Trigger Happy

When planning a lead generation campaign with an event-based or behavioral trigger component, be sure to take the time to ask the following:

1. What information do you need to capture so you can send relevant, timely and personal e-mails?

2. How are your prospects and customers already interacting with your company and/or Web site?

3. What are the critical moments during your sales cycle that determine whether or not you are going to make a sale? How can a strategically timed e-mail help?

4. How might a recipient respond to each triggered e-mail? Think of follow up trigger e-mails based on these actions.

5. How often can you communicate with prospects without causing them to opt-out?

6. What actions will stop the triggers altogether?

Once you've gone through this exercise, select two or three questions that will enable you to send prospects relevant, timely and personal e-mail communications. Add them to your lead capture forms so that you can base your e-mail triggers on the information you capture.

And your existing database is just as important. However, the information you might want to gather for your prospects could be slightly different from your customers. You can capture new information for your existing database by sending an e-mail survey or asking customers to update their information when they log in to their accounts.

TIP:

E-mail's a quirky channel that is most effective for marketing to customers on an opt-in basis. And just because it's wildly profitable doesn't mean you should send more mail. *INCREASE RELEVANCE, NOT VOLUME.*

Got an e-mail tip to share? Contact Ken Magill at ken.magill@penton.com