Looking for a better way to manage communication limits and sending too many emails

[CarolineOuten]

We are increasing the amount of nurture tracks we use on a regular basis so that they can be more segmented and so we don't lose contacts at any point in the funnel. This means that most of our marketing contacts are in some sort of workflow and receiving emails on a regular/semi-regular cadence. We are also typically running a quarterly campaign and have invitations to events (webinars, round tables, etc) that are more timely. Lately, we have been getting more complaints from our sales department and our client success team that they feel contacts are receiving too many marketing emails and it makes it hard for them to communicate effectively.

How do other teams manage this? We want contacts to be in the workflows for funnel progression in their particular segment, but we also want them to be aware of our more timely communications. Do you exclude workflow members from your batch sends and invites? Can I use communication limits to help manage this? Any ideas would be great!

[Josh · Accepted solution]

Hi @CarolineOuten,

Typically I would recommend suppressing or modifying the nurture process for contacts based on a variety of circumstances. Ideally, you would work with your sales team to understand what their cadence is like throughout the process so you can work alongside that and so they understand what's happening from an automation perspective. Here are some examples:

• Active Sales Conversations
  • Lifecycle is set to Opportunity (or customer)
  • Lead Status is set to Open Deal
  • The contact has a deal in a specific stage
  • Last activity was within a specific timeframe
• Modify the nurture process based on the deal stage
  • Someone early in the deal process should be receiving nurture communication different that someone in the decision process
  • This will be heavily determined by the length and complexity of your sales process
  • Some of our clients have a sales cycle that can last 2 years -- in this case, it is important to continue to nurture the prospect, but also incorporate the sales rep at various points in time

Because these scenarios can be quite complex, you will probably want to revert to list membership for enrollment and suppression vs. enrollment criteria within the workflow itself. It will also be much easier to manage over time.

I hope this helps. I'd be happy to workshop this with you or lend some outside advice if you want to book time with me.

Josh