Autoresponder is a killer application in the B2C world. B2C marketers like online retailers have long used autoresponders to engage customers, bring them back, drive sales and increase the value of every customer on an ongoing basis. Some of the tricks that work really well include:
- Send follow-up emails at regular intervals within 21-30 days after the transaction with a logical sequence of order confirmaiton, thank you, new promotions and so on.
- Send a follow-up email every time a shopping cart is abandoned with a few items in it
- Personalize recommendations based on the user’s transactions in the past
- Do not send the follow-up emails from a transaction beyond the 30 day period
As I was reading a related case study earlier this morning, I couldn’t help thinking about how an autoresponder strategy is completely missing or broken in B2B - lead nurturing is the closest to autoresponders, I know 
but its just no where close to the level of sophistication in B2C. At ReadyContacts, we build a lot of targeted business contact lists, profiles and qualify inbound leads, so I can extrapolate and predict how few B2B marketers are doing systematic lead nurturing today. Here are some ideas to think about:
- Apply the autoresponder strategy to every inbound lead and every website visitor that can be identified
- Follow-up within minutes of the activity with an email
- Trigger an alert to the sales person for that account or geography suggesting it might be a good time to call the lead
- Personalize the reachout based on where the lead came from, what pages on the website did the lead read, and if the lead downloaded any documents. This data must be handy and communicated to everyone involved instantly.
- Schedule a combination of email and phone follow-up loops within 7 days of the activity only.
- If relevant, end the loop with a direct mail trigger which can sit on the lead’s desk as a reminder.
- Then add the lead to your CRM database for reachout via other scheduled initiatives.
These are just a few ideas. I am sure there are a ton more that are common place in B2C that we can learn form. Add your thoughts in the comments and share your B2B autoresponder stories.
Email verification software solutions have been around just as long as the need for email verification was felt and if you are looking for a solution to have your business to business email campaign lists verifed there are several options which may vary in terms of accuracy and effectiveness. Other than the pricing factor for each software have a look to see what exactly each email list verifier does and if it fulfils your expectations of accuracy?
If you have tried several email verification tools, you would know there are instances when your verifier software tells you that and email address is good while when you send an email to the same address from your webmail account, it may bounce or show you a failiure. This is because some software mainly strips the domain part of the address and validates whether the domain is correct without really checking the validity of the entire email address. This is useful for very large email lists where you may just want to filter out the complete junk records but it wont give you a very high level of accuracy. The other, more comprehnsive type of software will first check the domain with a DNS request and also emulate sending a mail and connecting with the receipients email server using SMTP. These will tell you whether the user is a valid one or not and give you better accuracy. Although there can still be issues in accuracy caused by company email security setups like anti-spam filters, firewalls and email catch configurations, there are a large number of tools that will do the job and filter out bad email addresses. Some sample options of email list verifiers are:
Advance Email Verifier by G-Lock Software
Dynamic Mail Validator By Dynamic Software
Fast Email Verifier by Lencom Software
If your marketing relies heavily on large email campaigns then investing in an email list verifier can be a good option. Here at ReadyContacts.com, while executing CRM data cleansing and email list verification for our customers, to get that extra edge in terms of accuracy, we use a combination of an inhouse email verifier software as well as a manual process. By running the lists through a combination of different software checks as well as being thouroughly scanned and rechecked by our database team, we are able to update or correct wrong emails as well as check them for bounces caused by email filters or blocks which the software checks may not be able to do as well. In any case, evalute whats best for your requirements well and if you decide that purchasing a verifier is not the best option for you, we can always help you with your email lists.
When you are selling into mid-sized and large organizations, most likely you have multiple business contacts within your target account who drive, influence and take decisions. Depending on the industry vertical as well as the way your target accounts are organized, it is possible to have varied business contacts who take part in the decision making process. For example, if you are selling a web security product in the Education, Banking and Health care markets, you will find that the types and roles of contacts who drive the final decision in each of these verticals are varied. Understanding the web of contacts that drive and influence decisions for your product is critical for your sales and marketing success. Before you embark on expensive email, direct mail and telemarketing campaigns, the first order of business must be to acquire all business contacts at your target accounts who are expected to take part in the overall decision making process.
It is also critical to understand how every industry vertical may be different before defining who are your target contacts in each of the verticals. We recommend that you identify these by the roles and responsibilities they hold so that you get the right set of contacts to start with. Missing the mark on this critical foundational piece can lead to failure of all subsequent sales & marketing campaigns. Focus on understanding your decision makers and define them well for every vertical. Then simply build out a list of such role-specific decision makers and influencers to create your core CRM database of business contacts who you care about the most. Getting this right is crucial and its important to use the right team internally or outsource list building to the right vendors who gets it.
Fail on the core list and you will just see more failures in your sales & marketing campaigns. The list is at the heart of your sales machine, and its success or failure.
