This Time It’s Personal

17 Nov 2011

A personalised message works far better than a generic letter or email addressed. It implies to your current or potential customer that your company looks out for and cares for people instead of just dealing with numbers.

Your hosted CRM solution is the perfect place to take your address book and create some targeted marketing with a combination of addresses, emailing capabilities and some clever email templates.

Sending that personalised message targeting the interests of a specific group is likely to result in a greater percentage of qualified leads and generated revenue than a blanket

mailshot. An untargeted mailout that hits everyone on your radar means there is a high likelihood of people reaching for the unsubscribe button and this in turn means you will miss out on sending them information that is more likely to interest them at some point in the future. Bad idea!

An email template is a powerful tool. Using merge variables you can populate the message with information pulled from your CRM contact records – name and address and other data you have captured. The template can also feature user-specific details such a signatures, so different users can use the same template without needing to customise details themselves. Responses to your mailout will be recorded in the relevant parts of your CRM solution and linked to the appropriate contacts, enabling you to proceed with a firm follow-up strategy.

This easily implemented tool means you can maximise time spent on selling, meeting and networking, rather than typing, copying and pasting and repeating messages over and over again. As well as being a time saving device this also reduces the potential for errors such as mistyping names or email addresses, giving you the basics for building a great campaign.