The Funnelholic

This Sunday, I got my usual email from Technology Evaluation Centers. That’s right, on a Sunday. These guys are really creative when it comes to email marketing. And I like it.

First of all, I think they emailed me on Christmas Eve. BTW, it was the only email I received that day, so I opened it. Secondly, these dudes hit me on Saturdays and Sundays, and I read them. So much for conventional wisdom.

The Internet has given marketers “best practices” – which essentially means everyone is doing the same thing. I have blogged on this before. Given what we know, breaking best practices may mean that you will stand out. And how do you know what will work or not work? YOU DON’T. Thus the bottom-line best practice is TEST, TEST, TEST.

Clearly TEC has figured out that emails can convert on weekends. They certainly do not rely on best practice data. Most says to avoid the weekends. This eROI report says that the order of preference for email delivery is Wednesday, Monday, Thursday, Tuesday, Friday, Sunday, Saturday. So, everyone gets this report, herd mentality sets in, and your inbox is barraged during the week. How about the weekend when I got that one email I actually opened?

The moral of the story is best practices data is a way to create a baseline, but to put your marketing program over the top, think outside the box.

Sunday “hit” from TEC:

I just spent some time with one of my favorite customers who will remain nameless. Our contact there, who is a 25 year old wunderkind, has set up a rock solid lead development process and organization. Let me just give you a number of the elements:

1. Hyper aggressive, focused lead development team. This is a team of Sales Development Reps whose job it is to get every lead on the phone and pass the qualified ones directly to the field. Now, every industry is different, but this is an SMB focused on-demand product. Their SDRS pass 20 QUALIFIED LEADS a day

2. Lead Scoring. All leads as they enter the queue are scored. Scores dictate the type and amount of action taken by the Sales Development Team.

3. Email is controlled by marketing and is constantly analyzed and optimized for effectiveness. Effectiveness meaning being able to qualify leads faster and more efficiently.

4. Reporting and optimization. Metrics help guide changes in messaging and process.

Here is what I have seen: High conversion rates and ROI against ALL lead sources. Lead sources that I have heard the worst things about, they are turning into sales opportunities. It is truly amazing and the way things should be done. Without a doubt, there are lead sources that will not work for you. On the other hand, there are many factors that affect the success of lead sources and thus my title, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” It is like clock-work, organizations who don’t work with 1 lead source don’t work with ANY. Does that make sense? Companies that can convert lead sources, can convert a large number of them. If your organization keeps throwing lead sources out and can’t settle on one, look in the mirror. Oh and by the way, Google adwords and leads that go to your website don’t count, I am talking about your ability to go our and buy leads online or offline.

Written by Craig Rosenberg - The Funnelholic
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In honor of the retirement of basketball coaching great Robert (Bobby, Bob) Knight, I bring to you one of this famous quotes: Put yourself in position to be in position”. He was of course talking about being proactive on defense. While people were watching the defender on the ball, Bobby was worried about all the guys away from the ball to see if they were anticipating and staying one step ahead.

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Two reasons for the title:

1. Buy registrations — My colleagues have started to harass me for not talking more about how to deal with online B2B lead generation

2. “Cook em in a pot like Gumbo,” I had to get a line from an old Ice Cube song into my blog

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