How strategic segmentation and targeted messaging can increase reply rates in outbound.
Amongst our missions, we also take part in improving and optimising existing structures. It's the case of a B2B SaaS in the payroll industry and their existing outreach campaigns.
We brought our fresh perspective to identify how to improve their existing process and support further testing of the outbound channel to assess its potential to boost sales.
The Radar Chart
A low reply rate is a trusted indicator that there are opportunities to improve the targeting, the copy or both.
When analysing the existing campaigns launched before our arrival, the low reply rate also led us to identify a significant need for more segmentation.
By having too big an audience, you will face many challenges in crafting a copy that's personalised enough. Indeed, that was the case.
With our review, we identified two areas of focus:
- Optimise segmentation
- Analyse targets further by understanding their similarities to uncover the best segmentation approach.
- Reorganise campaigns with smaller batches to support the creation of new and more personalised copy as well as not raising any LinkedIn red flags.
- Improve copy
- Craft new copy to provide value from the very first line of the very first message—everyone's biggest challenge.
- Test it with smaller and more precisely-targeted and defined segments.
Implementation Insights:
New Segmentation Guidelines
There are many ways to segment your audiences, and it all comes down to who you want to target. Our recommendation? Focus on industry, seniority, and role.
Their role in their company directly influenced which copy approach to adopt. Even if you feel you're repeating the same selling arguments across your segments, each sub-segment will see different value within your product which you need to express through compelling copy.
We've defined, together with their team, the key sub-groups on a per-quarter basis, which we'd focus on week after week. These were determined based on the company's industry, geographical location or job titles (on LinkedIn).
New Copywriting Approach
It's common to read outreach messages, regardless of where they land, that end with an invitation to book a meeting. Don't assume this is the only call to action you should use; sometimes, creating a real conversation can lead to more fruitful opportunities.
Especially in the case of this SaaS with a significantly lengthier sales cycle, the 'book a demo' CTA was not proving to be the most relevant one. So don't be afraid to test a slightly less direct approach.
However, if your solution has a significant reputation on the market, you could easily be "more aggressive" in your messaging with a CTA to book a call or a demo. If you need to educate your audience on your brand and solution, creating a conversation first could be more effective to convert leads further down the funnel.
Overlooked Aspect: Post-Reply Process
Our goals with these campaigns is to sign new deals. As much as it all comes down to targeting and copywriting, what happens after a lead replies is even more critical and can sometimes be overlooked in this process.
Here are our best practices:
- Craft shorter messages that go straight to the point, booking a meeting.
- Remove any actions for them to take, focusing on booking a meeting. You're not going to text one another here.
- Reply ASAP; aim for the same day.
- Follow up when possible — 3 messages is a reasonable limit. Don't be afraid to send them across the span of 2 weeks or so. Space them throughout the remainder of the month. A CRM is the key to making sense and staying on top of all your sales conversations happening, especially if you're experimenting with a multi-channel approach (across LinkedIn & Emails).
The Results Of Segmentation
From our initial campaigns, our optimisations led to a connexion rate higher than 40% and a reply rate higher than 20%. During the analysis at the start of this collaboration, the connection rate was at most 5%.
A general benchmark would be around 30% for the connection rate and 5-10% for the reply rate.
With such encouraging numbers, it's all about sustaining efforts and strongly emphasising the post-first-reply process so conversations can lead to more booked calls.
Over time, we stabilised the reply rate at around 25%. In our multi-channel process, LinkedIn first, emails second, we also continuously aim to increase the connection rate for the different identities. Therefore, the experimentation on new narratives in the connection message continued until the right one was found.
As we explored the different targets, we also improved them in various ways. For example, the number of employees in companies needed to be bigger or smaller, and we needed to filter out specific job titles. These are all relevant pieces of information that we can gather from the conversations the SDRs team had with the prospects.
Today
As with any marketing project, B2B outreach isn't an exact science. Each business we work with has very different approaches.
We've been able to help this SaaS test its messaging and what will resonate with various new audiences, as well as be equipped to do outbound. As a result, the rise in the overall pipeline and opportunities led to a necessity to enhance sales capacity.
