In our previous post “How to Think Like Sales as Marketer” we looked at the relationship between marketing and sales and how Salesforce Engage can help to bridge the gap between the teams and offer Marketers some insight into how sales builds relationships with their customers and prospects. Today, we’re going to look at how marketers can take that one step further as they create email templates that their sales team can customize.
Not all emails are created equal. Salesforce Engage gives sales the ability to leverage marketing approved email templates and content, and Marketing messaging to keep communications consistent. These are three important elements to keep in mind when you’re building out content like this for your sales team. For more examples of great email templates that you can build with Salesforce Engage (with 100% fewer potatoes) check out our Salesforce Engage Use Cases.
Consistency
Consistency is one of the key ingredients for creating a seamless customer experience. When buyers are trying to learn more about your business, the last thing they want is to be confronted with content and emails that present conflicting viewpoints, or contradictory statements. And that might sound like a given, but it’s surprisingly easy to lose consistency when you have multiple interactions with the same prospect. Take this for example:
“Dear %Customer%,
Potato Co. is always proud to offer the very best in chips, fries, and wedges. We take your satisfaction seriously, and strive to offer only the best premium potatoes”
versus this:
“Hey %Customer%!
Potato Co. has organic potatoes for your chips and wedges, plus ketchup! So what are you waiting for? Grab some today!”
Now the difference here is subtle; there’s a distinct difference in tone between these emails which can be jarring if all the communications with the customer thus far have varied this way. The second difference is in offering. The first email lists out three things that Potato Co. can help you with: fries, chips and wedges. The second only gives two: chips and wedges, and it throws ketchup into the mix for added confusion. The second email also lists that Potato Co.’s potatoes are organic – which isn’t mentioned in the first one at all. These kinds of discrepancies can make you seem untrustworthy. Your customers will be asking themselves whether your product is ‘organic’ or not, and if it is, why you didn’t mention that to begin with.
It’s important to keep your tone and voice consistent across all your communications, and it’s also important to clearly identify how you’re going to position your products, and what value propositions you want to call out in each context.
Personalization
Personalization is one of the most important elements of creating your 1:1 emails. It’s a critical part of developing a better customer experience, and it’s something that most B2B marketers are familiar with, but of course, there’s more we can do to deepen personalization, particularly in 1:1 emails.
For example:
“Dear %Customer%
I heard that today was your company anniversary, and we wanted to offer you a free consultation in celebration. Congratulations to you and everyone at %company%! Let me know when you’d like to arrange your consultation!”
Looking for timely, detailed and unique opportunities to reach out to and engage with your prospects is a good way to start building stronger relationships.
Content
Never underestimate the power of content. Okay – I might be a little biased, but good content can make all the difference when your sales reps are reaching out to prospects. Encouraging them to send out videos, eBooks, webinar registrations and other strong content pieces will help your reps drive engagement. The guideline here is to make sure that the content is extremely applicable:
“Dear %Customer%,
I saw that you were browsing our ‘How To Prep Potatoes’ page and I thought you might find this handy guide “Potato Preparation 101” might come in handy for you.
Let me know if you have any questions,
%Rep From Potato Co.%
More than likely your product isn’t potatoes, but you get the idea. What are some of your tips for creating content for your sales team? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to visit Getting Started with Salesforce Engage for more information.
