Today's Example of Marketing Automation

Marketing Automation Example: Critical with a Hint of Patronizing

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 14:00:00 GMT

This email opens with a brief concept of what the company does, but the way it is described is almost condescending, as if they are saying, “Here’s the name of the technique we use, but we won’t bother actually explaining it to you because we trust you wouldn’t understand anyway.” Instead of educating the email recipient appropriately, they jump right in and tell Mike that they have already analyzed his website, and on top of that, they’ve found significant issues with it. Instead of explaining how improving load time could benefit Mike’s company, they focus only on the negatives and include a report of all of the problems that they found with the website. This comes off as condescending and feels invasive. Also, the attempt to create a sense of urgency completely fails, if for no other reason than the lack of confidence in their assertions (“This is likely increasing your bounce rate, lowering conversions and potentially impacting your SEO.”) They don’t even give substantial information to convince the email recipients that this is a real issue.

The other big reason this is bad marketing automation is that it ends with a request to set up a sales call. This violates many of the 10 Commandments of Marketing Automation, specifically that the message should be pressure-free and content-driven. The sender is pushing Mike to set up a call, without having provided him with nearly enough information about why he should be interested in doing so, nor the time and resources to help him make this decision. Instead of providing him with educational content to help him learn more about these issues, they jump straight to a sales pitch.

Marketing Automation Example: Build Trust With Your Email

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:27:00 GMT

How much do you trust the list marketer that they actually respect their unsubscribe list? This message offered to sell email lists of different types and levels of depth. At the bottom, the message humorlessly warns you that they would never violate your privacy, and that you are free to unsubscribe from their offers at any time. This is a pretty surprising direction to take - The recipients of this message are not likely to trust that the unsubscribe works, since this company actually makes money by possessing lists of as many email addresses as possible and then emailing them, regardless of whether or not they are a qualified contact.

While you should never buy lists, and definitely never expect great results from a purchased list, there are some steps that you can take to help your marketing automation be more successful than this. Instead of being suspicious and making recipients distrustful of your company and message, show them the value and promise of your services and goals.

You can learn more about great marketing automation and what's involved in producing messages and marketing that people enjoy receiving in our free marketing automation eBook here.

Great Marketing Automation: Ontolo's New Version Announcement

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:53:00 GMT

This week, Ontolo, a maker of SEO & link building software, sent out an inventive piece of marketing automation across several channels to their community and followers. In this letter (reprinted in part uncensored with their permission), the CEO of Ontolo, Ben Wills, apologizes for having led their product in a bad direction over their last version and explains the thought process and decisions that spurred the newest version of their product, which they are releasing next week. Ben ends the letter with a note that he will be sending a follow-up email with more product specific information on Friday morning to follow up, and thanks the community for being involved.

Ontolo did a few things very well in producing and sending this email out to their list:

- They emailed this friendly, frank letter to people who had done a free trial of their software in the past but had not purchased. The email never directly asks for anything except the reader's forgiveness for being subjected to sub-par software.

- They used this letter in other channels besides email, by publishing it on their blog and social media accounts as well. People who follow them on different channels or interact with Ontolo in other ways were able to interact with the message well. A multi-channel strategy is key to effective marketing automation.

- Ben sets clear expectations for his follow-up - After sending this message on Wednesday, he notes that you'll receive another email on Friday with more information about the next version of their product. They still aren't asking for anything, but telling you where to go and when to find out more information on the next version of their product. They really respect their customers, potential customers, and community by keeping the message away from sales prospecting and towards building community, a positive message, and letting people come back to them to learn. Don't be vague with your leads!

- On Friday morning when the next email went out, the people who received it were excited to do so: Ontolo had built up some suspense and excitement for the next version of their software. Imagine if your leads were actually EXCITED to receive their next piece of email marketing from you. That's when you know you are doing your marketing automation right.

Marketing Automation Example: The Fake Salutation

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:10:00 GMT

If you feel like you need to begin your email with "I trust you are doing well", it's pretty likely that your marketing automation has already gone off the rails. That's a sign that you're struggling to come up with good things to say or you're not comfortable sending automated email. Remember some of the key tenets of marketing automation:

1) Keep your marketing automation pressure free and not sales-focused. This is especially true for the first message you send a new lead, in that introduction message. If you are using marketing automation to pull a cold lead directly into a sales call, you will find that you have very poor results. Even people who are good leads and potentially interested in hiring you may not be ready to buy yet - Don't view your leads as a credit card that is ready to swipe, but someone who needs to win internal support for a major purchase from you.

2) Support The Internal Sale. Don't just tell them about your product and what it does, but provide your lead with the information that will help them sell the cause and product internally. Educate them with statistics, facts, and information about why your product is useful. If you are developing an internal advocate at the company, arm and equip them as best you can.

Marketing Automation Example: Taking The Wrong Approach

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:02:00 GMT

If you are sending automated email marketing to a list that you have acquired somehow, there are a few commandments that you should follow:

1) Serve your customer, above all else. If you can't provide them with any solutions or answers that would alleviate their pain or solve a problem for them, don't bother emailing them. If your pitch revolves around the success of your PR engine and not about customer benefit, this is deeply troubling.

2) It's immediately obvious that this is mass-mailed spam if you start off your email stating that you aren't sure if your contact is a good contact for the topic. If your list is unqualified enough that you have no clue if your recipient could be a good lead for you, why are you emailing them? They will not risk embarassment by forwarding the email to a colleague.

3) The lack of a real content offer is also telling - They have no whitepaper, ebook, or webinar to back up the usefulness of their product, or other relevant content. Your email marketing should always involve a strong call to action. If you aren't able to come up with a content-based call to action or offer, you are unlikely to see the leads that you are looking for.

If this company wanted to greatly improve the quality and success of their marketing automation, they should invest in creating useful content that they could email to their leads and invite them to read it to become more familiar with the topic, and get in touch if they are interested in learning more or if they have questions. At a minimum, they should clearly state what the benefits of these dashboards and reports are any how they could be involved in customer retention and revenues.

Marketing Automation Example: Don't Copy This Conference Followup Email

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:00:00 GMT

This is an example of a conference follow up email that you should never send. It's impersonal, obviously a mass message, and doesn't even specifically mention where you met the person. Nothing says, "Meeting you wasn't worth my time" more than an impersonal follow up message that references nothing about the exchange.

Even if you somehow met so many people at this event that you can't manage a halfway personal message to the person, try to include something specific about how you met them. Receiving this message could almost be offensive, when it's clear that you weren't really interested in the person beyond hopefully picking up a new LinkedIn connection or Twitter follower. Most of the time though, you probably aren't meeting so many new people at an event that you want to both follow up with all of them but can't say anything specific to them. Either way, an impersonal automated message is not the right choice for you.

Instead, make sure you include something about how you met them, where you met them, or something that you discussed, include the social media links, and then invite them to follow up in the future to work together again. This helps obey some of the must-have rules of Marketing Automation: Be personal, be authentic, and always be customer-serving, not self-serving.

Marketing Automation Example: Don't Be Too Explicit

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:13:00 GMT

It's definitely true that you should follow up with people who register on your website to make sure that they were successful and happy with their experience. You can find out if your customers were happy with their purchases and if things went smoothly, and have the opportunity to learn from people who did not complete their purchase.

However, it's probably better if you sound like you are interested for reasons of customer happiness and success than purely because a survey told that you should follow up three months later. Your current and potential customers are looking for an authentic experience and signs that you actually care about their happiness, not just following a book of business rules.

Many marketers using marketing automation software may already be practicing this philosophy. It's important to remember that there are lots of great inbound marketers who are automating parts of their systems, and that marketing automation isn't inherently evil. It does make it much easier to accidentally send bad marketing emails though and unintentionally frustrate your users, like this one does.

Great Marketing Automation: Watch Your Plants Before Frost

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:01:00 GMT

Here is an example of great marketing automation. The day before the first frost of fall in each city, this company sends out a warning to make sure that you take care of your plants, and harvest any remaining fruit that is outside. This is a fantastic example of marketing automation done right - It's personal, timely, and extremely relevant to the recipient's interests.

Some simple social media buttons are provided so that the reader can share the message with their friends that might find it useful, and they get to have a very positive interaction with a brand that is looking out for their garden care. It's hard to find anything wrong or misplaced about this excellent marketing automation message.

Marketing Automation Example: Selling Lists Via Marketing Automation

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:00:00 GMT

There are so many scary things about this piece of marketing automation email that it's hard to know where to start. We all know that the email list vendors are out there, who sell lists of email addressess to anyone with money. These lists are never permission based or qualified, and frequently have extremely high rates of bad or invalid email addresses. The kind of email marketing automation that these encourage is never successful or productive for businesses in the long run, as spam complaints and other issues roll in. The deliverability rate on messages sent from purchased lists is also extremely low. Instead of just buying lists of names to try and fill the top of your company's sales funnel, why not transform your marketing department into an inbound marketing machine?

Marketing Automation Example: The Conference Invite

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 20:00:00 GMT

This message was received by a marketer who had never heard of the conference series, isn't involved in data centers or IT, and was essentially cold emailed by the organization hosting the series. It's likely that they bought a list from spam list provider, and are hoping to drive more registrations from this email campaign. Unfortunately, by sending this kind of message the organization has commited two of the cardinal sins in email marketing, and giving email marketing and marketing automation a bad name while hurting their own reputation. Those cardinal sins are closely related:

1) Do not buy random lists of unqualified email addresses and send them your blast (Otherwise known as the Spray and Pray method.)

2) Don't bury your only call to action at the bottom of a message, that may be off-screen on some displays. Provide several opportunities for the click-through throughout the message. If readers must scroll to the bottom to have a chance to click through, you will undoubtably lose clicks.

Interested in learning more about how to do better marketing automation? Register for our free ebook and webinar on November 18th.

Marketing Automation Example: Tell me the benefit of your products!

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 14:09:00 GMT

While Karen isn't really in the marketing for an enterprise phone system (she's a product manager at HubSpot), this would probably have been a failure if received by our IT team instead. Instead of focusing on the benefits of their products or why Karen needs this guide in particular to make an informed choice, this vendor is instead presenting a bullet list of features.

If the vendor had left out the list of brands and instead included a statistic to explain why the guide was crucial, it would have been much more powerful. For example, "Companies using our guide to make a purchasing decision pay on average 23% below list price and express greater happiness six months after implmentation than the industry average" would have presented a more compelling message. Since this vendor is a market research provider, they almost certainly have access to this type of data - But they aren't presenting it.

Interested in learning more about how to do better marketing automation? Register for our free ebook and webinar on November 18th.

Marketing Automation Example: No, I Won't Sell Out My Coworkers Either

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:16:00 GMT

I received this message recently from someone I didn't know, trying to sell me some kind of tablet or pad device. I have no clue who this guy is, why he's contacting me, or why I'd want to "click here" to check out his eNewsletter. I don't know anything about his company or why they might be interesting for me.

This is one of the key things that marketing automation can mess up here: This marketer is putting all of the burden of research and qualifying if I'm a good prospect onto me, instead of doing it himself in advance. Rather than qualify or rule me out as not a good lead or worth messaging, he's hoping that I will research his products and offerings and call him back. That is too much to hope for in a busy world.

I'm certainly not going to embarass myself in front of any of my coworkers by forwarding this message on to them, as he asked.