Why You Should Automate Less and Personalize More
/How many spam messages have you received today? How many have you read and interacted with?
How many mass-marketing emails did you erase today? How many did you actually read? My guess is less than you erased.
We are good at recognizing SPAM messages, those messages that involve people asking for absurd things or emails from places and sites that we have never visited. But mass-marketing emails are not much different. Many people, myself included, consider them to be the same as SPAM.
What defines a mass-marketing email? It is any email that is sent to a boat-load (that’s an official term, right?) of people. They are those emails that are sent out to recruit business from people, the majority of which don’t really want your message. The creator of these messages spends minutes, or sometime maybe hours, creating the “perfect” email that is sure to win business. They import a list of contacts into the email and then hit send. Then the marketer hopes the clients start pouring in, believing their email was perfectly crafted. The best of these emails has an interaction rate of less than 5% and a conversion rate of less than that.
First, on interaction rate. Interaction rate is not the same as open rate. If your marketing tool lists the open rate you can ignore it. All that means is someone opened the email, maybe only to hit delete. It means nothing. The marketing tool calculates an open when their tracking graphic was downloaded by the client. Once you download the graphic you become “confirmed” only to get more emails that you did not want. I turn off downloading images in email to prevent this exact thing. Interaction rate means someone clicked a link and took action on the email you sent, a far more relevant metric.
As someone who tries to be efficient, I can appreciate the intent here. But it simply does not work. Great relationships are not formed with efficiency. I dated my wife a lot before we got married and built a great marriage. Great team members are developed over time, not the first day.
If your marketing plan is to email market, you will fall short of the goal. There is not a better email you can write that will change things drastically. You are capable of more. Set a goal to be less automated and increase your effectiveness, not your efficiency. Here are the five steps you need to start implementing.
Pick Up the Phone - Email is overrated. Phones are underrated. Pick up the phone and talk to the people you want to work with. It may take 2 or 10 phone calls, but keep at it. The effort will pay off. Create a prospecting list and a schedule the calls. If you still want to send an email, mention in the email you are following up on a call you made to them.
Setup an In-Person Meeting and Gather Next Steps - Once you connect with someone, setup a meeting to discuss how you can move their business from here to there. You will not regret meeting in person, talking, and connecting. If you want to help someone you have to understand them and their issues.
Send a Personalized Follow-up Email with any Necessary Supporting Information - After you conclude your in-person meeting, send an email with any next steps based on your conversation, not based on a pre-prepared script. Process is fine, but a client is not a cog in the wheel. You should have listened to their issues in the meeting and gathered action items to help them solve their problems.
Create a Personalized Proposal - Once all of the next steps are gathered and you understand what the client needs (realize this may take three meetings), you are ready for a proposal. The proposal needs to be all-inclusive (meaning the client knows exactly what investment they are making in your solution). The proposal should not be open ended. Professional organizations use budgets and budgets are not open-ended. Do not treat an enterprise client like a small business and don’t treat a small business like they have no clue. Be professional here. Odds are they know more than you and have talked to competitors. If you phone-in the proposal it will show.
Meet with Client In-Person to Review Proposal - Once the proposal is ready, meet with your client and walk them through the process and the solution. Make sure they fully understand the investment that they are making. Furthermore, make sure they know exactly the outcome that they will receive. If they are in agreement and they see the investment as worthwhile, then you’ve got it. However, if they don’t, then they will tell you and you can revise or go your separate ways. Sometimes you won’t be a fit and that is okay. Not everyone you date will you want to marry. But when you are both in agreement and in sync, it will be magical and you will win the client.
Taking the time, and it will take time, to be personal and actually meet with someone will change your world. Success in any business is not about automation, it is about relationships. And no good relationship is based on automation. Sure, you will get the occasional transactional sale. But you will hardly gain a client, let alone a partner. You want partners in your business that will work with you as their solution provider. So pickup that phone and start these five steps. I can personally attest to the success it has on any business when applied correctly.