I can still remember the first time I heard Eddie Van Halen. As a guitar player, I had no idea what I was listening to! But hearing that opening of “Runnin’ With the Devil”… I was floored!

It seems like this September is busier than ever in the B2B space! “Livin’ life at a pace that kills”? Reminds me of Eddie’s frantic playing. Give this classic a listen as you read on, and enjoy the VH-inspired theme for this email!

Here is what the experts are saying, and some takeaways from the past week:

Exploiting Data to Deliver Customer Value

Customers have more power than ever, according to SparkPost – and I totally agree! With just a 5% increase in customer retention potentially increasing a business’ profitability by 75%, it’s clear why improving customer experience is one of the key areas of focus for marketing departments. So – how can organizations improve their communications practices and increase customer experience?

  • Make it relevant
  • Make it clear
  • Be human
  • Invest in proactive outreach
  • Ask for feedback

When companies discuss customer experience, I always encourage them to think of it from a proactive standpoint and not just a reactive one. Of course, employing data-driven marketing is the method to ensure the desired customer experience. How do you know your marketing activity is successful if you do not track the response? This approach favours digital or human marketing to leverage the advantage of personalization.

HubSpot Data Update

Let’s check in on the latest trends in HubSpot data. Based on the activities of over 70,000 companies, through to the end of August, HubSpot found:

    • Deals Created and Deals Closed continue to outperform pre-COVID benchmarks
    • Sales Calls have finally performed above pre-COVID benchmarks in August
    • Contact Growth (average contacts added to the CRM) has been mostly below benchmarks since March
    • Active Conversation Interactions have been increasing since March and are now performing 50% above benchmarks

Check out the details here. The contact growth reduction may be a result of concentrating on known prospects and ABM strategies. But increased lead engagement is critical to improving results, and increases in deals created and closed show that business continues to improve.

Hopefully you don’t need to beg or borrow to hit your 2020 targets!

It’s Alive! The Guitar is Very Much Alive!

Recent news has reported the demise of live music, but the guitar industry is hotter than ever! Three years ago, the press was talking about the ‘slow death’ of the electric guitar. However, 2020 has been a ‘guitar boom’ for most guitar manufacturers!

People in lockdown started looking for activities – and many turned to making music. Check out the article here.

Will we have a new generation of Eddie Van Halens showing up on YouTube? It shows that every cloud has a silver lining – at least for guitar lovers like me! While the simple life ain’t so simple these days, I encourage you to keep looking for that silver lining.

As always, don’t hesitate to call me to brainstorm or ask how I can help.

Looking forward,
Rick

Rick Endrulat | President | Virtual Causeway | 519.866.1600 x622

P.S. If you want a good chuckle, give this a listen – David Lee Roth’s isolated “Runnin’ With the Devil” vocals – gives you a new appreciation for the song!