Author: Ashton Oldham
Hey there, I'm Ashton, the Content Ninja with a penchant for creativity! I'm all about crafting killer customer-focused content and sprinkling it with that special sauce that makes brands pop. Teaching, strategising, organising (people and projects), and spicing up collaborations? That's my jam!
Sales campaigns are probably the most used campaigns in businesses today.
Because of course, we all need to sell in order for our business to survive and grow.
Unfortunately, it's also the campaign that causes the most problems...
Sales is tough.
We know that a lot of businesses struggle to sell their products or services. Now this isn’t because they aren’t fit for the market, it’s because we are selling to humans… and humans are complicated beings.
The human brain evolved to survive, not to buy things. So, we have to work really hard to persuade the brain to buy. We like to refer to it as brain hacking (FYI our Prime Ninja, Kenda Macdonald, wrote a best-selling book on this called Hack The Buyer Brain).
We also know that many people tend to go one way or another with sales. Either too hard - often coming across as desperate or aggressive, or too soft - shying away from selling completely.
Success lies in the middle ground…
Yeah - we’ve heard that before! There’s definitely is, it’s just flippin hard to get to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
When you do reach this mystical place, you can gain:
- More qualified leads
- Higher conversion rates
- Increased ROI
- Better customer lifetime value
Another challenge we come across is being too close to the problem, or solution. This is very common among small business owners, who might be self-managing the sales and marketing for their business. It’s surprisingly difficult to sell your own products or services - especially if they are personal to you.
You might be thinking “my company is pretty good at selling actually”, which is GREAT if so… But if that’s the case, it's vital to have a strategy and structure, tools and templates to hand that you can rinse and repeat.
That's why we offer the Sales Campaign Project...
We’re here to help you overcome the common challenges. Providing strategy and structure to make selling easier to do, more compelling to do and less likely to put people off.
We help you to find and stay in that wonderful middle ground; where the high conversion rates, ROI and CLV reside.
Plus, with our vast and varying experience in campaign copywriting and design, we add that all important pizzazz and expertise to make something that captures and engages the audience.
In this blog I will explain exactly what our Sales Campaign Project is all about. Then you can decide if it sounds like the right option for your business. I’ll start by covering the different types of sales campaigns we create.
This particular project is focused on a foundational sales series - using our GLR structure.
GLR Sales Series
Our foundational sales campaign template is usually 5 emails in total. It follows the successful GLR sequence (Gain, Logic, Respect) with three emails to cover each, plus another two for cart abandonment - which by the way works well for more than just ecommerce.
- Gain - What do they stand to gain from what it is you are offering? Focusing on the emotional benefits and reflecting what it is they value and desire.
- Logic - The logical reasons they should purchase your product / sign up for your service. This is the opportunity to showcase the features that really matter, and tick some all-important boxes.
- Respect - Pushing on the pain point that’s being addressed - but respectfully. Coaching them and explaining what they stand to lose if they chose not to purchase / sign up to your solution. Highlighting the key benefits to them.
On the mention of ecommerce, a ‘click to purchase’ campaign also falls within this category. It follows the same strategy of Gain, Logic, Respect - but with a large focus on product promotion and an easy click through to the online store to buy the promoted product.
The GLR series is a really popular option as its goals are often specific and easily measured. The content of this blog is based on how we provide this type of project as it is less bespoke than many of the others.
Other types of sales campaign:
Sales Motivational Series
Sales campaigns can also be designed to qualify leads. If your business works by closing the sale through personal outreach from your team members, you could opt for a campaign that supports this process.
We call this a Sales Motivational Series (let’s use SMS for short here).
For those of you with a really long sales cycle - like us Ninjas - where a consumer often takes up to 6 months or more to make a commitment to purchase or sign a contract, this is a great series to put in place.
A lot of businesses will have a sales team that works solely focused on a sales pipeline. A SMS will help support your team with lead qualification, keeping the prospect engaged and warming up to close the sale.
The SMS is targeted at bottom of funnel activity. Often comprising that need to know information on FAQs, pricing, objection busting, justification & case studies, purchase process. It’s a series that gets distributed over a longer period of time.
If you don’t have a sales team in place, a SMS is a really useful conversion boosting tool. It can act as a voice of sales, having those conversations that would often get passed back and forth with a sales rep. You’ll likely still have someone to close the sale in this case, but a lot of the hard work in getting them ready will be done.
If you’re interested in getting a Sales Motivational Series to support your pipeline, get in touch to discuss this as a slightly different project.
Lead Welcome & Conversion
We create welcome campaigns for all sorts of businesses. A welcome campaign is designed for those who are completely new to your business (not already in your mailing list). You can learn more in our blog Everything you need to know about our welcome campaign project.
It’s pretty clear what it’s main objective is of this campaign - to welcome - but it’s also a chance, specifically for ecommerce, to get a conversion on top.
Oftentimes the welcome starts by delivering a discount or coupon that a new lead may have signed up for. But of course you don't have to offer this. It could be a simple sign up to marketing, useful information, future offers etc.
The ecommerce welcome is different in the sense that as well as introducing your business: what you do, who you are and how to get great value - you can also quite openly promote your products. It does mean this series is more like 5 or 6 emails than the standard three.
If you’re interested in getting a lead welcome campaign, with or without sales, get in touch to discuss this as a slightly different project.
New Customer Welcome + Sales
Different than a new lead welcome, this is for when a prospect first becomes a customer. We tend to refer to this type as an onboarding campaign.
In general onboarding campaigns are designed to support the new customer. To help them understand and use their purchase - whether it’s a product or a service. However, in the right situation you can also include sales.
Using cross-selling / up-selling of other products is a common occurrence and works really well for ecommerce.
Even if you’re not that type of business, perhaps more B2B / service-based, you can still benefit from this type of campaign. If you have add ons that can easily be introduced, you just need to approach it in a more gentle way… Something that’s not always easy to get right.
If you’re interested in getting a new customer onboarding campaign, with or without sales, get in touch to discuss this as a slightly different project.
FYI the project is not designed to support the entire Sales Pipeline…
A Sales Pipeline is a set of stages that a prospect moves through, as they progress from a new lead to a customer. Once each pipeline stage is completed, the prospect is advanced to the next stage. (Nutshell)
Every business will have a different pipeline, with different stages and therefore different requirements to support that movement through the pipeline.
One problem we commonly come across is that businesses send out sales emails without the understanding of which stage of the pipeline they are targeting.
This project isn’t to help you establish / build a pipeline, it is simply designed to get prospects into the pipeline.
We mentioned within the types of sales campaign, a Sales Motivational Series is one that wholly supports the pipeline - by targeting prospects at specific stages.
As well as supporting you with creating those types of email, we can help you to establish your pipeline, identify the stages and create a strategy for how it should be managed.
It’s a complex bespoke project, so if you are interested the first step would be to get in touch with us. The best way to figure out exactly what you need is to have a strategic call. Then we can make a well-informed plan of action - plus provide the outline of the project including what it will cost.
Submit your contact details via this little pop up box, and we will be in touch to arrange a call.
If you are more interested in actually getting a brilliant sales campaign designed and built… One that leads to better conversion rates for a specific goal - read on. This is the perfect project for you.
How does the GLR sales campaign project work, and what are the objectives?
The aim of the project is to get you up and running with a sales campaign. One that will support you with qualifying leads, increasing conversions & ROI, and improving customer lifetime value (CLV).
No matter what your conversion goal is, a strategic sales campaign can inspire action. It does this through educating the consumer, showcasing value, overcoming objections and making it easy for them to take the next step.
There are three ways to approach the project: DFY, DWY, DIY.
- DFY (do it for you). We involve you a little to get the information we need to write, design and implement the campaign. You’ll have the chance to give your input and approve the copy and design. But mostly, the project is done by us.
- DWY (do it with you). Some people we work with like to get more involved. Perhaps you have a fab copywriter who is happy to go off and use our templates, then we support with critiquing the content. You might want us to get more involved with the actual campaign implementation. Or, we could write the emails for you, but you’d like to actually create the campaign yourself. Either can be easily catered for.
- DIY (do it yourself). Here we just provide the strategy, some templates and offer support with feedback on copy and design. But, the campaign is basically all you. Most people choose one of the former.
PS. As an add on, we can also do a review of the campaign data, if you’d like us to analyse its performance and establish an action plan where necessary.
Don’t worry if you’re not sure what’s the best option for you right now, we’ll establish this before you make the decision to proceed.
Get in touch!
Who is the project a good fit for?
It might sound a bit obvious to say it… but it’s suited to all businesses wanting to sell a product or a service.
And it really doesn’t matter whether you are B2C or B2B - the project is designed to adapt easily to both.
It also isn’t biased to whether you have a sales team in place or not. It can provide the voice of a sales team, where you don’t have one, or it can competently support your sales team to do what they do best.
Plus, if you have an in-house marketing team who are expected to deliver sales emails, this project will help them to do it exceedingly well.
Who is the project not a good fit for?
If you don’t have a way to send these emails, i.e. marketing automation platform, we’ll be in a bit of a pickle… and the project will be a bit of a non-starter until you do.
If you don’t have a product it’s not for you.
Now, I know, you’re clearly thinking “well, duh!”... So let me explain that a bit more.
There are a lot of businesses selling a concept of a product or service, not something that is actually tangible.
For example, you might be a coach and perhaps think you're basically selling yourself - you help people. And, yes, in a way you are. But you should be focused more on the fact you're selling a coaching service. You’re just a vessel for delivering that service.
The product or service you offer also needs to solve a problem. There has to be a reason for people to want it, what does it solve for?
Unfortunately, some businesses are built on something they decided to offer, without the understanding of whether anybody actually wants or needs it. When that happens, it's super hard to sell it (even for us).
That also brings up the fact that the audience has to WANT the solution. Even if they need it, they won’t buy it without a desire to have it. Selling works by providing wants, not fulfilling needs - that is more of an added benefit the buyer will come to discover.
Finally, we know that success depends upon what you are doing with other areas of your marketing strategy up to, and after, this point:
- Are you generating leads & building your mailing list?
- Do you have nurture in place to position leads for the sell?
- What are you doing with the leads who convert to customers?
What results can you expect from our sales campaign project?
- More qualified leads
- Higher conversion rates
- Increased ROI
- Better customer lifetime value
Of course, if you haven’t got other parts of your strategy aligned and implemented you may struggle to get all of the above, or at least get decent results from them. Which moves us on to...
Why you might not see the results you hope for...
Selling will never be as successful as it could without the rest of your strategy in a good place.
You must be generating leads, in an authentic manner. None of this purchasing email addresses nonsense - that is not how you successfully acquire customers (and slapped wrist if you’re doing it). A great way to attract leads like this is by using a lead magnet.
If you don’t have a list, no one to sell to, then unfortunately this project won’t work for you.
When you have those wonderful legitimate contacts, you should be nurturing the pants off them. If you’re wondering what I mean by nurture, take a look at our blog: Why Email Nurture Sequences Work.
Another great thing about sending nurture campaigns is that they help you to segment your audience. If you read my bit about ‘What is a Sales Campaign’ at the start of this blog, you’ll know that sending sales emails to a squeaky clean & targeted list stands a much higher chance of converting. You want what you are saying to resonate with who you are saying it to. Segmenting your contacts is the key to that.
PS. We can help you get started with this if it's an entirely new concept to you. Drop us a line if so 🙂
When writing your sales campaign we need to address what your audience wants. If you don’t know this, or your solution doesn’t align to it, it won’t work well.
Your audience also needs to be in the right place in their customer journey and at the right awareness stage. Triggering sales to those who aren’t ready for them, will be a waste of time and you’ll more than likely end up disappointed.
What’s required to make your sales campaign a success
We will give you the strategy, and help you understand why we are doing things a particular way. To create the campaign we will use our tried and tested structure, tailored to your business and audience.
Our aim is to give you all the tools for success and ensure your sales campaign is designed with both your goals and your audience in mind.
You’ll need to provide the information we require to build the campaign for your business. And if you choose to do the campaign implementation, you’ll need to be up to scratch on how to do so in your marketing automation platform.
Lastly, you need to (as I said before) make sure the other areas of your marketing strategy are in a good place if you want this project to be as successful as possible.
Get in touch!
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