Digital Growth Magazine - Issue 7 - May 2021

DIGITAL GROWTH May 2021 | ISSUE 7

THE CUSTOMER LIFECYCLE EDITION

Inside this issue: • • • • • •

The Buyer’s Decision Making Process Consumers Are Shopping in New Ways Attracting Audiences Converting Leads Closing Deals Delighting Customers

Digital Growth -May, 2021

CONTENT

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Editor's Letter

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MarTech in the Spotlight: HubSpot introduces Conversational Intelligence

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Q1 Review: What have we learned so far about digital marketing in 2021

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The History of the QR Code

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Consumers Are Shopping in New Ways

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Buyer’s Decision Making Process

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The Attraction Stage: How digital marketing and buyer personas can draw in your audiences

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The Conversion Stage: How to convert prospects into leads

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The Closing Stage: How to turn sales-qualified leads into loyal customers

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The Delight Stage: How to deal with customers post-purchase to maintain satisfaction and encourage brand loyalty

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The State of Email Marketing

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Letter From the Editor Hi All, 2020 changed the way businesses operate and we have witnessed more businesses move their efforts online as employees continue to work from home - and consumers continue to shop online. Consumer behavior and the buyer’s journey have shifted and digital marketing has had to adjust. In this issue we take a look at Quarter 1 of 2021 and review what it has taught us about the new digital marketing landscape and unpack some creative, measurable and strategic marketing tactics to ensure the best outcomes in 2021.

We also take a look at how the buyer’s journey has shifted and why it has become vital for businesses to engage with prospective and current customers on a more personalized and strategic level. With this in mind, businesses need to implement customer-centric marketing, sales, and service strategies aligned and designed to drive the entire customer lifecycle. This is done by understanding the stages of attracting, converting, closing, and delighting customers to ensure business growth and longevity.

Other articles you can look forward to in this month’s edition include consumer-based topics, namely digital marketing, QR codes, and email marketing.

We hope that this issue provides you with insight into the digital marketing landscape of 2021 as well as the customer lifecycle and explains how you can use this methodology to grow your business better.

Amit Vyas CEO, NEXA www.digitalnexa.com

About the Editor Amit Vyas is the Co-Founder and CEO of Nexa, a digital marketing agency that was launched in Dubai in 2005. With close to a decade of experience within Digital Marketing, Amit has seen first hand, the dynamic environment with which businesses now have to operate in order to achieve growth and to succeed.

Amit has worked with hundreds of businesses in the Middle East from startups to large multinational clients during his time at Nexa and previously, in the UK. He can be found at international conferences and has spoken at marketing events in the USA (SXSW and Content Marketing Conference), Australia (ANZMAC), India (Content Marketing Summit at the world Marketing Congress) as well as countless others in Europe and the UAE.

Be a part of Digital Growth Do you have an article that you’d like to share or want to collaborate with our writers?

Send an email to Amit@digitalnexa.com with your ideas.

About Nexa As one of the largest fully-independent Digital Marketing Agencies in the UAE, Nexa has provided a vast array of services to over 1,000 clients in the region since 2005. Nexa is HubSpot’s only Diamond Partner Agency for the GCC region. www.DigitalNexa.com

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MarTech

Digital Growth -May, 2021

in the News

Introduces Conversation Intelligence to Help Sales and Service Teams By: Toni Becker

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n 15 March 2021, HubSpot announced the addition of Conversation Intelligence (CI) to its Sales Hub Enterprise and Service Hub Enterprise. This new technology represents the latest expansion of the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform for scaling businesses.

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Conversation Intelligence offers a new approach for sales teams to quickly record and analyze sales call data. This is done through Artificial-Intelligence powered insights and call coaching. With this insight and data, sales managers can identify performance patterns and develop strategies to improve sales representative performance to ensure greater customer satisfaction and improve win rates.

Lou Orfanos, GM of Sales Hub at HubSpot, explained the importance of this new technology. “One of the biggest challenges facing sales leaders today is understanding their team’s productivity and areas for improvement,” Orfanos explained further by adding, “Sales managers don’t have time to listen to 45-minute calls to provide feedback for one person.

So, they’re having to blindly trust their gut instead of trusting the truth about their market and customers. By providing detailed, actionable insights into what’s happening on sales calls, Conversation Intelligence helps leaders address that challenge and set their teams up for success, without having to worry about data entry.”

With Conversation Intelligence as part of your sales and service strategy, you can: •

Discover “why” your team is performing in specific ways through AI-powered data collection.

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Eliminate time-consuming tasks such as taking notes during a team’s calls.

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Capture hours of voice data in the CRM, identify opportunities for coaching and pinpoint what changes need to be made to improve sales and improve customer experience.

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Make data-driven decisions that impact the bottom line.

As reliance on machine intelligence continues to grow, so will conversational AI and the stats speak for themselves: Research shows that by 2022, use of conversational AI will result in cost savings of up to $8 billion per year.

37% of Americans say they can make chatbot assisted purchases even for items as high as $55 or more.

Over 73% of people would not transact with a company after a bad experience with a chatbot.

27% of people would more readily use a chatbot than email.

HubSpot is dedicated to creating seamless marketing, sales, and service experiences to better the customer experience and propel business growth. The addition of Conversation Intelligence is just another example of HubSpot’s dedication to helping your business grow better.

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2021 Q1 Review: What Have We Learnt So Far This Year About Digital Marketing?

By: Toni Becker

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he ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way businesses operate. We’ve witnessed more businesses move online, and many employees continue to work remotely. With many businesses adjusting to the eCommerce space and changes in consumer behavior and the buyer’s journey, digital marketing has had to adapt considerably. Digital marketing strategies have shifted as marketers consider the new normal for every aspect of their efforts.

Quarter 1 of 2021 has taught us that we have to embrace these changes and embrace creative, measurable, and strategic marketing tactics to ensure the best marketing outcomes in 2021.

Below, we take a look at what we have learned (so far) about digital marketing in 2021.

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Digital Marketing 2021 Q1 in Review

Clubhouse, Podcasts and Audio Marketing

Content Creation, Customer Retention and Social Media Marketing

Launched in April 2020, Clubhouse is an invitation-only audiochat app that has taken auditory communication and marketing to the next level. The app has caused quite the stir due to its exclusivity. The social networking platform has now been valued at almost $100 million. The social media app delivers a one-of-a-kind experience described as an audio-only virtual event on a large scale.

With social distancing regulations in place, the consumer is spending even more time online. Essentially, as consumers, we have become used to communicating and engaging with friends and family through online channels. In turn, most of our business engagements and consumer research occur through various online channels, and social media is one of the first touchpoints we have with brands today.

With the above in mind, social media has become vital for engaging leads and retaining current clients. Businesses need to dedicate more resources to content creation and social media marketing in 2021.

So, what does a good content marketing and social media marketing strategy look like?

As we keep reiterating, the biggest driving force in marketing transformation is the consumer. As the digital age continues to shift and evolve, the more expectations the consumer has for brands and businesses, and organizations need to continuously deliver what the customer expects in order to remain competitive and relevant.

This is important for customer retention and lead generation marketing efforts as the focus is no longer on what is being sold but rather on who we are selling to. So, what are the expectations of the customer in the digital age?

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High-quality, informative content (blogs, articles, infographics, and videos) that cater to every stage of the buyer’s journey (from awareness and lead nurturing to post-purchase).

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Regular posts that have specific call-to-action.

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Highly targeted social media lead generation campaigns that direct the consumer to a landing page where lead data can be collected, stored, and used for lead nurturing purposes.

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All posts need to be analyzed and measured to ensure all campaigns are optimized to their potential. Campaigns can be monitored and tracked in real-time and adjusted accordingly.

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Social media management is vital, and customer engagement and timely responses should always be a priority.

When it comes to social media marketing, we all know about LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. But there is a new platform taking the marketing community by storm and offers a new and exciting way to reach and engage your potential customers. We’re not talking video, images, or blog posts anymore, folks. We are talking audio!

So, how does the app work?

Do you remember the first internet chat rooms? The ones that were made up of people with the same interests, discussing topics that meant something to them? Those chat rooms were usually hosted via a platform such as mIRC, and individuals could type privately to each other or a roof people. Clubhouse has taken that concept and propelled it to suit the digital age.

The app is completely audio and is made up of virtual rooms where people worldwide can host conversations about various topics. The voice-only app is similar to podcasts (a rising trend in entertainment and marketing); however, the conversations happen live and aren’t recorded for playback. This gives the user a sense of exclusivity - which makes for greater engagement.

As a marketer in 2021, this platform presents a great opportunity for business thought leaders and industry experts. Marketers can use this app to establish brands and brand-owners as goto resources - while promoting services and products at the same time.

This opportunity shouldn’t be ignored as we head into Q2, and marketers need to jump aboard this trend before brand competitors get the upper hand. From impromptu focus groups for marketing awareness to connecting with niche customers and discussing industry trends - Clubhouse needs to be taken seriously by marketers.

What makes Clubhouse so appealing to marketers is its ability to reach a niche, high-quality audience. Today, it is important that we don’t cast too wide a net for lead generation. Sales teams don’t need to waste unnecessary time and resources chasing down uninterested leads. And this brings us to our next point - the importance of lead generation and lead scoring in 2021.

Lead Scoring & Customer Relationship Management Lead generation is the lifeblood of any business, and digital marketing has made the process of lead generation easier thanks to search engine optimization, social media marketing, pay-per-click advertising, and more. As opposed to traditional marketing, we are no longer casting too wide a net and reaching individuals who do not fit our target market. However, the above tactics are not enough to ensure all your leads are sales-ready. This is where marketers come in. Digital marketing teams need to spend time nurturing and engaging with promising leads, only to hand over leads to sales reps once they have been qualified.

But, how do marketers know when a lead is marketingqualified or sales-qualified? Enter the lead scoring!

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Lead scoring is a methodology used to rank prospective clients against a scale that reflects each prospect’s perceived value to the business or organization. This kind of scoring is made up of various factors. It can include job position (is the prospect a decision maker in their business?), social media followers (is the prospect a thought-leader?), or company size. These are just three examples of what kind of data is used to establish a leads value to your business. Thanks to Customer Relationship Management systems (CRMs) such as HubSpot, this model is made easy due to online data collection, automation, and audience segmentation.

You see, HubSpot and related CRMs can track every interaction a prospect has with your business, from their social media engagement with your business page to website clicks, email open rates, lead forms, and downloads. This means that you can understand every aspect of your lead, from their behavior to their demographics (based on various factors, from their social media information to lead forms that they fill out on your website). This information will help marketers score leads and hand them over to the sales team once qualified.

This is not just a 2021 trend, but the future of digital marketing and sales alignment strategy - and you don’t want to get left behind.

Sales and Marketing Alignment Integrated Sales and Marketing is not just a passing digital marketing trend; it is a proven approach to modern-day marketing, one that creates a unified and seamless experience between consumers and brands. This is done by ensuring marketing and sales teams can work in tandem to keep the sales flywheel turning.

Marketing and sales teams have a reputation for not working side by side. For decades, these teams have been working toward the same goal in different ways, which inevitably results in workplace friction and the “blame game.”

So, how can this friction be eliminated?

To achieve a successful integrated and sales marketing strategy, it comes down to open communication, departmental alignment, and well-managed systems designed to help performance across both teams.

The best way to generate lead data between marketing and sales is to integrate your marketing and sales software in one place. This kind of integration benefits both marketing and sales teams by storing valuable data and lead information in a single location - allowing room for improved results. By connecting both teams through a powerful Customer Relationship Management software such as HubSpot, both departments can view a visitor’s entire life cycle as they become a customer.

Today, thanks to advanced Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software such as HubSpot, your marketing team can track the online behaviors of leads. In contrast, data from your sales team can help marketers gain better insight into what kinds of leads likely convert into paying clients - and what the most effective channels of communications are. A CRM can also launch and analyze marketing campaigns and provide greater insight into audience behavior and trends through reporting features. This helps marketing and sales teams better understand what the audience is looking for, what is working, and what messaging best suits a specific lead.

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The Wrap Up Q1 of 2021 has taught us that we, as marketers, need to: •

Reach the consumer through quality content, on the right platform, with the right message, at the right time.

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Think outside of the box when engaging with the consumer and embrace new social media platforms. Audio is where it’s at!

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Nurture, analyze and measure leads through lead scoring tactics to direct them through the sales pipeline.

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Align marketing and sales to ensure the best customer service and improve your bottom line.

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The History of the QR Code: From Fad to Contact-Free Necessity By: Shannon Correia

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uick Response (QR) codes have been around for two decades. Here’s a look at the history of this beneficial black and white block, from the days when it was thought of as a fad to the present day when businesses are increasingly relying on them.

How Did the QR Code Why Did People Come About?

Think of QR Codes as a Fad? In the early 1990s, Mr. Hara Masahiro, a Japanese engineer who made barcode scanners, noticed issues with the barcoding system. Barcodes had a limited data capacity, meaning that many barcodes were often needed to illustrate inside one box. More barcodes meant more scans in a process that was ultimately laborious and open to error.

The solution to this was the QR code - a black and white 2D square of pixels that could hold a lot more information than the traditional barcode. To put this into context, barcodes could hold 20 characters per code, while QR codes can hold 100 times more characters. This is because QR codes can hold data vertically and horizontally, while barcodes can only hold the latter. These squares make the sizing distinct and incorporate three squares in the corners, which allow for easy recognition by scanners.

The QR code was launched in 1994 at an automobile trade industry meeting, which garnered a very positive reception.

Car companies in Japan adopted these codes before spreading to other industries in the country and eventually around the world.

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It was in the early 2010s that QR codes spread in usage beyond product cataloging. The turning point came with mobile devices’ spread since the camera could act as a QR code scanner.

The rising trend was thought to be a fad for the following reasons: Slowness: Back in the day, internet connections were a lot slower than today; hence, opening a QR code link wasn’t as speedy and convenient as it is today. Cameras in the devices at the time were also of poorer quality and did not pick up on the codes as well or quickly.

NFC: Near Field Communication was on the rise at this time - it allowed users to tap their device to share and transfer files. This was thought to be revolutionary and far more helpful than a QR code. However, for this to work, one must be nearby for your device to accept or deliver a transfer.

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Security concerns: Since QR codes were relatively new to the consumer market, people were wary of opening links that could take them anywhere. It was not considered to be a secure source, and adaption and trust took time to develop.

Safe Entry: In countries such as Singapore, QR scanning is being used to instantly share personal details for entry or checking into buildings, shops, restaurants, and hotels. QR codes also make it easy for contactless deliveries and pickups to occur.

Barriers: The difficulties associated with QR codes included downloading an app that could scan the code, as cameras could not do this automatically. This impacted the overall user experience. It was only in 2017 when iOS 11 was launched that this functionality was available, which now extends to Android devices.

Car companies in Japan adopted these codes before spreading to other industries in the country and eventually around the world.

Healthcare: Some hospitals have included QR codes onto patient wristbands which contain all of the pertinent details related to medication, allergies, and checkouts.

QR Codes Today Standing the Test of Time Today, millions of people make use of QR codes for a variety of reasons. The codes themselves have developed as well, making them far more robust. They can be scanned and recognized from a security perspective even if there is an imperfection (such as a smudge or concealed part). Because of this, brands can insert their own logos into the QR code without compromising its functionality. This leads to increased brand awareness and aids in building trust among consumers.

In fact, businesses can do more than add their logo to a QR code - you can now change the colors and shapes, too, changing these codes from static boxes to dynamic codes.

With the increased usage of these codes, many businesses are hopping on the bandwagon if they hadn’t already. It provides you with a cost-effective and straightforward way to provide value to your customers. Free trials are available when you create a QR code, which expires upon the trial ending, though once you have bought the code, it will never expire, and the information linked to it can be updated as need be.

A Contact-Free Necessity Okay, so we’ve mentioned that there is a multitude of ways a business can use a QR code - here are some prime examples: Advertising: Link a discount or marketing campaign to the code so that consumers can engage further with an advert and make their way to the next stage in the sales process.

Connections: Let consumers log in to free wifi simply without a password by scanning a QR code.

More information: You can provide links with more information on just about anything - for instance, restaurants can use it to share menus, and museums can share more about artists and exhibitions.

Contacts: You can link to a subscription page, your social media accounts, or app for easy signups, follows, and downloads.

E-payments: For quick checkouts and contactless payments, QR codes are handy. Many banks have this facility within their apps, which promotes convenience, instantaneity and encourages repeat purchases.

Helpful links: Share locations, lead forms, contact numbers, and email addresses with your customers via a QR code. It can also encourage easy reviews to be sent and provide the consumer with a calendar reminder.

Experiential shopping: QR codes can open the door to a world of augmented reality. You can let your customer scan the code to try out a product or to experiment with customizations.

Traditional marketing: Boost your traditional marketing by adding a QR code. This way, you can draw data on the kind of engagements received, whether it’s on a billboard or included on screen.

The Evolution of the QR Code QR codes had grown exponentially since their invention 20 years ago. With more and more businesses using these to provide helpful information to their customers, your business should consider ways it can add value to its offering as well.

They are certainly not a fad and continue to be adopted by many industries, providing the benefit of contactless delivery in a world where that is not only desired but, in many cases, required as well.

Contactless payments continue to surge thanks to new world habits, and increased internet and smartphone usage.

According to a survey by Statista, an estimated 11 Million households in the US were forecast to have scanned a QR Code in 2020 Gartner reports that 80% of ordering, checkout, and payment services will become contactless by 2024.

Forecasts show that by 2022, around 5.3 billion coupon codes will be redeemed via QR Codes.

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The Consumer is Shopping in New Ways

By: Shannon Correia

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t’s no secret that the way of life for people worldwide has changed quite a bit in recent years. Consequently, the ways consumers are shopping are different too. The traditional buyer’s journey has changed - not only are they inundating themselves with online research before making a purchase, but the actual shopping methods have changed as well. That’s what we’ll be looking at in this article, namely: online, social, and video shopping.

Online Shopping

Shoppable Videos

Click and mortar rates continue to increase as consumers prefer the safety and convenience of having their goodies delivered right to their doorstep. People are empowered to enjoy eCommerce in its most evolved state yet, with quicker delivery times and better service delivery. There are many opportunities when moving your business online, but you’ll need to include it in your business plan and get yourself online. Customers expect a well-designed user experience and a safe platform to make purchases from. Digital marketing is required to get the word out about your eCommerce store. Subsequently, many businesses offer online-only deals and free delivery rates once a certain amount is spent to entice more purchases. The question of taking your business online is, in most cases, not a matter of “if” but “when.”

Entertaining videos are the new platform for digital shoppers.

This way, videos are not just consumed but allow for participation and assimilation too. Viewers watch a video with interactive touchpoints embedded in it, which will enable them to click on the item and purchase it instantaneously. Think 360-degree showrooms, streaming launches, showcasing galleries, hosting live shows, and having online pop-up stores. This mobile-led shopping experience may seem futuristic but is developing quickly. If you’d like to be one of the front-running brands to embrace the future of video content and increase your reach and sales through shoppable entertainment, it’s time to begin strategizing and producing.

Social Shopping Customers are now shopping directly via social media platforms. When they see a product they’re interested in, they can click on it and make the purchase without leaving the app.

It is a mobile-centric way to shop, with brands transforming their pages and accounts to mini shops that can be linked and synced with their eCommerce store. The two most prominent kinds are available on Instagram and Facebook, where shopping has become a central feature of these platforms. These updates make social media much more business-friendly, allowing you to broaden your reach and provide customers with ease when making purchases.

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The days where one flat image is enough to entice a sale are long gone. These three aspects - eCommerce, social media shops, and interactive videos give new meaning to ‘click to buy.’ For decades, people have been influenced by the content they consume and their digital lives online. Now, people have immediate access to just about anything they want, which shortens the customer journey and is indicative of how consumers want to see and experience retail online going forward.

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THE BUYER’S JOURNEY Customers go through three stages before making a purchase:

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CONSIDERATION: The customer seeks to understand and research all options and solutions for the opportunity or problem. Businesses provide valuable content to their potential customers and explain why their products and services are the best.

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DECISION: The customer ultimately decides which approach to take and commits to it by making a purchase. Once the purchasing decision has been made, businesses will work on creating customer loyalty and providing all of the necessary accompanying information such as demos.

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AWARENESS: The customer recognizes an opportunity to purchase something or experience a problem that they need a solution for. At this stage, businesses market their products by presenting opportunities and solutions.

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The Customer Lifecycle: The Attract Stage By: Shannon Correia

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n the first stage of the customer lifecycle, prospects become aware of a product or service. This represents the entry into the flywheel. They’ll be attracted to your business’s offering after searching for a solution to a problem or issue they’re facing, or they’ll come across your business through marketing efforts and see an opportunity there to make a purchase. At this stage, the business aims to reach their audience(s) to ensure their brand is a contender in the research phase and among the possible selections the prospect will make.

Businesses use a variety of marketing methodologies to reach and attract prospects. This includes social media marketing, search engine marketing, and content marketing. Before these techniques are implemented, though, buyer personas need to be developed.

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The Inbound Marketing Methodology Marketing in today’s digital age requires marketers to draw people into their brand among a sea of competitors. To be seen (and adored), a brand may use this holistic marketing methodology whereby content, social media, search engine marketing, and branding increase awareness and traffic. This results in people being attracted, converted to leads, nurtured, and for sales deals to actualized.

This technique relies on high-quality, valuable content to be produced. This sets the stage that sparks exchanges between brands and potential customers. Content can guide people, not only to your brand but also through their buyer’s journey. Nurturing these relationships is crucial, often requiring marketers to develop more specialized content and take a personalized approach. The aim is not to close one deal but to ensure that your customers become loyal ones.

Buyer Personas: Marketers develop buyer personas to gain a deeper understanding of their customers. This improves their ability to target them, help them move along the customer lifecycle, and map the buyer’s journey with a brand.

These personas are developed using data and facts and are referenced when creating marketing campaigns. Often, actual interviews or focus groups are required with people who have engaged with your brand. There is a lot of information that needs to be gathered, from demographics to psychographics - it needs to be in-depth and ask questions around their needs, wants, actions, thoughts, experiences, and even the competitor’s brands they considered.

This is then matched with the analytical data your business has. It comes down to the trigger for initiating the customer lifecycle, the decision criteria, the processes, and the results.

The other analytics you need to consider is how your current marketing efforts are performing - consider which content is being consumed and when, as well as which social media posts draw the most engagement, and so on. This ties into the buyer’s experiences to date and can lead you to find missing gaps.

Once this data has been collected, it is time to draw insights from it. Determine the number of buyer personas needed, and seek to build characters for each. Your job is to fulfill each persona’s needs and make sure your marketing communicates with them directly.

Social Media Marketing: Social media platforms are one of the best digital marketing channels for businesses. With it, you can boost your brand’s visibility and exposure during the attraction stage. You can target audiences through the app, attract them through the content you share, and find people using relevant tags and advertising. By providing value and interest via your social media platforms, people will develop an interest in it and follow your brand to keep updated.

and image. This will also help you gain authority in the industry and improve your search engine ranking and consumer trust in your brand. This means your brand footprint needs to be well considered and consistently delivered for optimal growth.

This is built over a period of time and requires the social media manager to have an excellent understanding of the business to represent it accurately. However, this is not solely in their hands but also built upon the reviews and testimonials of your audience. Social media channels are a great way to attract traffic to your website, so be sure to include links and calls to action, whether you share it organically, promote it, or get involved in trending topics.

Be sure to note that customers look to social media for customer care. Due to its visibility, grievances are often shared on these platforms for prompt resolutions. Therefore businesses need to attract customers indirectly by being responsive, having a brand voice, and providing service to all, including those at the start of their consumer journey.

Another social media technique to use to attract more customers is influencer marketing. This is a great way to expand your reach. Whether you use this form of marketing or simply advertise on the platforms, it is a cost-effective and highly effective form of digital marketing.

Content Marketing: Content marketing is a lengthy process that begins with conceptualization and leads to delivery, affecting results in the long term. It is a critical part of the inbound marketing methodology and helps improve your brand’s visibility through storytelling and communication. Customers of today expect high-quality content in a variety of forms to be made available to them. Optimized content also helps businesses to improve their search engine rankings by building a bank of content, thus improving the traffic you’re able to draw in.

There are various roles within content, from strategists to researchers, producers, editors, and designers—this usually requires specialized talent. Oftentimes, content can attract people to your site, leaving them wanting more and willing to exchange their details in exchange for gated content, thereby effectively leading them to the next stage in their customer lifecycle.

The goal is to create and share content that sparks interest in your business and answer any questions your audience may have. It is required for all of your outlets, platforms, sites, and communication. This includes eBooks, webinars, videos, podcasts, infographics, case studies, animations, slides, listicles, quizzes, and digital magazines. The content can be repurposed in a cost-effective, integrated marketing approach.

Once a business has reached its audience, it needs to attract them to engage with the business. During this acquisition process, interest is shown by the potential customer, meaning they’re actively engaging with your website, advertisement, social media account, or content. At this stage, the business’s role is to provide information and to qualify itself as having viable (and desirable) products or services to purchase. This is prime time to introduce lead magnets to move into the next stage of their customer journey.

Social media also presents you with a way to manage your brand’s online perception; therefore, the content you share needs to be an extension of your brand. The key to this is building a unique aesthetic and brand voice that leads to brand recognition. This is created by having a solid strategy

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The Customer Lifecycle: The Conversion Stage By: Toni Becker

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nce you have attracted your ideal customer through informative content, social media marketing, and search engine marketing, how do you convert them into a lead? Before we answer this question, it is essential to note that you don’t just want any lead at this stage - you want high-quality leads. You’ll want leads that genuinely care about solving their problem and looking to solve it with the service or product you offer. To do this, you need to build trust and provide informative content that will drive the customer journey forward.

You can do this by providing prospects with specialized call-to-actions, lead magnets, and premium offers designed to attain their contact information and convert them into leads. If you have processes and tools in place that can attain lead information, you’ll be able to nurture relationships with leads and increase the probability of closing a deal. This is known as the conversion stage in the customer lifecycle.

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A conversion is defined as a moment when a website visitor takes the desired action. This could be anything from filling out a form to clicking a button or booking a meeting with your sales representative. Your conversion points will bring visitors further down your sales pipeline and direct them through the buyer’s journey.

Essentially, conversions are checkpoints for your content that help in advancing the lifecycle of a website visitor.

Lead Generation Tactics To Drive Quality Conversions Solve a Problem and Answer Questions For your sales lead generation campaign to grab the attention of your target market, you need to put yourself in their shoes and see things from their perspective. Your content needs to clearly show that you are offering a helpful solution to an industry-specific problem.

All your content needs to be strategic, from helpful blog posts and long-form articles to professional webinars and informative white papers. It needs to reflect your industry insight and knowledge by offering support and solutions to your target market, making their lives easier and guiding them through thought-leadership and meaningful information.

For example, if you are a business that specializes in Search Engine Optimisation, offering your target market a webinar or a “how-to guide” that outlines what SEO can do for your business and why it will benefit them, and they will view you as an industry leader. Once you have established yourself as an authority in your industry, potential customers will trust you and quickly convert into leads. This tactic is what is referred to as a “lead magnet.”

Create a Powerful Lead Magnet A lead magnet refers to a free item or service that a business provides to gather contact details. A lead magnet can be samples, whitepapers, articles, coupons, or free consultations.

Every lead generation campaign needs to have a strong lead magnet. You need to offer your audience something they need in exchange for their contact information.

So, where to begin?

Offer a solution to a problem Your lead magnet should always be able to solve a prospect’s problem. If you can solve a particular issue or answer a pressing question, they will click on your offering and engage with your content.

For example, suppose an individual is trying to optimize their website for Search Engine Optimisation, and your company specializes in SEO. In that case, you may want to offer a free SEO audit. And the only way for them to get this audit will be to fill in their information. This will drive the prospect to engage with your business.

Offer instant gratification We live in the age of instant communication and instant gratification. Your audience and potential clients want immediate results when they click on your lead magnet.

Your lead magnet needs to offer value, but it should also move quickly. The form that your prospect needs to fill in should be straightforward and to the point. That way, they are just a few clicks away from having their problem solved. The quicker the process, the better the results.

For example, if you offer a white paper for download, it should require only an email address from the user to enable to download, making the process as hassle-free as possible for the user.

Make it an exclusive offer Exclusive content is a powerful marketing tool that you can make use of for your lead magnet. Exclusivity creates a sense of urgency and will make your lead magnet stand out. For example, if you offer a coupon, make sure it is only valid for a limited time, and tell your audience not to miss out.

If you provide your audience something free for a limited period, they will act urgently and fill out your form as quickly and as soon as possible.

The exclusive lead magnet should entice your audience and make them act quickly.

Landing Pages and Lead Forms Landing page design is one of the most essentials for a conversion strategy, as a landing page can deter users or keep them on your website for longer. The more user-friendly and easy to navigate - the longer users will stay on your page, and the more traction and opportunity for lead generation your business will get.

For users to take a specific action (download an ebook), they will reach a landing page that comes with a lead form. Users will have to fill out their information in the lead form in order to receive their lead magnet. Your marketing and sales teams will be able to store this information in your Customer Relationship Management software system. HubSpot is an excellent example of a CRM that caters to all aspects of the lead generation process - from lead magnets and landing pages to lead scoring (which will be covered below).

Lead Scoring A lead scoring model is a specialized and analytical system used to evaluate the quality of your leads. Essentially, points are given to a lead based on various factors, including their industry, level of interest in your business, and related qualities associated with previous high-value clients and leads.

A lead scoring model or system is designed to help your team quickly and efficiently identify sales-qualified leads versus lowquality leads that aren’t that interested in what your business offers (also known as low priority leads).

Thanks to Customer Relationship Management systems (CRMs) such as HubSpot, this model is made easy because of online data collection, automation, and audience segmentation.

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Your lead scoring model should consist of the following: Marketing and sales alignment: Ensure your marketing and sales team work together when understanding your target market and their specific needs.

Lead scoring threshold: The point value of when a prospective client is recognized as sales-ready.

Explicit lead scoring: Assigning points to a lead based on specific qualities such as demographics and characteristics.

In Conclusion: Suppose you put time and effort into your lead generation campaign by understanding your audience, creating relevant content, implementing measurement tools, and continuing the conversation with them. In that case, your business is sure to grow better.

Implicit lead scoring: Assigning points to a lead based on their behavior and engagement with your business.

Negative scoring: Removing points from a lead score based on characteristics or behaviors that imply a lack of interest in your business.

Score degradation: Tracking stagnant leads.

Regular refinement: Amend your model to suit the evolving needs of your target audience.

It is important that you do not become complacent with your lead scoring model. You want to make sure that it is always up to date and keep an eye on anything that can be refined. This means you should constantly be updating your model based on your most recent customer data. For example: if you have noticed a decline in sales conversions, you may be setting your scoring threshold too low - and this should quickly be amended.

Keep an eye on your MQL to conversion rate, and if you notice a decline, then there is a chance your target customer persona has shifted slightly, and your model needs to be adjusted.

Lead Nurturing Once your potential customer has filled in their contact information, you have the opportunity to nurture a relationship with them and have the power to convert them into paying clients. Lead nurturing is vital to a successful lead generation campaign, especially in 2020.

Lead nurturing refers to a series of emails or communications sent to leads based on their specific interests. A lead nurturing campaign is where you are able to use the data you have gathered on prospective clients to deliver times and targeted information to them to help guide them on the buyer journey.

This leads us to the closing stage of the customer lifecycle.

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Inbound Marketing for Lead Conversion: Below are some statistics that provide greater insight into how Inbound Marketing has become paramount to the lead conversion process.

Properly executed inbound marketing is 10x more effective for lead conversion than outbound.

Businesses that focus heavily on inbound efforts drive leads that cost 61% less than outbound leads.

Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and triples the leads.

Inbound practices produce 54% more leads than traditional outbound practices.

Inbound marketers double the average site conversion rate, from 6% to 12% total.

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The Customer Lifecycle: The Closing Stage By: Toni Becker

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fter attracting your ideal customer and converting them into a lead, you need to nurture them and track them as they become a sales qualified lead. This is primarily done via personalized email, meetings, or calls. This is when your marketing and sales team needs to become more aligned than ever to achieve more sales.

At this point in the customer journey, you will hear about a leads problem, reservations and questions. With this in mind, it is important to note that every lead is different and requires personalized nurturing. That is: they need to receive communication that answers their specific needs and solves their problems.

Traditionally, sales teams would step in at this stage. However, the digital age requires more nurturing, and you don’t want to push for a sale right off the bat. This is a process of personalized communication until your business and a lead come to an agreement.

Closing a deal requires strategy and transformative digital technology to make your lead feel confident in making a purchase.

Strategic Tactics to Drive The Closing Stage Customer Relationship Management Software Technology is an integral part of sales strategic planning, and businesses are beginning to understand just how beneficial technology can be for business growth. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is the way forward as it can drastically alter the way a business functions and has the potential to impact sales and business growth significantly.

Customer Relationship Management software, as the name suggests, is designed to manage a company’s interactions with customers and potential customers and will be used at all stages of the customer lifestyle - including the closing stage. A CRM will help streamline processes, build customer relationships, improve customer service, increase sales, and increase profitability. Essentially, the goal of a CRM is to improve all business relationships and make more sales.

A CRM such as HubSpot stores all your customer and potential customer data in a single place, making for an immensely powerful communication tool. Your marketing and sales team can access a contact’s full contact details and find beneficial facts about a lead, like how they came across your business and what they are interested in. For a marketing team, having this information is vital as it helps them assess a lead’s needs and wants and assist them in tailoring and personalizing communications.

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A CRM will also keep track of all activities, projects, live chat messages, sales, invoices, emails, and customer service requests that a contact has ever been part of. Essentially, a CRM allows your marketing and sales team to better understand a contact and what they want and need from the business. A CRM can also produce workflows, automate, personalize and keep track of email communications as you drive your lead through to the closing stage.

Audience Segmentation and Workflows One of the most significant advantages of using a CRM like HubSpot is building workflows. These are essentially a collection of roadmaps that contain stages or goals that measure each lead’s progression with your business. You can set triggers that kick off specific engagements or enrollments depending on the actions taken.

Having automated calls to action along with this will help to guide your customers. For instance, it is gaining their trust, determining their buying criteria, allowing them to evaluate the available options, and then engaging with them to close the deal.

One of the strong suits of using CRM software is to gain valuable insights regarding your audience and their behaviors when interacting with your business. To nurture leads effectively, it is important to segment your prospect into target personas, as they will have different needs and preferences.

By considering each lead at a micro level, you can learn what works for them and guide them more effectively. Determining the best course of action and responses depending on each specified group of targets is key. This should work in conjunction with workflow maps, so you’re looking at each customer and the stage they’re at. This kind of segmentation gives way to unparalleled personalization.

Personalization is a technique that has been proven to increase sales and customer satisfaction. This is particularly important when it comes to emailing leads. Speaking to your leads about where they are in the buying cycle specifically allows for greater engagement. With segmentation, you can create personalized and targeted email campaigns that build longlasting relationships to earn sales over the long term.

Automated email workflows through HubSpot ensure you don’t miss any opportunity for nurturing or engaging with a lead.

An example of this is HubSpot’s Workflow app that creates personalized, automated and triggered emails. This includes sending specific emails when a contact is added to a list, clicks a link in an email, submits a form to your site, views a particular page on your website, or is marked as a qualified lead. Email automation and personalization are key to the closing stage of the customer journey - let’s take a look.

Email Personalization and Automation Email marketing is a strong lead nurturing tool with automation, personalization, workflows, and highly targeted email campaigns.

With the introduction of Customer Relationship Management software such as HubSpot, email automation, personalization, and segmentation has become even easier to implement.

Through CRM platforms, businesses can now measure and track each campaign’s success, allowing for greater sales and customer retention.

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This kind of email communication and marketing forms part of today’s Inbound Marketing strategy. Inbound marketing is a process of communicating with high-quality leads by providing them with information that they want to be informed about instead of the past spammy email marketing.

Sales Handover Together, your marketing and sales teams should consider what elements make up a marketing qualified lead or a sales qualified lead and put a lead scoring ranking strategy.

The process of ranking for lead scoring (as stated in our previous article): • • • • • •

Lead Scoring Threshold Explicit Lead Scoring Implicit Lead Scoring Negative Scoring Score Degradation Regular Refinement

By tracking and ranking your leads, your marketing and sales teams can identify leads that have moved from the awareness stage through to the decision-making stage. Once a lead is identified as sales-ready, your sales team can make the relevant call at the right time to ensure the most seamless closing stage.

In Conclusion: Closing a sale is not the end of the customer lifecycle. You need to have strategies in place that are designed to retain customers, encourage customer loyalty and create your very own brand ambassadors.

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The Customer Lifecycle: The Delight Stage By: Shannon Correia

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he final stage of the customer journey is all about keeping your customer happy post-purchase. This is achieved with customer care and support that ensure positive experiences with a brand, with the ultimate goal of turning your customers into brand advocates and loyalists.

The business simply needs to keep the customer contact going once the purchase is made to build lasting relationships. It makes sense since so much is invested into attracting and engaging customers, so keeping those connections is paramount.

Once you’ve provided a satisfactory experience, your team needs to maintain your interest in their needs. There are many different ways businesses can delight customers, whether by offering gifts and promotions or reaching out for feedback and reviews. This extends beyond your support staff - all your departments need to be dedicated to exceeding customer expectations, from your content team to the salespeople. This includes having a positive, enthusiastic attitude across all customer interactions.

The delight stage provides the business with the best shot at instilling brand loyalty. In a world where customers are inundated with choices and have access to several public review platforms, this is more important than ever. It is the final puzzle piece to complete the sales flywheel.

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Ways to Delight Your Customers Provide Solutions: Ensure that your offering does provide your customers with solutions. The baseline for businesses can deliver on their promises. Without this, customer expectations cannot be met.

Customer support is essential here, as the customer may need guidance post-purchase to utilize your product or service best.

Smart Content: Using automation technology ensures your communication is sent promptly. Showing gratitude to the customer and responding to their queries as soon as possible goes a long way in developing brand loyalty. Sending updates is a great way to show prioritization, as is monitoring what is shared on social media for purposes of sharing user-generated content and building your online community.

Relationship Management: A CRM system makes the management of each customer relationship possible in highly effective ways. Each interaction is recorded so that you never miss a beat in terms of communication. It can help you predict their future needs as well so that you can provide relevant recommendations.

Long-term thinking and problem-solving are what builds solid connections and repeat purchases.

Empower Customers: Share resources and content that further empowers the customer. This shows dedication and a proper understanding of your customer’s needs. When doing this, you’re utilizing the customer journey as a whole and redirecting them toward future journeys with your brand. When there is a deep understanding of your customers, you’ll be sure to grow with them and continually meet their evolving needs.

Get Feedback: To improve your business, it is important to request and listen to customer feedback. How you ask for this (surveys, focus groups, etc.) is up to you. Still, the responses should always show appreciation, empathy, and the action taken for rectification if need be (and prevent a customer from being lost).

Lasting Impressions: In order to delight, you may need to include the element of surprise. Add to your competitive advantage by giving the customer more than they expected in a memorable experience with your brand. A great way to do this is through personalization, whether for a specific offer or in a postpurchase email marketing campaign.

Delight your customers by providing them with the kind of brand experience they’ll want to share with others and have over and over again. In a customer-centric way of doing business, keeping them happy is a factor that must be included in your strategy.

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When it comes to delighting your customers, the proof is in the pudding: 90% of customers rate an “immediate” response to a customer service question as important or very important. (HubSpot Research) Nearly 90% of consumers trust a company with a “very good” service rating to take care of their needs. (Qualtrics XM Institute) Increasing customer retention rates by 5% can result in a profit increase of between 25% and 95%. (Bain and Company) 93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases when they experience excellent customer service. (HubSpot Research)

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The State of Email Marketing 2021 By: Toni Becker

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any have wondered about the state of email marketing and if it’s still relevant in the vast landscape of digital marketing. These questions are almost rendered moot when you look at the stats and facts. You see, email marketing is an integral part of our lives. There are over 5.5 billion email accounts across the world, and that number increases every day.

However, is email marketing still fundamental to digital marketing success? The answer is yes. However, there is no success without a planned strategy. Email content needs to be personalized, automated, and tailored to suit an individual’s needs, interests, organization, and where they are in the buying cycle - driving them to take specific actions as they move through the sales pipeline.

Recently, Validity and Demand Metric conducted an in-depth email marketing study that has opened up the discussion around email marketing and its importance in the digital age. The organisation examined which email tactics marketers are currently using, which are working, what challenges they are facing, and how they can better their email marketing efforts.

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The Email Marketing Landscape Today

According to the study by Validity and Demand Metric, the top objectives for email marketing are:

Email marketing is still one of the top-performing channels for digital marketing; however, according to the study mentioned above, only 8% of study participants reported that their email marketing strategies improved over the past year.

• • • • •

So, if email marketing is such a powerful tool, why is this statistic so low?

It is important to note that various factors influence the success of email campaigns, which include audience segmentation, content relevance, and personalization. To have a successful email marketing campaign, you need to do the research, understand your lead data, and create content that appeals to your leads and provides them with the right message at the right time.

With the rise of Customer Relationship Management software such as HubSpot, email marketing strategy has become more streamlined and effective. These platforms provide automation, personalization, and segmentation while measuring and tracking each email campaign’s success. This tactic allows for greater lead generation, conversion, and customer retention.

Therefore, to use the email marketing landscape to the best of your ability, you need to consider investing in digital transformation tools that optimize the digital age process.

This kind of strategic email marketing forms part of today’s Inbound Marketing strategy. Inbound marketing is a process of communicating with high-quality leads by providing them with information that they want to be informed about instead of the spammy email marketing of the past.

Communication with customers (71%) Build brand awareness (69%) Communicate with prospects (64%) Generate Revenue (52%) Capture lead data (29%)

The overall percentage of marketers who reported “building brand awareness” as a key objective in 2020 versus 2019 increased, while the percentage of B2C marketers who report “revenue generation” as a key objective fell by 35% You see, today, marketers are using email marketing to build brand awareness, which at its core is about building trust and nurturing relationships. This is especially important after the year that was 2020. The consumer is now more cautious than ever and wants to develop relationships with brands and learn more about a brand before making any purchase. But of course, email marketing objectives do vary based on company type.

Email Objectives Based On Company Type Of course, email objectives vary based on the type of business using this tactic, and this is noticeable when it comes to B2B and B2C email campaigns.

But sending out automated campaigns is not just about typing up a quick email, sending it to a mass audience, and asking recipients to make a purchase - today, email marketing requires strategy, lead nurturing, and quality content designed to drive action.

Both B2B and B2B/B2C companies report that brand awareness and revenue generation objectives have increased since 2019.

However, for B2C companies and nonprofits, the percentage of marketers who report revenue generation as a key email marketing objective has fallen dramatically since 2019.

The goal of any email campaign is to get the user to take a specific action, and if the user does not open your email, does not understand the messaging of your mail, and cannot find your Call to Action in the email - then your campaign will be for naught. This is why you need to understand your email objectives and create campaigns tailored to driving leads to take action.

The key takeaway is that B2C companies are now focusing their efforts on creating brand awareness and lead nurturing in order to ultimately drive sales. Email marketing is no longer about “Sell sell sell” but rather a way to drive a consumer through the buying cycle.

Understanding Your Email Marketing Objectives As stated previously, email marketing requires clear objectives, measurement, and analytics to deliver the best possible results.

To achieve this, you need to communicate with prospects and clients in a strategic and personal way in order to build awareness and keep you top of mind at all times.

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So, now that we understand the importance of brand awareness and lead nurturing - let’s take a look at the challenges that come with email marketing and the best tactics to overcome these challenges.

Email Marketing Challenges Today and How To Overcome Them One of the study’s main objectives was to discover the challenges marketers face when using email.

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Top 6 challenges facing email marketers in 2020/2021 include: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Competition for attention in the inbox Poor email engagement Staffing/resource constraints Email deliverability Loads of data but unsure of how to use it Lack of tools to optimize and personalize emails

What stands out is that marketers are unsure of how to optimize digital transformation tools to automate, personalize and segment email campaigns for better outcomes. The solution lies in Customer Relationship Management software, as discussed previously. With CRM technology, you can track your campaigns, measure their success and shortcomings, and amend them to ensure the best possible outcomes.

By monitoring the success of your campaigns with a CRM platform, you can gain greater insight into your audience, and this data provides your marketing team with the opportunity to improve campaigns accordingly.

Use your email performance data to run A/B tests designed to show you what email content your recipients engage with, and amend your strategy to suit what your audience finds more desirable. Analytics are vital and should play a part in your entire email campaign strategy. Without analytics, you will never reach and exceed your email objectives.

The study went on to look at Inbox Placement Rate (IPR). This is the rate of emails delivered to the inbox rather than the spam or junk folder. Marketers can calculate their IPR by dividing the number of emails delivered to the inbox by the total number of emails sent.

IPR provides an accurate way to measure deliverability, and as stated above - analytics and measurement are key to email marketing success. The study, however, showed that less than one-fifth of participants report their inbox placement rate at 90% or more.

So, what is working for those in the 90% or higher range?

Marketers who have inbox placements rates of 90% or more tend to be more invested in strategy and make use of various email tactics, including: • • • • • •

A/B Testing Email personalization List management Subject line optimization Reactive campaigns Artificial Intelligence

Once again, we see the importance of Customer Relationship Management platforms for email marketing, analytics, and tracking. With CRM tools in place, email marketers can do all of the above in a single location, and with insight into lead data - they can implement the most effective campaigns - leading to higher IPRs.

Many marketers look to their email open rate to determine how successful their email marketing campaign is in general.

According to the study, the percentage of marketers who report email open rates of 5% or less saw an increase of 75% since the last study in 2019.

While some debate currently exists about the quality of open rate as a metric, the reality is no other action can occur that matters to email marketers unless emails are opened. So at the end of the day, this metric is important to know and learn from.

And of course, this metric can lead to click-through rates.

Open Rates and Click Rates An email open rate is important, but opening an email is not the be-all and end-all email marketing game. It all comes down to successful conversion, and this is why click rates are vital. An email click rate (also known as an email click-through rate) is the percentage of people who click on a link or image within an email.

Like those with a higher open rate, those with higher than average click rates are getting these results because they use tactics and tools to better their processes. Once again, we see the importance of digital technology.

CRM and related digital transformative technology is a vital component of any email marketing strategy. And according to the study, marketers who report the use of technology to understand inbox placement are more likely to report higher open rates and click rates.

CRMs can also personalize and automate the email marketing process which is vital in this day and age.

Open Rates and Email Subscriber Preference So, as a marketer you need to segment your audience and understand their preferences when reading an email.

The study found that it is important for marketers to know: • • • •

What time they are opening emails Which mobile devices email readers are using Which browser they are using to open emails Geolocation

To know all of the above (and more), CRM and analytics are key.

Email Marketing in Email Marketing Open 2021 Rates An email open rate refers to the percentage of subscribers who open a specific email out of your total number of subscribers.

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Thanks to digital technology, we can gain greater insight into the consumer and create personalized and automated campaigns to reach the consumer where they are at in the buying cycle.

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The report discussed above helps us understand today’s email marketing challenges and explains what tools we can use to better our efforts. Essentially, email marketing in 2021 comes down to monitoring your data, focusing on straightforward and personalized strategies, understanding your leads and where they are in the buying cycle, and capitalizing on subscriber preferences to ensure high open rates and ultimately more conversions.

And to do this, transformative digital technology is critical!

In Conclusion: There’s a common misconception in the digital marketing world, with many commentators suggesting that ‘email marketing is dead.’ If you put time and effort into your email campaigns and ensure you have strategies in place for lead generation through this platform, you will attract more leads going forward.

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