A marketing program’s key focus must be on branding, as it has a tremendous impact on customer recognition. Companies spend countless dollars to create and redesign logos, wrap vehicles, print custom napkins, and embroider uniforms. This effort, or branding, ensures the company’s image is consistent across all touch points in any interaction with the public.
The question then becomes: do you place the same emphasis on your email and print communication?
Email templates: streamlining every day communication
There may be hundreds of emails and documents sent from your servers each day. Each one has the potential to grow that brand image or even ruin it for a customer. Bad sentence structure, misspellings, hastily drafted replies, or messages with misconstrued meaning can all have negative effects on your customer’s perception of your brand.
Software programs can be the watchdog for a vast majority of repetitive and casual email functions. Using email bodies with merge fields and pre-formatted text is a great way to improve your company’s communications. It also creates efficiencies by speeding up the most mundane communication.
Having a marketing team that creates a common voice for key communication points ensures that you are continuously driving the company’s brand in the right direction.
Types of templates
Email templates can enhance the communication process between the sales associate and customer. That’s because automating the most repetitive parts of the sales process allows the sales team to save the time and energy for the customer conversations that require more thought and attention. Here are some of the most common types of email templates:
• Initial follow up from an inquiry
• Proposal introduction
• Securing a contract and deposit
• Final payment and balances
• Event reviews
• Responses to customer complaints
• Seasonal promotions
The goal is to provide a tool that includes the collective thoughts of the entire team and a more structured communication process. Sales people have different strengths. Some team members may have outstanding one-on-one skills in meetings and over the phone while others excel with written communication. Consistency is key. Allowing marketing, legal and leadership teams to collaborate on well-articulated messages and communication guidelines is a rewarding process.
Creating functional & beautiful custom templates
You can use programs to make your templates not just sound great but look great, too. This includes:
• Designing and formatting email signature lines
• Logo placement and sizing
• Revised dates, page counts and contact information
• Industry awards and associations placement
Depending on the programs you are using, smart fields and merge field formulas can recognize certain event conditions. Conditions, which include guest counts, dates, personal sales, event themes and financial values, can be used to replace or insert key images, contractual terms and personal recommendations based on the situation. This speeds up and automates the creation of custom documents while creating a common language.
Modern event software allows your team to spend more time selling and less time typing, rereading emails for typos and recapturing the right words before they escape them. This is especially true for modern sales, where an accurate, speedy response is paramount to success!
