From microwaved meals to instant messages, we live in an increasingly fast-paced world. What’s more, we have unprecedented control over our own little corner of the world, summoning the music we like to listen to, the news we want to read, and the information we need to know with the click of a couple of keys. How are marketers able to earn their way into that information bubble, and how can they keep up with their leads once they get there?
Taking an agile approach to marketing, one that can shift to meet leads’ changing needs and match their pace along their buying journey, is vital to becoming part of your prospects’ sphere of influence. Becoming agile starts with moving quickly enough – and sometimes even involves slowing down.
Putting the Customer in Control
Have you ever been the focus of an all-out marketing blitz from an over-eager company? You might get three or four pieces of email before you’ve even had a chance to open the introductory letter. Chances are, you weren’t particularly inspired to act on those emails just because there were so many of them; you might even have felt a bit put off by their insistence. Contrast that with businesses that let you set the pace, sending new emails only after you’d opened and acted (or not) on the last piece of information. Some companies also allow you to choose the frequency and type of mailings you prefer to get.
That’s great news for you as a customer, but it turns out that allowing leads more control over marketing content is also good for businesses. They get real-time feedback about which of their prospects are most engaged and learn the rhythms of their audience so they can attune their content to them more closely. Sometimes that means stepping down the frequency; other times, it means feeding a lead’s voracious appetite for knowledge with useful, relevant content.
Using Triggered Responses to Boost Speed
If your lead has a question, waiting for an answer that’s too slow could cost you a sale. For most businesses, it isn’t practical to have a team of people available 24 hours a day to answer questions. With marketing automation technology, you can do the next best thing and pre-set a host of possible responses ready to go out as soon as a lead takes an action that requires them.
Triggered emails are about more than responding to direct queries, too; marketing automation lets you set up nurture programs that flow from interaction to interaction based on leads’ activity. For example, your marketing automation system can be set to send a reminder email three days after a shopper abandons an e-commerce cart or offer a newsletter subscription based on a recent download of a white paper on an associated topic.
Your marketing strategy needs to be quick enough to keep up with your fastest leads, but it shouldn’t be stuck in top speed. Be flexible enough to allow on-demand content that’s responsive to your leads.
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