Prospects Don’t Swing on the First Pitch

September 30th, 2008 Chris Posted in E-mail, Marketing | No Comments »

Oops – I missed a post. Apologies – last week was crazy. We were in the end of a campaign for a specific product and in the middle of everything our phones blew up, our Internet service went down and we had on-going problems with our marketing/sales/CRM system.

And, of course, several days later… everything is still broken. But as they say… the show must go on.

This coming weekend is my university reunion. Which year? you ask dear reader. I’m afraid that vanity prevents me from telling although it’s a depressingly round number. I’m actually not going as I’ve got other things going on and, of course, I left it to the last minute so there is no place to stay in Kingston.

I have to admit that there are many folks that I’ve not seen for many, many years that I’d love to catch up with. Both in the spirit of friendship as well as a morbid curiously to see whose fatter and balder.

There is one gentleman – err… man – I remember very well as being a complete Casanova. It’s not that he was particularly handsome or charming – it’s that he had incredible perseverance. If we were out and there was a girl that he was interested in, he would try and try again to get her number. While sometimes, there would be a threat of a restraining order, just as often he would be successful after multiple approachs. And that was in sharp contrast to those of us who would get shot down and quickly moved on, finishing the evening with no numbers…

I couldn’t help but think of that story in the context of our sales push last week. We had a offering with a relatively high level of investment (~$1K). It was a great deal and we had a three-step sales campaign – that is, three outbound emails to our prospect base.

The response rate for the first email: 0%. I was very sad.

The response rate for the second email: 0%. I was suicidal.

So with trepidation, we sent out the third and final email while I scanned the help-wanted ads. Low and behold – the orders began immediately to come in and were steady for the rest of the day.

So, what happened?

I attribute the last-minute success of the campaign to two important features of our efforts:

1. Multiple Touches

We’ve found that you have to hit people multiple times with an offer. Why? In some cases it’s just that people are busy and won’t necessarily be reading everything you send them.

Also, we have to remember that people buy when they are ready – not when you want. By hitting them several times, you’re more likely build up awareness and interest until finally, when you hit them again, they are ready to take the plunge.

I know someone selling a $5K product who has found it takes, on average, 9 touches before someone purchases.

2. A Deadline

Our offer also had a cut-off day: a final date and time for a prospect to take advantage of this great offer. Our last email blast that generated all the orders went out on that last day of this offer.

Again, people are often busy (and occasionally lazy) and put things off. So, they delay purchase decisions until they are forced to make a decision. If you can remind them of that deadline as it comes up – essentially forcing them to make a final purchase decision – the orders will come. Otherwise, it’s just to easy to put it off until after the offer is no longer available.

So, when you’re designing your marketing and sales campaign – make sure you have multiple steps to hit prospects several times. And make sure your offer has a deadline – even if it’s artificial, it’s necessary to motivate prospects to become customers.

C.