers enjoy being able to make decisions based on what they can see for themselves. Visual content is more real, transparent and likely to inspire trust in a product than audio or written descriptions alone. Video enables people to make an instant decision whether to buy or to move on. Therefore Video holds significant marketing power. Video marketing helps companies to sell more.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Michael Litt, CEO of Vidyard, drilled down into why certain videos have more impact than others. According to Litt ‘the best sellers are the ones that challenge the customer to think differently and educate them as trusted advisors’.

‘the best sellers are the ones that challenge the customer to think differently and educate them as trusted advisors’. Michael Litt, CEO of Vidyard

This is the Renew Marketing approach to creating stand-out content to attract customers to your business.

Video Marketing the Renew Marketing Way

As you heard in the Back To Basic video, our emphasis is on understanding your business and your needs. Getting straight to the core of your requirements. We will help develop a concise, consistent, coordinated marketing approach. In conclusion the approach synonymous with getting you the best results may not be the one you initially had in mind. Therefore the ability to both educate and inspire on our part is paramount. Back to Basic is one example of how we achieve this. Rest assured, we dedicate ourselves to developing content that is different. Most of all we want your content to stand out every time.

The Next Step For Your Video Marketing

To talk to us further about your video marketing needs, call us on 0345 0940522

Email marketing for insurance brokers

Email marketing for insurance brokers should be part of the toolkit. Marketing automation using email, SMS and Social Media offers significant benefits.

Is the insurance premium the only reason you didn’t win that business?

How many times have you heard an insurance broker say this?

We’re struggling to win business. When we quote, the rate gets fed back to the holding insurers or brokers and they just match premiums. We can’t compete with some of the rock bottom insurance premiums quoted online.

I’ve heard statements like this repeated time after time by insurance brokers. Insurance is a market where outgoing communication isn’t executed particularly well. There are ways to improve this and using email to market insurance services is one of the ways to do it.

Buying Decisions

Price will always feature, but several other factors also influence buying decisions. Remembering this is the key to success in this tough, competitive market. If you need a bit of convincing then just take a look around……

Are you only seeing the cheapest cars on the road?

Do we only ever wear the cheapest clothes?

Do we buy houses because they are cheap or book the cheapest holidays?

Are people only take their cars to a back street garage for repairs because they are cheap?

The answer to these question is simple, NO!

Help Them With Their Decision

So, with email marketing for insurance brokers why are so many of us still trying to sell on price? Let’s consider what a company owner may think. what influences their buying decision, what must they consider:

Many are not really sure what they are buying and are TRUSTING the advice of a professional to guide them. They are buying a product that they hope they will not need but TRUST that if they do need it, it will work. A buying decision is as much based on trust as it is on price. So, how can you build that all important trust in the insurance sector?

REGULAR OUTGOING CONTACT – remind people who you are and what you do well

Share RELEVANT INSURANCE RELATED NEWS & INFORMATION that will help build your professional image

MAKE PEOPLE UNDERSTAND that you are a professional insurance brokerage they can trust

Email marketing insurance services

You should understand that a major part of your business is all about how you market yourself. Without marketing even the best products in the world would have no audience.

The key to successful marketing is building a virtual relationship with prospective clients. Give them confidence that they are buying a product from you based on more than price alone.

So your prospects have not heard from you in 12 months. What is going to make them want to talk to you over the competition?

One answer lies in making your insurance company and offerings stand out. You can achieve this using intelligent marketing automation. Makes your prospects WANT to engage with you.

Build a brand that represents trust. With trust, before you even try to sell a policy the price becomes a secondary consideration. It will have taken many years to become an insurance professional.

The learning curve for email marketing insurance services may not match your insurance experience. You’ve got three choices:

Employ a full time marketing person who will install marketing automation

Outsource

Do nothing

In Conclusion

The insurance sector and business generally changes all the time. don’t be the company that gets left behind without marketing automation!

Tell us how we can help you communicate better with marketing automation. We can build a profile for your business that your clients and prospects will find hard not to trust.

– Lorraine Mullins

5 Dealership event ideas

Running events at car dealerships is old news but coming up with new dealership event ideas can be tricky. The idea of dealership events is to get a select audience into your dealership who have a mutual interest in what you’re doing. You’re likely to sell off the back of it.

The trick is to cover all the bases with your events. It’s all very well presenting the flagship model launch. However the likelihood is that the majority of your business comes from a far wider spread of customers with varying vehicle needs.

Dealership event ideas – Launch Event

The new model has just launched. There’s been tons of coverage by the manufacturer on TV and in the press. The vehicle’s been placed well in media, TV and film. You’ve already achieved the ‘awareness’ stage of the sales cycle. So all you need to do is let people know it’s arrived. Make sure there’s something that’s going to make this event memorable.

Launching any new product is an exciting time. Getting it right so that you’re remembered for the correct reasons is the real challenge. First you must decide whether you’re going to have an ‘unveil’. Is the event going to be invite only or a public event. Consider what you’re going to do to make people want to take part. It’s all very well creating a brilliant event but if no one shows, it can be an incredibly expensive exercise.

Think very carefully about your target audience. Who does this vehicle fit? How many people in your database fit the right criteria? How easily can you extract that information and put it to use? What’s their preferred method of communication? How much time have you got to play with?

There’s a raft of questions that need to be asked and worked through in order to get your launch event right. Do you use a personalised approach and select the right audience for whom the vehicle is relevant. With this in mind it’s more than likely that when you run a launch day, you’re going to sell vehicles.

Case Study: Motorcycle launch arranged and fully booked in 48 hours without a single phone call being made.

Dealership event ideas – Demo day

One of the best ways to sell vehicles is to get your potential customer to drive the car in question. The problem is that many customers are also aware of this. Many will only normally arrange a test drive if they’re in the market for a new car. The same applies for walking into a showroom. Consumers are aware of the message they’re giving out and that they’re likely to get pounced on when the enter the showroom.

A demo day is a fantastic way to give customers a sense of security. By being among others, they may get away with test driving a car without getting the sales pitch. There’s also a high likelihood that you’ll attract other potential customers to a demo day who aren’t consciously in the market for a new car.

The administration of setting up a demo day can be quite daunting if you set about it in the traditional method. You know how you want it to work but organising that may seem like an intense uphill challenge. With the technology of today it’s actually quite straightforward to communicate with all your potential invitees. Get their demos booked in and simply make sure you and your team are there to sell on the day, without lifting a finger or a telephone hand set in advance.

Case Study: Motorcycle launch arranged and fully booked in 48 hours without a single phone call being made.

Dealership event ideas – Owners club events

Most makes and marques have a strong club and historic following. So what? Why does this make any difference to you? The thing is that owner clubs demonstrate heritage and enthusiasm. Owner clubs are brimming with people who already love your brand and want to help protect the heritage and values it stands for.

These people can actually be used to extend your sales team at your dealership. How you may ask?
No matter what the brand or marque, there are people who advocate it. If you can get a group of them to your dealership site, they not only feel a link between them and the official brand but it also generates public interest. Some of the most successful luxury car brands use this kind of technique in their marketing. People like heritage and nostalgia, it gives them a sense of security. (This is actually the same reason you see re-runs of old ads in tough times and why fashion goes full circle)

Organise an owner’s club event at your dealership. Not only will you have 2 organisations promoting it, you’ll also have potential customers within the owner club members. As such you’ll also have fantastic leverage to bring potential customers on site without them feeling like it is a sales event.

Dealership event ideas – Discount days

Discounting is a technique used in sales and marketing every minute of every day. Sales and special offers are a standard part of every shopping experience. The reason it works is that it is human nature to want to ‘get a deal’. Therefore using time limited offers can create a sense of urgency that may have otherwise been absent.

How this can work for automotive dealerships is multi-faceted. Not only do manufacturers regularly run offers but dealerships can also introduce value for customers by creating deals. Examples of the types of deals that are used include fixed price servicing, bundled servicing and value upsells.

The real trick to making discounts and offers work is how and when they’re communicated. In any leading dealership you tend to find a collection of these types of deals and offers that can be rolled out at any time. The reason they do this is to keep the cost of promotion down and to enable tactical response to business performance. How often do you think a fixed price servicing offer is rolled out at a time when the workshop doesn’t look too busy in the forthcoming weeks?

Dealership event ideas – Open / Motorsport day

Open days can take all forms but some of the best are those that highlight the brand’s sporting heritage or links to charities. A charity car wash for example can do a huge amount for footfall. Technology and sustainability improve constantly. As a result it’s worth considering links with local colleges and enterprises to make your event more attractive to your potential customers.

There are a number of key dates throughout the year that can be used to greater advantage than others. The better your organisation and advance planning, the more likely it is that you can capitalise on these pre-determined events to make them more rewarding for your dealership. If, for example, your brand is sponsoring a major sporting event such as a golf tournament, why not invite the local pro in, arrange some ‘free lessons’ and broadcast footage around the dealership? You can use the opportunity to open conversations with your potential customers around subjects they’re comfortable with. This makes the sales process easier to begin.

Need help making your dealership events more lucrative?
Your first port of call should be speaking with a marketing company that has direct experience of what you’re trying to achieve. Direct experience of organising successful events at motor dealerships will help you to avoid costly mistakes and improve the performance of the whole event.

As specialists in marketing and automation, we not only put all the creative together for our customers. This includes writing text messages and producing event materials such as banners and email templates. We also handle the whole promotion process and attendee administration with our rmcom system. rmcom is a marketing automation software system already used by many motor groups in the UK and further afield..

By Ryan Mullins

Marketing Agency Bedford

Marketing Agency Bedford Renew Marketing Agency Bedford

Marketing Agency Bedford – new premises

Marketing agency Bedford – It’s been a year of growth so far for Renew Marketing, and with that comes the need for a bigger team and a bigger office. Of course, it is no secret that your office not only reflects your brand but also how you think about it’s future. You can now find us on the Elms Industrial Estate at Unit 2, Caxton Road, Bedford. MK41 0HT.

Elon Musk, owner of SolarCity, Tesla Motors and SpaceX, is said to be worth US $12.7 billion. Describing him as ‘the most inspiring entrepreneur in the world’, Business Insider also show photos of him at work in his office. Smart, functional, minimalist, filled with natural light and the ability to switch between being an individual and a collaborative work space, his office is a statement.

Knowing that an office can say a lot about you as a company, Director of Renew Marketing, Ryan Mullins, has created an open and enjoyable work space for his team. Following a light, bright, minimalist theme, Renew’s new office is designed to support and inspire the team. The bespoke bikes racked against the wall on one side are also reflective of the dynamic and entrepreneurial spirit of the company.

Come and visit us on the Elms Industrial Estate at Unit 2, Caxton Road, Bedford. MK41 0HT.

5 ways to use SMS in a car dealership

One of the good things about the motor trade is the amount of mobile numbers they’ve got on their databases. There are still many though who miss out on the advantages of having this information. SMS is an extremely powerful way to generate business. It’s easy, quick and very good value for money.

161 cars sold from 6000 text messages sent

Here are 5 ways to use SMS in a car dealership to generate extra revenue.

1. Use SMS in a car dealership for events

What better way to invite people to your event than send them a personal text? With automatic response you can use the reply to book their attendance and even send them additional information – All whilst your team get on with what they’re meant to be doing.

2. Use SMS in a car dealership for sales

Let your customers know that a new vehicle has arrived or that you’re offering a special deal. Use sms replies to interact with your customer before you’ve even spoken to them.

3. Use SMS in a car dealership for aftersales

MoT reminders and service reminders are 2 places that sms can be great for getting customers booked in. Using automated responses the customer could even book in by text. The ultimate in convenience.

4. Use SMS in a car dealership for servicing

A vehicle in the workshop needs some extra work and authority from the customer. Simply send them a text with the details and let them reply ‘yes’ to authorise the work. Could it be simpler? Easy, convenient and quick.

5. Use SMS in a car dealership for settlement requests

When a customer requests a settlement figure on their vehicle, the chances are that they’re in a showroom looking at a new vehicle. There’s the obvious customer service angle of sending the settlement figure to the customer by sms but there’s also an opportunity to send a text alert to the original sales person to give the customer a call.

Hopefully you’re already using sms to help your customer experience and deliver more sales.

Need more help?

As specialists in marketing and automation, we not only put all the creative together for our customers including writing text messages and producing supporting materials such as banners and email templates, we also handle the whole communication process and database administration with our rmcom system. rmcom is a software system already used by many motor groups in the UK and further afield, simply rebadged to us.

By Ryan Mullins

Top 5 considerations when thinking about marketing automation

When you’re considering marketing automation there are 5 points that need to sit at the top of your decision making priorities. Although marketing automation has clear benefits for many organisations, the key factors for its success are the same.

1. Data you can use for marketing automation

Organisations that have plenty of data are the ones that will benefit most from marketing automation. The reasons are quite simple, without data, it’s going to be an uphill challenge from the off. The kind of data we are talking about begins with basic contact details. Email, mobile and address details are core to communicating with people.

2. Processes that would benefit from marketing automation

Sales processes and buying patterns need to be mapped out comprehensively to gain the most advantage from automation. By mapping processes it not only makes it simpler for setting up your marketing automation, it also helps identifying where there are weaknesses or opportunities to improve and streamline sales processes. You’ll also need to be considerate of the areas where your sales and marketing processes interface with other business systems as these areas can affect the ease of implementation.

3. Commitment to marketing automation

Before you make the decision to go forward with marketing automation, you need to evaluate your level of commitment. There’s plenty of evidence that marketing automation works but overnight success is unlikely. The setting up process can be time and labour intensive so it’s important to be realistic about the time and budget you’re prepared to commit to setting up and evaluating your marketing automation project.

4. Metrics you can apply to marketing automation

How you measure the success of marketing automation is a principle consideration from the outset. It’s important to be very clear and concise about what your marketing automation investment needs to achieve to make it worthwhile. For many, the metrics are sales related, for others, retention is a principle factor. Whatever it is that your business needs, scoping your success metrics are vital to the longevity of your plans.

5. Budget you’ll invest in marketing automation

Moving to marketing automation from campaign driven communication is a major change in the way you operate. Although you can stage budgets, your overall budget needs to be considerably more than your normal campaign type spends. It is possible to gain quick wins and start to benefit from your investment early but you’ll need to be realistic about the size and scope of your marketing automation project and the subsequent budget needs of such an undertaking.

Summary

Marketing automation is not a quick or simple task. The benefits are increases in sales, reductions in administration, improvements in retention and much more. Before you set about implementation of marketing automation in your business, you should speak with a professional who will be able to assess the ease, cost and benefits to you.

By Ryan Mullins

Sales Performance: 5 Ways to reduce sales costs & improve performance

Where can you cut the costs of sales and improve sales performance?

Improving the performance of your sales people is business critical. Reducing the costs associated with sales is a good place to start in improving performance as it has a direct influence on your bottom line. It is vitally important however to make sure you trim back in the right areas so you have a positive influence on sales performance rather than the alternative.

1. Motivate your sales people

Sales people are the touchpoint with your customers and prospects that turn conversations, presentations, effort and costs into profit. They are often the most highly rewarded people because they impinge so dramatically on the bottom line of your business. Very often in fact, companies recruit sales people because of their motivation for earning money. I’ve worked in a number of different companies and there is often an issue with maintaining the motivation of sales people. When times are good and the money is accumulating, sales people are easier to keep motivated.

Although many sales people are apparently driven by money, is it this simple? I would be the first to say ‘No’, this simply isn’t the case. When motivated, sales people work hard. The best sales people are going the extra mile. They’ll meet prospects outside of working hours, they’ll jump through hoops to win deals. This is the sales hunger, the desire to do better. However, making hard cash isn’t necessarily the driver.

I would like to offer another explanation. It’s not my explanation either, it’s Herzberg’s theory. In basic terms there are positive and negative motivators, Herzberg refers to them as hygiene factors. Positive motivators are the aspirational drivers that make people want to achieve. Negative motivators are the things that drag peoples motivation down.

2. Engage prospects

How people make purchasing decisions has adapted. The availability of information and insight has driven consumers and businesses to form opinions of products and brands much earlier in the buying process. Successful brands and products are managing these opinions and the available knowledge through media channels that their prospects engage with. These channels will fairly obviously vary dependent on your target audience.

The thing you need to keep at the forefront of your activity is that if you don’t control the knowledge, information and opinion of your products and brands, other people will. The trick to engaging customers and prospects is to keep costs minimal, or should I say reflective of the value the activity commands. That equation will be determined by a number of factors, both qualitative and quantitative. If it’s something you’re unsure of, you should consider taking advice from professionals.

3. Increase order/customer value

If each customer spends more with you, the cost of sale naturally decreases. There are many ways to increase order value and/or customer value. The most traditional is the upsell. What else would your customer buy from you if presented to them at the right time? What else do they need? What are they buying from elsewhere that you could sell them?

It may be that you can’t increase an order value at the point of purchase. On the other hand, by statying in contact with your customer, thanking them for their business and providing them information that relates to their purchase and their circumstance, you are more likely to drive loyalty and recommendation. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that a happy repeat customer is worth more to you than a single non-loyal order.

Your business and sales strategy needs to encompass loyalty initiatives and the harvesting of existing customers to increase their value to you. Consider how you can gain the maximum value from every order you gain such as upselling, driving repeat purchases, using referral schemes and providing loyalty programmes. These things work and need not cost you a fortune. If you need any reassurance that these are worthwhile uses of your resources, take a snapshot of the leading ten businesses you deal with and ask yourself what they do to make you come back for more.

4. Work the inbound funnel

Inbound Marketing FunnelThe three preceding points aren’t really anything new in their theory. In reality they are basic principles adopted by most if not all successful businesses. Whether this is a pro-active effort or accidental, the theory still applies.

The inbound funnel however is something that point two refers to. How people make their decisions about you has changed. With over 50% of mobile internet traffic being the use of facebook, your strategy should include how to harness this. Many companies will pay for Search Engine Optimisation, a slick website and possibly some type of pay per click advertising strategy, all of which I would whole heartedly condone. The number of organisations who are applying similar budgets to their social activity is far fewer.

Let’s be honest, not all businesses will see value in being heavily involved in facebook but facebook is not the only social channel. Youtubeis the second largest search engine but do you use video? This article may help you see the value: 5 reasons to include video in your communication strategy.

5. Pre-qualify leads

Pre-qualification is nothing new. The way in which it is done most effectively has moved however. ‘Cold calling is dead’ is an expression I have heard many many times. Admittedly, much of the time this has been uttered by sales people who are struggling with motivation BUT the success of cold calling is limited compared with times of old. There are tons of reasons for this but the most prolific ones being:

You are entitled to unsubscribe from cold calls
Gatekeepers are more savvy than ever
People simply wont give you as much time as they used to

Now this presents a problem for businesses who rely on cold calling as a strategy. Outbound call centres are costly to set up and manage. Event the management of the centres themselves is fraught with challenges, not least of which, motivation referred to above which by design can result in high staff turnovers.

Offshoring this kind of facility has also shown limited successes. People don’t like being disturbed by sales calls, particularly if they can’t understand the person making the call.

So what should a business do?

If we take the lead of the large organisations who sell high ticket value products, they actually have ‘pre-sales’ teams. These are people who work with customers to specify their needs and provide technical information before the ‘closer’ goes in to negotiate the deal. In many businesses this isn’t practical but a valuable lesson can be learned from this practice.

By specifying a customers needs and planning the timing of the purchase, sales peoples’ activity can be more focused, increasing motivation, increasing opportunities to up the order value and ultimately increasing conversion rates. The underlying question is still how to achieve this?

The use of technology enables you to feed information to your customers and prospects that they can access on their terms. What you may not know is that you can be notified of customer interactions even without their knowledge.

Whether you clicked through from an email or simply hit this page from a search engine, we were notified of that action about 5 minutes ago when you started reading this.

How’s that relevant to you? Imagine your top sales people being notified of a customer’s buying signals at the specific time they’ve shown an interest. Would that help the conversion rate?

Improve sales performance and reduce costs by working smarter and harnessing the technology that’s available.

By Ryan Mullins

Why do you need marketing automation? Reduce the cost of communication

Marketing automation is big news in business because it helps reduce costs of communication.

It’s simple, machines do things more efficiently than human beings.

So what’s actually meant by marketing automation?

Communicating can be a costly exercise. When you consider call centres and what it takes to run a call centre. Many businesses have off shored call centres to try to reduce cost. In many businesses this has been criticised as people don’t feel like they get a personal touch.

Personalisation of communication is at the heart of quality information exchange.

Communication has success critical features that, when handled correctly, improve quality, success and efficiency. In turn this reduces cost.

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Timing of contact
Relevance of content
Information Exchange

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Reducing the cost of running a call centre and sales operation.

For a business that has 35 teleappointers making outbound sales calls 9-5, 5 days a week. It would also take a sales team of 15 on the road to sit appointments generated by the outbound team.

This business has access to databases of thousands of businesses around the UK. Each teleappointer makes c.100 calls a day generating 2 appointments each. This means 70 appointments a day are being booked. Of these appointments, around 50% drop out and there is a sales conversion of 25% of sat appointments.

With these kinds of stats it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the sales value of wins needs to be 5 figures upwards to satisfy the wages demand, let alone the commissions and operational costs.

This kind of wastage in sales is undesirable but all too common.

The benefits of marketing automation in sales.

So going on the figures above, the outbound sales team are hitting 3500 contacts a day to deliver 70 appointments. One intelligent e-shot with open and click through notifications would provide enough information to determine warm prospects at the time they are most likely to take a call.

Based on an open rate of 25% and a click through rate of 20%, this activity would generate 175 warm leads, requiring 2 teleappointers to work through. This may provide sufficient leads to convert to 70 appointments. Thats would provide a reduction in cost of 90%.

What’s the cost of marketing automation?

There are 3 major considerations when setting up marketing automation.

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Data
If you’ve already got plenty of data, you’re onto a winner. Data can be costly dependent on how targeted your audience.
Content
If you’re already have tons of content and produce tons of content, you’re in a stronger position than those who do not.
Complexity
The simpler your processes, the less they cost to set up. As you add complexity, programming and testing become more arduous.

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Where should you start with marketing automation?

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Gain the assistance of providers who done it before.
Set out your objectives.
Determine your budget for phase 1.
Agree Milestones and KPI’s with your team.
Set out a realistic timeline.

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Marketing automation is quickly becoming a need of any business that wishes to communicate regularly with any group of recipients. Whether it be new business, existing clients or simply news subscribers, marketing automation is one of the most effective methods of keeping costs of mass communication to a minimum.

By Ryan Mullins