Two recent studies comparing the ROI of social media vs. email appear to contradict one another. One claimed that social media was first and email was second in terms of return on investment, whereas the other claimed the opposite. Who is correct?
I'm not sure. But I realize I'm asking the wrong question because email and social media serve different purposes. The ability to capture, measure, and act on intent makes a big difference. Email cultivates and persuades prospects to act, but social media is about establishing relationships.
When looking at attribution metrics for a B2C organization, email still takes precedence. However, in all of my years working in B2B, whether as a marketer, an agency employee, a consultant, or a fractional CMO, I've seen individuals regard email as a significant channel but underestimate its full potential for achieving corporate objectives.
“We have this marketing automation platform,” the point of view has been. We'll start by automating a few things before moving on to something more difficult.”
I don't want to diminish the importance of email in B2B marketing, but I believe there is plenty of room for us to enhance our usage of marketing automation and email to propel our businesses forward. This is where the concept of intent comes into play.
These are my four “must-have” traits for a B2B marketing automation software that is intent-driven:
- Automated systems that are complex
It all starts with understanding your client journey, which starts with the prospect stage and continues through the sales process to “closed won.” The level of complexity is enormous. That's why you'll require automation technologies that are specifically developed for B2B demands.
You could think that as a B2B email marketer, you don't need to know about your company's sales funnel. You're mistaken. From a sales perspective, you must understand each stage of the pipeline.
This is because each stage of the pipeline has a distinct objective. “How can I recognize this stage and get the prospect to go on to the next?” ask yourself.
One method is to create automations that recognize signals from each stage and leverage your target market, sales team's approach, and best-customer profile. These look at things like where people click on your website, if they're new or returning visitors, if they're current or past customers, and where they go on your website.
If you're considering about purchasing or joining up for a marketing automation software, keep the complexity aspect in mind. It should cover every sales step and allow you to create complicated automations that guide prospects to the next stage while also assisting you in learning and growing from the previous one.
- Periods of silence
We're not used to being advised to keep quiet until we have a brilliant idea as marketers. Our job is to make a lot of noise (appropriately so, of course). However, there are times during many sales cycles when we need to be quiet, cease sending emails, and delegate work to the sales team.
When you dig closely into each stage of your sales funnel, you can understand and build during those quiet moments. Whether you engage with your sales team to understand sales and prospect discussions in each environment, you'll be able to tell when an email message is competing with what salespeople are saying.
You'll also notice when a stretch of silence has gone on for too long. You can utilize email automation to reactivate qualified prospects if sales hasn't heard from them after a set period of time.
As a communication technique, B2B reactivation differs from its B2C counterpart. Reactivation is a middle-of-life move in B2B, not an end-of-life move. If a prospect falls silent, your marketing automation technology can detect this from your CRM platform and prompt re-engagement. For this stage, work with your sales staff to develop a unified message system.
- Metrics that are precise
Your marketing automation reports should be detailed and thorough. If you rely on aggregate reporting, you won't obtain an accurate view of your performance.
For B2C marketers, this can be useful because they can combine all of the detailed analytics for an entire program, such as a welcome, onboarding, or purchase series, into an overall success rate.
However, the intricacy I mentioned before in your B2B automations necessitates a thorough examination of each stage. To evaluate the success of each email at that stage, you must review it. How many prospects were advanced to the next stage? How many “closed, won” or “closed, lost” after that?
Because you must examine each segment or target vertical throughout your process, your KPIs must account for this complexity. You'll also examine how your marketing automations performed at each stage, as well as how they were categorized by source, vertical, intent, dollar amount, and other criteria.
If you rely on aggregate information, make sure it includes specific reviews at each level, as well as how they relate to the sales funnel and activities.
Collaboration with your sales team is essential. It is a fallacy that sales and marketing should be separate. They must be linked at the hip to work well. Yes, their processes and motives differ, but their relationship should be more symbiotic, requiring connection and collaboration.
Talk to your sales team on a frequent basis to learn how they work and what information they require and collect, which leads me to my final suggestion.
- CRM adaptability
You should be well-versed in the CRM system used by your sales staff. What kind of data do they collect? What information can you get from your sales staff to assist you make better email automation decisions?
Salespeople are interested in sales-related information. People who work in marketing want to know everything there is to know about marketing. Intelligence and cooperation are in the middle. Salespeople can enter data into the CRM that informs your automations and lets the team know if a lead has been “closed, won,” “closed, lost,” or “closed, pending.” However, marketers must be mindful to only request information that is relevant and important.
All of your data should come from the sales side because that's where the activity is.
Understand how your sales staff enters data and what they gather at each stage. Figure out how to include that information into your triggered messages.
However, don't request excessive amounts of data during the discovery or sales process, or data that you won't utilize in your automations or to measure success.
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