7 Ways to Turn Email Prospects Into Sales

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Great sales and marketing require a balance of art and science, which is why experimentation is encouraged – especially when it comes to email marketing.

So where should you focus your creative efforts? Where should you apply rules and processes? Here are some tips from experience and best industry practices to make it a bit less daunting.

  1. Subject Lines – keep them short … and test.

Even if you have the best body content in your email, to be successful, your email must be opened. Your subject line needs to be strategically crafted (about three to nine words long), with planned A/B testing and possible follow-up messaging to those that open but don’t reply. While you can’t put your entire pitch in the subject line, you should make it personal … and it should highlight what you can do for them.

  1. Email Body – brief, direct, personalized CTA.

If you want to stand out, customize and personalize. You’ve put the time and effort into finding the perfect leads – now focus on a message that will intrigue them and address their needs. At this early introductory stage, be brief … direct … and don’t be selling. Your goal is to pique their interest and, if possible, foster familiarity through some common ground.  Individualize each email so that the recipient views it as a natural message that they would get from a helpful colleague or peer in the industry. Go further than just changing the name on a stock email. Dig deep using the prospect data fields that are available to personalize. Finish with a low-pressure CTA to schedule a call or demo and be sure to include your full signature.

  1. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Thanks to the omnipresence of information online, replicating an existing successful franchise model under a different brand name is simple – and getting increasingly hard to protect against. Before, a franchisor could preserve its brand identity because it was harder for others to learn about its operations, locations, marketing tactics, and business strategy. Today, entrepreneurs halfway around the world have everything at their virtual fingertips to research and create a similar enterprise at home.

  1. No HTML

This may be a controversial one for some marketing pros and agencies, but from our experience, images, graphics, etc. do not increase open or reply rates in most B2B scenarios. There are, of course, examples of these styled campaigns that perform well for certain brands and target audiences. In general, however, natural-style emails receive more opens and replies than any other style when executed well.

  1. Copy Proofing

You’ve already invested time in framing your approach and gathering a target audience, so don’t skip this critical editing step. It should be an automated part of your content creation process, using experienced copy professionals to correct spelling, grammatical, and word choice errors.

These simple mistakes will damage authority and credibility with your prospects, making it more likely for them to delete your message – especially since you haven’t established a relationship with them yet.

  1. Timely Replies

You’ve done the work, now comes the reward: warm prospects. Don’t wait for them to shop, but at the same time, don’t be creepy. Same-day replies or call follow-ups are expected. Email auto replies acknowledging inquiry receipts are acceptable but should be looked at on a case-by-case basis.

Most importantly, have a plan in place and a proven process for handling incoming interest. Seamless follow-up, education, and on-boarding will ensure that you optimize the ROI on your investment.

  1. Tracking and CRM

Soon, new leads will blend with existing ones … and you’ll want to make sure nobody gets left in limbo. For this, there are easy-to-use reports that will tie campaign results for opens, replies, and other metrics and are packaged in a transferrable file. These friendly formats are flexible to upload to all major CRM systems and integrate into pipeline tracking, funnel progression, and closing metrics to tie campaigns to results.

The bottom line?  Keep it professional with a balance of useful personalization. Stick to these time-honored tips and you’ll be ahead of the game when it comes to maximizing your sales and marketing arsenal.

Buying B2B Data: What You Need to Know

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If you’re looking for a reliable way to get ahead in lead generating and prospecting, buying B2B data could be a viable avenue to explore. Although some have philosophical reservations about buying contact lists, it is a proven strategy that can be an integral part of your lead generation playbook.

The important part is how you use the data and apply it to an overall marketing strategy. Here are some key points to help you determine how much of a role purchased data should play for you, what to look out for with vendors, and how to best apply the data you purchase.

What draws us to lists – and what can go wrong

Companies and entrepreneurs have been drawn to buying B2B lists since databases began. Who wouldn’t be interested in a tool that can save you from going after unqualified and uninterested contacts and organizations? Buying the right data to enrich your marketing and sales intelligence just makes sense when it is done properly.

Negative issues and perceptions generally stem from one of three areas:

  1. Accuracy of raw data
  2. Recency of last record update
  3. Application of that data in external marketing

As with everything, knowledge is power.  Here are some proven strategies for both avoiding potential pitfalls and maximizing your B2B data.

 

Know your niche and the right type of data provider for you

Start with YOUR market – not someone else’s. Looking at pre-built lists to guide your data purchase decision is a recipe for waste, stale data, and disappointing results.  If you haven’t shopped around to find services that can offer you a consultation and collaboration to create a totally customized dataset, you may not have looked hard enough.

There are also services that offer wide-open access to their complete database, with filters that give you control of how to slice the data. These are typically subscription services that require an annual contract. Be aware of the limitations of these preset filters for your specific niche, overall completeness of the database, and make sure to verify for yourself how often the data is validated.

Getting a sample of actual data that meets your criteria is essential in the evaluation process. No amount of bells and whistles can make up for questionable accuracy at the raw data level. Also, be sure to consider the quantity and frequency of data needed to keep your pipeline full. This will help determine which data solution will be the most cost-effective for your needs.

 

You might think you know your niche, but you can probably do better

Ask any established company who their target customer is, and they’ll most likely refer you to their website’s Customers page or a brand positioning slide on a pitch deck. In reality, this top-line answer is usually not close to defining core customer attributes, which is critical in creating the perfect list that is neither too wide, nor too narrow.

This is where the expertise of a quality B2B data provider comes into play. The art is connecting and translating industry jargon and broad terms into crisp keywords and phrases. Fields like title, company, sector, and others can be divided in nearly infinite ways with a little imagination and the experience from having done it successfully, over and over again.

 

Picking the right supplier and buying the perfect list

Here are some questions to think about or research as you navigate this valuable process:

About the vendor and their data:

  • Where is the data being sourced?
  • Does the vendor appear credible online?
  • Does their website look like they’ve invested time and money into it?
  • What do customer reviews and testimonials say?
  • Does the vendor offer free data or trial access?
  • Do they offer a quality guarantee?
  • What is the minimum purchase size?
  • Will you have a consistent, assigned representative to communicate with before and after the purchase?
  • If the service is completely automated (no live representative), what is the process for getting a refund if the data doesn’t meet expectations?

About you:

  • What key fields will you be using most – and are they complete and accurate?
  • What is the main way you’ll utilize the data?
  • What about data you already have that may overlap? Can the vendor remove duplicates against their database before you purchase?
  • How will you measure the ROI of your data purchase?
  • How will you integrate the data into your existing systems?
  • Who will be assigned to follow up on the increased inflow of leads? Should they be tied into the purchasing decision?

The more prepared you can be coming into the vendor selection process, the more confident you can be in the expected results and in identifying red flags that might get in the way of achieving desired ROI.

 

Multi-channel data usage to maximize ROI

Although it’s important to focus on the primary way you’ll utilize the data when determining what to buy and from whom, considering multiple usages for the same dataset can result in geometrically higher results.

In the past, data would have come from lead sources that involved in-person, direct mail, phone or mass media advertising.  With the advent of digital marketing, the dynamic of lead generation had changed – and will continue to change at a rapid pace. This means staying ahead of where your customers are looking and capitalizing on the best way to reach them where they are to create awareness and action.

To most efficiently use B2B contact and company data, perhaps the biggest weapon is segmentation. Whether dividing your own internal organic list or supplementing from an external source, having an end product that allows for message personalization is essential.  The data can then be applied in the following channels effectively to provide best-in-class multiples on investment:

  • Segmented email marketing campaigns and sequences using the data to personalize
  • Custom audience creation on social media, such as Facebook
  • CRM data appending to make sales reps more productive
  • Target audience building for keyword and phase-based searching, such as Google Adwords
  • Better placement of banner ads and other marketing posts online
  • Adding a second or third method to reach key customers
  • Intelligence to get straight to the decision maker

We hope you can apply some of the ideas in this B2B data list buying guide to your vendor evaluation and selection process to make data a more critical part of your B2B sales and marketing strategy. Ultimately, the right vendor and data should not only help you acquire new customers but should also give you back time to focus on revenue-generating activities like innovation and building existing relationships.