Company Growth Podcast: Avoid the Junk Folder in Progressive Profiling

September 15, 2020 | 4 minute read

Inbound Marketing, Company Growth Podcast

Company Growth Podcast: Avoid the Junk Folder in Progressive Profiling

Dear reader: would you marry someone after the first dance?

It might sound unorthodox, but the first-dance marriage question is a great way to think about progressive profiling and inbound marketing.

In Season 1 Episode 6 of the Company Growth Podcast, Alysha Dominico and Bennett Boucher discuss progressive profiling, chat bots, and what really appeals to a buyer. Bennett also talks about what to do when someone stops buying into a drip campaign and more.

Listen to the Company Growth Podcast on Spotify , YouTube, or whatever your preferred streaming platform is.

Expert Tips on Staying Out of the Junk Folder in Progressive Profiling

In episode 6, Bennett gives his personal number of touchpoints he likes to get before he knows a buyer is ready for a sale. We’ve written pretty extensively about touchpoints, and it’s important to remember that there is no golden rule for touchpoints, the number varies between companies, but it’s always good to hear an expert opinion on the subject.

Bennett likes to have 8 - 15 touchpoints before a meeting, but mentions that the less personal your touchpoints you have, the more you’re going to need, and if the touchpoints are more personal, the effect is reversed.

Bennett is great at relaying his opinions and advice through relatable real-life examples. Like his recommendation that the human touch is key: you go into a coffee shop you frequent often and the employees know your order. There’s no reason online marketing shouldn’t behave in a similar way. If anything, online marketing should be even better at this kind of personalization because of all the data and touchpoints we have at our disposal.

Another of Bennett’s great examples is his real-life experience purchasing workout equipment during the pandemic, and how the purchase of a weighted vest, which he had been distracted from buying but had fully intended on getting. The site got back to him about his forgotten purchase in a helpful way and reminded him of the vest he’d wanted but forgotten.

The process wasn’t over intrusive; it was helpful. Marketers are sometimes so concerned about hitting our numbers, reaching those sales metrics, that we sometimes forget to put ourselves in the buyer’s shoes and see the clear route to making the buying process more convenient for someone else.

And this humanization of marketing and sales applies to B2B customers as well, it’s not just for selling hamburgers or weighted vests. And if you think that chatbots are an impersonal method of connecting with customers, Alysha and Bennett discuss how setting up chatbots with Drift or HubSpot can be used to intelligently connect leads with highly personalized content that is the complete opposite of impersonal.

Listen as we discuss:

How to deal with a lead with high intent and make sure to close the deal.
Adding a personal touch to chatbots.
Establishing trust through networks.
The importance of building personalization through video and other means, and how it’s even more important during a pandemic.
How to be as helpful as possible in the buyer’s journey.
And more!