Responding to B2B Prospect Behavior

In the webinar I did yesterday with Genius.com about B2B drip campaigns with content mapped to buying stages, a question was asked that deserves more response than I had time to give.

The attendee asked:

"...would you change your drip depending if someone responded? Do you  know if , eg, they opened Drip 2, THEN and only then would you send Drip 3?"

This question raises several points that can sway the answer, so I'm going to break this down based on some possible types of response.

• Open. To me, this response is the most iffy. Sometimes it's hard to tell if they opened the email intentionally or if their email program did so right before they deleted. I wouldn't rely a lot on this metric with the exception that you do want to see it increase over time.


• Click to content offer. This metric tells you that your email messaging worked well enough to get them to click. It's helpful to add your web metrics to this one and see how long they spent viewing the content, if that was the goal. If they click through and bounce (leave right away) you have a different insight than if they click and spend a minute or two reading. If the goal was a download with a form, then I want to know how many completed the form.


• Click to content offer plus views additional web content. This can be one of the most telling metrics that applies to the question above. If the prospect clicks through to the content offer, spends time reading and then views additional content on your website on the same topic, that tells you they're interested in that topic.
  
  If, however, they click on your content offer and then move on to web pages with a different theme, product or problem focus, that tells you the prospect's interest may lie elsewhere. In this case, I'd send a follow-up with more of whatever they showed the highest interest in and see if they bite. If they respond, this could be an indication that the lead would be better engaged by a different drip campaign.


• Reply with thanks. Yes, this does happen when you send relevant content. And it tells you that specific prospect has a higher interest than one who may click and then leave. If you receive a "thanks" reply, go check that prospect's individual activity history to see if their behavior matches that assumption. Sometimes, people are just nice.
  
  This said, what a grand opportunity. Reply with the offer of an "exclusive" article that extends the topic. Tell them you appreciate hearing from them and send them a link to more content they can't find elsewhere. Watch to see how they respond.


• Reply with question. I love these! This is a conversational opening that invites you to respond. With this one, you definitely need to take this opportunity to answer their question and ask one of your own. If you can establish a bit of two-way dialogue, and use the opportunity subtly, you can learn a lot that can help you fill in the blanks on their profile. You can also learn if the lead is not a good fit.

NOTE: Make sure you're monitoring the email address you're using for your sends. You'd be amazed how many companies use a "no-reply" email. Think about what that says about your company.

Now, let's tackle the second part of the question.

There are many reasons why a prospect might not respond to "Drip 2" (second touch in the nurturing program - for those who weren't at the webinar). They include:

• Their day was jampacked, so they deleted everything not critical.
• They were traveling when you sent it.
• The subject line just didn't catch their attention.
• They don't care and aren't interested.

Waiting to send the next touch in your campaign until they open the last send, means you may never get another chance to engage them.

Your leads are people and each of them will respond to your word choices in different ways. Somtimes it's the angle you take in addressing a topic and, sometimes, it's just a matter of how many hours they have in a day.

What's interesting about this is to use your analytics to see which titles, subject matter and messaging catch the most attention. Monitor patterns over time. You may see that the more provocative subject lines catch attention, or learn that your leads respond better to the more serious ones. Make sure you gather enough insight to establish a solid baseline before you start changing things.

This is yet another reason why segmentation is so important. The more aligned in needs and interests the recipients of your drip campaign are, the easier it is to create content that a higher percentage of them find meaningful.

Unless they tell you to stop contacting them, I suggest continuing with your campaign, as planned. Monitor behavior patterns and adjust when you see a trend developing that you want to mitigate or encourage. But make sure you have solid reasons to shift.

Comments

[Jeff Ogden]

Another great post, Ardath. Keep it up.

[ContentKeith]

Very interesting, Ardath -- tactical, but gets at the different behaviors of different people...and how to utilize as a marketer. Thanks!

ContentKeith