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Creating Solid Drip Campaign Content

During a workshop this week I was asked a question that almost every business owner has asked at one time or another – How do I create solid drip campaign content that will keep my prospective customer listening? The answer isn’t as complicated as you might think.

First let’s talk about drip campaigns and why they are necessary.  There have been numerous studies showing that only 3% to 9% of your buyers will take action after seeing something from your company for the first time.  There is a path buyers take when deciding to purchase something – I call this the buyers’ journey.   They first need to become aware of the product or service and from there they enter the research stage of the journey.  They ask themselves what it is they need to know to make an informed decision.  Finally, they enter the whom do I buy it from stage when they evaluate the best vendor to form the purchasing relationship with.  If you have been successful in providing truly valuable information to them while they are on this journey you will be the obvious choice.

What will be viewed as valuable?

To determine this, you need to go to the source.  If you have an existing customer base you need to ask them.  This is similar to last week’s blog on developing a good marketing message that will resonate with your customer audience.  Only this time you need to focus your questioning in on what went into making their buying decision when they selected your company.

  • What information did they gather before making the decision to buy?
  • What were they looking for in a product/vendor?
  • Were there any risks they wanted to be sure to avoid?
  • Were there particular design considerations they needed help with?
  • Did location play a role?
  • What about customer service?

You know your business best.  Even if you are a new business, you know what goes into the decision to buy.  EDUCATE your customer about the product, service, or industry.  Speak in a voice the customer will understand.  Don’t sell to them – teach them what they need to know!!!

  • How do they select the right partner?
  • What should they know about the products?
  • What are the risks involved in the wrong decision?
  • Should they seek help for the design or layout that fits them best?

Small Bites

A drip campaign needs to take the buyer on a journey a little at a time.  Don’t try to jam too much into one communication.  Keep each communication short and support the message with links to videos or other content that will elaborate on the topic of the week or month.  You don’t need to communicate the entire topic in one e-mail.  Break it up into parts if the topic is too complicated for one communication.  Recap what you told them last time and build on it.  If there was supporting information, they should have watched or read, remind them it is there, especially if it is impactful.

Frequency

This is a delicate dance and will depend on how valuable your information is and the sales cycle for your product or service.  A general rule of thumb is if the average buyer’s journey is a short one you should communicate more frequently and less frequently for longer sales cycles.  You don’t want to overwhelm the customer forcing them to unsubscribe because then you have just defeated the purpose of the campaign.  Once again, you need to put yourself in the buyers’ shoes.  What is enough but not too much?  There is no one answer to the question of frequency.  The best way to determine this is to measure the success or the failure of the campaign.  If people are unsubscribing it is usually a good indication that the frequency is set wrong, or the content is just not engaging enough.  If you are using an automated tool like Mailchimp to run the campaign, there will be reporting to guide the way.  They will measure things like open rate and unsubscribe rates that will help you better understand how you are doing.

Writing skills

Not everyone can sit down a write a series of e-mails that are written well enough to keep an audience engaged and listening.  I am also certain that not everyone can do what you do for a living either, so don’t hesitate to get some help.  Don’t make the mistake however of having someone else write content for you when they don’t know your business or customer base.  You need to set the tone for the content. Direct anyone helping you as to where to go to find the information needed to guide customers toward selecting your company as their vendor of choice.  There are plenty of sites out there with freelance copy writers to help you create compelling content that you can break up into a drip campaign journey that will resonate with your potential customer base.  Here are a few sites that might help in the search for some help with copywriting.

Drip campaigns are a very effective way to stay in touch with your potential customer while they are on their buying journey.  Understanding what goes into their buying decision will not only help you make your drip campaign more effective; it will focus your marketing message and help tremendously in closing the final sale.  For help with drip campaigns reach out any time

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Marketing Massages and Customer Connections

Everyone knows customer connections are essential to the growth of your company but how many times a day are you presented with an advertisement that really gets your attention? If you are like most of us, getting your attention has become an increasingly difficult task.  Digital marketing experts estimate that most Americans are exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 ads each day.  When I first read this, I was blown away and then I started to track it in my daily life.  To my astonishment, the number was right on the money.  Ads were everywhere, TV, radio, digital media, print media, on buildings, billboards, bus benches, shopping carts and on and on.

The crazy thing is most of these ads had no draw whatsoever for me.  Even when it was something I had real interest in I almost didn’t notice it was there.  The experts tell us that the average person needs to see an ad or website or landing page seven times before they will respond to it.  That’s a lot of marketing dollars, especially for a small business owner. So, what’s the plan for your business?

Market Dominating Position (MDP) – Unique Selling Proposition

First off – stop marketing a me-too message.  If your message to your customer base, is I do what they do only better you are wasting your money and you will only be able to compete on price.  That means lower revenue and less profit to grow with.  You need to find a unique selling proposition.  Something that will differentiate you from the other companies in your business sector.  What is it you do that separates you from your competitors?

Domino’s pizza (Domino’s Pizza) is a great example of this.  Dominos focused in on a specific segment of the market – college students.   Their need was to get something to eat anytime of the day and get it quickly.  30-minute delivery or it’s free!  This is a terrific example of an MDP.   Does Dominos make the best pizza?  Not by a longshot, but they sure sell a lot of them.

Another more relatable example is the Preschool that – guarantees your child will be reading at a second-grade level when they enter kindergarten.  Every parent wants their child to exceed in school and life beyond, so this message resonates with them when they see it.

When you can get inside the head of your potential customer by talking about the problem they have that they don’t want and offering the solution they want but don’t have, your marketing will get noticed.

When thinking about your messaging you need to do some research to determine what your customers are focused on when deciding to buy your product or service.  The best source for this information is the customers you already have.  Ask these questions to start.

  • What was it about our product or service that made our company stand apart from the competition?
  • What else might you have wanted to see as an added service?
  • What other than price was the motivating force behind your decision to use our service or product?
  • Was there any downside to the product or service?
  • How long were you considering making this purchase before pulling the trigger?

Your customers have the answers, you just need to talk to them until you uncover what it is that makes you unique and will separate you from the pack.  There are a lot of companies out there that sell pizza and most of them taste better than Dominos, but the results they have achieved are undeniable.   Domino’s market share has stayed between 49–54% from August 2019 to February 2020.  All by focusing in on a specific demographic with a specific need – Fast delivery!!

There is no reason you and your company cannot do the same thing with a little focus and some direction.  Create your own Market Dominating Position with our MDP workbook and video series (TEC Online Training).

Stop wasting marketing dollars on a message that does nothing to separate you from the other companies offering similar products or services.

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Lets’ Talk About Vendors

The vendors you work with are important to the success of your business and the relationships you build with them can drastically impact your top and bottom line.
Vendors and Cost of Goods:
First and foremost, your Cost of Goods (COGS) are directly impacted by what your vendors charge you for the components that go into the delivery of your product or service.  Revenue – COGS = Gross Profit.  If you have strong relationships with your vendors, you can drive costs down as your volume grows increasing your overall gross profit.  This can only happen if you understand how your vendor’s cost structures work.  To do this you need to be able to connect with them regularly to discuss how you can help each other grow.  After all nobody wants you to grow more than the vendor that supplies you. Here are a few things I would recommend when dealing with your vendors.
Go to see them or have them come see you so you can both get a better sense of how you can grow together.
Set goals for the relationship in terms of growth incentives, payment and volume discounting.
Meet at least once a year to review the status of the relationship and their competitiveness in the market. The market changes from year to year, so they need to know you are on top of things.
Lastly, track the effectiveness of their product and service. After all, your business is directly impacted by both quality and delivery times.
Vendor Referral Programs:
A good vendor can be one of your best referral sources.  Their success is directly affected by your industry after all and more directly your success.  The faster you grow the faster they grow.  With that in mind explore the possibility of them helping you grow through referrals. Look for unique ways to offer your vendors rewards for helping grow your business and everyone wins.
Here’s the step-by-step process to putting together a partnership with a vendor:
Approach all the vendors you work with and offer them an incentive based on performance.
Put the generous incentive plan together from their perspective, even take suggestions.
Develop a clear, concise and easy to track incentive plan. They need to understand how they will get paid for their efforts.
Encourage subsequent sales instead of focusing only on the initial sale. Creating an incentive trail allows them to continue to reap the rewards of their efforts past the initial purchase, which is usually the smallest sale volume.
Create an incentive plan that’s irresistible to your vendors by offering generous, exclusive compensation.
Think of all the vendors you work with and the creative ways you can put together an incentive plan that entices them to be part of your business. Use their talents, capabilities and connections and you’ll both be winners.
Putting together an incentive plan doesn’t have to be a complicated process. Use our FREE test drive to come up with some great ideas and put your incentive plan together for maximum results.

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Don’t Hire Managers – Build Leaders

Today, I want to talk to you about building leaders that will help you explode the growth of your company.  At some point in the development of your organization you will need to hire a manager or supervisor.  This hire will be vital to the future success of the company because it is the people that make an organization great, and if those people are not inspired by a true leader, they will not perform to their peak potential.

I learned this later in my career as a business owner using a 360-survey tool.  Honestly, if you had asked me, and the survey did, I would have told you my team and I worked well together.  The truth was we didn’t!  While I thought I was inspiring them, they thought I was intimidating and difficult to communicate with.

Imagine if you could take that newly hired manager or supervisor and fine tune their ability to communicate and motivate the rest of the team.  The result is a team of employees who are all on the same page and are motivated to deliver on the mission of the organization.  A 360-degree survey, done correctly, allows the manager to go on a journey of self-exploration that not only allows them to grow but empowers them to build leaders below them who can later be promoted.

When done right, 360-degree feedback boosts employee performance and professional development.  Some of the main advantages of using this tool are:

  • Increased self-awareness: 360 feedback employees become aware of their strengths and weaknesses.
  • Identification of skill gaps that helps leaders recognize blind spots and hidden strengths.
  • Provides an overall employee assessment. This knowledge is critical to growing your business as it guides training efforts that promote business success and individual development.
  • Improves productivity: Fosters good working relationships and increases employee productivity. Positive feedback boosts employee confidence and encourages them to do more.
  • Provides leaders insights: Leaders can better understand employees’ skills and decide which roles best suit them.
  • Increases transparency: Helps build trust and facilitates open communication.

The truth is not all 360-degree surveys will deliver these results.  Three persistent issues prevent 360-degree surveys from delivering the total value of the organization’s investment. For decades, 360 reports have been:

  • Data heavy
  • Complicated and difficult to interpret
  • Lack a plan for effecting real change or improvement

Some 360s are so complex that organizations hire certified experts to interpret the data and debrief the results. Participants can be overwhelmed by the amount of data and daunted by figuring out what to do with the feedback.

I recently started working with a company that I recommend to my clients because they have solved these problems with a simple yet elegant 360 report that incorporates a proven change model with the feedback. The combination simplifies the data and illuminates how to use the feedback to improve performance.  They utilize a self-debriefing action report that results in personal, practical, motivating action plans that participants implement to achieve success.

If you are building out a management team, or already have one that could use some improvement, I highly recommend using a 360-degree survey tool like the one described here.  If the feedback isn’t easy for the manager/leader to understand and get on board with, change will not take place.

As always, feel free to leave me a comment below or reach out directly, if I can help you with this or any other issue that will help grow your organization.

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Turn Prospects into Customers!

Today I’d like to talk about how to turn prospects into customers.  While, your marketing is doing its job by generating leads, you need to be working on converting those prospects or leads into customers.  In most buying scenarios the buyer or customer is not ready to buy when they initially see your ad or visit your website.

The biggest fear of most new customers is the dreaded buyer’s remorse. They want to be sure their money is being well spent – They are getting the best deal!

In a recent study it was discovered that only 3% to 9% of customers are ready to buy when they are first introduced to you and your product.  In fact, it takes as many as 20 customer touches to close the deal.  Leads or prospects are only the start to the marketing process.  It is always good practice to measure the number of leads a particular marketing campaign produces.  This measures the effectiveness of the campaign.  This will not necessarily predict the number of customers that campaign will produce.

Your buyer is on a journey that leads them to their final decision point and beyond.  They move through this journey moving from Awareness, this is where your ad came in, to Consideration, the information the ad led them to, to the final Decision to buy.  It is critical that you understand that they may not act on their first visit so you must devise a way to keep your company front of mind without abusing the relationship you have now established.

Once a prospective customer becomes aware of your product or service, they require information to decide if your product or service is the best option – the best deal.  You now need to move into the nurturing stage of your marketing.  Establish trust and authority with your prospective client.  Telling them how great your product or service is won’t accomplish this goal.  They need the information to make the right decision confidently.

  • Capture their e-mail and place them in an informative Drip Campaign
  • Connect with them via social media
  • Send them a free gift or sample
  • Have them enroll in your newsletter program
  • Ask them to follow the company

The important thing to remember here is follow up and stay connected.  Give the prospect the information they need to move to the decision phase of the journey.  You need to answer the questions or objections that have been preventing them from making the purchase.  This is not a price thing, it’s a value and trust thing.  Don’t fall into the trap of the best price wins because you will limit your ability to separate yourself from your competitors on anything other than price.  Why are people willing to pay 2 or 3 times more for coffee at Starbucks?  Because Starbucks spent time educating their customers about coffee and separated themselves from there competitors by selling the coffee experience rather than the drink itself.

Stop selling to your prospects and start supplying them with the information they need to make an informed decision that they won’t regret. Follow up after the sale to be sure they are satisfied with the product or service.  This will show them that you want a relationship rather than a one-time purchase.

“By making it inviting, easy, informative, non-threatening, educational, inspiring and fun to do business with you, you’ll loft your company above the competition.” Jay Abraham

Need help with figuring out the best strategy for converting prospects into customers? Visit our website ( https://tec-coaching.com/ask-us/ )and ask the expert for free advice on your marketing approach.

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