"Please STOP that marketing campaign
“Business is up over 237% and we can’t keep up. We’re running two shifts, 24/7. I’m working a 12 hour afternoon-evening shift. Our team needs a break!”
It was a phone call from Don, who runs a printing business. Three months earlier Don had shared that he hoped to increase sales about 25% so he could sell his business in two years.
We asked him some questions about his business, his clients, how he was marketing his business and what kinds of automated systems, if any, he had in place in his business.
His response was typical. He had a decent sized client base since he’d been in business over 15 years. His marketing was an unstructured and uncoordinated combination of networking, referrals and repeat business. And, although he knew better, ‘automation’ wasn’t embraced by his staff so no automated systems had been implemented in his business.
In order to not upset the company culture, we offered a simple suggestion: First we shared the research of George Pain in his book Marketing Automation:
“CRM-driven automated marketing campaigns produce an average 175.5% increase in campaign revenue over non-automated campaigns.”
Then we suggested he let us set up a basic, automated email marketing campaign to existing customers using a customer relationship management (CRM) program and see how much he might gain on his goal of a 25% increase in sales.
Not only would the outbound email campaign be automated, but the incoming responses would be directed from the emails to customized forms on his website. That data would be automatically attached to records in the CRM. Other workflows would then simultaneously automatically notify the appropriate sales and production teams for clarification and processing.
Now, less than three months later, Don was wrestling with how to manage the 237% increase in business the email campaign had generated for him.
By cherry-picking the more lucrative inquiries and sub-contracting the smaller ones, he was on track to accomplish his goal much earlier than he previously thought.
How many business owners do you know that are in the same situation Don was three months earlier?
Whether preparing to sell a company, launching a start-up or simply wanting to increase sales in your business, one of the cornerstones of any campaign should be to leverage the powerful automation potential available within your CRM program.
Selected Benefits of CRM-driven Marketing Automation include:
- Better communication
- Enhanced collaboration
- boosted collaboration between various marketing teams (in multiple locations)
- Faster response time
- enhanced consistency in lead management
- Greater efficiency in operations
- set up and trigger multiple autopilot campaigns and monitor performance through a unified dashboard
- consign mundane and repetitive tasks to the automated system thus freeing human creativity
- More accountability
- greater analysis, reporting and insight into the on-going process
- Higher quality customer engagement
- Reduced errors
- no leads accidentally escape due to inadvertent human error
- Lower costs
There are many more benefits that accrue due to the effective use of a customer relationship management program.
Sonet Dynamics excels at helping business owners identify which components of a CRM program should be prioritized for the business. Among the criteria:
- The size of your enterprise
- The core marketing functions that you want to prioritize in your automation exercise
- The automation budget at your disposal
- The ability to integrate with your already existing software infrastructure
Enhanced and Prudent Exit Strategy
Additionally, the overall value of your business is increased when you implement clear, efficient systems that streamline and enhance operations throughout the business. This strengthens a business seller’s asking price when s/he wants to sell the business.
In Don’s case, he has enjoyed increased revenues from the CRM-driven automated marketing campaigns we activated. And, the various systems and resulting analytics and reporting produced by the system will also enhance the company’s value when he goes to sell in the near future.
Contact Sonet Dynamics today to discuss website and CRM integration and increase profit by implementing CRM-driven automated marketing and sales systems in your business.