October 1, 2020

4 Ways to Drive Revenue in Q4

Meira McFarquhar
By 
Meira McFarquhar

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This post is brought to you by Sendoso Content Marketing Manager Meira McFarquhar.

Ahh, the holidays.

We’re finally beginning that oh-so special time of year when chestnuts are roasting, hot chocolate is flowing, merry songs are playing—and Q4 deadlines are quickly approaching!

Every revenue-driving team knows with all that end-of-year holiday cheer comes the mounting stress to finish out strong, align budgets for 2021, and most importantly, hit your revenue goals by the year’s end.

And the pressure is real.

A study conducted by Healthline shows that 62% percent of respondents described their stress level as “very or somewhat” elevated during the holidays.

Now add that to the fact that we’re entering a holiday season like never before, with most of us physically disconnected from prospects, customers, and coworkers. The stakes have never been so high. Companies have been asked to do more with less budget and headcount–all while trying to make sense of our unpredictable new business landscape.

But there’s an essential element of the holidays that always remains, despite the hardships of the months before: potential.

So while the holidays can be stressful (especially during one of the most stressful years on record), there’s still time to ensure you’ll be “ringing the bell” just as much as you’ll be hearing sleigh bells come December.

4 Successful Plays for Driving Revenue in Q4

1. Intervision influenced $377 in closed-won revenue for every $1 spent and $425 in pipeline for every $1 spent by building relationships throughout their client lifecycle.

Intervision’s marketing team enables sales reps to use Sendoso as a step in their prospecting endeavors. The teams use intent data to qualify leads, so that sales reps get the right conversations going with the objective of booking a meeting.

Once a meeting is taken, reps will either send a personalized gift via Sendoso’s Amazon integration or leverage Sendoso Choice to send eGifts to restaurants, self-care apps, or home entertainment platforms using the Salesforce integration. For one particular campaign, sales and CSMs sent eGifts that allowed recipients to choose from iTunes, Google Play, Barnes & Noble, and Xbox. The campaign messaging was centered around showing audiences they care during a difficult time.

eGifts are powerful ways to connect with target accounts. And with our world becoming increasingly more virtual, eGifts are an immediate and adaptable option that’s great for eliciting responses in our new normal.

Here are some examples of eGifting strategies to stay connected over the holidays:

  • Send holiday-at-home kits: Make sheltering-in-place during the holidays a little more snazzy for your customers by delivering some goodies to their door using our Address Confirmation feature. Send a holiday kit with tasty treats, a succulent for their home office, and an essential oil diffuser set to shake off that end-of-year stress. If they have little ones, send them an entertainment care package with eGifts for Build-a-Bear or Disney+. If they’re pet lovers, send over a wrapped toy for their furry friends.
  • Cheers (virtually) to your prospects: Just because you can’t meet in person doesn’t mean you can’t get face time with your prospects. Send over an eGift card for wine.com and ask if they’d be willing to meet over Zoom for a holiday-themed happy hour to discuss their growth strategy for the year ahead, and how you can help them get there.

2. Terminus found ways to genuinely connect with customers in a virtual world, influencing $3.1M in pipeline and $322K in revenue.

Just a pinch of Sendoso was all it took for Terminus to cook up genuine connections with customers despite our new virtual reality by sending unique, educational direct mail packages like custom ABM “cookbooks,” hot chocolate, and UberEats gift cards. Their fun send idea got their target accounts talking, and they generated results in a fast, connected, and measurable way.

The holidays are the perfect opportunity to spread cheer while creatively educating your audience. Boost your account-based everything (ABX) programs by segmenting your recipient list, and consider these tactics to reach prospects at varying points in the lifecycle funnel:

  • One-to-many: Send decision-makers an email with the message, “Let’s meet over lunch and discuss how we can help you achieve your 2021 goals. P.S. Lunch is on us!” On the morning of the scheduled meeting, send everyone on the guest list a lunch eGift to a local restaurant or food delivery service.
  • One-to-few: Surprise and delight recipients with a custom Halloween bundle including a branded mug, assorted candies, printed marketing collateral, and a handwritten note detailing how your product and/or services can “unmask” their Q4 goals.
  • One-to-one: Personalized bundles work well for high-value, mid-funnel accounts. For instance, if you learn your prospect is an avid coffee drinker during initial conversations, send them a Nespresso Machine, content that highlights your value proposition, and a handwritten note that says, “Espresso-ing our gratitude this holiday season.” After the meeting is taken, follow up with a package of Nespresso Coffee Pods to keep the conversation going.

3. MX spent $2000 on a campaign that brought $4M in pipeline back to life.

MX’s COVID-19 cognizant campaign targeted deal champions and buyers at stalled accounts with the goal of accelerating sales conversations. The team utilized Sendoso Choice to engage those buyers, enabling prospects to choose between applying funds to a charitable organization or a local restaurant of their choosing. MX achieved an 80% open rate with deal champions and a 34% open rate with other buying committee stakeholders.

During the holidays, the ability to push deals over the finish line is of the utmost importance. MX saw impressive results within only a week of using Sendoso. To date, the cognizance campaign, which cost only $2,000, has brought $4M in dark deals back to life.

Give the gift that keeps on giving: COVID-19 has given new meaning to the term “we’re all in this together,” and charitable giving is an excellent way to build community. Enable your prospects and customers to give the most impactful gift of all this holiday season by sending Sendoso charity eGift cards. Recipients will be able to select from a list of hundreds of charitable organizations including children’s charities, research charities, animal protection organizations, and more—making the world a better place, one send at a time.

4. Siteimprove saw $15 in revenue per $1 spent, driving results with relevant offline and online touchpoints in their demand gen and ABM programs.

The Siteimprove team created a killer Sendoso demand generation campaign which included interactive “decoder glasses” that revealed a hidden message on a leaflet when worn. The message included information about how websites should provide a great user experience for people with disabilities. The backside covered Siteimprove’s value props and a link to learn more. (Click here to see what the message said).

Think outside the box: This holiday season, you too can generate 15X ROI with a single campaign±as long as it’s done the right way. Want to kick off a campaign but don’t know where to start? Our Project Managers can help with fun, creative ideas as well as best practices for holiday sending. The key is to stand out and differentiate yourself from others in your field.

The Time Is Now

This year is unlike any other we’ve seen, and we’ll likely need to be extremely agile in our go-to-market strategies for the near future. So get inspired, get creative, and get out there. If you’re strategic, you may even see a 57X return on pipeline and a 1400% increase on pipeline influence like our friends at ExtraHop, or rake in $130M in pipeline for every $1 spent similar to the Tray.io team.

Here’s the bottom line: You still have the potential to hit your Q4 goals out of the park. And with the right tools in your tech stack, you’ll hit them even faster. Pro-tip: Start planning your holiday sending campaigns now, so at the end of the year, the only countdown you’ll be thinking about is the one at 11:59 p.m. on December 31st!

So cheers to the last quarter of 2020, folks. Let’s make it a great one.

Check out this page for even more Sendoso success stories, and schedule a demo below today to learn how Sendoso can help you hit your Q4 goals.

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