Converting Emails Into Sales Through Thoughtful Communications
David Gordon
Okay, electrical distributors and manufacturers are not known, surprisingly, as the best marketers on the planet. But we’re also not the worst. A number are migrating their marketing efforts from focusing on premiums, promotions and events to a broader array of marketing tools and functions. Channel Marketing Group’s recent presentation on the evolution of marketing for distributors [1] shares insights on how senior management in a number of distributors are beginning to think about marketing.
An asset that is under-utilized by many companies, and abused by some, is email addresses.
Think about it. You talk to customers daily. You, or your team, interact with customers (and multiple people within a customer) daily. Much of this interaction occurs through email. How can this asset be aggregated and enriched so that you can add to customer conversations with information that can help your customer, information that can help increase your visibility within your customer (and sometimes prospects)? And how can these interactions evolve into new opportunities?
Obviously e-Commerce is a possibility, but let’s focus on purely getting information into the market. While e-Commerce can be effective, if no one knows about your website because you are not marketing it to them regularly, then the site’s effectiveness will be compromised. Just register at www.grainger.com or www.mscdirect.com and you’ll see how often they promote their sites.
The key is e-marketing, which many think is just for large companies. Using email tools such as Mail Chimp, Constant Contact and similar is great; integration of a marketing automation system helps bring structure, analytics and information to the process.
I received this email recently from Marketo, which stimulated the thought (and I’m not recommending them … we’ll share some ideas re systems further on):
Too often, we hear that SMB (small and medium business size) marketers believe marketing automation is only for big, enterprise companies. But studies have shown that companies that use marketing automation are seeing great gains in revenue, lead generation and customer satisfaction – regardless of their size.
Marketing Automation is beneficial for all SMBs – especially because:
There is no need for IT assistance in generating marketing programs. You can easily track the success – both engagement and ROI – of each campaign. And finally – you can quickly execute large amounts of multi-channel marketing programs with a small team.
Check out the latest Gartner 2015 Magic Quadrant for CRM Lead Management report.
So, who’s on the Gartner list?
• Marketo
• Oracle
• IBM / Silverpop
• SugarCRM
• CRMNext
• Microsoft
• Act-On
• Zoho
• Salesfusion
• MMIT
• CallidusCloud
• Hubspot
• Salesforce
• Adobe
And there are some industry “packages” that have similar, and more, functionality such as Tour de Force and Sales Management Plus. And you may recall that Infor acquired SalesLogix.
The point is that distributors seeking to increase customer awareness, and manufacturers who would like to supplement their sales organization and reach directly to distributors (and potentially end-users / influencers) should be seeking tools to expand customer engagement. By converting emails into assets and information, incremental sales can be generated.
An eCommunication/eMarketing campaign can be done by integrating email, blogs, e-newsletters, an interactive website, with partners and more. Like much in marketing, it requires a plan.
e-marketing can be a green field. Some companies are doing it well: Graybar, Border States, Standard Electric, Electrical Equipment Company (and I’m sure more), but…
And if you need ideas on how to design a system and what to communicate….
What systems are you using? How effective are your e-communications? Whom do you think is a good e-marketer?
David Gordon is President of Channel Marketing Group. Channel Marketing Group develops market share and growth strategies for manufacturers and distributors and develops market research. CMG’s specialty is the electrical industry. He can be reached at 919.488.8635 or dgordon@channelmkt.com.
1. View this presentation online: http://www.slideshare.net/cmagrp/evolving-the-role-of-marketing-within-your-distributorship
