Marketing Articles

Closing the Loop with Email Marketing

Creating a closed loop marketing environment means bringing multiple activities, that normally function on a separate basis, together to create a mechanism that works in unison to reach a successful end result. When it comes to defining "success" your sales team might have a much different answer than your marketing department.

Here we will examine closed loop strategies for sales and marketing and provide a few examples as to how a closed loop environment can be achieved through email marketing specifically.

Both sales and marketing have their own sets of objectives. Both divisions also collect and monitor unique data in order to achieve their goals. All too often the direction of a sales or marketing plan is dictated by information specific to that particular department when a more educated approach could have been taken, given insight from another area. This is where closed loop strategies come into play.

By implementing a closed loop email marketing strategy, companies can provide both their sales and marketing teams with data that shortens sales cycles, increases conversions and adds to the profitability of the business.

The reason we are focused on email marketing specifically here is email technology allows for one-to-one communication as well as profile-based click-through tracking. The obstacle most companies face is the fact that click-through analysis and readership data are usually only available to the marketing department responsible developing the email campaigns. Once a lead is generated the sales process comes into play and pure sales based data is used to complete the sales cycle.

But now there are ways to provide the sales team with intuitive information and powerful communication tools to drastically shorten the sales cycle and improve conversion rates. Peer360° can integrate with CRM systems such as Salesforce.com to give your sales team the power to see what their prospects are interested in on an individual basis. In addition, this provides the user with the ability to send interactive marketing communications to new contacts as they are added rather than waiting for the next broadcast to be sent by the marketing department.

Email marketing can create a closed loop environment by bringing together online campaigns with traditional advertising and direct marketing campaigns as well. By integrating a call-to-action in off line media such as print, radio and TV that involves data collection through email, companies can begin the closed loop process from multiple channels, constantly building a prospect base and consistently measuring each campaign for success, then providing the necessary information to those who need it.

By first identifying the tactics being utilized in each department, then uncovering the data available to each, companies can learn where they are falling short and make decisions to improve their processes at every turn.