- Background.
A global info-marketer wanted to build out an effective multimedia marketing campaign for its current front-end lead generation automated webinar.
Although the webinar had always been profitable, after ad spend it often took over 50 days to break even.
- Conversions had decreased over the last 12 months: this had been put down to a combination of poor email deliverability and non-segmented follow-up.
- The company relied solely on email to market to clients and did not want to handle any direct mail in-house.
Problem.- Solution.
After consultation, the company agreed to implement the following recommendations:
- Health-check the current database of approximately 27,000 leads and 1800 paying clients – and remove any leads that are unlikely to convert (this would delete around 9000 “leads”!)
- Build out a direct mail and SMS-based follow-up system.
- Segment the list at the webinar opt-in stage in order to market more effectively to them.
- Create a series of automated campaigns that prospects cascade through after the initial webinar campaign.
- Offer all webinar registrations a special free report (actually a sales letter in disguise) and a resource list that would be mailed to them.
- Create a tagging and “saved search” system to make it easy to quickly search the database for better targeting their marketing.
- Build an automated email engagement campaign that constantly monitors engagement.
- Create automated segmentation and follow-up for all new leads.
- Request all new leads to be confirmed by opt-in.
Within 90 days of implementing the new system, the client reported the following:
- Profitability had more than doubled – even taking into consideration the cost of the direct mail campaign.
- Time to break even on the campaign had dropped dramatically – from 51 days to under 30 days.
- The sales process was simplified – due to the amount of educational information provided during the campaign follow-up.
The major benefits of the solution include:
- Direct mail boost: With the use of careful tracking, we quickly identified that the direct mail element resulted in nearly three-quarters of total campaign sales. This was fully automated so that the client did not have to touch a piece of direct mail in house.
- Improved conversion rate: We initially implemented some very basic segmentation (a YES/NO question at the time of registration for the webinar). Leads were funneled to the two different segments using follow-up messaging relevant to their specific wants/needs. The client is already reporting a like-for-like conversion of 11.2 percent compared to 4 percent previously.
- Lower cost of acquisition of new clients: Since introducing effective tracking and reporting, the cost of acquiring a new client has dropped by 28 percent. We expect to improve on this over time.
- Better lead nurturing simplifies the sales process: We offered all webinar registrations a special free report (actually a sales letter in disguise) and a resource list that would be mailed to them. This was popular, with 57 percent of all registrants requesting it. They were also sent letters and postcards weekly with offers to an advanced Masterclass selling at $5000. This was just a link to register for another automated webinar.
- More meaningful reporting: Deleting 30-40 percent of their entire database was a tough pill to swallow for the client. However, results from campaigns are now more meaningful and we expect email deliverability to improve over time as we constantly monitor list hygiene.
- Better-informed marketing decisions: All marketing is now tracked to isolate the lead source. Previously, 50-70 percent of the client’s marketing budget was ineffective but ad spend will now be quickly switched to areas that do convert.
We will build out a two-way automated SMS conversation system for the client as we have been retained to assist in multimedia campaigns, including the use of some creative “lumpy mail” strategies.
- We will also assist in building out a sales pipeline for the sales team. They now want to add the ability to call clients as part of the process, to further improve conversions.
- We’ve also been asked to consult with their sister company, which offers educational training resources for forex traders.
Summary & Next Steps.
