You also may pivot your marketing messages and copy accordingly. Do you know how to talk to your customers?
3. Leverage trigger marketing.
So, you know who to talk to – and where. How about when?
If you can meet customers with your campaign at the right moment in the buyer’s journey – you’ll likely see more success. This is the concept of “right message at the right time.”
Trigger marketing – sending emails or campaigns at specific points in a customer’s engagement lifecycle – can significantly increase your chance of success.
To set up a trigger campaign, you first need to identify the key points in your customer’s journey, such as discovery, enrollment, first purchase, and/or renewal. Then add additional layers and next steps. For example, after discovery, assuming you can know the customer looked for you and visited your website, you can send them a follow-up: “See anything you like? Come back and visit us.” Or, if you have an existing customer who’s just made a purchase, follow up 30 days later with a reminder.
Marketing automation can help with that (more on that in a moment), but as you can also see, a robust CRM system can be an advantageous tool in trigger marketing.
4. Measure your marketing strategy results – track success.
So, let’s say you’ve conceived, created, and launched your campaign. You’re up and running. Great!
How’s it going? Do you know?
To find out, you must keep tabs on your efforts and formally track them.
This might look like a simple chart (think Excel tables) or a fancier dashboard. Whatever the case, you need to be sure to record what you’re doing – pull the info out of databases and your head – to document it for the future and share with colleagues.
I advise you to limit the pool of info you’re tracking to the few key barometers – KPIs – that really tell the story of your campaign. Endless data is available these days, but make sure you’re keeping an eye on the right data and checking it over and over (apples to apples) regularly.
And write it down! Our memories wane. If you don’t track and document information, it’s like that proverbial tree that falls in the forest … no one will know. (They can guess, but they won’t know for sure.)
5. Test to see how well your marketing campaign is performing.
Another key part of concepting and marketing is testing. Don’t forget to build tests into your campaign plans.
You need to measure what is working – and what isn’t.
Tests can be trying and tiring, but they’re also very valuable. There are myriad things you can evaluate:
You can test what channel works best. You can test how your web pages are doing, or see how your emails are performing. You can test time of day you publish content – or day of the week.
Tactically, this can look like A/B testing, such as trying different headlines, page designs, or subject lines if email is part of a campaign. It can also look like trying different or new channels or even targeting a new group of potential customers.
One word of caution: Try to control your tests so there aren’t too many things being evaluated at one time. Just like high school science class, you need to limit the number of constants and variables to glean true insight.
Also, testing isn’t a one-and-done affair. Testing should be done continuously. Don’t rest too long on those laurels. Keep testing – and tracking – to be sure you know what’s working.
6. Toss what doesn’t work.
Once you’ve started testing and tracking, it’s time to take stock. Step back and assess: Is it working? If so, bravo and great job. Time to rinse and repeat.
But, if not, you need to be confident enough to toss it. It’s OK to ditch things that aren’t working and try something new. Remember, you can learn from failure almost as much as – if not more than – success.
See how marketing automation can help.
The good news is Act-On software can help considerably when you’re applying these tactics.
We can help you with targeting, such as segmenting your lists. We can help you set up trigger-based emails. You can also use Act-On to tailor messaging once you’ve targeted your audience and determined the key triggers. And you can use our products to help you track success and report out to your colleagues or clients.
To learn more, contact us to speak to a rep.