7 Reasons Why Your
e-Mail Campaigns Aren’t Working
At Your Payroll Service

• Word count for this issue: 674
• Approximate time to read: 2.8 minutes @ 250 words per minute

After sending more than 65 million e-mail campaigns on behalf of our clients, I have listed below the top e-mail marketing mistakes I see most people make.

Reason #1: No Follow-Up Call By You Or Your Sales Team – The #1 reason why an e-mail marketing campaign(s) fails is the lack of a follow-up call. My suggestion:

• After an e-mail marketing campaign has been sent, call the contact associated with the e-mail address. Do this and you will see sales magic happen (I prove it all the time to our clients). 

Reason #2: Poor Marketing Copy/Subject Lines – Another top reason why your e-mail marketing results are lackluster is this: Poor marketing messaging/copy. And yes, your subject line falls into this category as well. My suggestions:

• Create a subject line that engages a reader.
• Send e-mail campaigns that are educational in nature (versus selling something). 
• On mass e-mail blasts, use your company name in the “from” e-mail address field.
• Use headlines and sub-headlines in your messages.
• Add a high visibility low-risk offer or call-to-action.

Reason #3: Sending Too Many Or Too Few e-Mails – Were you ever placed on someone’s e-mail system and then proceeded to receive 3 to 4 e-mails in the first 72 hours? If you have, you know it does more harm than good.  My suggestions:

• Send the right frequency of e-mails by looking at past e-mail campaign results.
• Most marketing pros in the B2C arena send 2 to 3 e-mails per week. In the B2B environment, send 1 to 2 e-mails per week.
• Keep in mind that you can send more e-mails to your database of past customers/active customers than a purchased list of e-mail addresses. 

Reason #4: Not Segmenting Your Databases By Target Audience - Many e-mail marketing campaigns fail because the information is generic in nature, i.e., company newsletter.  My suggestions:

• Segment your e-mail list by clients, prospects, chamber members, past clients, referral partners, etc. After that has been done, develop a series of e-mail marketing campaigns for each database on file.
• Personalize your e-mail campaigns by using someone’s first name, last name and company name.

Reason #5: Not Using A Low-Risk Offer – By not having a highly visible low-risk offer or call-to-action, you are missing out on some potential sales leads.  My suggestions:

• During the design stage of a campaign, write down five low-risk offers to use (keeping it relevant to your target audience).  This could be a special trial offer, whitepaper download, special purchase price, etc. 
• Add a coupon or headline offer within the body of a campaign.

Reason #6: Not Reviewing Past e-Mail Campaign Results Or Conducting An A/B Test - One of the top reasons why your e-mail marketing efforts fail is this: Not having an e-mail marketing strategy. My suggestions:

• Plan a campaign’s message/low-risk offer based on its target audience.
• Review your open and click-through rates on past campaigns.
• Run an A/B test using different subject lines, copy, low-risk offers, send times, etc.
• The time of the day and the day of the week will greatly affect a campaign’s “open and click through rate.”

Reason #7: Not Constantly Building A Database Of Prospect e-Mail Addresses – If you are not constantly building your database of e-mail addresses, your “prospect” open rates will flatten to a single digit number. My suggestions:

• Make it a priority to build your e-mail database of prospects, referral partners, past customers, dealers, etc.
• If you have a sales team, make sure each salesperson is expanding their database of prospects, referral partners, chamber members, etc. 

Executive Summary: Your e-mail marketing results will dramatically improve just by having some type of strategy in place.  As I tell all our clients, “The days of blasting a generic, one-size-fits-all newsletter to everyone in your e-mail database and expecting a sales lead are over.”  Be smart and create a plan of action, including a follow-up plan, and you will definitely see a dramatic improvement in your results.  

6 Tips For Hiring
A Payroll Salesperson
(By Glenn Fallavollita, President - Drip Marketing, Inc.)

• Word count for this issue: 563
• Approximate time to read: 2.3 minutes @250 words per minute

My studies show 50% to 60% of all newly hired payroll salespeople (at a small independent’s payroll service) will quit or be discharged in their first 12-months of employment. Nationally, studies have shown all sales teams turnover 20% to 25% each year. 

Since the process of recruiting and training new salespeople is a significant expense, you will want to be sure that you 1.) Hire the right salespeople to begin with and 2.) Do what it takes to retain your top performers.

6 Tips To Help Hire The Right Salesperson At Your Payroll Service.

Tip #1: Be Specific – The first step to making sure you hire the right salesperson is to ensure you attract the right talent. This means you need to define the role and parameters of success in a job posting. This will require you to know exactly what you are looking for; therefore, take a moment to reflect on your company’s needs before you begin your search.

Tip #2: Manage The Interview – You will want to ask the right questions during the interview process. Interview preparation will allow you to be ready to ask the most poignant and revealing questions. I recommend using a candidate’s resume to build open-ended questions you can use during the interview.

Tip #3: Have The Salesperson Give You A Presentation On What They Are Currently Selling – Step outside of the typical interview questions, such as what are your strengths and weaknesses, and instead conduct a pragmatic interview by playing out a mock sales situation. Better yet, ask them to give you a presentation on their current/last employer’s product line. Pay particular attention to the candidate’s sales pitch and their ability to answer your questions and concerns about the product.

Tip #4: Play Your Hand Close – A common mistake made by some less experienced interviewers is they reveal what they want from an employee at the beginning of an interview. A clever candidate will use this to his/her advantage and respond with what you want to hear. Maintain the power dynamic by asking instead of telling.

Tip #5: Perform A Candidate Assessment – Throughout the entire interview process, you will want to assess the candidate through a specific lens. Decide what components make up the ideal salesperson and determine if this candidate matches those criteria. If they do not seem like a good fit now, they probably will not be a good fit down the road.  

Tip #6: Do Your Research – It is not uncommon for salespeople to exaggerate their accomplishments during the interview. While flat-out lying is entirely unacceptable, exaggerating achievements can be problematic. So, it is in your best interests to jot down their claims and check their accuracy during your reference checks.

Executive Summary: To help put the odds in your favor when hiring a talented salesperson, create a list of all candidates and how well they match up to your organization’s culture. Process their responses to your questions to make sure they are the right fit. Finally, do your due diligence by calling their list of references (do not accept a "friend" as a reference) to ensure their claims of success are accurate. By the way, turnover in your sales department can and will cost your business a large chunk of change. To avoid this from happening to you, work on hiring the right salesperson from the start (hire slowly and fire fast).