Do’s & Don’ts of a Power Hour Follow up after an email campaign

by on in email, Marketing for Creatives, Sales
#marketing-tips
Alli Campofranco June 11, 2019

Do’s & Don’ts of a Power Hour

How to get the most out of your email marketing

You’ve built a healthy email list, you’ve sent valuable content to your subscribers, and your readers have opened and clicked the email. While the average B2B marketer might consider this campaign completed, we know a great email marketer such as yourself will take one more step for the best results.

This next step is known as The Power Hour – 60 minutes spent calling those that either opened or clicked on a link from your email, within the first 72 hours of the send.

We’ve been witnessing our partners do this for eight years now, and we want to share some tried-and-true do’s and don’ts of the Power Hour. We’ve grouped them by different subscriber actions or statuses, for your convenience.

For subscribers who fill out contact or survey forms:

These actions demonstrate customers are very engaged with your business and are looking for assistance. OneAffiniti will send you immediate email alerts when customers fill out one of these forms.

DO

Contact the customers within 24 hours of receiving this alert. Explain you received a notification that they were interested in____, and are happy to help.

DON’T

Wait more than 72 hours. When customers request assistance, they are at the peak of engagement. You don’t want to miss this opportunity.

For subscribers who click for your phone number:

When customers click on your phone number, it shows a heightened level of engagement, and you will receive an immediate alarm.

DO

If customers do not call you within 24-48 hours, consider contacting them in the next three to four days. Ask if they read your most recent email. Do they have any feedback? If they say no, ask if they have other IT projects with which they may need assistance.

DON’T

Call the customers, say you can see they clicked on your phone number, and ask if they want to buy something. Again, this will feel invasive, and may result in your contact unsubscribing.

For subscribers who click on other links:

Something piqued their interest. Whether it be a product link or a thought-leadership link, there is always a way to start a conversation.

DO

Call the customers within three to four days of your send. It’s important you don’t wait too long which would allow the email content to go stale in the mind of your customer. Ask them if they received your new email newsletter. If they clicked on a product link, let them know you’re having a special on that product this month. If they clicked on a thought-leadership piece, ask them what they think about the topic.

DON’T

Mention their actual click activity. If you tell them “I see you clicked on this thing,” and then ask if they want to purchase a product, they will likely think of it as invasive, and unsubscribe. The goal of your phone call is to improve your relationship and offer them assistance, not launch into a sales pitch.

For subscribers who bounced:

A bounce generally occurs when an email address is no longer valid. This often happens when someone leaves an organization. This is not a negative – it’s actually an excellent opportunity. If your contact at a customer organization has left that company, you need to know who has replaced that person, especially if he or she is integral to your relationship with that company. So this is a very efficient way of managing your relationships.

DO

Look up the contact’s LinkedIn details to see if he or she moved companies. Further, you should call the company for more information. If the company asks why you are calling, say you want to ensure the contact is still receiving your thought leadership email marketing. Perhaps the email address you have on file is incorrect?If you find out that the contact did leave the company, ask if you can speak to the new person for their role. This is the perfect chance to set up a meeting and build a new relationship. It doesn’t even have to be an immediate sales pitch. Just a phone call or a meetup for a coffee to introduce yourself and learn about some of the projects or difficulties that your contact may be involved in in the near future. Sometimes a new contact can be the key factor in converting a prospect into a customer.

DON’T

Ignore bounces and assume they are invalid. You could be missing key opportunities and new ways of connecting with your customers.

*Note:OneAffiniti ensures hard bounces are automatically removed from your list before your next email send. Once you get a new contact’s email address and receive permission to send him or her email marketing, you can upload the new email address into the email platform, Campaign Monitor. If you need help, please don’t hesitate to call us and ask for assistance.

For more ways to make the most of bounces, read eMail Bounces: Make it an opportunity.

For subscribers who opt-out:

Contacts opt out (or unsubscribe) by clicking the “unsubscribe” link in the footer of your emails. This means they do not want to receive email marketing from you.

The question you need to consider is: why? It could be they are simply trying to clean up their inbox. On the flip side, it could mean they are considering using a different broker. The only way to know for sure is to ask.

DO

Call customers to find out why they unsubscribed. You might consider looking at your current position with these customers. Has anything changed in your commercial dealings? How has your relationship with the customer been recently? Do they have a lapsed policy with you? If so, how long has it been since the policy lapsed? Is their policy approaching renewal shortly? By taking a closer look at all of this information, you can then decide how you want to contact the customer, if at all.

DON’T

Contact the unsubscribed customers and have a defensive conversation about why they opted out. It is their right to unsubscribe; it’s more important for you to find out why they unsubscribed, so you can try to prevent others from doing so. Additionally, don’t contact subscribers if you’ve never spoken to them directly, as it could be viewed as an invasion of privacy.

*Note:OneAffiniti ensures all unsubscribes are removed from your email list before we send your next email. You can look at your unsubscribes in detail in the email platform, Campaign Monitor.

For other reasons to accept — and even embrace — unsubscribes, read “eMail Unsubscribes: Is It All Bad?”.

For subscribers who don’t answer the phone:

This is perhaps the most important section. Many of your customers will fall into this category. Don’t lose hope! Just because they didn’t answer your call, doesn’t mean they aren’t interested. Let’s face it – these days, many people are just unwilling to pick up the phone for a number they don’t recognize. Honestly, I’m one of them! Robo-calls are my biggest pet peeve, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

DO

Send them an email after you call – even though you left a voicemail. Let them know why you were reaching out, and what you were hoping to discuss. This will relax their fears about the spam/robo-call possibility, and will make sure they know it was an actual person on the line. Extend them an opportunity to set up a meeting with you, so you can actually have that conversation with them. Close the email with something like “I look forward to hearing from you” or “Let me know what day this week looks best for our call” – think positively, and confidently.

DON’T

Forget to leave a voicemail. If they didn’t answer because they thought it was a spam or robo-call, lack of voicemail will only solidify this assumption. Also, don’t forget to schedule a reminder for yourself to follow up with them again in a couple of weeks.

The best results come from building a healthy email list and providing useful content to your subscribers. Every campaign helps you better understand your customers and their needs. If you need to make tweaks to the content, please contact your campaign rep

The key to a successful Power Hour (and email marketing in general) is to avoid diving straight into a sales question. Be helpful, make a connection, and most importantly, provide value to your customers, and the sales will flow naturally as a result. After all, the difference between selling and helping is just two letters.