Context is everything – what’s acceptable in one context may be a complete faux pas in another. For instance, when greeting the CEO of a company you’d like to do business with, you probably wouldn’t slap them five and ask “What’s up?”, even if that’s absolutely fine with buddies on the weekend. So why treat all your customers like "CEOs" or "buddies", when they’re a mix of the two? In marketing and sales, as in life, context needs to dictate the message you send.
A great example of effective use of context’s impact upon the bottom line comes from HubSpot’s research – calls to action that dynamically change based upon a viewer’s actions are 42% more likely to result in a conversion (i.e. a formal sales inquiry) than those that are the same for all viewers. We may not all have web developers to implement this on our website, but at the very least, you can set up different email subscription forms on your site, depending upon what users are interested in (i.e. an “I want to buy now!” email group vs. a “Not ready to buy, but want more info” list, or product-specific lists). Email forms can be set up for free with tools like Mail Chimp – all you need is a website!
If your business engages in sales activities like calling customers, you’ll want context to be a part of that relationship as well. There’s nothing worse than a totally unwarranted “just checking in” call – the lead won’t feel attended to, they’ll feel annoyed and bullied. Before a salesperson makes the call, they should keep in mind what has changed since the last call and what actions the lead has or hasn’t taken. There are paid tools to help sales keep track of lead activity (HubSpot’s included), but the best and cheapest method is just for marketing and sales to be in touch. If your leads have downloaded something, if they’ve submitted a form, even if they’ve just joined your Facebook group, sales should know: if for nothing else, to make the next sales “check-in” call less awkward.
For more about why context is king, read this blog post from HubSpot.