The purpose of Workflows is to have processes which can run in the background, doing their work without constant attention. Lead generation is a prime example of this.
We’ve bundled together the 5 kinds of Workflow that our Marketing and Sales teams could not live without. It takes time and effort to put them together, but they have already paid for themselves in warm leads and will continue to do so until we turn them off.
1. Welcome Series
The buyer’s journey is increasingly conducted online. The majority of buyers are now 60% of the way to a decision before they make direct contact. In this context, the first email that a lead receives from you is hugely important.
Handing this process over to a workflow means that the timing will be identical, and the tone will be consistent with every lead. Use dynamic content to tailor the email to their website activity. Don’t waste time trying to compose a new email or find the right link to related content.
2. Content-based
If your emails look funny in Apple Mail but fine in Outlook, you’ll search for how to fix that specific problem. You’re unlikely to want to dive into all the ins and outs of responsive email design at that moment. But it’s a topic you will revisit in the future.
To take advantage of this situation, set up a workflow linking several pieces of content on the same theme together. If one piece of content has helped solved a lead’s problem, you can then show your expertise on the broader topic.
As an example, we were highly successful in producing reliable GDPR advice. The guidelines changed quite often in the immediate run-up to May 25th. This meant we had to regularly update our content. Marketers who had downloaded the first piece of content we published were keen to keep up as the picture evolved.
3. Quarterly Campaigns
A weekly message to your list of leads, promoting your products and latest blogs. The aim of this workflow is to make sure you are always in the mind of your leads.
Once the weekly send is up and running, add more levels. Leads who spend a lot of time on your site can receive heavier content like white papers. Those with lower engagement can receive more blogs. Our current setup tracks the engagement of our warm leads‘ week-to-week. It then sends one of 3 different emails based on their latest levels of engagement.
4. Event Workflows
It takes a large investment of time and money to put on a successful event. You want to make sure that you get enough attendees, especially if you don’t charge for attendance.
An invite series is the most obvious example of this. We send one invite per week, beginning 6 weeks prior to the event date. This gives us the best chance to catch our leads at the right time when their diaries are less cluttered. A further advantage is the ability to highlight different aspects of your session. A single email which explained the whole agenda would be too long to digest. Instead, highlight a different speaker or angle each time. You’ll then find out which bits of your content are most appealing to which leads. A vital source for planning future events.
You can keep using workflows once your leads have booked on. A perfect example is our annual customer conference. GatorCon is 2 days of seminars and workshops on every aspect of marketing automation. Bookers receive regular emails in the weeks and months before. These introduce guest speakers and encourage them to choose in advance which workshops they would attend. This was a highly effective way to demonstrate the value they would receive from attending and generally build engagement and excitement as the conference draws nearer. And it worked! 2018’s conference was our biggest yet.
5. Customer Workflows
Customer experience is an under-rated part of your lead generation toolkit! You never know when one of your customers will be at a networking event and meet someone unhappy with your competitor. Make sure your customers stay engaged and happy with a simple workflow to feed them relevant content.
The real value you can add with workflows is a series of best practice guides. Help your clients to get the most out of your products. Supplying resources and guides means they can use them in their own time, rather than trying to cover everything in a phone call. The point here is to demonstrate that you are invested in helping your customers. When you have a strong relationship with your customers, they are more likely to stay. Compare this to when you take their money then go silent until their contract renewal date.
Spend time now to save time later
What all these workflows have in common is that they handle tasks which are mundane and repetitive, yet absolutely crucial to get right. When you’re reaching out to thousands of contacts, creating a uniform experience is critical. This is especially true in B2B, where moving down the funnel from new lead to happy customer can be a slow process.