5 irresistible ways that integrated marketing tools can help
1. Lead capture and lead nurture
Starting off the journey with new customers requires effective lead capture and nurturing so that you are investing time in the prospective business opportunities that matter. Use marketing automation to identify a lead that is exhibiting serious shopping behaviour such as looking at your pricing page, terms and conditions, or commenting on a social media post. Add touchpoint scoring to this so that you can see high scores on those key pages and prioritize reaching out to those businesses.
Trade shows are another great source of leads for many businesses in the packaging and container industry. Again, marketing automation can be your intelligent companion where you can set up a rule so that all new leads entered into your CRM on a time interval of 30 minutes receive a mailshot from your encounter at your booth. This leaves a good impression with your prospective customers and keeps you at the forefront of their minds when they return to their businesses looking for a packaging supplier.
Also, make sure those leads receive the relevant information they need through the buying cycle. Create intelligent lead nurture campaigns through marketing automation by setting up rules so that they receive tailored content depending on earlier click-throughs of other product and services campaigns.
2. Customer onboarding and beyond
A seamless customer onboarding process is worth its weight in gold and confirms to your new customers that they’ve made the right choice. However, it can be hard to achieve, especially without the help of a marketing automation tool.
With a marketing automation tool in place, particularly one backed up by your CRM database, you can create a streamlined and simple onboarding process that requires minimal input from the team but leads to your customers feeling empowered. But, before you can set anything up, you need to map out exactly what kind of journey you want to take your new customers on. Once this is done, it’s as simple as creating the stages in your system and letting it take care of the rest for you.
For example, you might want to start with a welcome email that thanks them for choosing you/placing their order and introduces them to your business. After waiting a few days you may want to reach out again, this time with helpful links and contact information. Following this you may want to notify them of a new customer promotion on their next order (something like this).
3. Show off your green credentials
Being green in the packaging and container industry is becoming more important with every passing day. And while it’s definitely important for the planet, it could also be the deciding factor that makes a customer choose you over your competition. So shout it from the rooftops with the help of email marketing.
4. Share legislation changes or current affairs news updates
Changes to packaging regulations and legislation happen all the time and can have an impact on your customers and the costs that they’re paying. However, you wouldn’t expect them to stay up to date with every change that may or may not be applicable to them. Instead, you can use marketing automation and email marketing to communicate any relevant changes to them in a timely manner that ensures they understand what the possible implications may be. This is made easier with the help of an integrated CRM as you can filter your lists so that only those who will be affected by a certain change are contacted about it.
Also with the state of global affairs right now and a supply chain that is constrained throughout, having the ability to send mailers on specific services or products that give your customers a heads-up is essential.
5. Internal communications
Finally, we take a look inwards. Many of the packaging and container businesses that we work with are large and may be spread out over a number of sites. As a result, communicating internal news at scale isn’t as simple as a note on a notice board. Instead, you can use email marketing to send out company-wide mail shots that will look great and engage your employees far better than a simple business-wide email. Keep your colleagues informed of your business activities that build rapport and a sense of work community.
