Email marketing certainly still has a place in the world, especially for growing agencies looking to acquire new clients and increase client retention. Take a look at several ways email should be used in any marketing strategy.

Creating Customer Databases that Work

One of the most important steps for driving new business is to create and maintain a healthy database of prospects. Yes, there are quick and dirty ways to create prospect databases using lead lists and other things of that nature, but the reality is that those tactics don’t work. However, what does work is building your database off of real email addresses that real prospects provide.

It’s very cost-effective, easy to utilize, and provides some welcome hard data for businesses that may not know much about their customers yet.

Platform for Campaigns and Brand-Building

When it comes to campaigns and brand awareness, many businesses immediately start thinking about social media and blogging. But email is a speedy way to help increase customer participation and purchases in both areas. Always include email notifications or newsletters when launching a new campaign or announcing a new deal – many customers won’t notice otherwise, but a bold email subject line announcing the deal will draw attention. Likewise, more complex email content can also be used increase awareness and brand loyalty (try using or summarizing your more popular blog posts for this).

Building Buyer Personas

To take audience targeting to the next level, you need to know who needs your product or service and the best ways to reach those people. Using emails as login information is a great way to track potential clients, as well as consistently generate valuable data for marketing initiatives. Specifically, use customer habits gleaned from your email databases to create buyer personas, based on the ideal client you want to attract. Of course, this also requires that you tie email addresses to a CRM and marketing automation system.

Rewarding Loyalty

You can absolutely email coupons and discount codes to your customers to increase business and responses…but this should be done carefully. Email can be a useful platform for customer loyalty rewards, where such coupons and other benefits are sent to long-term or high-purchase customers as a thank you for their business…and an incentive to return.

Future Target Marketing

Finally, your agency should begin customized, personal email marketing as soon as possible. This is a great way to retain customers and use email in a way that few other channels can be used – to craft in-depth and personalized responses. After creating customer databases and building personas, this is absolutely the direction that companies should move to utilize email and win more conversions.

You’ve targeted your ideal prospect and written a personalized and compelling email – but to win new business from senior marketing decision makers you need the prospect to open and reply to your message.

The day and time your email is sent has a major impact on your success. Several studies confirm the best days and times to send emails, but these have primarily focused on B2C emails and have used only open rates to make their recommendations.

This 2014 Yesware study of 500,000 emails, on the other hand, explicitly measures B2B sales emails and bases day and time recommendations on response rates.

Best Day to Send a Cold Email

Many people believe that Mondays are better days to send sales emails since prospects are back in the office. Fridays are believed to be poor, since many decision makers are thought to be on the golf course or at their beach house.

Yesware’s research says otherwise and found replies to be equal across each weekday. This is great news for sales reps that have been cramming their outreach into four weekdays.

As a consultant and sales director at Catapult New Business, I set up sales cadences with six email touch points. The first four messages and the sixth (and final message) are sent on weekdays.

But, I experiment with the fifth message and send it on a weekend. Absurd? This same Yesware study found that weekend emails are 10% more likely to be opened over weekday emails, likely because 80% fewer marketing emails are sent on weekends.

Best Time of Day to Send a Cold Email

Does time of day matter when sending out cold sales emails? Absolutely. The aforementioned Yesware study found that the best times to send cold emails were:

• early mornings (between 6 and 7 a.m.)
• evenings (around 8 p.m.)

Reply rates during these times were around 45%.

I have a two-pronged outreach approach that includes both emails and phone calls. Many people wait to check their voicemails until right before heading home from the office. So I send the voicemail follow up email around 8 p.m., giving the prospect more time to check and hear the voice message I left. When it comes to introduction emails, (ones not following up a voicemail) I send in the early morning.

Keep in mind that each situation is different; if you’re not receiving responses from morning and evening emails, try after-lunch and even later evening emails. Because many senior decision makers tend to work very early or very late, it’s not uncommon for them to respond outside of “regular” hours.

Useful Tools for Scheduling Emails

Good news: Sending emails at specific times does not mean getting up super early or staying up late. Today’s sales development platforms and tools allow you to schedule your emails in advance.

SalesLoft is an excellent example of a program that gives you the ability to set up a multi-touch sales cadence and schedule your emails to go out at specifically designated times.

The added benefit of using such a platform is that you can send your emails at optimal times based on your prospect’s time zone.

Measuring Your Success

An email campaign, like any other campaign, demands careful measurement of results to determine what’s working and what’s not. When looking at results, however, do so in terms of your reply rate—not the number of people whom simply open your emails.

Unfortunately, open rates can be quite misleading. Your tracking tool might record an open when your prospect hasn’t actually opened the message and vice versa.

A better way to measure your outreach success is to use your replies as the metric. To calculate, take the total number of positive replies and divide by the total number of messages sent. Keep in mind; a 50% open rate with a 1% reply rate will lead to fewer opportunities than a 5% open rate with a 10% reply rate.

Key Takeaways

As you can see, there’s a lot to keep in mind when it comes to writing a sales email and deciding when to send it for the best chances of receiving a response. But you can increase your chances for success by:

• Experimenting with “off hour” weekday and weekend emails
• Using tools like SalesLoft to set up a sales cadence and schedule your emails; and
• Measuring success by tracking replies – not opens

These three tactics will help determine areas for improvement and change your sales email strategy as needed. After all, no two prospects are going to be exactly the same.

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Author Bio

Christian Banach is an advertising agency new business consultant and sales director at Catapult New Business. You can connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Your success or failure in closing a deal with a new client hinges on whether your sales pitch is a homerun or a flop. There are a number of common mistakes that agency folks just like you make everyday and should be avoided at all costs when pitching new business deals.

1. Beginning with an Apology

“I’m sorry I’m late.”
“Apologies that this presentation is a bit lengthy,”
“I’m sorry I didn’t have time to update some of the slides.”  

Opening with an apology of any kind sets a negative tone for the rest of your presentation before you’ve even finished the opening slide.  Not only that, you have also undermined your expertise and planted seeds of doubt with your audience.

2. Avoiding Eye Contact

Not making eye contact with your audience or reading directly off of your presentation will not only bore the audience, but also make you look unprepared. The audience wants to see that you have the confidence and knowledge to speak directly to their concerns and needs without constant reassurance from the slides in your sales deck.  If you avoid making eye contact with your audience — intentionally or unintentionally —  they may think you are being standoffish or that you don’t have the confidence in yourself or your product to effectively close the deal.

3. Dancing Around Tough Questions

If you can’t provide honest and accurate answers about your product, you probably don’t have sufficient information to be making the pitch on your own. Furthermore, how can you expect anyone else to trust you enough to buy what you’re selling if you don’t seem to believe in it? Believing in your product or service is integral to a successful pitch and new client acquisition.

4. Lack of Transparency on Cost & Pricing

This is one of those “tough questions” referenced above. Potential clients will grow suspicious if you dance around the question of cost or pricing. Although it is important to lead with the value of your solution, especially when it comes to that client’s specific needs, you should always be straightforward on the price tag.

Be honest and up front about how much your services are, and back it up with all of the reasons why you and your agency can offer the best solution for their company. Doing so will show them that you aren’t hiding anything when it comes to their investment.

5. Making Excuses

Your clients or potential clients aren’t concerned with why you look disheveled or why you can’t properly organize your thoughts. They also aren’t sitting in your presentation eager to hear all about you, they are there to hear what you can do for them.  Keep to the matter at hand, make your case and confidently answer any questions that your clients have for you.

Key Takeaways

The next time you pitch a prospective client, keep these tips in mind.  Also, don’t be afraid to get advice from other sales professionals who have built a successful new business machine. Do these things and you will be in a much better position to increase new business and drive revenue growth for your agency!

Hunting for scalable email marketing solutions for your agency can be a daunting task, especially when you have limited time and resources to work with. Fortunately, there are a number of budget-friendly and free tools that can effectively solve your agency’s business development problems right now. 

If you have been struggling to find the right tool for your team, here are our recommendations on the best free and low cost email marketing tools for growing agencies.

Cyfe

In the interest of efficiency, check out Cyfe to track data and analytics from various sources. The Forever Free Plan can solve many of your issues. 

Cyte is a convenient all-in-one business dashboard solution that gives you the ability to bring your website and/or blog analytics, SEO metrics, and social media analytics, into one shared and easy-to-read dashboard. It can help you analyze data covering year-to-date revenue from Salesforce, Google Analytics website visitor locations, keyword rankings and funnel paths, Twitter tweets, and email marketing analytics from MailChimp. We know you are interested in email marketing, but you get all the other information as well. Pretty cool!

MailChimp

If you have less than 2,000 email contacts, you should explore MailChimp’s Forever Free Plan. The plan doesn’t expire, and you can send up to 12,000 emails a month using the majority of their tools.

VerticalResponse 

VerticalResponse is a great tool because it enables you to send up to 4,000 emails a month, create unlimited sign up forms, a connection to one Facebook and one Twitter account, and test out their auto-responder tool for free.  

Thunderbird From Mozilla

Thunderbird is a dynamic free application developed by Mozilla, and it may be just what you need. This email application is easy to set up, easy to customize, and it’s loaded with fantastic features.  

It combines privacy, speed, and the very latest technology. Thunderbird also includes many innovative extra features including mail redirect.

99design

There is a new email design category from 99design. It’s a perfect source whether you’re running a SMB or a larger firm. Remember several years ago when the buzz was that email was going to disappear? Well, not happening. 

With 99design, the demand for services and free templates is growing. They also offer free design consultation.  

Despite all the attention around inbound marketing, outbound sales emails remain one of the most effective tools for complex business transactions, including selling marketing services.

A report from The Radicati Group, Inc. finds that the average business professional receives 88 emails per day. So how does an agency new business person break through and get noticed in a crowded inbox?

I send hundreds of cold sales emails each week as a consultant and sales director at Catapult New Business, and I’ve developed a format that will make your messages stand out and get more responses from senior marketing decision makers.

Paragraph 1 — Entice With a Question

The first line of the cold sales email is the most important. With many email programs including a preview of the message, it’s imperative that the first line pique the prospect’s interest. It needs to be relevant and personal.

An effective way to gain attention is to open your message by asking one or two questions about the challenges the prospect’s business faces. These questions should center on problems that your agency is uniquely qualified to solve.

Research the company, their industry and the prospect to identify these pain points. Then ask yourself: What changes are affecting their business? What is the impact of these issues are on their business? Why are they important to solve?

Always personalize the salutation with the prospect’s name and reference the company’s name. Although the entire message should not read like a generic copy-and-pasted template, this is especially true of the first paragraph.

Example:

Rick,

Considering your acquisition of Zeus Financial, is First Primary Bank facing challenges integrating customer experiences or looking to build even more profitable relationships with customers?

Paragraph 2 — Demonstrate Value

You’ve identified key problems. Now offer to solve them.

Be clear that you are not sending them an email looking to set up a generic capabilities call. Senior decision makers are too busy. Instead, inform them specifically of what you can offer and how you might be able to help. Compel them to get to know your agency better by offering solutions to problems that you already understand.

Remember this is about them, not you.

Agency business development consultant and author Peter Levitan says, “Give them something of value in return. In most cases, this might be a serious insight or a creative solution.”

While you may not yet have a full grasp of the nuances of their business, you’ve demonstrated that you’ve done your homework and understand the likely issues your prospect faces. You have a point of view and a viable answer to the questions you’ve already posed.

Example:

If you’re struggling with either one, or both, I’d like to share two insights that we’ve uncovered about the banking industry and how they might be impacting you.

Paragraph 3 — Demonstrate Capability

You’ve asked the right question and hinted at the answers you have. But who are you, anyway?

The third paragraph will demonstrate your bona fides. This is where you show what you’ve done.

Show the prospect the proof that you’ve done this before. To build trust and credibility, mention clients that you’ve worked with that are within the same business category or faced similar challenges.

This is not about name-dropping. You need to create the wedge. Illustrate the compelling outcomes achieved by other clients using the solutions you provide and can provide for the prospect too.

Instead of saying how awesome you are, make your point by having your clients talk about you. If someone else is saying something about you, it’s a third-party endorsement, which is much more credible.

Example:

Mid-sized financial services clients like Second Eastern Bank have told us that we’ve helped them to provide dramatically better online customer experiences that improved market share by 17% in less than 12 months.

Paragraph 4 — Disarm

Next, is your opportunity to disarm the prospect. Make it clear that you’re not trying to sell them per se but rather to see if your agency might be a good fit.

Since there will be objections, select one and prevent it before it’s had a chance to plant in your prospect’s mind.

Example:

We respect that you may have other agency relationships and that there might not be a fit right now, but we would like for you to know us better because a need could arise down the road.

Paragraph 5 — Call To Action

Complex sales, such as for marketing services, are likely to take months or even years before there’s real movement. You will not make the sale with this first email and your call to action should be to advance the relationship forward.

For ad agencies, the typical next step is to secure a scheduled phone call with the prospect. Should there be an expert or other relevant member of your team that can add value to the call, mention them.

Make this call to action very clear. Limit it to one call to action per message, and one possible link, and propose a timeframe for the call.

Example:

Might a brief chat the week of June 2nd with our Insights Director, John Smith, and I, be of interest?

Full sample

Below is the full example, based on the points described above.

Rick,

Considering your acquisition of Zeus Financial, is First Primary Bank facing challenges integrating customer experiences or looking to build even more profitable relationships with customers?

If you’re struggling with either one, or both, I’d like to share two insights that we’ve uncovered about the banking industry and how they might be impacting you.

Mid-sized financial services clients like Second Eastern Bank have told us that we’ve helped them to provide dramatically better online customer experiences that improved market share by 17% in less than 12 months.

We respect that you may have other agency relationships and that there might not be a fit right now, but we would like for you to know us better because a need could arise down the road.

Might a brief chat the week of June 2nd with our insights director, John Smith, and I, be of interest?

Cheers,

Christian

Conclusion

Writing an effective agency new business cold email requires careful planning and research. If you keep it personal, outline the prospect’s needs, offer potential solutions, demonstrate capability, overcome objections and make a straightforward call to action, your messages will have a greater chance of cutting through the clutter, getting more responses, and paving the way for more new business wins.

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Author Bio

Christian Banach is an advertising agency new business consultant and sales director at Catapult New Business. You can connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

When you hear “automation,” chances are you’re thinking fast, robotic, and assembly line. While there is truth to these perceptions, email marketing automation requires a knowledgeable marketer to create a strategy, manage the process, and then analyze the results to inform on next steps.

If you’re unsure about using email marketing for your agency, let’s put to rest some common misconceptions.

1. Email Marketing is a Passing Fad

Talk about a huge misconception. According to a 2015 Salesforce analytics study reported on Forbes, email marketing is the top source for data used by high performance enterprises. Then consider the number of active email accounts is growing: there are over 4.35 billion in use now, which is predicted to reach 5.59 billion active accounts by 2019. 

2. Automation Means Set It and Forget It

Without human intelligence, all of that data your email automation software collected is as useful as 10,000 lbs. of cotton puffs at a building construction site. Software cannot create marketing plans or content. It compiles lists of your leads, tracks email delivery and engagement rates, and collects email performance data. You need to put in the intellectual and creative work; interpret the data to find insights that inform future campaigns and other marketing tactics.

3. Automation Ensures Email Deliverability

Between sophisticated spam filters and prioritized inbox features, it’s easy for your marketing email to go unread, possibly undelivered. Best practices play a role here in determining which segment of your audience will receive an email and the clarity of the message to inspire action.

4. Email Marketing Automation Is Effortless

Content is significant in email marketing, and you need to create a lot of it following a strategy and established goals. Each email campaign must be unique and should be personalized. Target your buyer personas using list segmentation, and speak their languages while addressing their needs. Then there is the follow through when you ask the recipient to click on the CTA (call to action). The work extends far beyond the email to fulfill the offer.

5. Automated Emails Are Cold and Impersonal

Email automation software is designed to integrate with your CRM enabling you to categorize your audience or leads based on interest levels and other segments. From there, the message and CTA are geared toward the targeted audience with personalized touches, including addressing the recipient by first name.

Now that these common misconceptions have been cleared, it’s time for you to put email marketing automation to work and win more business for your agency.

For years, most agency/client relationships developed into close, long-term partnerships. However, increasingly more these days, that’s just not the case.

According to Forbes, CMOs now view agency relationships differently. The Client/Agency Relationship Survey showed that 62 percent said that they now view their agencies as suppliers or vendors, not partners.

Also, due to the fact that many companies are now building in-house marketing teams, agencies are being asked to do short-term, one-off projects instead of acting as a long-term agency of record (AOR). Of course, this also plays into the vendor vs. partner relationship shift.

Marketers have also expressed consistent frustration with various aspects of traditional agency relationships. Although there are a number of things contributing to their dissatisfaction, two of the most common reasons are:

1. Lack of transparency about how their money is being used in relation to campaign spend and MoM results.

2. They were sold on a “full-service” marketing strategy with all the bells and whistles only to find out after the fact that the agency didn’t have the expertise or bandwidth to execute against it.

When agency relationships begin with unrealistic expectations, it only breeds distrust over time — and that distrust is compounded by the fact that clients already don’t feel involved with (or in control of) the process and execution of .

Key Takeaways

Although client-agency relationships are changing, the good news is that agencies can still increase revenue and close new business as long as they take a strategic approach to business development.

Here are four tips to get you started on the right path:

1. During contract negotiations, never promise deliverables your agency can’t do just to get the deal signed. Also, don’t just assume that your team will simply “handle it” or figure it out on their own.

2. As tempting as it may be, avoid pitching your agency as a “full-service” provider. The most successful agencies are those that differentiate themselves by specializing in one area of marketing or advertising.

3. Although “growing pains” are normal to a certain extent, make sure that you aren’t doing a disservice to your current clients or operational staff by prioritizing new business revenue growth above revenue growth from retention and referrals.

4. Remember: Just because a company has money to spend with you, doesn’t mean they are a good client fit for your agency. Clients that don’t fit with your agency’s culture will create more work for you and your agency than they’re worth. More often than not, they will end up costing you money, time, employees, and worst of all, the clients that you actually like.

It goes without saying, but conferences and tradeshows are a big deal in the marketing and advertising world. These events present a unique opportunity for senior-level marketers to learn from industry leaders, and at the same time, network with a large pool of top prospects to generate new business leads.

However, every year there are more and more conferences to choose from and it can be a daunting task to try and figure out which ones present the best opportunity for business growth and leadership training.

To save you some time and help you win more new business in 2016, here is our list of the 11 best marketing and advertising conferences to attend this year.

1. 2016 ANA Brand Masters Conference 
When: Feb. 3-5
Where: Hollywood, FL

A more intimate companion to the Masters of Marketing, ANA Brand Masters is an event that brings together CMOs and marketing thought leaders. These top marketers come together and share actionable tips on how to navigate customer insights, data analytics and technology to engage clients and prospects, and grow their businesses.

Learn More

2. Digital Marketing Innovation Summit
When: March 10-11
Where: New York, NY

This summit brings together innovative senior executives from around the world who work in digital marketing.

Digital Marketing San Francisco 2014 from Innovation Enterprise.

3. Intelligent Content Conference
When: March 7-9
Where: Las Vegas, NV

If your agency specializes in content marketing then this is a must attend conference in 2016. Speakers include Joe Pulizzi, Founder of the Content Marketing Institute, as well as Jeffrey Tambor, Scott Brinker, Robert Rose and more!

Learn More

4. Social Media Marketing World
When: April 17-19
Where: San Diego, CA

With an estimated 3,000 marketers attending yearly, Social Media Marketing World is the world’s largest social media marketing conference. By attending you get the chance to network with industry leaders and top prospects on the brand and agency side. Definitely one you don’t want to miss!

Learn More

5. Mirren Live New York
When: May 2016
Where: New York City

Every year, top agency marketers and CEOs from 400 different agencies gather in New York City to discuss innovative new business strategies and techniques. This conferences showcases over 50 speakers and includes more than 35 sessions.

Learn More

 

6. DIGIMARCON WEST 2016
When: June 15-16
Where: Santa Monica, CA

Held at the luxurious Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, DIGIMARCON WEST is known for showcasing the most thought-provoking and innovative digital marketers in the industry. The speakers provide attendees with insight on cutting-edge strategies, the latest technology and best practices for content, UX, mobile marketing, social media, search marketing, marketing automation, analytics and more.

Learn More

7. Content Marketing World
When: Sept. 6-9
Where: Cleveland, Ohio

Every year the best and brightest flock to Cleveland to attend the now infamous Content Marketing World conference. The event showcases more than 80 sessions with top content marketers. In 2015, the line up of speakers included big names like Nick Offerman, Jay Baer and David Beebe, the VP of Global Creative & Content Marketing for Marriott International. This is an unbeatable networking opportunity and a rare chance to get actionable tips from the very best on how to maximize results for clients’ content marketing strategies.

Learn More

8. Digital Strategy Innovation Summit
When: Sept. 14-15
Where: Sydney, Australia

If you have the budget and are looking for a conference with a little adventure, the Digital Strategy Innovation Summit in Sydney is a fantastic choice. This internationally renowned conference brings together the most innovative thought leaders in the industry for two days of inspirational discussions. This summit also presents a rare opportunity to network with top prospects from around the world for agencies targeting international audiences.

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9. INBOUND 2016
When: Nov. 8-11
Where: Boston, MA

No surprise here, but HubSpot’s INBOUND conference has quickly become the number one event of the year for most senior-level marketers. And with a line up of speakers that includes the likes of Seth Godin, Aziz Ansari, Chelsea Clinton, Marc Maron and Jonah Peretti, how could it not? Every year, thousands of top advertisers and marketers come together and have a great time. If you only attend one event next year, this is the best choice you could make.

Learn More

10. Internet Summit
When: Nov. 16-17
Where: Raleigh, NC

The Internet Summit presents a rare opportunity to rub shoulders with industry leaders from every area of digital advertising and marketing. For 2015, the star-studded line up of speakers included Russell Simmons, Rand Fishkin, Chris Brogan, Melanie Deziel and Tina Moffett — and that’s just a few of the unbelievable sessions attendees can look forward to. As one of the few conferences priced below $500 right now, this is one of the top three events to mark on your calendar next year.

Learn More

11. Digital Summit 
When: Varies by City
Where: Phoenix, AZ | Charlotte, NC | Atlanta, GA | Denver, CO

Digital Summit is a two-day conference held throughout the year in different cities. Thousands of top digital marketers come together and present innovative strategies, new technology and discuss trends emerging in the marketplace. According to Steve Wozniak, Co-founder of Apple, “this is where people get inspiration. Everything going on here is so important.”

Learn More

Attending a conference not included on this list? Tweet us @CatapultNewBiz and tell us about it!

Marketing automation has rapidly become a best practice for acquiring agency new business.

However, you may be surprised by just how many agencies don’t have any automation set up for email and marketing campaigns, not to mention, how many don’t even have a dedicated marketing department. 

If you are in charge of business development for an agency that isn’t yet convinced of the profitability of marketing automation, here are 25 stats to help you make the case.

25 Statistics on Marketing Automation Usage & Value

1. 79% of top-performing companies have been using marketing automation for two or more years. (Source: Pardot)

2. Marketers using automation solutions have experienced a 34% increase in sales revenue on average. (Source: Pardot)

3. On average, nurtured leads produce a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads. (Source: DemandGen Report)

4. Companies that use marketing automation generate twice as many leads as those just using email software. (Source: Autopilot)

5. Marketing automation drives a 14.5% increase in sales productivity and a 12.2% reduction in marketing overhead. (Source: Nucleus Research)

6. Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects see a 451% increase in qualified leads. (Source: The Annuitas Group)

7. 63% of the companies outgrowing their competitors use some kind of marketing automation. (Source: The Lenskold and Pedowitz Groups)

8. B2B marketers who implement marketing automation solutions increase their sales pipeline contribution by 10% on average. (Source: Forrester Research)

9. 75% of companies that implement automated marketing campaigns see ROI in just 12 months. (Source: Focus Research)

10. The most important features of marketing automation for users are lead nurturing (57%), analytics & reporting (52%), and list segmentation (39%). (Source: Marketo)

11. Relevant emails delivered through automated campaigns drive 18x more revenue than generic email blasts. (Source: Jupiter Research)

12. Marketers who have adopted marketing automation suggest that the biggest benefits are:

• Taking repetitive tasks out of marketers hands, so they can work on other projects (36%)
• Better targeting their prospects and existing customers (30%)
• Improving customer experience (10%)
• Better email marketing (9%)
• Reduction of human error (8%)
• Lead management (4%)
• Multichannel marketing (3%)
  (Source: Redeye and TFM&A Insights)

13. Sales and marketing teams that use marketing automation software have more than 650,000 contacts in their database, which is 30% more than non-automation users. (Source: Autopilot)

14. Triggered emails – those sent in response to a specific user action on a website – have a 70.5% higher open rate. (Source: Gleanster)

 15. The average length of the sales cycle has increased 22% in the past 5 years as more decision makers are involved in the buying process. (Source: SiriusDecisions)

16. By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their buying journey without talking to a human. (Source: Gartner Research)

17. Businesses that use marketing automation average 4,200 leads per month. (Source: Autopilot)

18.  Marketers who send out communications to prospects every two to four weeks generate 2x the leads. (Source: Autopilot)

19. 35% of marketers using marketing automation solutions consistently capture intelligence for the sales team, compared to 19% without marketing automation systems. (Source: The Lenskold and Pedowitz Groups)

20. Only 30% of agencies aren’t using marketing automation to distribute content, prove inbound marketing ROI, and improve inbound effectiveness with personalized targeting. (Source: SharpSpring)

21. Gartner estimates a 15% savings on creative production when businesses use a marketing automation system. (Source: HubSpot)

 

Social media remains one of the more challenging parts of the modern marketing campaign: Sure, you can use social media to help improve brand recognition and etc., but can it be used to create new business and find new leads?

The answer is yes…that is, if you invest enough time in social activities. Here are a few tips on basic social media management and how it can help bring in new customers.

Always Audit

Start by doing a basic audit of your social networks.

1. What social profiles do you have?
2. Are they all using the same marketing materials?
3. What links do you want people to visit?
4. How do people get there?
5. What is your end goal for lead generation?
6. Who is in charge of scheduling posts and ads?

You have to ask and answer these questions before you are ready to start creating new business on your accounts. Organization is a vital step: Don’t fall into chaos before you begin.

Get Involved in B2B Discussions

If you are a B2B seller, pay special attention to blogs, LinkedIn discussions and other places online where conversations are taking place.

You want to prove that you are an authority in the community and an expert in your field. Sites like LinkedIn even monitor your discussion presence as a way of charting your sales acumen. This commenting and industry leadership model works best for B2B selling, but can also be effective when selling to consumers.

Social Media Targeted Advertising

Social media is not just about posts – there are plenty of opportunities for creating social ads. Facebook has one of the most complete targeted online ad creators out there, allowing you to create and target ads to specific groups of users, then track their progress.

There are also options for mobile app advertisement for sites like Facebook. Use a combination of online social ads to bring in new business, but don’t stretch your net too wide!

Twitter Ads

Twitter also has several options for advertisement, but one of the most effective is the Promoted Tweet, which allows you to skyrocket tweets to the front pages of followers and searchers where it can be seen.

You can also promote your account or your campaign if you prefer. Link to a product page, a customer info form, or something else that will generate a real lead.

Hashtag Interest

Now that hashtags are supported across a number of social sites, you can use them very effectively to chart how well a campaign is going.

Who is sharing or mentioning your keyword hashtags? How many people have picked up on it? Smart hashtag use can attract the attention of people searching hashtags for particular suppliers, products or services, and it can generate more business than you might think. Just avoid going too general and getting lost in the chatter.

Always Manage Your Links

As you have probably noted, most of these social tips depend on really excellent link work. You need to have the right links in the right places at the right times to generate qualified leads.

Always double-check your link management, and keep a watch for potential problems, such as poor conversions or redirect issues.

Proper analytics and tracking is key here, but you can save a lot of trouble by checking and updating your links before you launch new material.

Social media is just one of the many ways your agency can generate new business. Click here, to learn more about how Catapult New Business can help you grow a pipeline of prospects and grow your agency.