Take Your E-mail Newsletter to the Next Level

Tailor it to your sales team

by Matt Highsmith, CEO, TailoredMail

Well-timed, targeted and compelling e-mail newsletters and campaigns are the backbone of any good eMarketing strategy. However, most newsletters focus too much on the short-term, tend to be self-serving and miss one of the biggest opportunities to drive sales and long-term relationships -- the ability to connect prospects with your sales team.

Successful e-newsletters give you more interactivity and loyalty from your subscriber base. This drives a tighter relationship between salespeople and clients, and builds stronger working relationships between the sales and marketing departments.

The beauty of creating a linkage between e-mail programs and your sales force is simple. Let’s compare the differences between a typical, standard corporate newsletter and a sales-connected newsletter (you be the judge of which one has a better chance at driving relationships):

Standard corporate e-mail newsletter

The standard corporate e-newsletter is a generic, informative piece -- a single newsletter supports all areas of the corporation.

From name/e-mail = corporation (generic)

Simple personalization (name)

Articles sent from corporate headquarters

Sales-connected newsletter

The sales-connected newsletter dynamically integrates salesperson-specific information and articles tailored to each individual subscriber.

From name/e-mail = salesperson’s name/e-mail

Includes salesperson's picture/signature and contact information (Essentially, any element within the newsletter can be personalized to each salesperson, if desired.)

Turn-key articles from corporate and/or salespeople-authored articles

Article combinations dynamically matched to the subscriber’s profile (For example, if your salespeople know clients are interested in specific products, the newsletter can dynamically match articles to each user’s preferences.)

Feedback buttons and questions directly sent to the salesperson

Better yet -- when you connect newsletters with your sales team (or storefronts or offices), salespeople can view their own customized tracking reports that show results ONLY for their clients/subscribers. The sales staff can see:

Who opened and clicked on specific articles?

Who responded to the important calls to action?

Which individuals or companies had the most active readers?

Which content was most popular?

Who forwarded the messages, and to whom?

These results become invaluable tools for your sales teams.

Four reasons e-newsletters work

Once you connect with prospects through a tailored e-newsletter, several important things happen:

1. Your sales team will be in love with “marketing.” They will want the newsletters (or campaigns) to be successful,  drive sales for them and make them look good without any effort. They also will be thrilled to have the option of becoming involved in the process by writing some of their own articles or messages.
2. Your e-mail audience (your prospects and customers) will better connect with your company/brand, because you’re building a dialogue directly with the people who represent your company.
3. Response rates will grow, attrition rates will drop and -- most importantly -- sales will increase. This powerful tool augments sales efforts and empowers your salespeople. Most salespeople can only focus on the top 10 percent of prospects. On the flip side, this approach keeps them in touch with (and keeps the door open) to all 100 percent.
4. Most importantly, your e-mails will be more recognizable in the inbox. Studies have proven that messages coming from a contact you’ve made at a business are opened more often than messages that come generically from the company itself (e.g., “Marc Kamaka – WAMU Bank” vs. “WAMU Bank”).

In the early days of e-mail marketing, everyone sent broadcasted e-mails with one-size-fits-all content out to a “list.” Using a custom approach turns your e-mail newsletters and campaigns into serious relationship tools that make you and your company stand out in a cluttered e-mail inbox. Plus, they get sales and marketing working together to great success.

How to personalize your campaign 

To pull off such an implementation, use the following checklist to help you with your personalized campaigns if you have your own in-house system and database: 

o  Create a spreadsheet of your sales team

o  Define personalized content to use within the e-mail:

• First and last name

• Title

• Phone and fax

• E-mail

• Address

• URL of a personalized Web page about the salesperson

o  For storefronts or offices, you might include:

• Office hours

• Google map URL for directions

o  Include any .jpg or .gif images

• Picture of the person or store/location

• The person's signature

o  Map the salesperson (or storefront) to each subscriber

• Create a “default” for people without an assigned salesperson

• Map subscribers to salespeople based on alignment:

o  Direct assignment

o  By geography

o  By size, specialty or type of interest/product

• Add this logic into your e-mail opt-in/sign-up pages

o  Design your e-mail templates with the corresponding merge-fields from personalized information from the previous bullets

Use the elements in this checklist, and you’ll have the beginning of a sales-connected e-mail program destined for great results. If your vendor can support these ideas, you might find a host of additional built-in capabilities such as salesperson-specific reports, charts and feedback surveys -- simple authoring tools so your sales team can contribute its own content, articles and much more. Whether you develop your own campaign or get help, take your newsletter to the next level -- with a personalized campaign.

Want more info? If you try this on your own and want feedback, or if you would like further advice based on your company’s unique needs, contact us.

Want to schedule a demo? Ask a few questions?