Many factors affect your ability to turn a prospect into a loyal member of your club. None of them matter without an open line of communication between you and your potential new member. In other words, no one can commit to joining your club if he or she doesn’t know the option exists.
One of the 4 Ps of Sales Effectiveness from Conversica, Performance is the likelihood that your email ends up in your target’s inbox. Without performance, the other indicators of sales effectiveness— promptness, personalization, and persistence — are moot points. It doesn’t matter how fast you respond, or how often, or to what degree you personalize your message if it never gets to its target.
In this portion of our four-part Sales Effectiveness Series, you’ll learn how to determine if your prospect engagement efforts are performing at peak levels. You’ll also learn how a Member Engagement Assistant can increase the overall performance of your email communication by incorporating personalization, promptness, and persistence.
WHAT’S PEAK PERFORMANCE?
Not only is it important that your email lands in your propsect’s inbox, it’s also important that it lands in the right part of their inbox. It goes without saying that the spam folder isn’t ideal, but the distinctions don’t end there. In an annual study commissioned by Conversica to track inbound lead engagement efforts by international companies across nine major industries, participants were given ratings for each of the 4 Ps of Sales Effectiveness.
Performance ratings were awarded based on the Gmail inbox folder in which emails were placed. Emails that landed in a prospect’s primary inbox earned the company 20 points. Those sorted into a social or promotions folder earned 5 points. Emails in the Spam folder earned 0 points. Each company’s performance rating was calculated by taking the mean from each of their email communications and assigning it to a letter grade, with 20 being an A and 5 being a D.
The results showed that on average a staggering 50% of emails sent by businesses end up in spam folders.
HOW CAN I GET MY EMAIL IN THE RIGHT INBOX?
Now that you know where you want your emails to land, the next question is how to get them there. Conversica’s study revealed a high correlation between personalization and performance. The majority of response emails that landed in primary inboxes also earned an A in the personalization test. They included a personalized greeting and signature with contact information, and were sent from an individual rather than a company.
Emails sent using the Member Engagement Assistant, powered by Conversica, include all three of those factors, making them more likely to end up in a primary inbox. This approach ensures the scalability of your prospect engagement plan without sacrificing the value you gain from having a sales representative or other staff member personally follow up with prospects.
As technology improves, spam filters are becoming better at adapting to different outreach techniques and recognizing true spam messages. With so much in flux with email delivery, it is helpful to have a Member Engagement Assistant dedicated to making sure your email communication produces results.
Discover how much better your emails can perform by scheduling a consultation with a member of our team today. Then, check out the rest of our Sales Effectiveness Series to see other steps for improving prospect engagement.
