Secrets to Successful Automated Email Journeys, Series & Sequenced Campaigns (MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2018)

Secrets to
Successful Automated Email Journeys, Series &
Sequenced Campaigns
Karen Talavera
Founder & CEO of Synchronicity Marketing
Twitter: @SyncMarketing

Our Roadmap
Twitter: @SyncMarketing © 2018 Synchronicity Marketing. All rights reserved

Before We Begin . . .
Get a free Email Metrics &
ROI Calculator
and copy of this
presentation!
Link to Survey:
bit.ly/b2bemailsurvey

Start with Mindset
 Mindset before Skillset!

1. Understand the Customer’s
Path to Purchase

1. Consideration Path – the decision-making journey your
prospect takes toward becoming a customer
2. Product Path – the intentional sequence of products/services
you offer once they become a customer
3. Progression Path – the path down which you invite
customers to grow long-term relationships through
additional product offerings
A Journey Can Have Multiple Paths

1
• What ignites the consideration process?
2
• Which consideration path do your customers travel?
3
• What encourages people down the path?
4
• What discourages, stalls or stops them?
Must Knows

 Do you know which
purchase consideration
path your prospects take in
deciding to become
customers – or that your
product/service requires?
 Craft your email to
accelerate, enable, or
streamline their journey
Quick
WindingLong
Long &
Winding
4 Types of Consideration Paths

Quick Path
 Low decision time
 Low price/investment
 Little or no comparison-shopping
 No need to be approved or qualified
 Universal or broad market appeal
 Minimal consensus-building
 Often a commodity
 Examples: Song, book, subscription, food
item, office supply, restaurant reservation

Winding Path
 Low-to-medium price/investment
 Medium time investment
 Often involves comparison-shopping
 Requires review of details, specs, terms,
facts, figures, etc.
 May need approval or qualification
 Broad market appeal
 Some consensus-building
 Examples: Software, computer, television,
business trip, conference/event, insurance

Long Path
 Medium-to-high price/investment
 High time investment or time-to-complete
 Requires comparison-shopping
 Requires review of details, specs, terms,
facts, figures, etc.
 Often involves approval or qualification
 Often consensus-building
 Examples: Mortgage, car, benefits provider,
consulting, many business services

Long & Winding Path
 High price
 High time investment or time-to-complete
 Definite comparison, detail review and
research
 Usually involves approval or qualification
 Often involves changing circumstances,
dependencies or shifts in direction of
decision
 Examples: Home remodel, long-term
business contract, real-estate investing, IT
purchase, etc.

What is “Journey Mapping”?
 A process/tool companies use to help them see what their customers truly want
and how they go about getting it
 The map portrays the story of the customer’s experience from initial contact,
through the process of engagement and into a long-term relationship
13

2. Why a Series or Sequence . . .
. . . vs. a Single Message?

Multiple Benefits
Deliver Timely
Information
Build KLT
Orient and
Guide
Teach and
Train

3. The Best Sequences Mirror
Real-World Behavior

Most Common Types
 Lead nurturing
 Long purchase path
 Long interval between
purchases
 New subscriber
onboarding
 New Member/Customer
 Large/complex product set
 Inactive customer
 Inactive in channel
 Abandonment recovery

Most Common Types
 Crowded landscape
with many options
 Customer defection
prevention
 Convert MQLs to SQLs
 Event Promotion
 Product Progression
 Up-sell/Cross-sell
 Traditional user training
(how to use
product/service)
 Expertise-building
 Content marketing to
build entrenchment

 After initial purchase, what logically comes next?
 Does everyone begin at entry-level, or not necessarily?
Entry Product
Other Product
Family Member
Related
Product/Service
Next Level
Product/Service
Other Product
Family Member
Related
Product/Service
Highest Level
Product/Service
Product Progression

Product Progression Should
Have
 A “problem/solution” sequence
 Price escalation
 Commitment escalation
 Value that increases as price/investment increases
 Value that increases proportionately greater than price
 Rewards for long-term loyalty and repeat business
 Referral opportunities

Map Your Path
• Low price,
involvement,
personal
contact, value
Entry-Level
• Higher price,
involvement, personal
contact, service levelIntermediate
• Highest price, involvement, 1:1
contact, service level
Premium

Chocolate
Cupcake
Strawberry
Cupcake
Combo Pack
(Volume
Discounts)
Frequency
Program (Reward
Loyalty)
Cupcake Monthly
Subscription
Holiday
Gifting/Gift
Reorder
Corporate Gift
Program
Simple Example: Cupcakes

Lead Nurturing
 Sales funnels waaaay longer in
B2B than B2C
 Three typical stages
 The “lead” stage can be lengthy
and involve levels of
qualification before a contact is
moved further down the funnel.
This is where lead nurturing
pays off!

Lead Nurturing Should
 Introduce, Orient and Guide
 What do I need to know to get started? Where do I begin?
 Educate and Inform
 Which facts, features and benefits are most relevant to my needs? Will your
solution solve my problems?
 Build confidence (encourage down the path)
 Why should I choose your solution over others? What have others in my
situation done and how have they succeeded through you?
 Overcome friction/resistance (mitigate discouragement)
 How can I be sure I’m making the right choice? WIIFM?
 Request Action!

4. How Do You Do It?

Essential Ingredients
Compelling Content
CTA/Offer Sequence
Lead Scoring
Behavior Tracking
Triggered Message
Automation
“Sense & Respond”
MA Platform

Inventory Your Content
 Assess what you have
(probably more than you realize)

Content Must be COMPELLING
 After taking inventory, work with only your best assets.
 What is compelling?
 Relevancy
 Optimized winning SLs and key words (based on testing or AI)
 Different from what your competitors are doing
 Personalized

Stage-Based Content Strategy
 Determine the content best suited to either a stage in the sales
funnel or on your consideration path:
 Top-of-funnel (TOFU): Create Awareness
 Middle-of-funnel (MOFU): Support Evaluation
 Bottom-of-funnel (BOFU): Validate Purchase Decision

Determine BANT
• Do they have the ability to spend?Budget
• Are they the decision-maker?Authority
• Do they have an urgent problem/pain to
address?Need
• Do you know a timeframe in which they
need a solution (or can spend?)Timing

BANT Can Occur in Stages
 Sometimes we can’t learn or don’t know all BANT elements right
away, so BANT Stage helps determine approach

Scoring Guides Investment
 When a prospect or
customer has taken
actions you can
measure and you know
what each is worth, you
know how much time
and effort to invest.

Assign Content by Score or Stage
 Lead Scoring based
on BANT stages is
helpful in
determining which
types of content to
use when
messaging to
different levels of the
sales funnel

Measure Valuable Actions
 Which actions that move a subscriber down the path/journey can you
measure?
 Open or click email
 Downloaded content asset
 Engagement in other channels (social, mobile, store)
 Webinar registration
 Live event attendance
 Request conversation
 Request Proposal
 What is each worth in terms of qualification value? Likelihood to convert?

Plan Your Email Series
 Define
 Starting points
 Whether or not you’ll use
branching logic based
on response/non-
response
 Escalation points
 CTA Flow
 Sundowning (end point)

Program in ESP/MA & Deploy
 Set up your concept by creating workflows in your email
or marketing automation platform
 Double check:
 Data flows – is there an API pulling in data from elsewhere?
 Test treatments (i.e., A/B Subject Lines)
 Suppression Rules
 QA and dry-run test before deployment!!

5. Case Scenario

Individual Set Classroom
Solution
Building Level
Solution
District Level
Implementation
LEGO Product Progression

LEGO’S Approach
 Launched email drip campaigns for
distinctly different products and based
follow-up nurturing series on specific
product interest
 Continued branching logic further so
as prospect reinforces or changes
product interest, messages adjust to
match
 More to Math
 Machines & Mechanisms
 Literacy (Hands on, Minds on)

Score Based on BANT Elements
 Assigning a score range to each BANT element helps place
potential buyers into unique stages of a series and creates
more specific messaging and content mapping
 For example, low urgency or no budget lowers score
 Unknown decision-making authority determines different approach than
dealing with a known decision maker
 Elements LEGO Education uses to determine BANT
 Job Title
 Timeline for purchase
 Funding available?

Personalized Nurturing Paths

Campaign Detail
Did not sign up for sample
set
Sign up for sample set
Week 2 CTA: Watch
video to learn more
Week 3 CTA: Preview
the curriculum pack
Week 4 CTA: Preview
the assessment
Week 5 CTA: Preview
software & Buy Now
Day 1: Sign up to
receive a free sample
set
Day 5: Sign up to
receive a free sample
set

First Message: Introduce & Orient
Offer is for a
free sample kit
for hands-on
learning and
guided product
experience

Second Message: Educate and Inform
Visually educate and
inform
Watch and learn how
MoreToMath bridges
math facts with
problem-solving
practices

Third Message : Build
Confidence
Build confidence with
a preview of the
curriculum

LEGO Education Content
 Content was inventoried and assigned into one of six stages:
Stage 6: Advocacy
Stage 5: Usage
Stage 4: Introduction
Stage 3: Purchase
Stage 2: Consideration
Stage 1: Awareness

6. Measure Conversion . . .
. . . at Every Stage of Your Series

What’s Worth Measuring?
 Email Opens and Clicks throughout
 By message, and in aggregate over the life of a series
 Completed calls-to-action (Conversion)
 What was the primary objective of each email
message? Of an entire series? An entire program?
 Measure both individual conversion message-by-
message, and cumulative over a series/program

LEGO – Open and Click-Through

Don’t Forget “By-Touch” Analysis
 Analyze response and
engagement by individual
touch to determine
 Incremental conversion uplift
(gain) by touch
 Optimal series length
 Content and CTA
strengths/weaknesses (and
where to test changes)
 Abandonment points

Lego Education By-Touch Analysis
15.9
14 13.9
35.2
30.9 30 29.6
27.8
4 3… 3.2
9…
7.3
6…
6.8 6.2
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Open & Click Rates
Open Click

Watch For . . .
 A sudden decline in opens/clicks at a specific point or
after a specific message in the series
 Spike in response to a particular message in series
 Could be a sign of strong offer or resonating content
 Spike in complaints or unsubscribes
 Diminishing returns (perhaps too long a series?)

Do
Test Offers and SLs
Use Branching Logic
Create Rest Points for Non-
Responders
Personalize
Be Mindful of Suppression Logic
Needed
Test to Seed Names before live
deployment!
Don’t
Use generic content
Test more than one factor at a
time
Create a "one size fits all"
message sequence
Attempt without a platform that
can handle true marketing
automation
Go to all the trouble if you can't
measure response!
Key Take-Aways

Last Chance for Survey
Get a free Email Metrics &
ROI Calculator
and copy of this
presentation!
Link to Survey:
bit.ly/b2bemailsurvey

QUESTIONS?
Ask me anything at the Post-Presentation Huddle!
Email: info@SynchronicityMarketing.com
Twitter: @SyncMarketing
Phone: 561.738.5138

Secrets to Successful Automated Email Journeys, Series & Sequenced Campaigns (MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2018)

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