3. Lists
Nothing new here. Lists are the functionality behind everything that is done in marketing and sales automation. They gather all the contacts in your database that meet certain criteria.
A simple example: suppose you want to send an activation email to a portion of the contacts in your database, inviting them to an event about trends in a certain segment. If the objective of the taiwan telephone number is to attract potential buyers, those who have the ideal profile and are interested in doing business with your company, you could create a list with the following four criteria:
All contacts that are from companies in a specific segment (such as retail or industry, for example).
All contacts who are decision makers, i.e., who hold the position of manager, director or president.
All contacts who have visited your website at least once in the last 30 days.
All contacts who have not received a visit from your sales team in the last 6 months.
Inbound 2021
Basically, what you did was send the right content (the invitation to the event) to the right people (the decision makers in a given segment) at the right time (when they have already had a recent interaction with your company, but have not yet received a visit from your sales team). This is very different, mind you, from sending an email with any content, to any contact, at any time. After all, the name for this, as you know, is SPAM.
The same reasoning used to create the list in the example above could guide a series of other actions, such as displaying personalized content on the website (using the Smart Content functionality) or displaying different forms for different audience profiles (journalists, investors, etc.). With this flexibility to organize, segment and analyze the contacts in your database, the sky is the limit.
4. Workflows
Workflows are the functionality that puts into action the strategy you defined for each audience profile. For each contact converted on your website, blog or landing page, the workflow configures all the marketing and sales actions directed at that contact. Some examples:
For each visitor who fills out a form on your website and identifies themselves as a student, send a personalized email with a thank you and a link to your “work with us” page on your website.
For each visitor who fills out the “receive our posts” form on your blog, send one email per week with the most recent posts published.
For each contact in your base that demonstrates an above-average level of engagement with your content (for example, visiting your website more than 10 times in the last 30 days), classify them as a “Sales Qualified Lead” and send a notification email to your sales team with the profile and history of that contact.
As you may have noticed, workflows (in combination with other features) determine how your marketing and sales automation will work in practice. When you have a good content strategy in place that takes into account the needs and expectations of each audience profile, as well as the stages of the purchasing journey for each one, this combination is killer.
Oh, yes: don't put technology ahead of strategy.
Since this series of posts specifically addresses technology, it is worth making this warning. Surprisingly enough, today technology is not a challenge when it comes to implementing an inbound marketing strategy. For practically everything you want to do, there are technologies that are easy to use and affordable.
The challenge is to create a strategy that meets your business objectives and, at the same time, the profile and behavior of your audience. If you start with a strategy like this, you have a good chance of choosing the right technology and getting there. If you start with the wrong technology, leaving the strategy for later, you have a good chance of not getting anywhere. If you have any questions? Just talk to us.