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Name: SimpSocial LLC
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Start Using These 9 Lead Conversion Secrets Right Now

Marketers would have an easier time if every customer went through the same purchasing procedure. We’d just respond to information requests via forms on websites, hold demos, and seal deals. It’s simple! Rather, buying processes are as diverse and complicated as the potential consumer base. This is when lead conversion becomes challenging. You must engage decision-makers with the appropriate material at the appropriate time—and do so predictably at scale—to successfully convert website visitors into customers.

There is no easy button, but the good news is that there are best practices, and we’ve identified nine of them to assist you improve your lead engagement and conversion rates.

1. Make a path map

Take the time to learn how a website visitor turns into a lead. Understanding how visitors use your site’s content to decide whether or not to engage with you is an important part of enhancing lead conversion. You can construct a new path that guides prospects to material and interactions that will help them take the next steps toward conversion after you understand the existing path.

2. Carry out A/B tests

What are you waiting for if you’re not doing A/B tests on your major landing pages? One of your landing pages will most likely be the first step in the conversion process. These pages should be evaluated to ensure that the offer, call to action, and thank you pages are optimized to receive the maximum number of qualified leads.

3. Inform Your Prospects

Prospects have a voracious appetite for knowledge and typically perform their own research. Your website material should assist customers in understanding their problem, informing them of available solutions, and providing context on which solutions are appropriate for their circumstances. Prospects should have access to content that supports this full learning activity so that they may qualify for your solution. Prospects who have educated themselves in this manner will have a better grasp of mutual fit, and discussions about prices and implementation will be more appropriate.

4. Increase the number of contacts and meetings

The SDR team should follow practices that not only set up demos, but also encourage interested prospects to engage in activities that progress them along the buying path. For certain prospects, this may entail being led to a white paper to aid in the preliminary stages of their investigation. For others, it may include registering for an in-depth webinar on a topic of interest. The SDR team’s methodology should guarantee that data collection and documentation of qualifying criteria are flawless, so that CRM data supports timely and relevant touch points for these targeted prospects.

5. Sales Qualified Leads Should Be Nurtured

If future actions are not clearly defined or buyer timescales vary, sales qualified leads might become static. Prospects who are not ready to buy after the initial call should not be ignored; they are valuable leads who should be developed on a regular basis. AI tools can be used to track down these leads and engage them with information that is relevant to their concerns and interests. This communication can be coordinated with the activity of the SDR team to establish a unified outreach campaign that results in conversions.

6. Assist Me Assist You

Allow your audience to tell you what they want to do next. Marketers should ask buyers about their motives, desires, and timing at every opportunity. Create and track the effectiveness of content that addresses consumer concerns and indicates where they are in the purchasing process. If a prospect downloads a white paper that explains how your solution works in a specific technology environment, for example, your SDR team can follow up with very precise information that will guide the prospect to the next stage in the buying process and finally convert them.

7. Make Use of Engaging Content

Prospects are both wary and assertive. They’ve grown accustomed to swiftly comparing product price, features, and value before speaking with a salesperson or requesting information online. Create a content-rich experience for clients who are educating themselves before making a purchase to assist them in making their judgments. This content should be diverse and easy to distribute (i.e., video testimonials, short case studies, and infographics).

8. Speak with a professional!

According to Nielsen research, expert content is 38 percent more successful than branded content in boosting purchase intent. When prospects are certain that your solution fits their demands and mitigates the risks of choosing you as a vendor, lead conversion occurs. Find a thought leader or expert in your sector and perform an interview with them via video, podcast, or blog that demonstrates how their expertise supports your viewpoint. This doesn’t have to be a blatant product endorsement; rather, it should be a thorough discussion that puts your product or service at the core of a solution to a specific industry problem.

9. Make Use Of Live Chat

Users who are in the consideration stage of the buying cycle benefit greatly from live chat platforms. These tools allow potential purchasers to tell you how they want to proceed without having to spend a lot of time doing so. They’re also an excellent method to employ AI to qualify leads and advance them along the conversion route.

Last Thoughts

Now that you’ve learned the ropes, you may pick a few concepts that will have the biggest influence on your present process and conduct some tests. Understand that many of these actions will need to be reassessed to adapt with the changing demands of your audience, no matter where you are in the process of boosting lead conversion. If this list sounds overwhelming, pick one strategy to focus on and then move on to the next after you see results. The goal is to keep your marketing operations fresh while also learning as much as possible about your target demographic. They’ll recognize your efforts and convert as a result!

Return to Business Sales and Marketing Strategies

Most people, both professionally and personally, had to make significant adjustments in the first half of 2020. COVID-19 shattered our habits and drastically altered our social relations. Leaders in marketing and sales have adapted as well, altering operations and business methods to meet current difficulties. However, although we can improve our odds of health and stability by staying at home and watching movies, business executives must take severe measures to maintain their companies healthy and productive. This is a difficult assignment, but it is all the more vital.

Where should business leaders begin, though? How do businesses swiftly adapt and build effective strategies? As Sales and Marketing teams get back to work, here are a few ideas on where to focus your efforts.

Create marketing messages that are focused on your customers.

Marketing executives devote a significant amount of time and effort to establishing and coordinating plans that align with their company’s goals. Right now, a CMO’s four major tasks are saving pipeline, handling change, safeguarding their brand, and protecting income.

Maintaining these tasks can be challenging at times, which is why many Marketing executives are experiencing some concern right now. Some business leaders are even questioning whether brands can—or should—continue to sell and market when the world isn’t focused on business. According to a recent survey, only 8% of consumers worldwide believe that because of the coronavirus pandemic, brands should stop advertising completely. Despite this, a whopping 74 percent believe businesses should not take advantage of the situation.

With both of these numbers in mind, it is up to marketers to strike a balance. As the findings above illustrate, this is also true for B2C. But it’s especially relevant for B2B because target audiences are dealing with their own issues, such as working with less resources or finances.

Knowing this, it’s critical that marketing professionals return to the basics when it comes to campaign messaging. Understanding their audiences and addressing their pain areas with actual solutions are two of the most important things they can do.

Customers, whether B2C or B2B, are more interested in practical advise than in being marketed to right now. As a result, Marketers must concentrate on demonstrating value through informative and useful tools. Rather than pushing a hard pitch, consider providing thought leadership pieces and telling experiences of other customers who have overcome similar obstacles.

Align Yourself Every Day to Move More Quickly

Business leaders face a lot of uncertainty as a result of dramatic cultural and economic shifts. This insecurity is exacerbated by a lack of team collaboration, which frequently leads to communication failures, teams pushing in opposing directions, and wasted opportunities. To stop or resolve these typical problems, corporate leaders must unite on a regular basis to meet and respond to changes as they occur.

So, how does this work in practice? Teams may align on messaging, pipeline goals, and budgets by bringing together leaders from Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, and Finance in a near-daily meeting. This gives everyone a forum to voice their concerns and have them matched with practical solutions. Transparency, responsibility, and proactively solving problems together as an organization are the keys to a fruitful meeting of this type.

During these check-ins, keep the following in mind:

Creating a consistent message across sales, marketing, and customer service

Identifying and modeling the effects

Defining ideal customer profiles (ICPs) more precisely, as these may have altered in recent months,

Assessing which initiatives are producing results allows funds and resources to be targeted more effectively.

And figuring out the best strategies to target ICPs for a faster time to value.

Business leaders may reduce aimlessness and allow teams to pivot together by aligning regularly and supporting open cooperation.

Intelligent Virtual Assistants: What Role Do They Play?

Organizations may see a boost in demand as shelter-in-place orders fade and businesses and customers adjust to a new normal. While this may appear to be a good thing, the truth is that many businesses have had to lay off employees and slash resources, leaving them unable to satisfy demand.

An Augmented Workforce, powered by intelligent automation working in concert with business professionals to create top-line growth, is one strategy to help fill in the gaps. Organizations that use Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) realize the benefit in giving personalized touches to each and every lead, raising hot leads, and organizing meetings with salespeople at scale.

Salespeople only have so many hours in the day to conduct their tasks. The Sales Capacity Challenge is what it’s called. IVAs allow salespeople to focus on higher-value duties (such as closing deals) by automating many of the activities that they normally handle (including personalized lead outreach, updating contact information or asking leads if they are interested in scheduling a meeting). IVAs help Customer Success teams overcome similar difficulties, allowing Customer Success Managers to focus on creative issue solving rather than chasing clients to plan or reschedule meetings.

Your revenue-generating staff can be more attentive in completing high-value work by delegating due diligence to an Intelligent Virtual Assistant. During a CMO Insights webinar titled “Sales & Marketing Strategies for ‘Getting Back to Business,'” guest Rashmi Vittal (CMO of SimpSocial) revealed that SimpSocial’s own IVAs raised the hot lead rate by 15% in the 60 days prior to the webinar.

This demonstrates that, despite the current economic downturn, businesses cannot ignore sales and marketing. Instead, now is the ideal time to engage with customers based on their needs, focus your teams on strategy to more effectively drive toward your objectives, and explore using Intelligent Virtual Assistants to attract, acquire, and develop consumers at scale.

How the 4Ps of Sales Effectiveness Help Sales and Marketing Teams Work Better Together

What is the level of collaboration between your Marketing and Sales teams? According to SimpSocial research, marketers and salespeople want positive, coherent relationships with one another, yet expectations are frequently misaligned. Marketing believes Sales isn’t following up with leads quickly or frequently enough, and Sales believes Marketing is sending over bad or insufficient leads.

Ineffective lead follow-up, along with a lack of visibility into sales performance, can result in a low return on investment and lower lead conversions. This is particularly aggravating for marketers who have little influence over which leads Sales teams pursue.

When your marketing and sales teams work together, your company can convert more leads and generate more marketing income. As a result, it’s vital to follow the “4Ps” of promptness, persistence, personalization, and performance during marketing and sales operations.

This article will discuss how to better connect Sales and Marketing teams with the 4Ps in order to generate more leads and close more transactions.

What is the cause of the misalignment?

Poor visibility: One of the most pressing concerns for Marketing is the lack of visibility into the sales follow-up process. Marketers must be able to monitor where individuals are converting or abandoning their campaigns in order to better alter their strategies. Are these leads being followed up on? Is it a good lead, a hot lead, a terrible lead, or an at-risk lead? Marketing and sales leaders are left in the dark without insight.

Limited capacity: While the Marketing and Sales teams try their best to touch and qualify prospects, each day only has so much time. In fact, a whopping 77 percent of leads are never followed up on. This covers leads that Sales has never handled as well as leads that have been handled only once and have been lost in the shuffle or disregarded. Due to a lack of capacity, triaging leads is a natural reaction. Warm, or even lukewarm, leads, on the other hand, can result in reduced revenue.

Putting too much reliance on lead scoring models: Lead scoring is important, but it isn’t the be-all and end-all. It’s simply a guess about how probable a lead is to convert based on their digital body language in comparison to other users. You must inquire to determine whether a lead is sales-ready or not. You risk missing out on opportunities if you don’t, which is bad for both marketers and salespeople.

What exactly are the 4Ps?

Follow the 4Ps of sales effectiveness to realign your sales and marketing teams. These four concepts will help teams overcome some of these obstacles and improve the effectiveness of their communications and client interactions.

Timeliness:

Teams who establish connections quickly are more likely to convert a lead into a customer. According to SimpSocial’s 2020 Sales Effectiveness Report, engaging a lead within the first hour boosted the chances of qualifying the lead by seven times when compared to a two-hour window and 60 times when compared to 24 hours or more.

It’s best to respond to all queries within five minutes of the prospect contacting you. If your company routinely fails to meet deadlines, look at what’s causing the delay (sales team capacity issues, high lead volume, delayed MAP to CRM syncing, etc.) and figure out how to fix it. Marketers and salespeople get the most out of their time and resources by swiftly following up with prospects.

Perseverance:

Companies must be more persistent than ever to grab potential consumers due to hectic schedules, buried emails, or missed phone calls. In fact, organizations with the fastest-growing revenues are five to eight times more likely to contact a lead.

It can take up to 18 follow-ups to get a potential buyer’s attention. According to SimpSocial’s original data, 60 percent of businesses only follow up with leads once or twice. So that leads do not abandon their buyer’s journey, your marketing and sales teams must maintain consistent and timely communication.

Individualization:

Personalized contact with a lead increases the chances of a successful engagement and conversion. An email must have an individual sender (rather than a department name in the “From” line), a personalized greeting, signature and contact information, material relevant to the contact, and a “call to action” to move the conversation ahead to be deemed really personalized.

Personalizing an email effectively takes time, which makes it difficult to send a high-quality email quickly or to create many personalized emails for ongoing outreach. As a result, many businesses employ automated email solutions to communicate with their connections. However, not every automated email provider can send a message that is truly individualized. Some send emails with merely a reference to a contact’s name in the subject line. This is insufficient to pique someone’s interest. Make sure that emails from marketers and salespeople are personalized enough to stand out from the crowd and get the recipient’s attention.

Performing Arts:

To be effective, your communications must reach the intended audience. Whether your outgoing emails land in a contact’s Primary inbox (where they should) or somewhere else is referred to as performance (where the contact is less likely to see it). Personalized emails perform better than non-personalized emails, which should come as no surprise.

Many firms send personalized emails authored by Marketers or Salespeople in tandem with mass emails about upcoming webinars or new material, due to the high number of touchpoints required to pique a lead’s interest. In either instance, it’s critical to send high-quality emails to the Primary inbox rather than the Social or Promotional email folders. This allows you to get the most out of any correspondence you receive from the Marketing or Sales departments.

Automated Intelligence

Lead engagement and follow-up is a highly individualized activity with a lot of possibility for mistakes. Working together, business people and automated technologies may give sales teams the promptness, persistence, personalization, and performance they need to work quality prospects more effectively and efficiently.

Even the most dedicated Marketing and Sales teams will find this a difficult task. As a result, many businesses decide to use an Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) to deliver tailored emails at scale autonomously.

Because Intelligent Virtual Assistants are designed with best practices in mind, Marketing and Sales organizations can rest assured that these AI-powered dialogues adhere to the 4Ps.

SimpSocial connects to your CRM and pulls pertinent data (such as a person’s name and title) to create customised messages that guide conversations to a desired conclusion (like scheduling a Sales meeting). Our AI Assistants listen in on two-way discussions and respond appropriately, such as updating contact information in your CRM. Even better, AI-powered communications are multichannel, spanning email, SMS text, and the web.

SimpSocial specialized on Conversational Sales and Marketing can bridge the gap between Sales and Marketing with context-sensitive communications. Our AI Assistant lets teams to give leads messaging proven to identify interest and respond accordingly, whether they need to engage leads, re-activate their interest, or win back prior buyers.

It all happens automatically, swiftly, accurately, repeatedly, and with customisation using an Intelligent Virtual Assistant. Without overburdening Marketing or Sales personnel, organizations can expect 100% follow-up on all leads. Organizations increase communication with prospects by delegating key, repetitive tasks like crafting conversations with leads, allowing Marketers and Salespeople to focus on what they do best—educating the market and closing the deal.

The Platform for an Intelligent Virtual Assistant is Intelligent Automation.

Customer-facing teams understand the importance of communication, but that doesn’t mean it’s simple. Attention, time, and effort are required for thoughtful communication. This is true whether you’re conversing with someone in person or through a digital channel like email, SMS, or website chat.

While technology can help scale communications through digital channels, the right technologies are required to ensure quality communication. Marketing automation platforms, for example, are ideal for reaching a large audience. While personalization can be incorporated into traditional email campaigns and nurture programs, these messages are intended to inform recipients rather than engage them in a real conversation. That is, it is extremely rare for a prospect or customer to respond to a batch or nurture email. Simple chatbots, likewise, are frequently pre-programmed with FAQ-type responses, but no one confuses them with real-time, two-way conversations.

It’s important to remember that email and website chat are just channels, not complete solutions. Organizations looking for a more robust solution to engage their customers and prospects can use a more versatile Intelligent Virtual Assistant, which can operate via simple automation and rules-based bots (IVA).

Intelligent Virtual Assistants: Everything You Need to Know

Customer-facing teams can use intelligent virtual assistants to attract, acquire, and grow customers at scale. Delivering a personalized first touch to incoming leads, persistently pursuing or nurturing a lead over time, autonomously identifying and elevating a sales-ready lead at the moment they express interest, driving customer health, or even renewing/expanding a customer engagement are all examples of this.

In other words, IVAs assist businesses in managing the entire customer lifecycle by sending human-like messages across three digital channels, even when business professionals are unable to do so. Intelligent Virtual Assistants can be used to provide an engaging experience for customers and prospects while also directing them to the next best action via website chat, SMS text messaging, and email. This not only helps your employees with capacity issues, but it also helps you generate revenue.

Effortless Communication Throughout the Customer Journey

In practice, here’s what a three-channel conversation powered by an IVA looks like:

Your website is visited by a potential customer. She wants to learn more about your services by reading testimonials from your current customers. Instead of navigating the site herself, she is greeted by an Intelligent Virtual Assistant-powered website chat window.

She requests information about your customer case studies by tapping buttons or writing her own message. The IVA responds to her request appropriately, using Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and Natural Language Generation (NLG), and provides her with a link to the case studies on your website.

After reading a few case studies, the prospect decides she wants answers to two specific questions: “How much does your solution cost and how quickly can it be deployed?” and “How much does your solution cost and how quickly can it be deployed?” The IVA recognizes the significance of this question and forwards the prospect to a Sales representative via email or a scheduling link. The IVA establishes a connection between the prospect and your Sales rep, allowing them to discuss the specifics of her pain points and your offerings.

But the discussion doesn’t end there. The IVA then follows up with the prospect via email a few days later to ensure that the rep contacted her and that she was satisfied with her meeting. “Yes, I got what I needed,” she says. In an email to the IVA, she says, “Let’s revisit this next week.”

The Intelligent Virtual Assistant recognizes different types of intents and matches them to the most appropriate actions. Specifically, reminding the prospect of your business at a later date. This data is also saved automatically in your CRM or marketing automation platform.

Continuing the Discussion

The Intelligent Virtual Assistant contacts the prospect on its own and sends a personalized email. She is deafeningly silent. The IVA follows up a few days later, never giving up. She responds this time, apologizing for missing the previous email because she is currently traveling: “Could you text me instead?” After confirming her mobile number, the IVA moves the conversation to SMS, where the prospect shares a time when your Sales rep can speak with the rest of the team.

Increasing the Size of Your Workforce

The Intelligent Virtual Assistant provided a powerful customer experience from the first touch to conversion, consistently moving the conversation to the next best action, and assisting the Sales team in closing a deal.

However, this is just one example. Intelligent Virtual Assistants supplement a variety of revenue-generating teams, including Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, Automotive Sales and Service, Finance, and Fundraising, in addition to being versatile across channels.

Intelligent Virtual Assistants drive topline growth and accelerate revenue opportunities by covering the entire customer lifecycle, all while providing operational efficiencies and scalability for customer-facing teams.

Customers Met Where They Are

Intelligent Virtual Assistants enable businesses to meet customers where they are, whether that’s on your website, via email as a follow-up to a virtual event, or even via text message for contacts who aren’t near a computer.

Intelligent Virtual Assistants with Multiple Channels: Meeting Customers Where They Are

Intelligent Virtual Assistants: Everything You Need to Know

Effortless Communication Throughout the Customer Journey

In practice, here’s what a three-channel conversation powered by an IVA looks like:

Continuing the Discussion

The IVA contacts the prospect approximately 48 hours after the scheduled meeting to ensure she received everything she required. The prospect is pleased to report that she and her team have decided to work with your firm and are looking forward to being onboarded as a new customer.

Increasing the Size of Your Workforce

Customers Met Where They Are

Intelligent Virtual Assistants enable businesses to meet customers where they are, whether that’s on your website, by email as a follow-up to a virtual event, or even by text message for contacts who aren’t near a computer.

Finding the Right Balance of Strength and Flexibility

When it comes to Software-as-a-Service, there’s a lot to think about (SaaS). Organizations want the best solutions for their needs, and they simply don’t have the time, resources, or energy to onboard shoddy technologies that will need to be replaced soon. Businesses consider a variety of factors when making purchases, including ease of use, flexibility or customization, and the solution’s best practices or strengths.

These factors can, admittedly, be at odds with one another. For example, the most reliable solution might be extremely technical. Alternatively, the solution that is easiest to implement may have limited customization. It is the responsibility of each organization to evaluate each use case and conduct a cost-benefit analysis of any technology they are considering.

There is, however, one inconsistency that should not be overlooked. When the value and strength of a solution like SimpSocial are directly contradicted by flexibility and customization.

There Aren’t All Flexibilities Created Equal

Consider an athlete’s physique. Depending on their sport or activity, they may spend a significant amount of time training their bodies to be strong or limber in specific areas. They risk injuring themselves if they do not properly prepare their bodies.

SimpSocial falls into the same category. While some features benefit from flexibility and customization, others would suffer from overextension.

Short and sweet emails, for example, tend to capture people’s attention, whereas long emails are frequently ignored. Similarly, well-constructed emails will arrive in the primary inbox of a recipient, whereas emails with unusual subject lines or body text will end up in spam folders. The truth is that emails that follow a specific formula have the best chance of converting leads into sales opportunities. Changing the formula will reduce the effectiveness of your outgoing emails.

While SimpSocial allows customers to customize certain aspects of an AI-driven conversation (such as the subject line or injecting campaign-specific language), we do not allow other changes in order to maintain the conversation’s integrity. These limitations are based on best practices that have been tested and retested over the course of a decade of providing two-way, human-like conversations with leads and customers.

Our Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) are, in fact, trained using deep learning and data from one billion interactions. SimpSocial is a leading provider of Intelligent Virtual Assistants that assist businesses in attracting, acquiring, and growing customers at scale.

SimpSocial provides the most value to our customers—as well as the best experience for their leads and customers—by combining flexibility and customization when appropriate with rigidity based on longevity and best practices.

When Is Having Too Much Flexibility a Bad Idea?

he primary value of an Intelligent Virtual Assistant is its ability to engage every lead or customer in a scalable way that leads to the best next action for generating revenue. An IVA, on the other hand, helps revenue-generating teams overcome many of the time and resource constraints they face by automating repetitive tasks like crafting large numbers of personalized emails, chasing cold leads, and following up with customers to schedule or reschedule important meetings.

In this case, too much flexibility can work against you. When you write your own email, you have complete control over the content. You are, however, more likely to make mistakes, ranging from simple typos to sharing incorrect messaging to failing to follow best practices. Even the most seasoned Salesperson or Customer Success Manager makes mistakes or has a bad day from time to time. When you consider the large number of emails that teams must send to leads and customers, you can see how much time and effort goes into outreach.

Intelligent Virtual Assistants, on the other hand, never get angry, frustrated, or waste time. Even better, IVAs always send out emails that have been thoroughly tested to ensure higher open rates and increased customer engagement. SimpSocial allows business professionals to focus on what they do best—closing deals and building relationships with customers—by intelligently automating redundant but critical communications.

When you want flexibility, you can have it, and when you need quality, you can have it.

We are constantly improving our solutions based on customer feedback as a customer-centric organization. Customers are encouraged to make suggestions for what they would like to see from our Intelligent Virtual Assistants. We’ll collaborate with you to find the best SaaS solution for your needs.

SimpSocial isn’t just selling software when it comes to SimpSocial. We’re selling the best practices that enable our Intelligent Virtual Assistants to have high-quality, two-way conversations with leads and customers, which saves time and increases revenue.

How to Get More Sales-Ready Leads and Increase Lead Engagement

Most Demand Generation and Marketing Operations professionals are familiar with the concept of using lead scoring and a typical funnel model to prioritize the leads they create for Sales. It appears to be an age-old practice. Leads are received, and a score is assigned based on their level of participation and demographic characteristics. Over time, that score rises until… Poof! An MQL is conceived. From there, the prospect progresses through the funnel.

The classic funnel and lead scoring were created with the best of intentions. Because Marketing doesn’t want to burden Sales with leads who aren’t ready to buy, they use lead scoring to track engagement and identify which prospects should be followed up on as they progress down the funnel. It makes perfect sense: Sales doesn’t have to waste time on low-quality leads because Marketing takes care of the tough lifting in getting a lead to engage to the point where they’re ready to buy.

Is the traditional model, however, the best option? Is there any other way to get more sales-ready leads and boost lead engagement?

Leaving Lead Engagement Opportunities on the Table

The difficulty is that lead scoring isn’t very good at determining a lead’s intent on its own, especially in a world that’s been turned entirely upside down. Buyer behavior has evolved to the point that 79 percent of buyers are eager to speak with Sales at the awareness or consideration stages of their purchasing process, which is significantly earlier than most traditional lead handoff techniques would allow. Knowing this, there’s a good chance that by the time you give a lead on to Sales, it’ll be too late.

If you rely on a lead score to notify Sales when to follow up, you’re probably missing out on some crucial possibilities for engagement with your prospects and, as a result, losing money. Here are some examples of where the standard top-of-funnel procedure falls short:

Typically, you send out about 40% of your new leads as MQLs, with the remaining 60% going into a nurture program or retargeting campaign. How confident are you that every single one of those leads is actually “not ready”?

When leads have exhausted all of their nurture campaigns, they are frequently left in your database to get stale. You may launch revival campaigns now and again, but for the most part, those leads sit and you have to rely on them to raise their hands again on their own.

Of course, you’re snagging hot leads and sending them straight to the SDRs. But how quickly do they respond? In many circumstances, they don’t have the capacity to follow up within the same day (if not the same hour), or they give up after a few tries. Delays kill deals—the longer you wait to follow up, the less likely you are to be engaged.

What happens to a lead once it’s disqualified if Sales makes no attempt to qualify it? You undoubtedly have a nurture campaign in place that picks them up, but now you’re relying on the prospect to raise their hand and say they’re interested once more

You’ll miss 100% of the shots you don’t take if you don’t take them.

We’ve devised a method for keeping leads in the top of the funnel and, as a result, slowing down the purchase cycle. Yes, it’s entirely unrealistic to expect Sales to follow up with each and every lead. You’ll not only have an army of disgruntled salespeople on your hands, but you’ll also have a strained Sales and Marketing relationship and wasted a lot of money in the process. Naturally, we want to assist Sales in prioritizing and facilitating outstanding conversations. However, when did priority become talking to only 40% of your prospects?

The truth is that if you never ask, you’ll never know if a prospect is interested in speaking with you. Unfortunately, the approach isn’t scalable for your Sales staff, so hold off on trashing your lead scoring approach just yet.

When you grade your leads, you usually have your SDR follow up with the best leads, referred to as “A leads”—this part remains the same. Rather than tossing your low-scoring leads into a nurture campaign and waiting for them to turn into MQLs, you can meet each prospect with a personalized greeting from an Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA).

Giving your lower-scoring leads some individualized attention is known to accelerate their progress through the funnel, resulting in serious pipeline that would not have occurred if you had relied on those leads to surface over time.

CenturyLink, for example, reported a 16 percent to 20% boost in qualified leads simply by using an IVA on prospects that were less qualified in the traditional sense. When the IVA establishes that a lead is genuine, she can link that lead with a Salesperson in the same way that an SDR would.

Consider Using a Funnel That Isn’t a Traditional Funnel

Prioritization is necessary for a variety of reasons. Maintaining a decent lead volume for Sales and ensuring that Sales is having constructive interactions with prospects who are truly interested in buying are two of the most important goals. Prioritization, on the other hand, must coexist with coverage—that is, continue to hand along hot leads to Sales as part of a standard lead scoring plan, but don’t allow the rest of your leads to fend for themselves and navigate the buying process without assistance.

Intelligent Virtual Assistants can handle the heavy lifting of following up with all of your less-qualified prospects, putting less strain on Sales, and generating more pipeline from the leads you already have.

Furthermore, the IVA’s work can assist you in fine-tuning your lead generating strategy in real-time. The information the IVA gathers from leads you didn’t think were qualified might help you fine-tune your scoring model and better understand which channels are performing well.

When Sales and Marketing are on the Same Page

Salespeople criticize Marketing teams for sending over weak leads, while Marketers chastise Sales teams for not following up on the leads they generate.

Interdepartmental breakdowns lead to missed opportunities, squandered effort, and frustration. And, as businesses grapple with a sagging economy, these flaws are becoming even more apparent.

But, regardless of how teams assign blame, the truth is that both teams rely on one another because they are all working toward the same goal: generating revenue. When sales and marketing teams work together, they can accomplish incredible things.

Increasing Sales and Marketing Alignment

SimpSocial conducted a short survey early last year, asking Marketing and Sales leaders about their teams’ relationships. The vast majority of sales and marketing professionals (87%) and marketers (93%) rated their relationship as “important” or “very important.”

While two-thirds of respondents said the team relationships were good, they also thought they could be better. This raises the question of how Sales and Marketing leaders can actually improve things.

Rashmi Vittal, SimpSocial’s CMO, said of the nine-square grid that combines people, processes, and technology to most effectively coordinate a go-to-market strategy, demand generation, and enablement, “This grid is something I always find myself coming back to.” “In terms of what Marketers can do to better align themselves with Sales, this is absolutely from a Marketing mindset.”

When Sales and Marketing are on the Same Page

People, Processes, and Technology are all important.

People, process, and technology can all be found on the left-hand side.

It all begins with individuals. Your team members must possess the necessary skills to critically evaluate the market, educate and communicate with potential customers, and motivate buyers. Business leaders must hire the best employees and give them the freedom to do what they do best.

“No matter what department you work in, you will always have to deal with people in any organization. “People are always a part of the picture,” Vittal explained. “But there are also processes to consider. How do you get things done within or across groups, and what are the expectations?”

Any organization’s ability to create and maintain proper processes is critical. Unfortunately, many of these processes are developed in a Marketing silo and then passed to Sales as directives. This causes mistrust among salespeople, who believe that marketing doesn’t understand what prospects really want. To improve processes, marketing and sales leaders must work together on market research and playbooks to generate (and hopefully convert) high-quality pipeline.

The final piece of the puzzle is technology, which aids in the acceleration of human resources and provides insight into how well processes are performing. Analytics, reporting, and enablement tools, as well as CRMs and Marketing Automation Platforms, are all examples.

“Reporting and analytics are critical, from your marketing automation tool to your CRM tool, to even come to the table with sales and have that conversation to answer the question, ‘How are we doing, and what can we do better?’” Vittal said. “Then there are other technologies, such as what we offer—Intelligent Virtual Assistants—that actually help optimize the funnel at various stages to have a higher contribution into your pipeline and higher contribution into your revenue.”

Through scalable two-way, human-like conversations, Intelligent Virtual Assistants for Sales and Marketing help drive top-line growth, accelerate hot leads, and autonomously collect up-to-date lead data (such as contact information). This type of intelligent automation helps teams become more profitable and efficient by automating many redundant processes.

As things stand, neither team has enough capacity to provide the experience required to gain more opportunities. This issue manifests itself in Marketing’s inability to provide a personalized touch to large numbers of inbound leads. But, strictly speaking, your companies do not want to contact more leads. What you really want is to be able to attract more clients.

In a recent podcast, Drew Neisser, founder and CEO of Renegade, a New York-based marketing agency, mentioned how his father would encourage him during sports practice by saying, “If you can touch it, you can catch it.” We can practice turning more misses into close-calls and more close-calls into catches, even if we don’t always catch a new opportunity.

However, in order to do so, salespeople and marketers must align and expand their sense of responsibility all the way through the funnel to the point of closure. The age-old marketing excuse, “Hey, we filled the pipeline and sales just didn’t close,” won’t cut it, according to Neisser.

Demand Generation, Enablement, and GTM Strategy

Examples of what Marketers can do to better align themselves with Sales can be found across the top.

The first is a go-to-market strategy that boils down to one question: Where do you get your revenue? Before Sales can be given leads and prospects, Marketing must collaborate with Product Marketing to define a go-to-market strategy.

The second step is to carry out the plan, which results in demand generation. What methods do you use to pique people’s interest? And how much of that interest should be generated by Marketing rather than Sales? What is the significance of this collaborative relationship?

“Everyone needs to come together at the demand generation table,” Vittal said. “It’s all about generating pipeline and revenue, which we all know and love.”

Enablement is the third area. It’s worth noting that the right-most column refers to “enablement” instead of “sales enablement.” It’s critical to recognize that Marketing has an impact across the board, from nurturing and educating leads for Sales to cultivating customer relationships to create brand ambassadors.

“You should be enabling the company if you have the right people on your team,” Vittal says. Marketing’s role is not to educate and influence the market at large from the outside. It should also help with influencing within the organization.”

One example is establishing a regular education cadence, knowing that education is critical to the success of your Sales team. When you combine this with the right technology to assist people in doing what they do best, you have a winning combination.

Collaboration is the key to establishing trust.

So, how can Sales and Marketing teams work together more effectively?

“There isn’t going to be a big reveal. There isn’t a ta-da moment here. “It’s about collaborating to build trust,” Neisser explained.

Business leaders must overcome the siloed thinking that Sales has a job and Marketing has a job in order to better align Sales and Marketing teams. They must recognize that they are both responsible for generating revenue for the company. To empower their revenue-generating teams, business leaders should strive to bring together the best people, processes, and technologies.

5 Ways an Intelligent Virtual Assistant Can Help You Close More Deals

It’s important to keep your sales cycle short, but it’s also important to keep the length of your sales cycle short. It’s also crucial to give prospects and clients a personalized experience throughout the process. While your employees are crucial in developing relationships with potential customers, technologies such as Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) can help businesses increase their speed and efficiency throughout the sales process.

AI-driven technologies like an IVA aren’t a substitute for human involvement – they’re an important tool that augments your Sales team to create a more efficient process and produce more leads. From helping to funnel prospects to answering pressing inquiries 24/7 and following up over months and months of email tag, AI-driven technologies like an IVA aren’t a substitute for human participation – they’re an important tool that augments your Sales team to create a more efficient process and produce more leads.

AI’s Expansion and Power

We’re not talking about broken experiences or muddled workflows when it comes to Intelligent Virtual Assistants. In recent years, AI technology has advanced at such a rapid pace that distinguishing between a “real” person and AI has become increasingly difficult. In fact, 27% of customers were unsure whether their last customer service interaction was with a human or with artificial intelligence.

It’s also not a fad. According to Finance Digest, AI will be at the heart of 95% of all customer interactions by 2025.

What’s the best thing about having an Intelligent Virtual Assistant on your team? It can be customized for your company so that responses that make sense, reflect your values, and describe your products are automatically generated. At the same time, you can use an IVA to update your database, contact numbers, and names, as well as automate meeting scheduling with your sales team.

1 – Intelligent Virtual Assistants Quickly Locate Prospects

Consider the impact of an IVA. It can use a trigger to follow up on old and dead leads if they haven’t been contacted in a year. These are leads that no Salesperson would have touched before, and you’re giving yourself a second chance with outreach that appears to be personalized if the AI is set up correctly.

As a result, AI is working as a member of your sales team, digging up old leads that would have otherwise slipped through the cracks. An IVA produces interested prospects through email, social media, webchat, and other methods with no employee involvement.

And here’s the greatest part: AI can learn from every encounter, making it more effective at keeping potential clients interested and bringing them in the door.

2 – Use Intelligent Virtual Assistants to Qualify Prospects and Schedule Meetings Quickly

When it comes to sales, nothing is more frustrating than a dead end. With a series of simple questions—the most essential of which is “are you interested in speaking with a Salesperson?”—an Intelligent Virtual Assistant can assist speed up the process of ensuring prospects are truly qualified. ”. An Intelligent Virtual Assistant can determine whether it’s worth your time to set up an appointment with someone else in the sales department by seamlessly incorporating these questions into a conversation. This would be useful in and of itself, but AI technology doesn’t stop there.

An IVA can plan prospect appointments on behalf of your sales team by acting as a digital assistant. And this is crucial: salespeople only spend 36% of their time selling. Non-sales activities such as admin work, meeting scheduling, paperwork, and email answering take up the rest of that time. An IVA relieves your team of this burden, allowing them to focus on what they do best: selling.

3 – Intelligent Virtual Assistants Assist in Product Presentation and Answering Questions

Though your certified Sales team will still need to keep up to date on your products and services, an IVA can assist speed up this aspect of the process significantly. For starters, an AI Assistant can help keep a customer engaged with an email or SMS message by encouraging them to download a guide or free eBook that explains your service. As a result, by the time a potential client meets with the sales staff, they will already have a solid understanding of the product.

For some businesses, the “objections” phase of the sales cycle is the most time-consuming and difficult. Prospective clients want to make sure they’re getting the best solutions for their business or home, so they’ll frequently ask follow-up questions about the product. So, what do you do if a client contacts you on a weekend with a question? Or in the middle of the night?

A simple question can take days to answer without a customer-facing AI solution in place. The sales cycle can be greatly shortened if AI is ready and able to answer questions quickly. One of the most appealing features of an Intelligent Virtual Assistant is that it is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And if you don’t believe AI can effectively answer questions, think again. With support, AI was able to successfully answer up to 80% of frequently asked Tier 1 support questions. In Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success, similar effects are starting to emerge.

4 – Deal Closing and Beyond

With technological advancements and changing consumer expectations, an IVA can shorten the sales cycle by allowing your customers to ask critical questions right away, allowing them to make faster decisions – and then actually complete the sale online.

It’s a common misconception that the sales cycle ends with a sale. An IVA can be used for the following purposes:

Follow-up — Using AI-generated emails or SMS messages, your team can easily contact clients after the sale has been completed to confirm that they are happy with the product, ask if they have any questions, and continue the relationship.

Simple referrals – 90% of consumers still trust brand recommendations from people they respect. You can encourage your consumers to submit reviews, discuss their experiences on social media, and tell their friends and family about your product by implementing an IVA.

You’ve not only sped up the sales cycle from prospecting to sealing the deal if you’ve used the capabilities of an Intelligent Virtual Assistant throughout the process – you’ve also impressed your clients with a simplified, efficient, and proactive outreach.

5 – If your employees have more free time, they will produce more results.

Teams improve day-to-day operations and find time to brainstorm thanks to the power of an Augmented Workforce, which combines people and AI technologies. Having more brainpower and creativity on staff means reducing processes, strengthening team culture, and using innovation to shorten the sales cycle.

More than a third of CEOs feel that the time saved by having digital assistants allows them to focus on deep thought and creation. It will be quite difficult for your organization to break out from the cycle and generate fresh, creative ideas if it spends too much time on lower-level processes. Your team will be able to spend more time not only answering higher-level questions or managing high-level prospects, but also thinking of creative solutions to speed up your processes, thanks to artificial intelligence taking on lower-level tasks.

AI’s analytical prowess can also show your team where processes need to be streamlined. Machine learning capabilities can help you collect a wealth of information about potential customers. Who is visiting your website? What are the engagement demographics? What’s working and what’s not in each step of your process? How do you get better at everything?

Every aspect of your sales cycle is enhanced, improved, and shortened with an IVA.

When you consider how intelligent automation and Intelligent Virtual Assistants affect every stage of the sales cycle, it’s easy to see how well they integrate with your sales staff.

An Intelligent Virtual Assistant frees up your top Salespeople to focus on the hard questions by answering simple questions.

AI may convert those who are only looking for additional information into prospects, advancing them to the next step of the process, by engaging with them.

An IVA can re-engage former leads by sending them an email or SMS.

Artificial intelligence does not imply fewer human-to-human relationships. It’s all about maximizing the impact of those tailored contacts by taking care of little things, capturing data, and providing critical administrative assistance.

Using Multiple Intelligent Virtual Assistants in Different Geographical Areas: Best Practices

Your company must resonate with your target demographic in order to succeed in sales and marketing. You must not only comprehend their objectives and pain spots, but you must also interact with them on their terms. To put it another way, if you want to make an impression on potential clients, you must “speak the talk.”

Of course, what appeals to one group of people may not appeal to every group you encounter. This is especially true when communicating with people in different parts of the world. If you want to have a lasting, beneficial influence, you’ll need to overcome language obstacles and respect cultural customs.

At SimpSocial, we strive to provide the most natural and positive experience for your potential consumers. This begins with a knowledge that your potential consumers are accustomed to getting emails from staff with specific names, titles, phone numbers, and email signatures. Each of these elements has an impact on how successful your lead outreach is.

Here are some best practices for applying regionally and culturally relevant criteria to messages coming in for your Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs), as well as how and why to leverage numerous IVAs at once, in order to get the greatest outcomes and protect your brand’s reputation.

Why Do Companies Use Several Intelligent Virtual Assistants?

Why do firms need several Intelligent Virtual Assistants if they offer near-unlimited scalability?

This is due to a number of factors. The first is that IVAs have a variety of capabilities that cater to the needs of various teams. Because one size does not always fit all, it’s better to have one Intelligent Virtual Assistant with Sales and Marketing capabilities (for example, to follow up on leads and cultivate interest) and another with Customer Success abilities to stay in touch with customers.

The second reason—and the subject of this post—is that for businesses that service multiple geographic locations, it’s critical to conform to appropriate language standards, cultural norms, consumer expectations, and other factors.

Consider this: Would you hire a single employee to cover the entire worldwide market? Do you have a single marketing approach that applies to everyone on the planet? Do you expect each geo’s leads to perform the same way? Do you ever break down your outcomes by geography since you have different expectations for each? Have you taken the time to establish different websites for different geographies?

When employing your Intelligent Virtual Assistants, it’s a good idea to follow the same logic.

Consider the following factors: location, time zones, and behaviour.

Intelligent Virtual Assistants should appear to be in real time and space. This means that just like a Sales Development Representative (SDR) can’t be on three continents at the same time, your Intelligent Virtual Assistant shouldn’t be able to. If your SDR isn’t at work at 3 a.m. local time, neither should your IVA be transmitting signals at that hour.

Because they aren’t constrained by the same constraints as humans, Intelligent Virtual Assistants are practically indefinitely scalable. Customers’ return on investment suffers when they approach their IVA like a machine rather than an AI-driven workforce. What is the reason for this?

While having an always-on virtual employee may appear to be beneficial, the truth is that it might disrupt conversations (as leads inquire, “Why are you awake right now?”). “Where have you gone?”) can create false expectations, such as when an IVA responds in minutes but an SDR doesn’t show up until the next morning.

When it comes to email signatures, there are a few things to consider.

Your Intelligent Virtual Assistants’ signatures should include a non-PO Box mailing address in order to be CAN-SPAM compliant. This is vital not simply for compliance, but it also helps to distinguish your Intelligent Virtual Assistant from Marketing Automation Nurturing by making her feel local and relatable. While both types of nurture and follow-up have their place, tailored, human-like emails are more likely to get a response.

Avoid inserting an address from each nation in the signature line of your IVA-powered emails if you’re utilizing a single IVA to manage contacts from several locations. This is awkward, as it quickly marks conversations as inauthentic, impersonal, and more likely to have been sent from an unmonitored email address.

Using numerous Intelligent Virtual Assistants for different geos, for example, enables for local phone numbers.

Allow for cultural and linguistic differences.

Multiple languages and cultural subtleties (such as Japanese kanji, Portuguese accent markings, and more) are supported by SimpSocial’s Intelligent Virtual Assistants, making discussions feel realistic and natural. The same can be said for an IVA’s name, title, and company name, which may need to be translated into a foreign language.

Creating significant diversity in your email content is one technique to attain high deliverability rates. An IVA, for example, can present itself as a member of your company in the email’s subject line or text. The communication appears more trustworthy and individualized when the firm name, title, or other details are translated into the appropriate language—rather than English, for example.

In 2021, there will be three major changes in lead engagement strategies.

The year 2020 is drawing to a close (phew), and 2021 is rapidly approaching. While it may feel like a victory just to make it through this year, there is no rest for the weary – and 2021 will undoubtedly be difficult in its own way. Isn’t change the only constant?

Engagement is the name of the game for companies with growth goals (or any goals, for that matter) in the coming year. More engagement leads to more sales conversations, resulting in increased revenue. The noise and distractions in digital buyer’s journeys are only going to get louder and more distracting, making generating engagement from your audience more competitive than ever.

To cut through the clutter and increase your chances of great lead engagement in 2021, we recommend focusing on three key lead engagement strategies: personalization, Sales and Marketing alignment, and omnichannel communication.

Personalization reigns supreme and will continue to do so.

Personalization comes in a variety of forms. Personalizing messaging with a prospect’s or customer’s demographic information is an example of a quick, easy win. Personalization that requires a little more effort includes serving content related to the most recent engagement, crafting messaging specific to a stage in the buyer’s journey, and providing content on a channel where a lead is most likely to engage based on recent behaviour.

Personalization is powerful in any context, and it isn’t going away anytime soon. Customers will demand it even more in the future, and will choose to do business with brands that excel at it. According to a 2020 Forrester study commissioned by Adobe, customer expectations for more personalized and digital experiences are higher than ever before, according to 76 percent of surveyed B2B practitioners and 83 percent of surveyed B2C practitioners.

However, implementing a personalization-centric strategy is time-consuming and difficult to scale. There’s no getting around it in 2021: businesses must invest in analytics, intent, and intelligent automation tools that allow them to increase the level of personalization in their campaigns and communications without putting additional strain on sales and marketing teams.

Earlier Sales Involvement in the Buyer’s Journey

It’s common knowledge that nurturing leads produces better results, and even a semblance of nurture is preferable to none at all. Despite this, a 2019 Demand Gen Report survey found that 60% of respondents gave their nurture programs a failing grade. With 67 percent of the buying journey taking place online, it’s critical that Sales gets involved as soon as possible. If we wait for a lead to become “qualified,” we’re more than likely to find that they’ve already gone down at least part of some decision path before speaking with Sales – and it may already be too late.

This is an opportunity for Marketing and Sales to collaborate on a cohesive, consistent, and engaging nurture and follow-up strategy. Rather than drawing hard lines in the sand between when Marketing is “allowed to touch” a lead and when Sales says “hands off my leads,” the two teams should collaborate to create a nurture program that includes both Marketing-supplied content and Sales outreach, mixed throughout the buying journey.

Divide and conquer your leads with a mix of traditional nurture, sales outreach, and follow-up from an Intelligent Virtual Assistant is one practical way to do this (IVA).

Develop scoring thresholds for when a new lead is passed to an IVA versus when it is passed to a live Salesperson.

If you have A, B, and C quality leads, for example, give the A leads to your Sales team while having an IVA follow-up with the B and C leads to further qualify them before they reach your Sales team. And if those B and C leads don’t convert, it’s no big deal for either team: the leads can go back into the remarketing pool and be resurrected at a later date, with no resources wasted.

Creating a Platform for Omnichannel Conversations

TCommunication with prospects and customers has traditionally been one-way. Drip email nurtures, digital retargeting campaigns, and direct mail outreach are all good ways to introduce your brand to your audience, but they rarely result in productive, conversational responses.

Furthermore, now, more than ever, when your customers are ready to talk, they expect immediate, consistent communication. Despite this, the channels through which you do allow a lead to respond to you are frequently disjointed. According to Martech Series, 87 percent of today’s consumers wish businesses would provide consistent experiences across channels, and another 35 percent wish they could communicate with the same person across channels.

Conversations that begin via chat, for example, frequently do not continue via other channels such as email or text message, resulting in a disjointed and frustrating experience for the customer. Businesses must enable omnichannel communication experiences for their customers, especially in a digital-first world, or risk losing out to competitors who do. After all, a good experience is important to 73 percent of consumers when it comes to influencing their brand loyalty.

It’s no easy task, but mastering all three of these strategies by 2021 will ensure you’re providing delightful experiences for your customers and increasing brand engagement. In addition, we could all benefit from some enjoyable experiences in our lives.

Are you curious about how SimpSocial can help you boost engagement in 2021? To schedule a demo or to view our most recent webinar, please contact us.

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

When it comes to technology, each advancement is reliant on the progress of others. SimpSocial, for example, automates two-way, human-like interactions on a large scale. However, achieving this capability necessitates a combination of technologies, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robot process automation. But there’s another factor at work: Natural Language Processing (NLP).

Let’s take a closer look at NLP, its position in SimpSocial, and how these technologies help revenue-generating teams achieve better results.

In AI, what is Natural Language Processing (NLP)?

Natural Language Processing is, in several ways, just what it sounds like: a technology’s ability to process everyday language. This can be written text (as in an email, text message, or website chat window) or spoken text (as in an email, text message, or website chat window) (like a phone call or voice-activated assistant).

Natural Language Understanding (NLU) and Natural Language Generation (NLG) are two other components of NLP (NLG). The ability to interpret and comprehend messages from a touch is the first. Taking orders is a simple example. The ability to produce text or voice is the latter. You can only engage contacts in two-way conversations once NLU and NLG are combined; knowing language coming in and producing language going out.

Of course, that’s just the feature. Businesses are interested in what you do with that feature.

NLP and SimpSocial in the Workplace

Let’s take a closer look at what this means for business users now that we’ve addressed the basics. Organizations offload regular conversations to AI by automating the ability to interpret, understand, and react to conversations with leads and customers.

Crafting a customized email to a prospect or client requires time. Each contact takes just a few minutes on average. When you have hundreds or even thousands of contacts to communicate with, this becomes a scalability problem. Employees may spend less time crafting repetitive communications and more time working on high-value projects by automating these interactions.

Natural Language Processing in AI, on the other hand, isn’t just about increasing productivity. At the end of the day, SimpSocialI is all about generating sales. These technologies work together to simplify communications and engage contacts in natural back-and-forth conversations that lead to the best next step.

Even the most committed Marketing and Sales teams will struggle to offer a customized first-touch to hundreds of webinar attendees. SimpSocial, on the other hand, makes it scalable to ask leads if they have any questions and would like to speak with a Salesperson to get them answered. Attendees are engaged by a powerful AI solution to decide which are ready to take action and which require more time or attention.

SimpSocial’s ability to engage contacts, drive sales prospects and augment revenue-generating teams of business professionals relies heavily on Natural Language Processing.

Conversational AI with Human-Like Qualities: Past, Present, and Future

Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) is now a part of our daily lives, both at work and at home.

Conversational AI is everywhere, from personal virtual assistants that help us play music and monitor our homes to skilled virtual assistants that help us do our work.

Let’s take a closer look at the history of Conversational AI, where it is now, and where it is headed in the future.

A Quick Overview of Conversational AI

MIT created ELIZA, a precursor to natural language processing, in the 1960s, which sowed the seeds of Conversational AI (NLP). ELIZA was prompted by a user statement and ran on a variety of scripts. One of the most well-known applications of ELIZA was in psychotherapy, where a client would say something like “My mother hates me,” and the technology would answer with something like “Why do you think your mother hates you?” It was convincing enough to pass the Turing exam at the time.

With Shoebox, a voice-activated calculator, IBM, a tech giant and long-time innovator, helped NLP take a move forward. In the 1980s, IBM continued to innovate, creating a voice-activated typewriter with a built-in vocabulary of 20,000 words. With the Simon smartphone, IBM developed the first-ever Virtual Assistant, complete with automated speech recognition technology, nearly a decade later.

Colloquies created the world’s first chatbot, SmarterChild. It used AOL instant messenger to connect and had 30 million “buddies” on the network.

SimpSocial entered the market in 2007 with an AI Assistant designed to assist car dealerships in motivating online leads to visit the store. SimpSocial has since extended the use cases for its Conversational AI technology to assist all revenue-generating teams across sectors, based on how effective it was in speeding up transactions.

The number of households and companies using personal AI assistants including Google Home and Amazon Alexa increased dramatically in the 2010s. Voice-activated assistants are used for a wide range of tasks. These tasks include using home computers, conducting web searches, and shopping online.

Today’s Most Popular Conversational AI Use Cases

Today, customer-facing business teams use Conversational AI in the form of AI Assistants to engage contacts in customized conversations at scale.

AI Assistants are virtual team members who assist business professionals in completing tasks. As a result, whereas AI Assistants automate routine activities, business professionals may concentrate on higher-value tasks that involve creative thinking and problem solving, which only humans are capable of.

Different teams have different use cases for AI Assistants. Marketing, for example, uses AI Assistants to give each incoming lead a personalized touch to determine the leads are “sales-ready” and which need more time. Customer Success teams, on the other hand, use AI Assistants to communicate with their clients on a daily basis. This makes it easier for Customer Success Managers to plan crucial meetings, collect feedback, track customer health, and provide growth opportunities.

Another common form of Conversational AI is chatbots. Website chat facilitates the exchange of information between website users and the information they need. This involves answering commonly asked questions, directing visitors to specific web sites, and assisting with problem resolution.

Website chat is very common on ecommerce sites and for customer service. Marketers have recently adopted website chat to gather lead information, identify sales-ready leads, and direct visitors to useful resources such as customer case studies.

There is, admittedly, a distinction between simple chatbots and Conversational AI-powered website chat, both in terms of construction and function. Chatbots are simple rule-based systems. Certain words are recognized, and phrases are matched to a pre-programmed answer. They are unable to simulate two-way conversations, and their applications are fairly limited—which is perfect if that is what you need.

However, with a more advanced AI approach, many businesses and consumers enjoy two-way conversations. Although these AI are more advanced than bots, they are often referred to as personality chatbots.

Website visitors can have real-time conversations with AI-driven website chat. AI Assistants, on the other hand, can communicate through a variety of networks, including email and SMS text messaging. Although these exchanges can take place in real time, AI Assistants can carry on the conversation for days or even weeks. This level of commitment is required to promote contact with leads or clients in order to help inspire them to take the next best step, such as arranging a meeting with your Sales or Customer Success teams.

Conversational AI is popular with customers because it is timely, persistent, and courteous. They don’t know they’re talking to an AI in certain situations, thinking they’re talking to a real human.

The Future of Conversational AI

Although no one can predict the future with absolute certainty, the trend toward more sophisticated Conversational AI and more use cases is likely to continue.

Conversational AI’s number of available channels is expected to grow in the near future. If the popularity of social selling grows, so will the popularity of social-selling AI Assistants. Similarly, Conversational AI that is triggered by voice can improve its ability to understand and respond to users in normal, two-way conversations.

It’s worth noting that a lot of Conversational AI solutions use Machine Learning, which helps to improve accuracy and capabilities over time. As a result, newcomers to Conversational AI will, on average, have less history to draw on than a legacy provider. Conversational AI can make its way into new business teams as a result of increased learning and creativity.

It’s likely that Conversational AI could evolve from AI Assistants, which assist employees in automating routine tasks to increase productivity, to AI Advisors, which assist employees in making strategic decisions based on the AI’s ability to process vast volumes of data rapidly.

How Telecoms Are Using SimpSocial to Improve Customer Experience

Customers are the lifeblood of every company. This is why many telecommunications companies create Customer Success teams, also known as Account Management or Customer Experience teams, to ensure that customer relationship remain satisfied and stable.

However, this is not a simple mission. High customer-to-account manager ratios make it challenging, if not impossible, for Customer Success teams to provide each customer with the attention they need to succeed.

Fortunately, telecom companies may use technological strategies to maximize the value of each customer account. Let’s look at how artificial intelligence (AI) for customer service will help telecommunications companies improve their Customer Success teams.

What Is the Difference Between Customer Service and Customer Success?

It’s necessary to distinguish between Customer Success and Customer Service. Customer success focuses on constructive engagements that lead to better results for consumers. This involves onboarding new customers efficiently and increasing product consumption.

On the other side, customer service is more reactive. If a customer has a query, Customer Service will assist them in resolving it.

Another distinction is that Customer Success focuses on customer retention and revenue generation, while Customer Service focuses on cost avoidance.

Problems with Ability and Retention

It’s common knowledge that retaining an existing customer is less expensive than acquiring a new one. In reality, increasing customer retention by only 5% will increase sales by 25% to 95 percent. If customer retention isn’t a top priority for your business, you’re probably wasting money.

However, there are only so many hours in a day to provide diligent customer service. Customer Success teams are required to prioritize some customers over others, with customer-to-account manager ratios as high as 50:1 or 100:1. High-value accounts (those that have made the largest investments in your offerings) receive the most exposure, while low-value accounts (who make up the rest of the base) receive less. Customers can become frustrated and churn as a result of this inconsistent customer experience.

Some companies believe that disgruntled customers can express their frustration, allowing Customer Success teams to react. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. The vast majority of customers (96%) will not complain; instead, they will actually leave and never return.

Rather than waiting for disgruntled customers to speak up, telecoms can look for warning signs of a potentially troubled account, such as missing meetings or quarterly market reviews, and low product/service use.

Telecoms must embrace innovations that provide greater insight into consumer wellbeing, provide a consistent customer experience across accounts, and push consumers to the next best action—all while increasing team capacity—if they want to retain customers.

Telecommunications Customer Success Software

The telecommunications industry is primed for AI implementation. Businesses also need creative ways to better manage personalized interactions with consumers as their user bases grow. This is where artificial intelligence (AI)—specifically, SimpSocial—comes into play.

Customers are engaged in two-way, human-like interactions through various platforms using SimpSocial, which is a mixture of Natural-Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning.

What does this imply for Customer Success professionals? SimpSocial creates and distributes customized communications at scale, encouraging consumers to take action. Here are some of the actions:

New customers should be onboarded as soon as possible.

Collecting customer reviews politely,

Consistently promoting consumer well-being

Growing product use

and generating enthusiasm for expansion opportunities

SimpSocial for telecom helps Customer Success teams reduce capacity bottlenecks and provide a personalized touch to every customer by automating these experiences. More positive focus results in happy customers and happier customers result in more sales retention and growth opportunities.

How Three Industries Compare to the Four Ps: Technology, Telecom, Media, and Entertainment

SimpSocial conducts a hidden shopper survey every year to determine how successful companies are at sales follow-up. We then assess these businesses based on the “4Ps of Sales Effectiveness,” which include:

Promptness refers to how easily a sales team responds to a lead’s follow-up order.

Persistence:

The number of times a sales team contacts a customer after the initial contact.

Personalization:

In a follow-up message, how many personalization elements are included? (e.g. personalized greeting, individual sender, signature with contact information, relevant content, and effort to push the conversation forward),And if the follow-up answer was sent to the Primary mailbox, the Promotions/Social folder, or the dreaded Spam folder.

Of course, our 2020 Sales Effectiveness Report was released during a turbulent year in which businesses grappled with the aftermath of COVID-19 and the resulting economic downturn. Although we don’t have a clear picture of how the pandemic affected each industry, it’s clear that different industries were affected in different ways.

Our research looked at 1,177 businesses in three different industries: technology, telecommunications, and media and entertainment. As consumers reevaluated their budgets, tech companies struggled to generate sales and retain customers. Businesses and customers needed more connectivity to operate remotely, which boosted demand for telecoms. Closures and municipal limitations made it impossible for media and entertainment companies to operate.

Businesses, regardless of sector, needed to engage with their contacts in order to drive sales and keep them updated. Let’s take a look at how each of the three sectors we surveyed fared in terms of the 4Ps.

The Technology Sector

Over 800 technology firms, both B2B and B2C, were surveyed by our hidden shopper. We believed that these businesses will be digitally allowed to thrive through the 4Ps because of their industry.

Did our expectations, however, fit reality?

The Technology industry scored the highest in two of the four Ps (with 25% of companies receiving an A in promptness and 5% receiving an A in persistence) and had the highest number of companies receiving an overall A grade (with 10% of companies consistently performing well in all four Ps).

Although this is good news for the businesses that did well, a significant number of tech companies failed to meet their revenue targets:

Within 5 minutes, 25% of businesses responded to our hidden shopper’s request for follow-up. However, nearly half of those who did not answer within 24 hours received an F. Worse still, 5% of tech companies did not respond to our shopper’s follow-up request at all.

Just 5% of businesses were genuinely diligent with their lead follow-up, contacting prospects 11 to 15 times. About half of the businesses only attempted to reach our mystery shopper once or twice before giving up.

Approximately 30% of tech companies used five personalization elements in their customized contact. Half of the messages made only rudimentary personalization attempts, such as including the lead’s name in the introduction and nothing else.

Just 12% of businesses submitted emails that were regularly delivered to the Primary Inbox. The majority of businesses (48%) sent emails that ended up in the Promotions or Social folders on a regular basis.

Technology is a powerful tool.

punctuality

A percentage of 25% (0-5 mins)

B is 12 percent (6-60 mins)

C is 9 percent (1-8 hrs)

D is 6 percent (9-24 hrs)

Persistence at 48 degrees Fahrenheit (>24 hours)

A 5 percent (optimal: 11-15)

9 percent B (inadequate: 7-10 / 16-20)

24°C (excessive: 3-6°C / 21°C+)

D 57 percent (too few: 1-2)

Personalization is 6% F (none: 0).

A 29 percent (5 elements)

B is 6 percent (4)

4 percent Celsius (3)

ten percent D (2)

Performance of 51 percent F (0-1)

A 12 percent (Primary)

B is 27 percent (Mix)

8% Celsius (Mix)

D is for 48 percent (Promo)

F5% (Spam)

Over our other two sectors, the Technology industry received points for their fast and persistent follow-up. Businesses in the tech sector should place a greater focus on personalizing their outreach to increase their sales effectiveness.

Industry of Telecommunications

Just 4% of the telecommunications firms we looked at received an overall A. This suggests that the telecommunications industry lacks the technological capabilities needed to efficiently follow up with leads and prospects.

Internal problems, such as matching Salesforce capability to increased demand for their services, trouble moving workers to remote work, or budgetary issues, were likely present in these organizations. However, this emphasizes the importance of a digital-first communication approach.

Here are some of the report’s highlights:

Though 17% of telecoms responded to our mystery shopper within 5 minutes, the overwhelming majority (63%) took more than 24 hours to respond. It took many people more than a week to get their first contact. And 6% of people didn’t respond at all.

With 77 percent attempting to contact our hidden shopper twice or less before giving up, the telecommunications industry fell behind in Persistence.

Just 16 percent of businesses hit all five elements of personalized outreach, while 65 percent didn’t personalize anything beyond the lead’s first name.

For emails that ended up in the Promotions or Social files, 58 percent of businesses received a D, and for the rest of messages that ended up in the Spam folder, 6 percent received an F. Just 9% of businesses were regularly placed in the Primary folder.

Telecommunications services

punctuality

A 17 percent (0-5 mins)

B is 12 percent (6-60 mins)

5% carbon dioxide (1-8 hrs)

9-24 hours (4 percent D)

Persistence at 63 degrees Fahrenheit (>24 hours)

A percentage of 1 (optimal: 11-15)

3 percent B (inadequate: 7-10 / 16-20)

Excessive: 3-6 / 21+) 19 percent C

D 71 percent (too few: 1-2)

Personalization is 6% F (none: 0).

A 16 percent (5 elements)

B is 6 percent (4)

7 percent carbon dioxide (3)

D is 6 percent (2)

Performance of 65 percent F (0-1)

A 9 percent (Primary)

B is 24 percent (Mix)

3 percent Celsius (Mix)

D 58 percent (Promo)

F6 (Spam)

The telecommunications industry should consider introducing new technology to help them deliver timely, persistent, and personalized messages at scale in order to increase sales effectiveness.

The Entertainment and Media Industry

Since in-person activities were suspended during the time of our review, we assumed that media and entertainment companies would be the least likely to react. Surprisingly, the Media & Entertainment industry outperformed all other industries in two of the four Ps (Personalization and Performance), with 6% of companies receiving an overall A. These companies may have realized the value of keeping their customers engaged during unpredictable times.

Here’s how the Media & Entertainment industry stacks up to the 4Ps:

The Media & Entertainment industry earned the second-highest percentage of A grades in Promptness (19%) (for answering in 5 minutes or less) and the lowest percentage of F grades (39%). (taking over 24 hours to respond).

Companies fell behind in the field of persistence, with zero receiving an A. The overwhelming majority (70 percent) only attempted to reach our mystery shopper once or twice before giving up.

These businesses excelled at personalization, with 39 percent receiving an A for incorporating all five components. However, almost the same percentage (40%) received a D for only having two items.

Performance was equally strong as a result of these companies’ emphasis on personalization, with 14 percent receiving an A for consistently landing in the Primary folder. Half of the businesses polled (49%) used a hybrid approach of promotional emails that were still customized enough to be prioritized in the Primary folder.

Entertainment & Media

punctuality

A 19 percent (0-5 mins)

B is 12 percent (6-60 mins)

17 percent Celsius (1-8 hrs)

D is 13 percent (8-24 hrs)

Persistence at 39°F (>24 hours)

A 0 percent (optimal: 11-15)

4% B (unsatisfactory: 7-10 / 16-20)

Excessive: 3-6 / 21+) 26 percent C

D 70 percent (too few: 1-2)

Personalization: 0 percent F (none: 0)

A 39 percent (5 elements)

B is 13 percent (4)

5% carbon dioxide (3)

D (four percent) (2)

Performance of 40 percent F (0-1)

A 14 percent (Primary)

B 49 percent (Mix)

C is one percent (Mix)

D is 36 percent (Promo)

0 degrees F (Spam)

More touches to leads and opportunities will help media and entertainment companies increase their sales effectiveness.

With the help of an intelligent virtual assistant, you will increase your sales effectiveness.

Any company must consistently offer timely, persistent, and customized outreach to leads and prospects. However, scaling successful lead follow-up with people power alone is difficult. Organizations should consider augmenting their workforces with an Intelligent Virtual Assistant to help Sales teams work every lead to its full potential (IVA).

Intelligent Virtual Assistants (IVAs) combine the scalability of intelligent automation with the human-like touch of SimpSocial to help Sales teams gain revenue opportunities and increase capability by automating customized outreach that is always timely, persistent, and friendly. IVAs follow best practices at all times and encourage leads to take the next best step (such as scheduling a meeting with your sellers).

Consider taking on an Intelligent Virtual Assistant to scale your outreach if your company is struggling with the 4Ps of sales effectiveness.

The Four Ps of Successful Sales Follow-Up

We’ve all heard the story: marketing creates leads, and sales follows up to gauge interest, answer questions, and turn those leads. But, as we all know, it isn’t always that easy. Engaging a lead in a two-way conversation requires speed, patience, and tact. The more powerful a Sales team is in these areas, the more likely they are to be successful.

The variables that contribute to Sales success are referred to as “the 4Ps” at SimpSocial. Engaging leads and developing them into opportunities is easier when you perform well in the 4Ps. The four Ps are:

Quickness: How soon does the sales team react to a lead or inquiry?

How many follow-up attempts would the Sales team make before deciding to move on?

Personalization: How much of your answer was tailored to you? Did the answer make an effort to advance the conversation?

Performance: Did the email make it to the primary inbox of the lead? Is it possible that it ended up in Promotions, Social, or Spam?

Let’s take a closer look at each of these to see how relevant they are and how you can boost your sales effectiveness.

Punctuality

When dealing with an inbound lead, the most critical thing is promptness. The higher the chance of converting a lead to a customer, the quicker the connection is made.

But when it comes to speed, how fast is fast enough? Should Sales teams follow up with a contact who fills out a lead form or requests a demo within hours or minutes? To be honest, sellers only have five minutes to contact leads. According to studies, the chances of qualifying a lead contacted within 5 minutes are ten times higher than those contacted within 10 minutes—and dramatically higher than those contacted after 30 minutes.

Similarly, quick answers give you a leg up on the competition. According to research, 78 percent of consumers purchase from the first responder. Recognizing that COVID-19 and the resulting economic downturn continue to have a detrimental effect on sales cycles, companies must adapt as quickly as possible.

The same is true for generating inbound leads via webinars, virtual events, or content downloads, which require consumers to submit their contact information through a lead form. Some of these prospects want to learn more about your company’s services, while others are only interested in your thought leadership. In this case, it’s a good idea to contact them right away so your company will be on their minds.

Persistence is a virtue.

Although speed is essential, it’s uncommon to convert a lead after just one contact. In fact, getting a lead to react can take up to 15 touches. The pandemic has intensified persistence as a pattern. Sales periods lengthen as budgets tighten. More touches from sales teams are required to entice potential customers to take the next move.

People are preoccupied. Even if a lead intends to answer, it will not do so immediately. Your message could become lost in a cluttered inbox as a result of this. Out of sight, out of mind, as they say. Consistent follow-up keeps your company in the lead’s mind until he or she is able to take the next move and schedule a meeting with your sales team.

Individualization.

Personalization requires the most time and effort of the four Ps to create a specific and appealing message. This problem is exacerbated when salespeople either send a customized email to a new lead right away or persistently pursue a lead over time.

Nonetheless, evidence shows that hard work pays off. Personalized emails get double the number of opens and click-throughs as non-personalized emails.

But what exactly constitutes a personalized email? This five-part norm is used by SimpSocial to define personalization:

Personalized greeting: The contact is addressed by name in the message.

Individual sender: The sender’s name—or at the very least the organization, team, or department name—should be listed in the email’s “From” line.

Signature or contact information: The message includes the sender’s contact information so that he or she can reply.

Success factor: By requesting a meeting time, exchanging educational information, or offering to answer questions, the sales associate pushes the discussion forward.

Personalized material: The email’s content refers to the lead’s original request (whether it’s for a tutorial, a content download, or registration for a webinar or event).

All five are present in a fully personalized email.

Exercising

As you would imagine, personalization and success go hand in hand. The more personalized an email is, the more likely it is to be sent to the primary inbox of the recipient.

Email service providers help consumers by automatically sorting emails into different files. Gmail is a good example of this. A message can end up in the Primary Inbox, Promotions Folder, Social Folder, or Spam Folder, depending on the sender and content of the email. Each of these groups serves a specific function. However, there is a clear difference for Sellers between messaging arriving in the most successful location (the Primary Inbox) and anywhere else.

Sellers can improve email efficiency by adopting best practices and personalizing emails.

What Do You Do If You’re Short on the 4Ps?

Although our 4Ps are focused on industry best practices, hitting all of these categories perfectly every time is difficult. Salespeople only have so many hours in the day to follow up on leads, let alone their other responsibilities. It takes time to create a personalized email, for example.

How will salespeople do a better job of following up with high-performing customized emails on a consistent basis?

Sales teams also use email templates, marketing automation tools, and increasing headcount by recruiting more Sales Development Representatives to help them meet these goals (SDRs). However, it appears that this is insufficient. According to SimpSocial’s 2020 Sales Effectiveness Study, only 8% of companies surveyed performed well across all 4Ps.

Clearly, new strategies and innovations are needed to assist sales teams in improving lead follow-up. Fortunately, an Intelligent Virtual Assistant (IVA) will help (IVA).

By automating lead follow-up and outreach, an IVA helps revenue-generating teams. An Intelligent Virtual Assistant serves as a virtual team member, delivering timely, persistent, and customized messages that often obey best practices, by integrating the power of intelligent automation with the human-like aspects of SimpSocial.

The primary advantage of using an Intelligent Virtual Assistant is the ability to generate sales. Improved operating performance, increased Sales force capability, and better interactions for leads and prospects are all secondary benefits. Sales teams will concentrate their energies on developing relationships with customers and converting leads by outsourcing the tedious tasks of sending personalized messages to leads in order to assess intent and move them to the next best step.

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, you will increase property sales

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, you will increase property sales.

The new pandemic’s uncertainty has begun to have an effect. Working conditions restrictions for the ‘new standard’ are causing a deadly change in the global economy. Physical separation has caused the real estate industry to suspend activities such as open houses, home inspections, and even the building of new homes.

The pace of real estate investment is expected to slow. In the midst of the pandemic, however, there is a ray of hope for realtors, as many people are becoming more willing to purchase homes. Prices have dropped, working conditions have changed, and more people are working from home, which has resulted in a rise in homebuyers.

The big question now is how prepared you are as a realtor to help these homebuyers close property investment deals in the face of COVID-19’s threats. We’ve compiled a list of suggestions to assist you.

Minimize face-to-face interaction and increase online connectivity

Building trust is the most important factor in converting leads into closed sales when selling a home. Thanks to the internet, there are several options for communication and ways to keep consumers informed while also gaining their interest.

And if you were using online platforms to attract more customers prior to the pandemic, you should be aware of how they would help you directly connect your brand to them. You can advertise properties using images or live videos if you’ve managed to create social media accounts. Ads will help you reach out to your target market. To meet your clients, make use of all online marketing resources available to you, such as a completely online contact center portal.

Property inspections can be replaced with virtual tours.

One of the most difficult issues is determining how to sell a property when physical contact is prohibited. Transform physical property inspections into virtual video displays or live virtual tours instead. It will take a little more time, but it will undoubtedly increase the selling points. Consider it fresh marketing materials to spice up the sales pitches.

worldwide contact through the internet

Follow the correct procedures.

Sure, some buyers may need to physically inspect the property they are purchasing to determine if it is a good match. Before a physical meeting, make a list of the appropriate protocols and give them to your client. Before a property inspection, you should remind your prospects of essential reminders such as proper distancing, “No mask, no entry” regulations, sanitation procedures, and the like. This also demonstrates that you are concerned for the welfare of your clients.

Before and after, disinfect and sanitize.

Another thing to think about during these difficult times is how to COVID-proof the assets you’re selling both before and after a physical property inspection. Before inviting your clients in and after they leave, disinfect the floors, walkways, and door handles. This results in a conscientious realtor that puts their clients’ protection first.

Boost your sales team’s efficiency.

Your outbound sales team will face the most challenges, which is why you should look for ways to assist them. One option is to set up a contact center for your real estate company, but will this be feasible during the pandemic? Perhaps it’s time you got to know SimpSocial. Its numerous sales and support features will assist you in running your real estate company and smashing quotas without the need for face-to-face interaction. SimpSocial has a strong sales dialer built specifically for real estate agents.

For starters, SimpSocial’s Power Dialer automates your outbound sales process by calling your leads with just one press. An omnichannel platform helps you to reach leads on any platform, including SMS, making product promotion easier. With SimpSocial’s efficiency and automation software, you can overcome the challenges of working from home.

Are you ready to increase your property sales?

There’s no question that SimpSocial will assist your real estate company in getting ahead in these challenging times. Do you want to see how SimpSocial really works? Our experts will be delighted to assist you. Make an appointment and let’s talk!

Why You Shouldn’t Use Just One Sales Channel

When it comes to closing deals, phone calls have a long history of proving to be the most successful sales channel of all time. And it’s absolutely true: you can educate a customer about your goods and services, develop a partnership, and close a deal in just one call.

Customers, on the other hand, are shifting, and companies and salespeople should be mindful of how they buy goods. When cold calling customers isn’t cutting it, it’s time to look for other ways to refocus your customers’ attention on your business.

Customers can be engaged across various sales networks.

The days of single-channel sales prospecting are long gone. Customers can be found almost everywhere, and how they want to be met now depends on a variety of factors. This is why, when prospecting, using the most efficient distribution channels approach that customers want is the secret to tapping all customers in your business.

1 – Prospecting via text messaging

Customers today are engrossed in one device they can’t do without: cell phones, which is fortunate for companies. That’s why it’s no wonder that 90% of text messages are read within three minutes, compared to just 26% for emails.

Text messaging can be useful, but you shouldn’t waste your leads’ time by not understanding how to use it properly. Remember, this is a private channel, and the last thing you want to do is send a generic “Hello, how are you?” text message.

In text prospecting, particularly if it’s your first time communicating, don’t forget to introduce yourself, tell them how you got their number, and demonstrate your intent. It’s also a good idea to respect their time by asking when they’d be available to speak rather than pressuring them to respond right away.

2 – Email is a great way to stay in touch.

Emails are still an important way for companies to score customers because they enable you to communicate with your target on a regular basis. The best thing about emails is that they allow you to experiment with various content options for connecting with customers.

Because of its strength, email is the best medium to use as the backbone of your overall sales strategy, with other contact channels supporting it.

3 – Promotional and branding fax marketing

Is it still useful? Fax marketing, like cold calling, is an important advertising channel that you can not overlook. Best for political, non-profit, or real estate sales prospecting, this helps you to flex your branding design muscles with some stunning images, all while keeping your target and company mission in mind.

Personalization and Post-script are the two Ps that will make fax marketing cool again (P.S.) Add a personalization note to your fax so you know who to send it to. P.S. works wonders for non-profit projects and prospecting, allowing you to give your cause one more push.

The all-in-one omnichannel app from SimpSocial

With all of these communication networks considered to be successful promotional tools, the question becomes: how can you deal with them all at the same time? SimpSocial comes in handy in this situation.

SimpSocial’s sales omnichannel framework sets out all of these platforms for you to use and handle in one location, providing a streamlined approach to sales and marketing. It allows you to prospect by messaging, emailing, and faxing your customers. Campaigns are easily enabled by SimpSocial’s comprehensive contact center tools, which also includes outbound and inbound calling.

Prospecting is simple without having to manually enter contact information. It also integrates with your current CRM, allowing you to manage all of your data from one location. Anything you need is right where you need it.

Are you ready to start an omnichannel marketing campaign?

Closing sales isn’t a difficult task. Sales channels are useful tools for connecting with and engaging with consumers, but they also carry a certain amount of danger. We take this burden off your hands with SimpSocial so you can spend more time interacting and conversing with your customers. Please contact us to learn more about our omnichannel features.

Your Guide To Automating Sales Workflow (Sales Automation 101)

Many corporations and businesses struggle with sales efficiency, and it has become more prevalent in today’s setting.

There are millions of productivity hacks and applications available to help you get more done at work, but it’s a different story when it comes to sales. Since the only way to determine a sales team’s success is to see how they are meeting their targets.

Technology has paved the way to address these questions, and they’ve even coined a term for it: automation. But does it fully alter the way you do everything you’re used to? Is it really worth it to jump right in? Here’s what you need to know about sales automation.

What is Sales Workflow Automation, and how does it work?

Simply put, sales automation is the process of using software or artificial intelligence to automate repetitive, manual, and time-consuming sales activities and organizing them into a systemized flow. It’s what all technology is supposed to do: make people’s lives simpler.

Human interaction is reduced as a result of automation. However, completely eliminating human involvement in sales is futile, particularly in luxury industries that protect high-value clients, such as real estate or auto retail. This is why determining the best software for sales automation necessitates a thorough understanding of the customers’ purchasing habits before deciding which workflows to automate.

From industry to industry, the consumer buying path varies. You should determine which of these stages needs to be automated before shifting sales tasks into automation mode. There are several ways for us at SimpSocial to help our users simplify their sales process, from lead management to closing, as shown below:

What are the benefits to you?

There are a slew of compelling reasons to make the transition to automation. These factors affect not only you, but everyone involved in your company, especially your valued customers.

Agents’ Guide

Agents are the first line of defense for automation systems, and they are the ones that can recognize the benefits of automation right away. For starters, manual and repetitive activities like dialing numbers will be taken away from them. This saves them time and resources by allowing them to speak to more customers and establish relationships with them, allowing them to close more deals. After all, this is what they’ve agreed to.

For Corporations

Automation not only increases – or even triples – your regular quotas and goals, but it also saves you money. Consider this: one piece of software will perform the work of five additional employees. That’s how effective automation is. You’ll see big returns from automating your company because you won’t have to recruit new staff to handle other duties, and your agents will be able to concentrate solely on closing transactions.

For Clients and Customers

When it comes to this, there has been a lot of hesitancy. Do you think your customers are ready for automation? Our advice is to start by determining your customers’ buying journey.

Real, this is a case-by-case situation. Retail companies have a better chance of becoming fully automated than luxury businesses such as real estate or car dealerships. That isn’t to say they can’t. For example, in real estate, you should figure out which of your sales processes are automated and don’t need human intervention, such as broadcasting promotions, emailing customers, or even dialing numbers. There’s a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to automation.

All of your sales automation software in one place.

It’s time to look for the resources you’ll need now that you’ve seen how automation will help you drive your sales forward. Look no further than SimpSocial, where we will provide features and solutions that are tailored to your specific requirements – all in one place.

SimpSocial’s sales automation

Call Triggers and Auto Dial

With Power Dialer, you can save time and increase productivity. We made it smart enough to assist you in quickly obtaining useful leads. It not only dials the number for you, but it also collects and updates information from your inbound calls. It automatically drops voicemail calls so you don’t have to listen to cold voicemails, and it does all of this with just one press.

Check-ins

We understand the importance of follow-ups in transactions, but we also understand how time-consuming they can be. Reduce your follow-up efforts by enlisting the help of SimpSocial. All you have to do is tag calls based on their outcomes, and a voicemail, text message, or email sequence will be sent out automatically.

Workflow Automation

Tagging calls in SimpSocial allows you to do a variety of things, such as assigning them to various departments for follow-up. You’ll have a consistent call designation inside your company this way. You can route inbound calls to unique agents or teams automatically.

Broadcasting SMS

It’s no surprise that your customers adore texting – and for good reason. Text messages are the most convenient way to communicate with others no matter where they are. The majority of people – including your customers – run their lives via their phones, so you have every excuse to communicate with them through text messaging. SimpSocial makes it simple to send out promotions and updates via SMS.

Triggers for Form Capture/Contact

With SimpSocial, a completed form may become an instant lead. When a consumer fills out a form,SimpSocial records it in our mini CRM for nurturing. This feature makes it simple for you to contact customers who are interested in your service or product.

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Enable us at SimpSocial to demonstrate to you how automation can get the job done quickly and efficiently. Our user-friendly automation solutions have proven to be extremely useful and efficient for the businesses we’ve worked with. Let’s talk about how we can assist you.

Per Real Estate Agent Needs These 5 SimpSocial Features

Selling a property can be both difficult and exciting. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all sales strategy for real estate agents and realtors. It takes a specific collection of skills, a lot of time, and incredible talent to get the attention of prospects and win their confidence to buy a million-dollar property investment.

We hear your challenges at SimpSocial, and we’re here to help you improve your sales operations. We’ll be there for you every step of the way, from making good contacts to winning your buyer’s confidence and finally closing the deal. That’s why we’ve built the best contact center program in the history of real estate sales for you.

Here are five tried-and-true SimpSocial solutions that will make selling real estate a breeze.

1 – It’s all in the cloud.

Working from home is no longer a choice, thanks to the workplace change brought about by the current pandemic. To ensure everyone’s safety, real estate agents and employees must be able to operate remotely. With SimpSocial’s cloud-based functionality, moving from the office to the field is easy.

SimpSocial can be accessed from any computer. Since all you need is an internet connection, you can function remotely anytime you want. SimpSocial’s live dashboard can also be used to manage sales events and quotas. Get the data and analytics you need to keep track of your main performance indicators (KPIs). It’s just as easy to collaborate with your team and agents from everywhere in the world.

2 – A Real Estate Professionals’ Sales Dialer

We provide you with more than just an auto dialer program. You can communicate and engage with hundreds of real estate leads in a single day using SimpSocial’s power dialer. All it takes is a single button press.

Power Dialer is much more intelligent than you can believe. It will predict when your call will go to voicemail, in addition to dialing the numbers of potential property buyers for you. When it detects you, it will leave you a prerecorded message, hang up, and move on to the next lead. It’ll save you a lot of time!

3 – CRM integrations in real time

We understand how important CRMs are to real estate agents, so we made it simpler (and a hundred times better) to use SimpSocial directly inside your preferred tool. To make integrations that work for you, we’ve collaborated with big CRMs like HubSpot and Pipedrive.

You don’t have to manually enter any of the data with our 2-way data sync. SimpSocial sends every call, email, and operation to your CRM, and vice versa. There will be no more manual data entry. There will be no more flipping between tabs.

SimpSocial CRM integrations

4 – Software for automating workflows

Have you ever wished that someone would take care of the mundane activities so you could concentrate on the more important ones? With SimpSocial’s automation software, you can remove repetitive tasks and increase productivity. For your communication center, we’ve gotten you some extra hands, eyes, and ears.

You will concentrate on improving customer experiences by automating your calls, follow-ups, and text messages. Leave marketing and prospecting to SimpSocial so you can spend more time engaging with valuable prospects.

With SimpSocial, you can simplify workflows.

5 – Help across all channels

Be where your customers are, and communicate with them across the channels they want. You can handle your calls, messages, and emails all in one place with SimpSocial. To successfully increase your response rates, you can initiate campaigns and monitor engagements through multiple platforms.

Do you want to follow up on a lead? You have a plethora of options: you can call, text, email, and even fax them right from SimpSocial. You’ll have a great chance of winning them over if you use all of your consumer channels. Isn’t this a fantastic chance to expedite your deals?

technology for omni-channel contact centers

SimpSocial is a strong contact center that recognizes REAL real estate sales challenges. For your sales and service needs, we also have a lot of features and resources! To learn more about how we can help you increase revenue and improve your contact center, schedule a demo or a consultation with one of our experts.

What You Should Know About Apple’s iOS 14 Update and Facebook

Facebook for Business told advertisers in Q1 2021 that the forthcoming improvements in Apple’s iOS 14 update “will impact how we obtain and process conversion events from tools like the Facebook pixel.”

If you use the Facebook platform to monitor conversions from your social ads on your website or app, this update would have a significant impact on how your business’s Facebook Ads track conversions. Here’s what to expect.

SimpSocial’s Facebook Ads Manager Activity Preview

What Happened to Facebook and Apple’s iOS 14?

“You’ll be expected to ask users for their permission to monitor them through applications and websites operated by other companies,” according to Apple’s updated iOS 14 policy for apps.

This means that their newest operating system, iOS14, now allows users to choose whether or not an app can monitor their web and app activities. Since most Facebook and Instagram activity takes place in an app, and Apple devices account for a significant portion of their users’ devices, this has a disproportionate effect on them as compared to other advertisement channels.

Who Is Affected by This?

Advertisers who want to match their ads to customer behavior on their website or in their app (i.e., those running conversion campaigns in Apps and web-based properties for purposes of e-commerce and lead generation, among other marketing objectives.)

What Will Facebook Ads Look Like in 2021?

What effect will the iOS14 updates have on your company’s Facebook ad campaigns? Essentially, Apple iOS devices will exchange even less data with Facebook, and the data that is received will feed in less regularly and be more anonymized.

This translates to:

Less Reporting/Web Events Attribution Accuracy: In Facebook Events Manager, fewer conversions will be monitored (though they will still happen in real life), and audiences will be smaller.

Shorter Attribution Lookback Windows: We used to be able to attribute acts up to 28 days after clicking on an ad. The time limit has been shortened to seven days.

Advertisers will be less able to segment their audiences based on user behavior on websites because activities taken on Apple devices will be shared less. Exclusion groups will be less dependable, and those who have participated in an activity will have a smaller audience (ex: custom audiences created based on website activity).

Just 8 Conversions: If several advertisers are using the same website domain, they would only have to share the top 8 conversions, which will be prioritized in reporting. This is in response to an iOS14 update that only reports one action to Facebook, so they’re prioritizing which activities to report on.

Changes to Breakdown Reporting: When analyzing ad results, demographic breakdowns would be removed.

Changes to conversion events will be more difficult: Changing conversion events in a campaign will cause the advertising to be paused for several days until the new data is aligned.

Changes in Conversion Value: In e-commerce, value-based conversions will now be reported in tiers rather than individual costs.

In the new Facebook AEM settings, you can set conversion priorities.

What Does the Future Hold for Advertisers and Businesses?

Apple’s enforcement is expected to take effect in March 2021, and in the meantime, advertisers can verify domains and prioritize conversions in Facebook’s latest AEM (Aggregated Event Measurement) to prevent downtime when enforcement occurs.

A verified domain is indicated by a green dot in Facebook Ads Manager.

What are SimpSocial’s Adaptive Strategies?

The safety of customers is crucial. People should have power over the information that big tech firms gather about them, and we should all respect that. Apple’s decision to step forward as a hardware vendor is a positive thing because it gives users more power of how their data is processed and exchanged. This follows the same pattern as what we’re seeing in browsers and “cookie-geddon.”

However, after listening to Facebook’s advice, it seems that this latest privacy policy ignores the manner in which many applications are already set up with in-app browsing of webpages, forcing advertisement platforms to struggle to adapt with little knowledge of how to achieve enforcement while also supplying advertisers with the insights they’re used to.

We assume that further adaptations will occur, and that Facebook is working on modeling solutions to ensure that marketers can still monitor ROI. We’ll also return to using Google Analytics to measure total target completions, but keep in mind that its last click attribution model is less forgiving than Facebook’s 7-day lookback window.

In preparation for the changes, SimpSocial has started verifying our client domains in Facebook Business Manager and restructuring ad account conversion events.

Not sure what to do next?

Is your company in need of a dependable Facebook Ads partner when these changes take effect? Let’s talk about it.

Is It Necessary to Get Reviews for Your Business? Yes, there is a spoiler.

Reviews have never been more critical in the digital marketplace. They have the power to influence whether a customer chooses you or your rival. If they’re looking for a new restaurant, deciding where to live, finding a dentist, deciding which homebuilder to use for a new home, or deciding where to stay on their next holiday, your reviews are increasingly becoming their first stop.

Customers are searching for information about your company’s quality of operation, fair pricing, venue, and customer service in reviews. Reviews are critical in any industry, and your company needs them to stay competitive!

What Role Do Reviews Play in Business?

Reviews are 2x more likely than loyalty to be an important factor in selecting a local company, according to Podium’s State of Reviews for 2021. That means that even though you have a loyal customer base, you risk losing their business if your rivals have higher star ratings and new, appropriate, and high-quality feedback.

a sneak peek at Podium’s State of Reviews for 2021

Source: State of Reviews for Podium 2021

According to the same survey, 88 percent of customers use feedback to find new local businesses. And before they accept your company’s goods and services, customers want to hear what others have to say about you before learning more about you.

To prevent this, you must make it as simple as possible for your customers to leave positive or negative feedback about your business.

What Impact Do Negative Reviews Have on Your Business?

If a customer leaves a negative rating, it’s possible that something or someone failed to fulfill their standards. According to Podium’s survey, 85 percent of the time when consumers leave negative reviews, it’s because of a bad experience with an employee.

Negative reviews can be devastating to your online credibility, but they also provide an incentive for you to better your business. It could be as simple as having a conversation with your staff about the value of customer service, or you could need to come up with some ideas for streamlining operations or procedures to avoid long wait times. In any case, your customer’s analysis may reveal information about your company that you hadn’t considered before.

Must-Do: Address negative reviews in public.

Whether it’s an employee’s attitude, the quality of a purchase, or an event that didn’t go as planned, publicly responding to negative feedback shows that you care for the customers’ concerns. Suggestion: take the discussion offline to further address their problem. Since the review will stay on your profile, consumers will be able to see how your customer service handled the situation in the future.

Screenshot of a Business Responding to a Negative Review

Sixty-six percent of consumers claim that a company’s response to negative feedback has influenced their opinion of the company. It’s obvious that ignoring positive or negative feedback has an effect on how consumers perceive a business, so keep this in mind the next time you manage your company’s reviews.

5 Ways to Get Positive Online Reviews for Your Company

Make a claim of ownership of all of your profiles. This includes Google, Yelp, Social Media, and industry-specific websites, among others.

Said (screenshot) My Business Locations on Google Verified Google My Business Profile

Claimant’s Yelp Business Page (Screenshot)

Yelp has claimed your profile.

This allows you to have complete control of your company’s online identity. You can monitor your business hours, contact details, and react to online reviews with Yelp and Google My Business, for example.

Request feedback.

If your best clients, partners (such as Realtors), or tenants had a positive experience, ask them to leave a comment. Your chances of turning consumers into promoters improve if you have outstanding customer service and a quality product. Delighting your customers with ideas that enthusiastically address their issues will help you create a loyal customer base that will be more likely to leave glowing reviews.

Add Review Links to Your Website

Add links to your website to your Houzz, Google My Company, or Yelp profiles. Put them in an obvious place, such as the “Contact Us” section or the footer of your website. Make it easy for your customers to find your profiles if they want to leave feedback without being asked.

When you say “thank you,” follow up.

Follow up with a “Thank You/Leave a Review” note. If they receive an email asking them to leave a review after having a positive experience, 36% of consumers are more likely to do so. Your “Thank You/Leave a Review” email can be scheduled to go out at the most convenient moment for your prospects and customers. Is this the point at which a project is finished? Is this a few days after the project is finished? Determine when you believe your customers will be most pleased with the service provided and schedule your follow-up emails accordingly.

Get the Right Tools to Make It Easy for You

Customers can easily rate and review your company using tools like Podium, ReviewPush, Yext, and SEM Rush. These “get more feedback” tools will automate the process of sending review requests via text or email, compile and publish reviews, and make it simple to respond to all reviews that are sent quickly.

Creating a Review-Building Strategy?

Let’s talk if this sounds complicated and you already have a lot on your plate. SimpSocial has a track record of connecting companies with the right tools to increase their online visibility and get more feedback.

While you concentrate on your company, our team will assist you in developing a customer retention and review plan. Let’s get in touch.

HubSpot has named SimpSocial as a Platinum Partner

HubSpot has named SimpSocial as a Platinum Partner.

SimpSocial is pleased to announce that we have been named a HubSpot Platinum Partner, having met HubSpot’s high standards in:

Certifications for Onboarding

Expansion

We’re proud of our track record of successfully implementing HubSpot marketing for developers, designers, and a variety of other businesses. Reaching this new tier is a badge of distinction, demonstrating our team’s experience in implementing lead generation, sales monitoring, and campaign management strategies for our clients.

What exactly is HubSpot?

HubSpot is a robust CRM that is based on the inbound approach. It’s a tool for attracting new leads, engaging with them, and delighting them into being customers and promoters for your business.

According to HubSpot’s Flywheel model, if your inbound approach is aligned with your business goals, you can use the energy of pleased customers to generate referrals and repeat sales.

Model of a HubSpot Flywheel

HubSpot: The Flywheel (source)

What is the purpose of HubSpot?

It’s not just a methodology; it’s also a strong CRM (customer relationship management tool). Every stage of the buyer journey can be tracked in HubSpot.

Contact histories will reveal the lead’s original source (organic search, paid search, social media, and so on), demonstrating the return on your marketing investments.

Create lists to organize and segment your leads so that you can curate your marketing messages and send the right details to the right people at the right time.

Create and embed forms with progressive form fields, which alter when the user has already responded to a query. Without being intrusive, learn all about the clients and prospects.

Create deals to keep track of sales leads and pass them down the sales funnel. From the time an appointment is made to the time the deal is closed, you can keep track of your offers.

To see your deal stages, revenue, communication sources, and more, run reports. With Dashboards that display the metrics that matter to the sales and marketing teams, you can easily exchange report data with them.

HubSpot has three subscription levels to choose from, allowing the company to scale as it expands. Do you want to learn more? Let’s talk about it.

The Top 5 HubSpot Implementations at SimpSocial

In what ways has SimpSocial excelled at applying HubSpot for our clients? Here are some of our personal favourites.

#1. Using Home Price Searches to Build Email Automations

Our team developed workflows that send emails to a section of visitors based on their website behavior. Our automation activates for some of our homebuilder/developer clients depending on the home price range that a website user searches for.

Contact Enrollment Trigger in HubSpot Workflow SimpSocial designed this for a home price quest.

The prospect receives the subsequent email sent to this section immediately, providing them with useful knowledge at the precise moment they are interested in learning more about it.

#2. Using the HubSpot Integration to Build Custom Ads Audiences

Our award-winning Facebook team will build custom audiences and remarketing audiences in Facebook Ads using HubSpot lists. This direct integration ensures that as HubSpot gathers more leads, the custom audiences are refreshed in real time, giving our clients more touch points during the buyer journey.

For example, based on home search activity on the website, we created a custom audience and served content to these leads that was centered on inventory vs. lifestyle details. When these leads convert, the integration also helps us to display revenue derived from advertising.

#3. Revenue and Influenced Contacts Tracking

The SimpSocial team was able to see the number of leads affected by a particular campaign after implementing HubSpot’s “Campaign” feature.

We were able to report that a particular event campaign produced 2 closed deals and 64 contacts who interacted with the campaign by assigning specific email properties, workflows, Facebook ad campaigns, and Google ad campaigns to it (influenced contacts).

SimpSocial created a HubSpot campaign report screenshot for a development to monitor influenced revenue and contacts.

#4. Specialized Email Welcome Series (Award-Winning)

Email drip promotions, which are a series of emails that expose your subscribers to various facets of your brand while potentially moving them further down the funnel, have always been a SimpSocial favorite.

It’s simple to build a welcome series in HubSpot for a particular segment of buyers with a specific interest. Our team developed a drip campaign for a 55+ Active Lifestyle Community that consisted of a series of seven emails sent over a longer period of time to sustain communication and interest between progress announcements.

The drip initiative earned a Silver Award at the International Builders’ Show, with benchmarks well exceeding industry averages (IBS).

The average open rate is 38.37%. (Industry average: 21 percent )

15.07 percent is the average click rate (Industry average: 2 percent )

Level of Builder Leads: 12.5% (73 out of 585)

17 sales came from online sources (half of initial sales)

#5 Personalized Reporting Dashboards

Because of our intimate relationship with our clients, we can recognise the metrics that are important to you and assist you in creating reporting dashboards.

SimpSocial created a custom reporting dashboard for HubSpot to display leads by lifecycle stage and chatbot source.

The SimpSocial also has a dedicated HubSpot support team that will help you find more ways to improve the way you report data and keep up with new HubSpot reporting tool updates.

What Is HubSpot and How Do I Get Started With It?

SimpSocial has a track record of assisting developers and builders in growing their businesses using HubSpot software. Schedule a time to talk if you’d like to learn more about the possibilities. Let’s talk about you for a moment.

For Your Blog, SEO Best Practices

The secret to successful SEO blog content is to provide value to the reader. Publishing interesting, useful content that your readers will want to bookmark and return to again, share with others, or connect to on their own websites is one of the best SEO practices for your blog.

Your aim is to get people to find your website through organic search and then KEEP them there by providing them with useful content that answers their questions. Google would consider your page important if visitors spend more time on it for that search word. Search engine rankings rise for pages that are considered more important.

What are the best SEO practices for a blog in 2021?

In their most basic form, SEO best practices in 2021 can be summarized as follows:

Concentrate on producing high-quality content that your readers can appreciate.
With a minimum of 500 words, test long-form blog material.
Use technical SEO for headers, connections, and images to naturally incorporate your keywords into the text. Text in the ALT format
On key anchor keywords, link out to high domain authority websites.
Everywhere, mobile responsive design is crucial.
To help the reader on their exploration trip, link the blog to similar pages on your website.
Best SEO Practices Image for the Blog Header

What Constitutes a Good Blog Topic for SEO?
Blogs that pose a question and then respond with an answer “How To” articles
Lists of the Best (Top 5, Top 20, Top 100, etc.)
When presenting your response in your blog, use bullet points or numbered lists. In their featured performance, Google favors blogs that do so. Featured results are those that appear in-line in Google search. The featured result response is then followed by a link to your blog. Consider the following scenario:

Results for the query “Top 10 College Freshman Advice” on Google.

The Ultimate Blog Post SEO Checklist
the content
Content is king in SEO; useful, helpful content can entice a visitor to not only visit your website, but to use it as a resource to either hoard for themselves or share with others. Your aim is to make all of your content useful. In reality, according to a Backlinko.com report, long-form content receives 77.2 percent more backlinks than short posts. (Did you see what we did there? It’s useful: we shared a connection to it with you.)

Tip: One way to start writing a blog is to use Google to look up the top two results for the subject you want to write about. Make your blog better (optimized keywords, alt text inclusion, better spacing, your brand’s take on the material) and longer (but don’t plagiarize – Google penalizes duplicate content) by copying the content and layout of the top-ranked blog.

Is the blog’s word count sufficient to achieve the goal?
To share news/updates, write a blog post. A minimum of 500 words is required.
1,000–2,000 words to increase social shares
2,000–5,000 words to increase backlinks and domain authority
4000+ words per pillar page
Is the blog set up in a way that makes it easy to read?
For visual separation, use H2 and H3 headers.
Lists of bullets or numbers are preferred.
Font sizes that are easy to read
Keywords and phrases
In the blog, automatically have a main keyword as well as any secondary terms you’d associate with that keyword.

For example, the main keyword you’re looking for is “vintage handbags.” Other keywords to consider are “vintage designer handbags” and “vintage purses.” You can also include the terms “designer” and “purses” in your blog. If you use the terms “designer” and “purses” in your blog, search engines are now smart enough to equate them with the other keyword phrases you chose to hit.

Have you established the primary and secondary keywords and used them in the placements that follow?
Meta description (Maximum of 60 characters)
Meta overview (maximum of 160 characters; include keyword near start)
Name of the blog
Near the start of the blog, the first paragraph
Consider including keywords in the blog body’s H2 and H3 headers.
Is the keyword used automatically in the text with a native speaker’s writing voice?
Don’t think about keyword density; just make sure the keyword isn’t stuffed in an unnatural way.
Is the keyword being looked up already?
Try searching for the word in Google to see if it auto-completes.
Google Trends is a free analysis tool that shows keyword trends.
Include keywords that aren’t as common but have a lot of searches.
If you use secondary or related keywords in your blog material, include variations of that keyword.
Is there a keyword in the blog’s URL?
Avoid using symbols in your blog’s URL.
Use hyphens to separate sentences.
The URL should be as nearest as possible to the root domain.
The URL should clearly state what the blog is about.
Ensure that ALL photos on the site have ALT text that is descriptive. MOZ, the gold standard of SEO testing and learning, has a great article on ALT text best practices if you want to learn more.

What exactly is ALT Text? For web crawlers and screen readers for the visually impaired, these are definitions in the HTML code that define the image on the website. In addition to providing web accessibility for screen reader users, their aim is to view the text if the image fails to load and to provide background to search engine crawlers.

Images can also help to break up a large amount of text on a page, making it easier to read. The aim is to increase the amount of time a visitor spends on your site since this tells search engines that the content on your site is interesting enough for them to continue.

Did you rename the image file before uploading it to your website to make it more descriptive of the image?
Are all of your photos web-ready?
For faster page loading times, make sure all images are under 500kB.
Is there alt text on all of the photos in the blog?
Are all of the photos as detailed as possible?
Most posts, connectives, and prepositions can be omitted (examples: the, and, in)
Is it possible to use the keyword in certain photos while preventing keyword stuffing?
Are there photos strategically positioned in the blog to break up long stretches of text and add meaning to the content?
Include photos that are exclusive to your business or product, and make the file name and ALT text as descriptive as possible.
For example, if a user searches for pink flower girl dresses for toddlers and you happen to have a picture of this product online, this image can appear in Google images, directing users to your site.
Connecting
Linking to your blog is an important part of your blog’s SEO. Using anchor keywords, blogs should connect to other internal pages (for example, “See our available homes” should link to a “Available Homes” page).

Including these links in areas where the reader can find it useful to learn more. Add other related material to increase the amount of time a visitor spends on your site.

Is there any anchor keyword linking to other internal pages on the blog?
Add links to places where the reader can get more detail.
The content of the destination connection should match the text of the hyperlink.
Is there a clear outbound link to a high-domain-authority website on the blog?
External links should all open in a new tab.
Is the use of external connections beneficial to the reader?
Check that the blog does not connect to the same internal page too many times – once is enough.
SEO in a technical sense
In 2020, mobile traffic accounted for over 65 percent of all sessions on our client websites – responsive web design is no longer optional. In addition to useful content, ensuring that your website meets the technological criteria for a streamlined user interface is an important part of SEO strategy.

Google’s PageSpeed Insights will help you determine the speed of your blog page. Is there some way to improve the page’s performance?
Summary of SEO Best Practices for 2021
In SEO, there is no one-size-fits-all solution; best practices shift as Google’s algorithm does. However, one thing is certain: SEO’s position in connecting customers with valuable content that can assist them in their customer journey will not change.

Do you want to start an SEO campaign for your company?

How To Improve The Assisted Living Community’s SEO

Senior living facilities need a successful senior living SEO plan to improve awareness and climb to the top of search results as more seniors use search and social media today. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of seniors use the internet today; we know they’re looking; the question is, who can they find? To target your particular audience and set yourself apart from other senior living choices, SEO is also essential. Seniors and their families searching for independent living communities can use different keywords and search methods than those looking for assisted living or skilled nursing.

For Senior Living Communities, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must.

Keyword Research for Senior Living

Ranking for keywords is essential, but only if your target audience uses those keywords. There are a number of options available to assist you in selecting the right words. Google Keyword Planner and Keywordtool.io are great places to start because they’re both free and will provide you with feedback and search volume estimates. This will help you focus on the keywords that matter most to you and keep your content important. The best way to get local traffic is to target keywords with high search volume as well as keywords with geo identifiers. If your assisted living group is in Houston, Texas, for example, you’ll want to include Houston, Texas in any of your keyword phrases so that Houston-area prospects can find your website.

Long-tail keywords are also essential for driving traffic. For example, “assisted living in Texas” or “affordable assisted living” may be long-tail keywords for an assisted living environment. They’re more targeted, may or may not have a lot of search traffic, but they’re less competitive (and therefore less expensive) at attracting the people you want.

Don’t Stop at Keywords

Google releases more advanced algorithms on a daily basis, and it gets smarter every day. The semantic web concept has begun to be incorporated into search engines, allowing them to define meaning and better match search queries with the user’s purpose and actions. This means that having unique keywords on your website, as well as optimized metadata and H-titles, isn’t enough. Your material should be both free and useful. It may be a free PDF with a checklist to help families find the right community for their senior parent in the senior living sector. To get a prototype, click the button below.

Conversion Optimisation

You’ve worked hard to boost website traffic, but now it’s time for the traffic to convert. You should include your website design and user interface when determining your SEO strategy. Is the architecture of your website suitable for senior citizens? Are your conversion-optimized landing pages? Do you have phone numbers, online forms, a sign-up for a newsletter, and direct call-to-action callouts?

Take into account the website’s mobile experience as well. Is your website fast to load? Visitors dislike waiting and will abandon your site if it takes longer than three seconds to load, limiting your growth and lead generation opportunities. A sluggish mobile site also affects your score, according to the most recent Google Speed Update. Here’s where you can put your skills to the test.

Do you want to learn how to implement Inbound Marketing in your Senior Living Community?

Implementing inbound marketing solutions is a perfect way to produce highly qualified leads. To learn how to use inbound marketing to market your senior living group, download our White Paper.

How To Use Inbound Marketing Effectively In Your Senior Living Community

Maintain the relevance and freshness of your material.

People are searching for information online and reading reviews more than ever before in order to make a decision (by the way, how do the reviews appear on social media and listing websites?). If you regularly publish fresh, valuable content that lets your guests learn more about your assisted living facility and offers resources to help them choose the best community for their needs, you can draw more traffic.

Google is a big fan of new content (did you know they have a Freshness Algorithm and a fresh content rating factor?). Your latest material, which is clearly tailored for your chosen keywords, and regular updates inform Google that your site is important to the subject and, as a result, will help you rank higher. The more useful material you have on your website, the better.

Create backlinks

A dynamic, high-quality link-building campaign is critical to your SEO strategy. The number of times your website is connected around the web is used by search engines like Google to determine relevancy and popularity. Getting your senior living facility listed and checked on Google My Company, as well as senior living directories like A Place For Mom, caring.com, senioradvisor.com, retirementliving.com, or seniorly.com, is a great way to create highly relevant backlinks. This will also help you attract tourists who would not otherwise find you.

Maintaining consistency across directories is important, and using a data management tool like Yext or anything similar would make your life a lot easier.

Enable SimpSocial to assist you.

Inbound Marketing’s Four Pillars

Inbound Marketing’s Four Pillars

Delivering ideas and building resources that will have a positive effect on your company and goals is what inbound marketing is all about. To communicate with your prospects and eventually engage your clients, your approach should involve a variety of marketing platforms and solutions.

For Your Assisted Living Group, Use Inbound Marketing Strategies

It is not enough to simply have a website; you must also draw visitors to it. What’s the right way to go about doing this? We’ll go over the four foundations of staying top of mind for the clients and potential audience in the sections below. These concepts will help you expand your pipeline, increase conversions, raise brand awareness, and improve your overall reporting.

1- Attract attention

This is where you demonstrate to your prospects that you are trustworthy. You establish a rapport with the individual and ask pertinent questions. Can you assist them in resolving their issues? Can you put them at ease if that’s the case? Is it possible for you to make it easy to schedule time on your calendar?

The main goal is to raise visibility and put yourself in front of your prospects by telling them who you are and what you do. You want to draw traffic to your website and provide them with useful material. Do you have any questions about your business that you can answer?

CALLING PROSPECTS, EMAIL TEMPLATES, MEETING SCHEDULING, CONVERSATIONAL BOTS ARE ALL ATTRACTIVE TOOLS (CHATBOTS)

2 – Transform

You want to turn eligible marketing leads into customers after you’ve attracted them. Lead forms, newsletter subscriptions, and other places where your contacts can opt-in to your communications should be located here. You want them to be able to send you their email address, name, and other pertinent information that will help you better understand how you can assist them in becoming a customer. Check your analytics to see where your visitors are coming from – Google, social media, or a blog post? This is crucial during the exploration stage of your relationship. You’ve finally obtained the required digits – or email address.

Attract, Convert, Close, and Delight are four words that come to mind when it comes to marketing.

You now have an inbound lead in your hands, which is fantastic. Although this is a fantastic opportunity, make sure you participate in a way that allows you to stay ahead of your competition.

3 – Conclude

We’re both eager to complete the transaction. So, what’s the right way to go about doing it? It’s all about the numbers. What is the minimum number of leads you need to convert into paying customers? You want to provide them with the details they need and assist them along the way without being too intrusive or spammy. We want them to be enthralled by your post. Don’t be overjoyed when you get an email because you’ve just missed out on an opportunity. Check your CRM and keep track of action to see how you can better serve and close this opportunity.

SALES PIPELINE, VIDEOS, PLAYBOOKS, EMAIL SEQUENCES, SALES AUTOMATION ARE ALL Near TOOLS.

4 – Rejoice

Once you’ve left your favorite restaurant, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? You may want to leave a Google Review, share the dinner on social media, or even share with your neighbors, aside from the fact that you are happily complete. When you turn your customers into promoters and raving reviewers, you’ve hit the delight stage.

This is the stage that is often ignored. How much of your revenue is from regular customers or referrals? If your customers are satisfied, you can reward them or have them participate in a referral program that helps both your customer and your bottom line.

QUOTES, SALES AUTOMATION, SMART NOTIFICATIONS, CONVERSATION INBOX, CONVERSATION ROUTING ARE ALL DELIGHT TOOLS.

5 – Steps To Getting Your Inbound Marketing Campaign Started

Wouldn’t it be great if your senior living center had a waiting list? We know the best way to connect with your potential residents and their families. Take a look at our guide right now.

How To Use Inbound Marketing Effectively In Your Senior Living Community

Following the Inbound approach will help you draw leads to your company and cultivate those who are already clients by making it easier for people to find you and creating a friendly sales experience – so that it is really a delightful process for both of you.

Enable SimpSocial to assist you.

Syncing The CRM And Contact Center For Better Sales Is The Secret Sauce

CRMs aren’t all made equal. Businesses should look for a CRM tool that is compatible with their sales processes. Companies that use CRMs have higher consumer satisfaction and are seen as meeting their quotas better, according to a new Aberdeen Research report. CRM is undeniably beneficial to sales teams. However, in order to get the most out of it, you must understand how to fully integrate it with your contact center.

However, how can you make the most of your sales strategies now that you have all of these CRMs in place? What are the chances of reaching out to your CRM contacts effectively at scale? Here’s how this fantastic integration will help.

HubSpot CRM and SimpSocials Phone Solutions are a sales force couple.

If you’re a HubSpot regular, you’ve no doubt learned about the advantages of having a strong CRM. Any manual job is made obsolete by HubSpot’s well-structured method. Its innovative and reliable platform provides small to large companies with a framework that is so sweet, you won’t believe it’s free.

HubSpot, a fantastic CRM, deserves an equally fantastic contact center platform. SimpSocial assists HubSpot in connecting salespeople with consumers by providing the most innovative contact center tools that can be accessed directly from HubSpot’s smart platform.

There’s a lot more you can do with HubSpot and SimpSocial.

SimpSocial can be extremely beneficial to HubSpot sales teams. We’ve made SimpSocial and HubSpot so compatible that you can use them together. Yes, you don’t have to change tabs, update results, or do something else manually. You may start working on improving relationships with each customer on your CRM list with SimpSocial.

1- Data synchronization is two-way.

We understand how inconvenient it is to manually record every call and piece of data. While HubSpot and SimpSocial two separate platforms, this incredible integration allows you to work on them as one. On both platforms, every call, email, action, and contact data is synced and updated.

Use your CRM data to run several sales campaigns or check whether you’re on track to meet your sales targets. You don’t have to worry about the quality of your data in either case because everything is registered and logged in real-time.

2 – Managing several networks from a single location

Customers are everywhere, and relying on only one communication medium to successfully reach the target market is insufficient. Customers can seal the deal if demographics, preferences, places, and behaviors are targeted, but it also depends on whether you know how to communicate with them through the channel of their choice.

Customers prefer call and text contact, which our HubSpot Phone integration allows you to use. You can enroll your CRM data into SimpSocial’s call or text sequences using HubSpot workflows. You can start and stop call and text campaigns with a single click, allowing you to concentrate on other tasks during the day.

3 – Outbound automation on a wide scale

With SimpSocial and HubSpot combined, outbound marketing is far more efficient. With workflows, we give you more options to start calling more customers from HubSpot. Simply enter your information into SimpSocial’s power dialer series to automate call follow-ups and voicemails.

We agree that outbound marketing isn’t all about making phone calls. Increase the efficiency of your SMS sales campaigns by sending messages at a large scale. HubSpot Workflows enables you to enroll your CRM data and create triggers for sending personalized SMS or MMS messages. Yes, you can submit images with your messages using SimpSocial.

4 – All of the dialers you’ll need

Your sales quotas are highly reliant on the reliability and compatibility of dialers with the sales teams when it comes to contact centers. You won’t have to think about that with SimpSocial. Our dialers can be used in any way that is most convenient for you. The best part is that you can access them directly from your HubSpot account.

You can use SimpSocial’s HubSpot dialer in three different ways. Simply press the dialer integration button to ring all of your contacts at once. You may also use HubSpot’s CTI or chrome extension, or use HubSpot workflows to run your calls with SimpSocial’s power dialer if you have a larger list. It has an automatic voicemail drop feature that allows you to miss bad calls and focus on high-value customers.

5 – Remote solutions and cloud-based systems

With the advancement of communication networks and technology, as well as changing work environments, demand for remote working options will continue to increase. Sales teams must be able to keep up, and in order to do so, you’ll need a reliable system that can handle the demands of remote work.

It’s time to untangle the squad from the company phone’s cords. Choose a phone system that can be used in any place. During these turbulent times, cloud-based apps and systems should be your first option. Both HubSpot and SimpSocial endorse this, offering you a competitive edge in the form of a mobile CRM and contact center.

6- Inbound and outbound efforts that are connected

This perfectly sums up your HubSpot and SimpSocial experience. Even though inbound and outbound are two sides of the same coin, integrating them seems like the most logical thing you can do for your contact center – and it’s all thanks to SimpSocial.

SimpSocial provides resources that can appeal to both consumers and officers. Some features allow you to save time on repeat calls by routing them to the agent who dealt with them first. You can also experiment with various queue and routing options to see what works best for your customers. Start sending long-queue calls to SMS, or give callbacks to customers to reduce their wait time.

7 – Custom reports and live analytics

Within the SimpSocial dashboard, you can see data as it happens. CRM data from HubSpot and SimpSocial communications will be reflected in your synced data. You’ll never have to reorganize data or recalculate results because all reports can be completed in a flash and with just a few mouse clicks.

With reliable data and analytics running in the background, you’ll have plenty of time to develop sales strategies. Send out broadcast messages to your entire contact list, track engagement, and spot hot leads until they vanish. Tripling the conversion rates is easier and quicker than ever before, and you won’t have to think about anything else.

Integration that is most compatible

We didn’t only make it possible for HubSpot to use SimpSocial. We have made it work with it in sync. This, we think, demonstrates the most effective approach for all of your contact center requirements. Connecting these resources as salespeople can only mean one thing: more sales for your business.

We can no longer think of CRMs as “additional tasks” or “tracking tools.” Instead, think of all the things you can do about it. Handling customers to increase revenue would be a breeze with a smartly integrated contact center that operates within it. Today, try HubSpot with SimpSocial!

Own the Road: How to Increase the Number of Customers Who Visit Your Dealership

Since the automotive industry is the second most expensive in the world, retaining customers can be difficult. Car dealerships are fiercely competitive because they enable consumers to make a significant financial commitment before making a purchase. You should have the right tools for companies like this to not only entice consumers but also win their loyalty.

There are several methods for keeping the car dealership in front of customers. Customer interaction has proved to be the lifeblood of car dealership sales. However, much like every other career, this one takes time, commitment, and committed individuals to complete.

Automate the Auto Repair Company

When it comes to car dealership sales, you should make a commitment to engaging with customers. Make sure a customer doesn’t feel like a number in your daily quota. They are, after all, making a significant financial decision. You should make them feel good about it as a salesperson.

Make every effort to communicate with them and engage with them in as many ways as possible. Yes, it’s time-consuming, but did you know that automating the communication channels or contact center can make a significant difference?

Selling and conversing with leads is a lot simpler with automation in your contact center. Allowing a power dialer to call your list, stop voicemails, and identify bad numbers will save you a lot of time. There’s no need to stress about keeping your contacts and CRM up to date. You can concentrate more on developing relationships with valuable customers because automation takes care of all the extra work.

SimpSocial: Getting You Ready for Automation

Many new communication networks have emerged as a result of the phone and the internet. Streamlining them all into a single structure, on the other hand, is a different matter.

You’re in for a treat with a complete contact center like SimpSocial, particularly because it runs on the cloud. You’ll be shocked by how much it can help you with your car dealership company, as it’s packed with features for omnichannel sales and marketing automation.

Structure of Form-to-Lead

With SimpSocial, converting website visitors into instant leads is easy. Fill out a form on your website for interested customers or website users, and SimpSocial will save their information to your contact list automatically. It synchronizes with your CRM, ensuring that all information is up to date.

Dialer for outbound sales

SimpSocial’s Power Dialer is a thing of beauty. Apart from dialing the numbers from your data list, we’ve improved it to better assist you. It drops calls that go to voicemail automatically, but not before leaving a message for the lead to communicate with you as soon as possible. Break those quotas and speak with 500+ leads in one day!

SMS to Push Calls

We all know that in the car dealership industry, in-person transactions outnumber phone sales. So, what does a call center have to do with closing car sales? It’s that simple. You can speak as much as you want to persuade a customer to visit your store.

The omnichannel method of SimpSocial lets you get in front of leads no matter where they are. It uses all available contact platforms on your behalf. Customers can be contacted again via text from calls, and vice versa.

MMS Promotions + SMS Promotions

For years, salespeople have debated whether to call or text a lead. However, times are changing now that SMS has been shown to help prospects shape personal connections. A simple “Happy Birthday” text greeting to your clients, for example, serves a dual purpose: it shows you’re not forgotten about them and that you’re still available if they decide to make a purchase. You can automate such messages and more with SimpSocial’s automation software. MMS blasting is also supported, allowing you to send out an infinite number of digital flyers!

With SimpSocial, you can take control of the lane!

Change the gears. Allow us to automate your outbound activities and increase your revenue and customer loyalty. We have a few more features up our sleeves, so speak with one of our leaders to learn more. Good luck with your sales!

A Senior Living Community’s Guide to Blogging

You have a fantastic group, tenants who rave about you, and people who are interested in learning more. You want to maintain the momentum. So, how do you bring more value to your community? A blog is a good place to start because it can serve as a Q&A for potential tenants, provide instructions on best practices for the move, and also provide feedback and tips from senior living experts.

A blog can also be used to promote your activities and group spirit. Allowing families and prospective tenants to take a look inside the house is always a great idea if you host jam-packed nights of Bingo and movie nights with popcorn. Do you have a section on your website dedicated to news? This can also be used as a dedicated location for updates and resources.

If you can have some advice on cost and/or quality of treatment. These services can be highly beneficial to certain families as they conduct research and search for a senior living facility. Posting fresh, useful content on a regular basis will also help your SEO strategy. Visit our blog on How To Improve SEO For Your Assisted Living Community for more details.

Whether you’re just getting started or already have a blog, there are a few items to think about before writing your next post.

Your Senior Living Community’s Best Blog Topics

You may experience any writer’s block, but the best way to overcome it is to pay careful attention to the questions your family is asking. What is the process like for a family (or daughter) with an elderly parent who calls to arrange a tour? Is it easy for them to navigate your website? Is it possible for them to locate you on Google Maps? If so, be sure to include these useful links in a blog post titled “Plan Your Tour.” What about when they’re getting ready to come on a tour? Do you have a list of questions you can give them to help them with their search? If you don’t have one, check out our senior living checklist, which you can personalize and make your own.

What questions do those families have when they arrive? What are some of the issues that they are concerned about? This is something you might probably cover in a blog post.

What kind of follow-up do you have with senior living members after they enter your group to ensure that they are happy and relaxed in their new home? What do you say to someone who comes over after a certain time? Do they explain why they choose your neighborhood? It may have been the proximity to a major city, the menu, the proximity to family and friends, or even the levels of treatment. Whatever the cause, these are all excellent sources of information for answering questions on the internet. You can inform, build loyalty, and create a space where families and prospective residents can connect with your brand by sending well-designed, meaningful, and personalized messages to your audience.

How Often Do I Post on the Blog of My Senior Living Community?

You may be wondering how often you can write. Although some blogs are updated on a regular, weekly, or even hourly basis, most only update when you have something new to promote. This could be a special enrollment deal or a new facility feature.

Posting should adhere to a strict schedule. Although having relevant content online is essential, having content that serves a particular function is even more so. Is it assisting you in answering any of the questions or educating your audience on who you are? How many people are looking at your materials and buying them?

Let’s say you have a lot of content on your blog, but you can see from the analytics that it isn’t being read. Perhaps you should revisit them and amend the content or even change the materials to make them more current. We will be happy to assist you if you have any concerns about your online analytics and would like an evaluation.

What distinguishes you as a one-of-a-kind senior living community?

Yes, we did inquire about it. What distinguishes your neighborhood from the rest? What kinds of things do you have planned for your residents? Do you have a beauty salon where women can get their hair styled and their nails painted? Do you have a fitness center with instructors who teach on a weekly basis? This is something you should write about in a blog post. Can you have transportation for your senior living residents to appointments or shopping centers on a weekly basis? If that’s the case, these specifics could be the deciding factor for families trying to make a move for a loved one.

A blog can be an invaluable resource for educating and informing the senior living community from all over the world.

How to Write Emails for COVID-19 That Will Be Read

Do you believe you have a virtually foolproof email marketing strategy? Reconsider your place. Email marketing and what once worked changed drastically as quickly as Coronavirus became a household word. It’s likely that by the time you put a new strategy in place, it will have changed again.

During COVID-19, we used an email marketing approach.

The reality is that these extraordinary times are in flux, and the old adage “the only constant in life is transition” has never been more true. After all, compassionate manifesto-style emails are out and swinging-deals are in in just one week! Here are a few examples of how COVID-19 has influenced how we interact with customers:

Offers! Offers! Offers!

Your buyers are eager to learn about the deal you’re offering, and it had better be fantastic! Customers are struggling, and they know the company is as well. Now is the time to give mutually beneficial opportunities to entice them to help your company with funds that are most likely restricted. Using this as an opportunity to gain new business by offering offers that are too good to pass up!

Is it better to send or not to send?

Simply put, send! Out of caution and fear of being disrespectful, 44% of companies reduced their sends. This is a bad idea. The number of people who open their emails has risen for three reasons: Value, escapism, and the ability to be productive are all important factors. Businesses of all kinds have the opportunity to provide customers with a discounted service or item during a tough period, a way to avoid their current uncertain reality when scrolling and shopping, and the potential to be efficient (hello, overdue home projects!) Make the most of this time and potential!

Sending Times That Work. What exactly are they?

Mornings and the middle of the week used to be the best times to be alive. Time has stood still since COVID-19. Employees work from home, children study at the dinner table, and Fridays might as well be Thursdays. In reality, since life happens after 2 p.m. in stay-at-home land, the peak open rate periods are now in the afternoon. But because something can happen, now is the time to test, test, and test some more! Determine what your customers want and change your menu accordingly.

Emojis, Subject Lines, and Understated Urgency

How can you make your email stand out in the midst of a sea of them? Be straightforward. Be truthful. Give stuff to people. Oh, and throw in an appropriate emoji for humor – yes, humor – and your open rates will skyrocket. What exactly does this imply? Here are five things to think about while writing a subject line:

Customers are more likely to open an email with a subject line that clearly addresses the current situation, with B2B open rates up 52% and B2C open rates up 48%.
Consumers are familiarizing themselves with previously unfamiliar acronyms such as WFH (Work From Home), as this has become their new standard.
Do you know how to use emojis? Emojis in subject lines are catching on. What is the reason for this? Right now, people are subconsciously attracted to happier stuff. Life is unpredictable, but an emoji makes us happy. Smiling is a positive thing.
The new ACT NOW is subtle urgency. Nothing is particularly urgent in today’s world, especially a sale on a non-essential object. People don’t want to be any more stressed than they already are, so make your subject line feel urgent. Keep in mind that our country’s interests have changed for the time being.
Use the subject line to ask questions and provide responses. “Are you having trouble with WFH? Here’s a step-by-step guide to working from home.” Don’t make them look for the solution; show them you’re there to help and you have it.

Customer correspondence, whether B2B or B2C, has never been more reliant on the internet. Don’t be hesitant to communicate with them; they want to hear from you, but they also want you to make it worthwhile for them. Create some one-of-a-kind email templates, as B2C click rates increased by 38%. Try out different send times to reach the customers where they are right now. This is an ever-changing situation, and we must adapt if we are to continue engaging with our existing customers while also developing new ones.

Please contact our award-winning team of marketers if you have any concerns or need email marketing assistance to help you develop engaging and successful email marketing campaigns.

Is it a must-do or is it outdated? Obtaining Likes for Your Facebook Page

One Facebook Page management tip is to go to the list of people who have liked a post (or an ad) and submit an invitation to someone who hasn’t “liked” the Page yet. This may be a way to transform post interaction into Facebook fans. Is it, however, worth the effort?

We agreed with our Facebook Partner Manager that asking people who liked a post to Like the Page isn’t very valuable in 2019. Pages with a large number of Likes/Followers have little effect on the algorithm. Only if there is anyone at the organization who cares for Page Fans, or if you really want to only do organic posting in the future and delete advertising from the equation, would this be useful. There is no connection between Page Fans or Engagement and business outcomes, according to Facebook.

Since organic reach is normally poor, this is only a viable strategy for Pages with little or no ad budget who only intend to devote time to writing organic posts. In the end, it’s a question of Time vs. Treasure.

We’ve discovered that it’s cheaper for our clients to spend the money on advertising rather than pay anyone (either a contractor or a salary) to manually invite Page Likes and then see their organic scope dwindle. This paying approach targets a much larger number of people and helps us to optimize for specific business goals.

Do you have any questions about how to create the best Facebook strategy for your company? Our team will assist you in avoiding costly errors.

What Are The Senior Living Community’s Best Channels?

Your Senior Living Community’s marketing has been assigned to you. So, how do you get started? There’s a good chance you want to create a connection that represents your brand’s caring side. You want to fill in the blanks with a personal touch that your target audience is searching for on the internet. Do you have any accurate metrics of your marketing strategy? Are you keeping track of your efficiency in relation to your target return on investment?

Which Social Media Channels Are Best for Senior Living Communities?

According to the Pew Research Center, social media platforms are used by 34% of Americans aged 65 and up. This is a seven-point increase over 2013. These figures are even more telling for adult children who are decision-makers and assist their parents in navigating senior living. When the use of social media grows, so does the need to be relevant to provide valuable information that people are looking for online.

It is important for independent living groups to have an online presence. It’s also a good idea to give them tools to guide them through the process of searching for a place to call home. We know they’re searching – the question is, who can they find? We know 32 percent of people aged 55 and up conduct online research, so we know they’re looking.

What online services do you have access to? Only to name a few, here are a few suggestions: e-newsletter with information about your events and activities, facility brochure, Q&A, blog posts, email subscription opt-in, resources for families to use, and possibly a step-by-step guide to guide them through the process. You may also collect information about your potential residents and cultivate them through the funnel this way.

So, how can you get in touch with your potential residents and caregivers?

Here are our suggestions for the best social media sites, paid ads, and targeting for your senior living environment. All begins with a goal. More information about our SMART target approach to Senior Living Communities can be found here.

Channels to Watch

Not all social media platform is produced equal. That is, if you want to meet seniors, their caregivers, and family decision-makers, you need to put your content and paid advertising in front of the pages they are visiting. You might use Instagram to reach out to the daughters of your potential residents, but you’d have to make your choice based on a solid understanding of your target demographic. Which brings us to a crucial topic.

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE IN YOUR FACILITY MAKING DECISIONS About YOUR RESIDENTS?

This is an important question to ask any person who comes through your door. Was it easy for them to find your location? Was it easy to find the address on the internet and on Google Maps? Was the website able to answer the questions they had? Is the walk-through scheduled online or in person? Data is crucial.

For Senior Living Communities, Paid Advertising and Targeting

This one is a slam-dunk, with 65 percent of people aged 50 to 64 using Facebook. Knowing that this is a powerful forum, it’s also important to set yourself apart from the competition. What distinguishes you from the competition? What distinguishes your facility from others? Do those who connect and associate with your brand develop a sense of confidence and a brand experience?

On a typical day, the majority of seniors may use the internet, watch television, listen to streaming music, or shop online. Finding the right balance to appeal to your target audience necessitates a well-honed experience based on real-time data.

Our suggestion is to talk to your coworkers. After you’ve gathered your info, you can start planning your online strategy.

Paid Promotion

Given Facebook’s 2 billion users, we believe this one is unquestionably the most famous. You can create an ad that will deliver your brand in front of your audience by looking at audience insights and even creating lookalike audiences. Is it enticing? Do you have a special deal this month? Any of these messages can be used in your paid social campaign. Did you catch someone’s attention the first time, but they didn’t stick around for long? You can also create remarketing strategies to attract tourists who did not turn into leads.

Targeting on Social Media

Once you’ve decided on the best platforms to use and set a budget for your paid strategy, it’s time to look at the targeting details you’ll employ.

Keep in mind that Facebook recently announced some big changes to the way real estate is marketed on their platforms (including age, gender, and zip code restrictions). Visit our blog for more information.)