Automate marketing, yes, with a finely qualified target
We're moving towards more and more marketing automation. This saves time, of course, but its impact depends exclusively on upstream data qualification. Discover all our advice on the challenges of lead generation.
CONTENTS
Targeting and marketing automation
Targeting versus mass marketing
As individuals, we are subject to a great deal of advertising. We do everything we can to avoid spam. But that doesn't stop us from being interested in the very information we're looking for, or in information that might be of interest to us. Amazon has understood this well by displaying: "You like this. You might also like...". The suggestion is based on an algorithm linked to our personal history. It is individualized: we speak of BtoC targeting.
How can we reproduce similar targeting for professionals? It's a question of adapting to their profile and behavior. This means :
- first, being well informed
- secondly, developing standard scenarios for proposing the right offer at the right time.
Know your contacts
Lead scoring tools enable you to track the evolution of your contacts in real time. With a solution like Sparklane, your monitoring becomes active. You choose a number of business signals associated with your contacts: a move, the appointment of a manager, product development, international growth, a partnership or even a fund-raising... And the lead software tracks these indicators for you. As soon as one of them turns green, you'll receive an alert (e-mail or SMS). It's a great way to :
- stay on top of all your leads, even when you're managing a lot of them
- gain 360°, ongoing knowledge of each of your leads
Business signals give your sales force greater reactivity and contextualization of actions. By cross-referencing data, lead scoring can even become predictive, enabling you to anticipate prospects' future needs.
Develop your scenarios
BtoB sales cycles are longer. Prospecting efforts are spread over the medium to long term. The challenge is to "keep prospects at temperature" until they reach maturity. This is known as lead nurturing. Keeping in touch discreetly but effectively, so you're there when you need to be. To do this, you need to program actions to be spread out along a typical path. After the first meeting, I send this e-mail. If the person responds, I send another e-mail. You automate your marketing by building an optimal conversion tunnel.
Data: the decisive raw material
If this formula is unstoppable, it must nevertheless be based on qualified data. What information are your business signals based on? And how do you keep them up to date?
A tool for up-to-date, qualified market intelligence
This is what Sparklane for Marketing offers with its Datalake tool. Based on big data technology, it gathers news data from websites such as Les Echos and Le Figaro. It connects to their reservoir of information sources and continuously refreshes your database. This enables your sales force to base their actions on information that is not only up-to-date, but also more qualified than any standard prospecting file you might have purchased.
Hyper-targeting to refine your approach
Fresh, reliable data is one thing, but to use it effectively, you need to be able to consult it easily. You need to be able to filter your database according to personalized queries. On Sparklane, you can refine your segmentation using pre-selected hypercriteria, such as growth indicators, distribution channels or presence on social networks.
Market analysis to benchmark your performance
A software package such as Sparklane integrates with your CRM to enrich the database and refine your approach. The wealth of market information is linked to your leads on the one hand, but can also provide you with a broader sectoral analysis. The Dataviz tool compares your "basket" of contacts with the number of similar contacts in the sector. This highlights your current market coverage in relation to untapped potential.
Conclusion
By subtly combining hyper-targeting with marketing automation, you can effectively personalize your sales approach. Finer targeting upstream, followed by judiciously automated actions downstream. The sequence of events follows a predefined, standard path, so as to deliver the right message at the right time. This new way of marketing is a powerful lever for maximizing your conversion rates.
Article translated from French