For this episode, we will answer the following question:
We’ve all been there before, we’ve sent out that all too well-known follow-up email asking how a potential customer is doing and checking in with them. But then we find that the amount of emails we’re sending out is disproportionate to the number of responses we’re getting back. There’s a reason why you’re not getting a lot of these same people replying back to the emails you send out to them.
If any of these sound familiar to you from the emails you yourself have written, they are tell-tale signs of an email that was likely being written with your own agenda. It’s time to switch to Inbound Sales, where it’s all about putting the customer first and realizing that investors’ buying behaviour has changed so that advisors need to adjust accordingly.
Your buyers are the ones who hold the power now, with them wanting to invest with a firm they know will put their interests at their top priority and em as an individual. Generic, passive emails that look only to check in or follow up on the last email offer little to no value to the reader and they will be much less inclined to reply back.
What makes Inbound Sales so distinct is that it recognizes the need for advisors to take on this new guiding role and the value of working not in isolation of, but alongside the marketing team to use Inbound Marketing content to provide tailored, valuable resources for the reader, versus a standard email that looks only to close a deal.
The first thing you should do before you start writing an email is to define the purpose of what the email is trying to achieve. Because it often takes several attempts and follow-up emails until the reader finally replies, having a clear goal in mind will help you map out what exactly you want to include in each email in order to reach that objective and prevent your follow-up emails from becoming repetitive. Make your objective specific and ensure that it will benefit the reader in some way.
For example, your firm is hosting a webinar answering questions on investment solutions but you notice the current sign-up rate is low. An objective you can make when writing follow-up emails is to use content to drive more people to register for the webinar.
Notice how this objective is beneficial for your firm as more people will gain more exposure to your company, but it is also providing a lot of value to potential customers because they can learn more about challenges they may face with investments by attending the webinar. And also notice how the objective of these follow-up emails isn’t simply to “check in” or “just following up on my last email” with the reader, but will use valuable content aligned with the objective to help them with their problems and engage with them further.
Once you’ve established your primary objective, now comes the writing of the follow-up email. We’ve all learned that a well-crafted subject line is key to higher open rates for an email, and in turn, response rates. Just like how people often decide to pick up a book based on its cover, how you write the subject line to your email could make or break the opportunity for a prospect to get back to you. Keep it short and sweet so that they’ll want to open it and learn more.
One of the sure ways in creating no response to your sent email is if the reader doesn’t have any idea who you are or how the email is relevant to them. Open your email with a personalized touch by re-emphasizing your initial interaction, r that was in-person or online, or briefly touching on what was discussed in your previous emails to the recipient.
Inbound Sales is all about using content to prompt non-responsive prospects to reply, but you can’t just send any kind of content. Your buyers are busy people. They won’t want to spend their time and energy replying to an email that contains irrelevant content looking to just make a sale. There needs to be something in it for them as well. Here is where you should start pulling content from Inbound Marketing that will be valuable and helpful to that specific prospect, noting where they are at in their buyer’s journey.
For example, if your primary objective is to increase registration for an upcoming webinar and you notice a potential customer in the Awareness stage asking questions about various investments, a sample follow-up email you could write may include a blog article on helping to clarify the biggest challenges to shopping for investment solutions. Maybe the reader isn’t ready to sign up for a webinar just yet, but reading a blog article about the same topic could be exactly what they need to help convince them.
Now that you’ve set up the foundation of your email with an opening and content pique the reader’s interest, how can you guide them to take action and reply to your email? It’s truly as simple as intentionally stating a clear, actionable step the reader can take that aligns with the objective of your email. Keeping with the above example, if they’ve found the blog article link you included helpful, a next step you can suggest they take is registering for the upcoming free webinar, where you’ll be answering any questions people may have on investment solutions.
That is all for this episode. If you have any marketing questions that you would like us to answer related to the financial service world, please send them to podcast@bethinkmarketing.com