Fill your inbox with responses: March Madness

What's your best way to make sure your email gets a response? Personalization? Sending content? Focused follow up?

Yes to all of those.

But March Madness is here and always causes a buzz in the office (or with remote teams). Here's how to take advantage of it, using a sending platform like Sendoso, to fill your inbox with responses.

Filter Searches

Use your LinkedIn SalesNavigator Advanced search to find your target personas who went to Universities that are in playing in the tournament.

Here's what mine looks like (pictured right).

This search, for example, will bring up all VP's of Marketing in my CRM accounts that went to Gonzaga.

Don't know how to do this? Feel free to DM me on my LinkedIn and I'll show you how.

If you have an email sequencer, create a sequence for weekly follow ups and follow the steps below.

If you don't, you can do it manually.

Phase 1

The first phase of the sequence is the intro email. This is for week one or two of March Madness.

Reach out to anybody in your target audience who went to a school that's playing, cause you know they'll be rooting for them. Then tie in your value proposition and call to action.

Disclaimer: This article is being written from a Sales Development perspective. Marketing teams might use different language in their outreach. But the overall strategy still works.

Here's a basic example:

Bonus tip: You can save your budget and reach more people if you ask for permission to send the tumbler before creating the link. Replace the last line with, "Can I send you an address confirmation link?"

Follow Up

Phase two of the sequence is the follow up. You might not be a sports fanatic, I get it, but making your own bracket and keeping up with big games and upsets is a great way to grab attention in your follow up.

Reach back out with a value add and reference what happened with their team.

Big win? Congratulate them, mention anything notable from the game (if you can), and a creative tie back to why they should connect with you.

Big loss? Bummer. Wish them better luck next year and ask them if how their bracket is doing. Give them a recap from your last email and ask them for feedback on your outreach.

Do this every week, taking out the losers and keeping the winners. The prospects with winning teams will see your emails and you will stand out in their inbox.

Pro tip: According to this article by ncaa.com - since 1985, 1 seeds have an overall win percentage of 79.8.

Why does this work?

The magic of this sequence is that it gives you a reason to follow up after EVERY game.

Imagine what your prospect thinks when they read your email, referencing something they enjoy, every week. Especially if their team makes it to the final rounds.

How many other sales emails are they getting like this? Probably none, just yours!

In a world where prospects are exhausted by pitches and meeting requests, personalization is key.

Give before you receive. Tell them what you do, offer to share in their excitement with a personalized gift, and watch your inbox fill up with responses.

Pitfalls to avoid: Don't ask them for their time in the first or second email. Build the relationship and create value first. Use their interest in your gift as an indicator of interest in your product and then push for the meeting.

Final thoughts:

What do you think about this strategy? DM me and let me know.

I'm available as a resource for SalesNav, sequence or sending platform help at [email protected] or on LinkedIn @ Giano Fiore.