Using automated emails to market a product isn’t new. You’ve probably experienced it yourself. My husband and daughter went to Best Buy late one evening, and used my rewards number when they purchased my Christmas gift. Before they got home, I’d already received an email encouraging me to look at accessories that would go with my new device.
Marketing automation can be a successful tactic in many sales verticals, but the idea of using it to sell independent living was new for PMMA in 2018.
PMMA’s advertising agency encouraged development of two marketing automation workflows for PMMA — one for new inquiries to engage them and encourage them to schedule a tour and a second workflow that would encourage newly toured independent living prospects to move in.
I worked closely with the agency team to identify develop the copy, select the images used and set up the distribution lists with new inquiries and recently toured prospects for independent living at communities in urban and suburban areas.
Marketing automation offers support for the marketing directors and sales counselors in engaging and nurturing prospects and leads for independent living from the moment of inquiry through the decision to move in.
Since starting marketing automation, more than 2,300 prospects have entered the two workflows.
The copy has been continuously monitored to ensure prospect engagement with the content, community websites and other resources. Engagement continues to be above industry averages for opens and clicks to call, download content, view videos or visit the websites. As of October 31, 2021, 169 people have moved into 137 units in participating PMMA communities.
When the pandemic hit, I carefully reviewed the copy to find opportunities to include PMMA’s response to the pandemic into the existing workflows. This copy was in use for five months and enabled marketing directors who were pulled in many different directions to nurture new leads even while they could not invite prospects to the campus for tours or appointments.
In May 2020, PMMA’s marketing team participated in Prospect Centered Sales training. This training focused on empathizing with the prospect and guiding their decision rather than focusing on what we can offer to them. I reviewed the copy decks again following the completion of this training for opportunities to revise the messaging to align with the prospect-centered sales philosophies put into practice at each PMMA community. These new workflows reduced the number of messages sent, increased the amount of time between each message, and focused on the thinking and planning stages of readiness. The messages put the prospect in control rather than focusing on the features available at the individual communities.
Since implementing these changes November 1, 2020, more than 80% of new leads have been entered into the inquiry to tour email series. There have been 32 units sold, with 43% of all independent living move-ins participating in marketing automation during their decision-making process.
We continue to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing automation and seek more ways to improve the engagement with the content including the development of new video content, more direct calls to download or access resources available on our community websites and call the marketing teams for appointments.