Chamber of Commerce Speaking Topics

Marketing Automation

As a small business, you may not be able to match the access to staff, time and resources that big brands enjoy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t match the results. Email marketing is a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes, and it can be especially useful for small brands looking to keep up with big players in their industries. The right email marketing strategies can help you overcome budget and staff restraints, allowing you to better connect with consumers despite functioning on a smaller scale.

While personalization is key, without a large marketing team, it may seem like a daunting task for one person. That’s where automation comes in. Email marketing automation monitors how your audience interacts with your emails, segments them based upon preset parameters (i.e. did they open the email? did they click a button?) and tailors future emails to each segment. Instead of manually monitoring click-thru rates and sending customized responses, the workflow does it for you. Hank Hoffmeier will elaborate on how to implement email marketing automation into your strategies as well as the impact automation can have on small business results.

What are three key things the audience will be able to do after attending your session?

1. How marketing automation can strengthen relationships with customers and prospects

It’s easy to slip away from being the “top of mind” first choice for the customer. However, if a company can consistently be present in the customer’s email box – with a message that adds value and builds the trust relationship – they are in a better position for profitable repeat business. Marketing automation typically involves setting up registration forms and incentives to get site visitors to agree to receive emails in the future. Then, the follow-up is automatic, based on schedule or if/then rules, and occurs without any (or much) human interaction, allowing marketers to improve the return on marketing investment by engaging with prospects over time through targeted email messages.

2. How to automate previously complex marketing tasks so you can always send the right message to the right person at the right time

The marketing automation toolset gives you the ability to set up a series of automated tasks to be completed based on criteria and schedules that you establish. These

automation workflows should feel like a logical conversation you’ve sketched on a whiteboard beforehand — giving you confidence when sending out personalized campaigns.

3. How to use workflows as a powerful foundation and how to continually tweak your workflow to ensure your audience gets relevant content and your business gets results

Keep in mind that email marketing automation doesn’t mean, “Set it and forget it.” You may not have to monitor it on a daily basis, but it’s important to continually check the progress of your campaigns to ensure your workflows are effective. Knowing this information will allow you to understand what’s working — and what’s not — in your email marketing campaign so you can adjust accordingly.

Email Marketing

Since 95% of consumers use email, it still remains to be the best marketing channel, where marketers should see a $44 return on every dollar spent. By following best practices, correct and continued use, email marketing is a great way to boost sales and brand recognition. 

Sending successful email campaigns is not as easy as it seems. There is email marketing and then there is successful email marketing. By learning about best practices and how email deliverability  works, business owners can help grow revenue and increase their audience size. 

This first thing to do is ensure that you have effective sign up forms to help grow your marketing lists. Next is sending the initial welcome email to quickly develop a relationship with subscribers. Last is creating professional looking email templates that envelope brand cohesion and recognition. These are the basics.

Success does not stop there. Behind the scenes there are things that determine if emails are delivered to the inbox or the dreaded spam folder. Email deliverability is something that is not easily understood, but can boost or cripple your email campaigns. Do the right things and your emails are delivered to the inbox. Ignoring best practices is the quickest way to cause your emails to be ignored and worst yet, sent to the spam folder. 

What are the  two key things this audience will learn about email marketing?

1. Learning about email best practices that help develop better email campaigns.

With the use of proper forms, welcome emails and templates, relationships with potential customers will be developed and built over time. A review of examples will help show elements and content that drives engagement, helping improve email campaigns. 

2. Learn how email deliverability works and what can be done to get into more email inboxes.

By learning some basic email deliverability knowledge, email campaigns will have better open and engagement rates.

Learn why emails are delivered to the spam folder rather than to the inbox, and what you can do about it. These are items that do not take a lot of technical know-how, but reap great rewards for email inboxing and  conversions.