Decision makers and buyers are a busy bunch. Everyone of your peers is trying to sell to them and how much ever they may have liked you, they WILL forget about you over time unless you do something about it. This problem is a huge one for trade publications who rely on their subscribers to not ignore the renewal notices and pay on time. However, very often, subscribers are too busy to pay attention to this and even thought they have the intention to renew, they just don’t get to it. This is an ideal scenario to innovate on how to get subscribers to renew. MarketingSherpa has a very insightful case study about how the VP of Membership at Society of Marketing Professional Services solves this challenge and created a winning formula. Here’s an excerpt, and here’s the link to the full article:
Two and a half years ago, Tina Myers, VP, Membership & Chapter Development, Society for Marketing Professional Services, grew weary of members who ignored invoices and let their memberships expire. The SMPS was losing between 100 and 120 members a month.
The organization needed a more sophisticated messaging approach, Myers says. They sorted through and tested new ideas before implementing an email-anchored strategy to entice marketing executives, directors and staff to renew and rejoin after they quit.
Tinkering and tweaking led to a campaign that combined an email and postcard with occasional backup from phone reps. The multi-touch approach has paid off in lifting their retention rate from 71% to 82% – a 15.4% increase.
Recent email data suggests that they’re zeroing in even more on their targets. Their June email saw a 62% conversion rate, a 34% open rate and a 13% rate for clickthroughs.
“These percentages are beginning to become more typical,” Myers explains. “Our results over the last year have been getting better and better.”
This example is actually applicable to generic B2B lead nurturing and you can take a lot from this example and come up with your own recipe to keep relationships with your prospects fresh and active, and most importantly figure our ways to make it easy for your prospects to buy from you. It is important to understand that you are not the only thing on their minds and if you make it easier for your prospects to reach you, place an order and pay you, then you have it all good to go. Easier said than done, I know, but very few companies have truly explored how they can do this. Its time to do it now.