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	<title>The CRM Alliance ACT Software, Services and Training &#187; Drip marketing</title>
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	<description>ACT! Software, Services and Training Tips, Tricks and more</description>
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		<title>Exhibiting in Chamber Tradeshows is a Great Way to Showcase Your Business</title>
		<link>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/exhibiting-in-chamber-tradeshows-is-a-great-way-to-showcase-your-business/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/exhibiting-in-chamber-tradeshows-is-a-great-way-to-showcase-your-business/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:37:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Bridgette Boyle</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[ACT! Help]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Customer Relationship Management Systems]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drip marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Meet The Experts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Upcoming Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ACT Email marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[act software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ACT!]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ACT! Contact Management]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ACT! Contact Manager]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ACT! database]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[business cards]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Business Networking]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Chamber of Commerce]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CRM]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[customer relationship managment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drip marketing campaign]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Event Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Networking Events]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Trade Show Marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/?p=787</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My company is a member of several local chambers of commerce and there seems to be a chamber sponsored networking event every day. Since time and money are limited resources we have to be selective in the events to participate in.  As a B-to-B business, we find that the chamber&#8217;s annual tradeshows to be the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>My company is a member of several local chambers of commerce and there seems to be a chamber sponsored networking event every day. Since time and money are limited resources we have to be selective in the events to participate in.  As a B-to-B business, we find that the chamber&#8217;s annual tradeshows to be the best investment in that they have high attendance and lots of business owners.  Exhibiting in a trade show is an excellent opportunity for our company to gain exposure and connect with decision makers to generate new business.  </p>
<p>Through trial and error we&#8217;ve learned that a successful trade show takes lots and lots of preparation.  Using ACT! helps us in organizing our trade show activities and marketing the event to our Customers and Prospects.  We make sure to engage our contacts before, during and after any event.<br />
 <strong><br />
Before the Show &#8211; Generate the BUZZ</strong><br />
A trade show is a great way to introduce a new product or service, or to demonstrate how existing products or services will benefit an attendee&#8217;s business.  Invitations are sent to our contacts encouraging them to attend the event, we always provide show-only promotions as a thank you.  We create a custom Drip Marketing campaign to provide information about the show using our ACT! program and incorporate a variety of communication methods.<strong><br />
 </strong><br />
 <strong>-&gt;</strong> <strong>Create Custom Letter, Postcard and/or E-mail Templates</strong> and personalize the invitations and announcements<br />
 <strong>-&gt;</strong> <strong>Send ACT E-marketing </strong>and track the interest level (opens &amp; clicks) of the recipients with the built in reporting feature<br />
 <strong>-&gt;</strong> <strong>Make Phone Calls</strong> either from a list from ACT! or a Call List created from an ACT E-Marketing and personally invite our contacts to the show<br />
 <strong>-&gt;</strong> <strong>Social Media Updates</strong> post announcements on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or other channels<br />
 <br />
<strong>During the Show -</strong> <strong>Build Your Database</strong><strong><br />
</strong>We draw attendees to our booth by having a live demonstration of ACT! software in action.  Our WOW factor is showing  that ACT! is more than just a place to keep your contacts, it can help you understand your business and solve business problems.  I love to have engaging conversations and share information, I will make it a point to jot down a short comment on what idea, problem or question was the topic of conversation so I can respond to any opportunities.  Knowing that everyone likes to win a prize we incorporate a business card drawing for free software and no-one walks away empty handed as we provide free 30 day trials and other helpful materials as reminders of our business, products and services.  </p>
<p><strong>After the Show &#8211; FOLLOW-UP </strong><br />
We always feel great after a show; meet lots of people, have dynamic conversations and receive all of that positive feedback.  However, the show isn&#8217;t a success unless we dedicate time to immediately follow-up.  First we take all of those business cards gathered at the show and use <a title="ScanIT" href="http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/scan-it-make-efficient-contacts-out-of-your-business-cards/" target="_blank">ScanIT</a> to import the contacts into our database &#8211; what a time saver!  Next is generating the BUZZ after the show by placing phone calls and sending Letter, Postcard and/or Emails to those who attended and those who couldn&#8217;t attend the show.  Based on interest level we place the contact in one of our post-show drip marketing campaigns to send reminders of how we can help their business.  Follow-up is a must and an ongoing process for relationship building.</p>
<p>So go showcase your business at your chamber&#8217;s next trade show, get involved in your local community. If you&#8217;re new to trade show marketing, as <a title="ACT! Certified Consultants" href="http://www.actplatinum.com" target="_blank">ACT! Marketing Experts and Swiftpage Gold Drip Marketing Certified Consultant </a>we can help you with generating your BUZZ.  If you can&#8217;t exhibit then attend, we would love you to come to <a title="www.actplatinum.com ACT! Software Trade Show Schedule" href="http://www.actplatinum.com/ACT_2010_Trade_Show_Reg.html" target="_blank">our next tradeshow </a>- stop by and say hello.  You may even catch us sending twitter updates while at the show!</p>
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		<title>Six Ways to Make Sure Your E-Mail Isn’t Flagged As Spam</title>
		<link>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/six-ways-to-make-sure-your-e-mail-isn%e2%80%99t-flagged-as-spam/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/six-ways-to-make-sure-your-e-mail-isn%e2%80%99t-flagged-as-spam/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 08 Apr 2010 11:03:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Karen Fredricks</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Drip marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ACT Email Marketing Broadcasting SwiftPage Email The CRM Connection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/?p=775</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Once your e-mail address –or worse yet – your company’s domain – becomes black listed it can take you months or years to get the problem rectified.  And, even if you don’t get blacklisted, most spam filters will eat your message for lunch if you don’t follow a few e-mail best practices.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>A few years back I worked with a large cruise line company.  Although the cruise line spared no expensive when it came to onboard amenities, the CEO flatly refused to spend money on an ESP (e-mail service provider) to help send out his e-marketing campaign to his very large user base.  Within a very short period of time, he managed to get his entire company domain black-listed to the point where he could no longer send messages to even his own family members.</p>
<p>Once your e-mail address –or worse yet – your company’s domain – becomes black listed it can take you months or years to get the problem rectified.  And, even if you don’t get blacklisted, most spam filters will eat your message for lunch if you don’t follow a few e-mail best practices.</p>
<p>Here’s my short list of suggestions:</p>
<ol>
<li>Scrub your database.  Make sure that you aren’t emailing to e-mail addresses that have bounced in the past or are just plain invalid.  Avoid sending your message to duplicate addresses or generic addresses that start with “info” or “webmaster”.</li>
<li>Make sure you’re spam compliant by following the <a href="http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm" target="_blank">Can-Spam law</a>.  Basically you need to make sure you have procedures in place for users to easily opt-out of future mailings, and include a valid mailing address in your message.</li>
<li>Use an ESP (email service provider) that uses a valid form of e-mail authentication.  That basically means that your e-mail blast comes from an authorized source.  These folks spend lots of time – and money – making sure that their emails get through to the folks using the Big Three for their e-mail (Yahoo, AOL and Google).</li>
<li>Time the frequency of your mailings; sending out a monthly newsletter is much more appealing than sending out a daily special pricing offer.  Target your mailings so that you are not sending your message to folks who have absolutely no interest in your products.  </li>
<li>Make sure you know the difference between plain text and HTML e-mails.  If you want to include graphics in your e-mail blast you’ll need an HTML editor or risk having your message show up as a jumbled mess.</li>
<li>Avoid common spam triggers like exclamation points, red lettering and words like “sale.”   </li>
</ol>
<p>If you’re new to the world of e-marketing you’ll want to consult with an expert for a while.   They’ll be able to help you master the process and avoid some serious blunders.</p>
<p>Karen Fredricks<br />
<a href="mailto:blog@techbenders.com">blog@techbenders.com</a><br />
<a href="http://www.techbenders.com">www.techbenders.com</a></p>
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		<title>Business Apathy or the &#8220;Call back later &#8211; we&#8217;re not interested&#8221; Syndrome</title>
		<link>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/business-apathy-or-the-call-back-later-were-not-interested-syndrome/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/business-apathy-or-the-call-back-later-were-not-interested-syndrome/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:08:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Pat Egen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Customer Service]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drip marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sales Management]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/?p=763</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s been a while since I created a blog article. Part of the reason is I&#8217;ve been traveling a lot and business is very good this year.  The other reason is I&#8217;ve been under the weather with this awful upper respiratory thing that is spreading across the country.  I was so distraught this week over [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>It&#8217;s been a while since I created a blog article. Part of the reason is I&#8217;ve been traveling a lot and business is very good this year.  The other reason is I&#8217;ve been under the weather with this awful upper respiratory thing that is spreading across the country.  I was so distraught this week over the issues I had simply trying to find a doctor to see me that I said, in a Twitter update, that I wish I could write about the apathy seen in the medical profession in my business blog.</p>
<p>Julie Bestry, an amazing lady and Twitter goddess (@ProfOrganizer), saw my post and responded with this: &#8220;Sure you can&#8230;how apathy in business owners sends clients to their competition&#8230;and they DO have competition.  Doctors and the rest of the healthcare idustry still make a good starter anecdote. And good bedside manner = good customer care. You&#8217;ve got a whole metaphor!&#8221;</p>
<p>By George, she was right.  And that&#8217;s the theme of this blog &#8211; &#8220;How do you ensure you don&#8217;t suffer from business apathy.&#8221;</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s what started me down this path.  I don&#8217;t visit the doctor often because I usually don&#8217;t need to.  That&#8217;s not a bad thing except when you really need one. Over the last five years, four doctors I have seen have either left the medical profession or moved away.  Ok, that&#8217;s cool, but the offices should still have my records, right? Wrong.  I spent over 5 hours calling around to various doctor offices, including, first off, the office named as my primary care physician.  They couldn&#8217;t find my records.  We&#8217;re sorry, they say, but since your original doctor has left, you are a new patient and we&#8217;re not scheduling new patients until May.  This is March &#8211; I could be dead by May.  No amount of cajoling on my part convinced the less-than-pleasant receptionists to help me out.  After four phone calls with equal results, I was near tears, which is not something I normally do, and decided to visit the Urgent Care facility.</p>
<p>I really didn&#8217;t want to go this route.  The price of medical insurance is high for a lot of reasons, but one is because they have to cover the people who have to spend more money going to emergency rooms or urgent care facilities for exactly the same reason I ended up in one.</p>
<p>Continuing on with this  saga,  I enter the Urgent Care offices and the receptionist there treated me with even more disdain than the people I chatted with earlier via phone. Is there a school for &#8220;how to be completely apathetic and non-caring in 5 easy lessons.&#8221;  Is this happening because doctors feel they are indispensable and we have no choice but to take this kind of apathetic abuse.</p>
<p>This led me to the idea of what would happen to businesses today if they  responded in kind.  Take this hypothetical example.  &#8220;Hello, I am a new client in the area and I&#8217;ve interested in your services.  May I come in today&#8221;&#8230;. &#8220;No, we&#8217;re sorry, we are not seeing new clients for at least a month.  Please call back then.&#8221;  How long do you think that business would be alive and viable if that was the way they operated.</p>
<p>If the receptionist in your office reacts the same as the ones I dealt with today, what will the rest of the experience be with your company?  Probably the same.  If the bedside manner of the company &#8211; whether it&#8217;s the person greeting the clients or answering the phone or your sales team &#8211; does not reflect the true image of your company, then you are lost before you  even start.</p>
<p>Companies spend a lot of money on sales and marketing, drip campaigns, email blitzes, etc.  But, if the result of all that external work ends up at the desk of the I-don&#8217;t-care-about-you receptionist or on the phone with a sales person suffering from a similar disorder, you have just wasted a lot of money.  Before investing in all that effort, you need to make sure your home front is in good working order.  Are your employees motivated?  Are they empowered to give quality service?  Are they rewarded if they do? Do you, as the business owner, project the kind of attitude you want represented throughout your organization?  Is your bedside manner equal to what you would expect from a doctor you visit?  Think about it.  Step outside of your space and imagine what it would be like to be sitting in front of you.  Would you like what you see and hear.   Try to imagine walking up to your office for the first time.  Does it invite people to return?  If the only way people reach you is via phone, the same thing applies.  Do they get a real person or an auto caller with 15 steps before you realize you can hit zero and by-pass the &#8220;helpful&#8221; choices which in reality cause many people to hang up before even talking to a human.</p>
<p>Julie was right.  This did turn out to be a good topic for a business blog.  The message is this &#8211; make sure your company bedside manner keeps the clients returning.  Then, give them a lollipop and send them on their way, happy and satisfied with the results.</p>
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		<title>Drip Marketing Success Story</title>
		<link>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/drip-marketing-success-story/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/drip-marketing-success-story/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Mar 2010 09:27:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Lori Feldman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Drip marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drip marketing campaign]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drip marketing campaigns]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/?p=736</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Drip marketing is not something I just talk about, it’s the primary marketing strategy I’ve integrated into my business for the past 6 years.
(I’ve actually relied on drip marketing for more than 20 years, but it’s only been recently that drip marketing automation software has scaled to desktop use for SMBs, small sales teams and consultants. Cost [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Drip marketing is not something I just talk about, it’s the primary marketing strategy I’ve integrated into my business for the past 6 years.</p>
<p>(I’ve actually relied on drip marketing for more than 20 years, but it’s only been recently that <a title="Drip Marketing Automation Software" href="http://swiftpage.com/partners/partnerall.asp?Partner=aviva" target="_blank">drip marketing automation software</a> has scaled to desktop use for SMBs, small sales teams and consultants. Cost is no longer a barrier to entry; for under a few hundred dollars a month, any size company can compete digitally for more business with drip marketing automation.)</p>
<p>I’d like to share one of my personal drip marketing success stories with you. It’s a great example of why it’s so important to implement a drip marketing strategy sooner rather than later. <span id="more-736"></span></p>
<p>About a year ago, my company received a referral for a new ACT! database prospect. Initially our marketing manager, Golda Cohen, talked with him, and then sent him a proposal for our services.</p>
<h2>Proposal Follow-Up Drip Marketing Campaign</h2>
<p>Immediately he was added to our proposal follow-up drip marketing campaign to educate him about all of our other services that he had not yet asked about. </p>
<p>Of course, Golda continued to follow up on this sales opportunity personally. And now that he was a high-priority prospect, he also received e-mails from us inviting him to our live events.</p>
<p>I don’t remember if this sale took longer or shorter to close than normal, but we did finally get the order. Golda then scheduled an installation date for our Senior Consultant and a different day for database marketing training with me.</p>
<p>Our client’s ACT! database was installed without a hitch (we love when this happens), and now it was time for training. Several months had passed since our client first entered our sales pipeline, and throughout his journey with us, all the way up to his day of training, I never once had a conversation with him.</p>
<p>On the day of training, I showed up at our new customer’s office and waited for him while he finished a phone call. Then he appeared and exclaimed to me…</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>(The Big Reveal)</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">“Lori–are you ‘<strong>“THE</strong> Database Diva? I’ve been reading your stuff, and<br />
I was really looking forward to meeting you!”</p>
<p>Frankly, he caught me completely off guard! I was looking forward to meeting him, too, of course. But he was <strong><em>really</em></strong> looking forward to meeting me! In fact, he already felt like we knew each other, even though we’d never said as much as a “hello” to each other.</p>
<p>That’s because for months, he had been absorbing everything we sent him about our sales process, our implementation team, our quick-start tips and our case studies. He was now an informed customer who was eager to taste his own success. So we got down to business and had a great training day.</p>
<p>The proposal follow-up drip marketing campaign is one of <a title="Drip Marketing Campaigns" href="http://www.dripmarketingletters.com/ph-7drips" target="_blank">7 Must-Have Drip Marketing Campaigns</a> I believe every sales organization needs to differentiate itself from the competition. More important, these drip campaigns reduce the risk factor all prospects inherently feel while going through their buying process. The customer knows he must make a decision to buy or not to buy. But that doesn’t mean he enjoys the decision making process. If anything, he’s looking for reasons to eliminate you from his short list to make his selection that much easier.</p>
<p>As I reflected on it later that evening, I realized…</p>
<p><em>Wouldn’t it be great if every new business relationship </em><em>started out </em><em>just like this one–with a customer who was this thrilled and delighted to be doing business with us?</em></p>
<h2>Drip Marketing, The Secret Sauce</h2>
<p>Having a well thought through proposal follow-up campaign, in this case, was a critical factor in closing this sale and giving our customer an overwhelming number of reasons to validate his wise decision to select us as his vendor.</p>
<p>Yes, it took me several hours to think through the sequence of messages I wanted to include in my drip marketing campaign. And, yes, then I had to write all the messages.</p>
<p>And I wasn’t satisfied that this was a perfect drip campaign. I wanted to include more information than I had room for. (I only wanted the campaign to last about as long as my typical sales cycle.) But “done is better than perfect.” And my one-time investment of thought and copywriting continues to reap goodwill and smarter clients and prospects as I add them to this same drip campaign.</p>
<h2>Drip Marketing’s 85/15 Ratio</h2>
<p>A successful drip marketing campaign is 85% strategy and only 15% technology. That’s why they’re so hard to execute. Most companies starting out with drip marketing get this equation all wrong.</p>
<p>One of the biggest mistakes I see companies make is thinking their marketing automation software gives them an unrestricted license to blast the same promotion 24/7. Boring! And ineffective.</p>
<p>Marketers know intuitively this approach won’t work. Yet they don’t know what to do instead. (That’s why I created my 30-day <a title="Drip Marketing Camp" href="http://www.thedatabasediva.com/catalog/drip-marketing-camp" target="_blank">DripMarketingCamp</a>.) They end up missing out on a special opportunity to help prospects fall in love with them via long-term education (and entertinment). We all know that an educated customer makes better buying decisions. It&#8217;s also a lot more fun to work with more engaged customers who want to work towards a common goal of building a solid business releationship.</p>
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		<title>Is Your E-Marketing Message Marking You as a Spammer?</title>
		<link>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/is-your-e-marketing-message-marking-you-as-a-spammer/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/is-your-e-marketing-message-marking-you-as-a-spammer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:27:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Karen Fredricks</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Drip marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Expert’s Corner]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ACT Email Marketing Broadcasting SwiftPage Email The CRM Connection]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/?p=752</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of my clients recently sent me a one of his proposed e-marketing templates for my review.  He had spent quite a bit of time developing his message and was understandably quite proud of it.  What he had in mind was for me to review it, make a few suggestions and fix any typos I [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>One of my clients recently sent me a one of his proposed e-marketing templates for my review.  He had spent quite a bit of time developing his message and was understandably quite proud of it.  What he had in mind was for me to review it, make a few suggestions and fix any typos I might find.  He was no doubt expecting a few words of praise, or, at the very least, a large smiley face.  What he got was a totally reworked piece that bore little resemblance to his original chef-d&#8217;oeuvre; I did, however, refrain from placing a large red “F” at the top.</p>
<p>As an author I’ve been critiqued by some of the best editors in the world and I know the process.  It’s not unusual for the early drafts of my books to return to me in the form of road kill.  As the daily recipient of dozens of pieces of spam I know which messages will make their way through &#8211; and which messages will take a permanent place in the Spam Folder.</p>
<p>My rule of thumb for writing a marketing piece is to pretend that I am writing to one of my buddies with a bit of friendly advice.  You might want to think about the following parts of your message before sending out your next blast:</p>
<p><strong>1.       </strong><strong> Subject line:  </strong>This is absolutely the most important part of your message because it will determine whether or not your e-mail is opened.  Take a look at your own Inbox and determine which message you opened and which you immediately marked as Spam.<strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>2.       </strong><strong>Length:  </strong>Do you have time to read a two page message from a stranger, or someone you barely know?  After you write your piece go back and remove any unnecessary verbiage. Keep you sentences brief and to the point.<strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>3.       </strong><strong>Tone:  </strong>Keep it simple and friendly.  Period.  Don’t lecture.  Don’t sell and/or come across like a carnival vendor.  <strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>4.       </strong><strong>Formatting:  </strong>If your message is clear you don’t need to resort to bold, underlined and red formatting, and avoid using ALL CAPS.  This type of formatting will make readers think you are shouting at them and will cause spam filters to gobble up your messages and spit out the pieces.<strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>5.       </strong><strong>Bullet points:  </strong>Yes, pithy little statements neatly arranged with bullets can be effective – but only if they are done extremely well.  In my client’s case his bullets had no symmetry; some started with sentences, others with verbs, some focused on his product and others on the customer.  <strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>6.       </strong><strong>Blatant sales pitches:  </strong>Granted, some of your product pricing might include a manufacturer’s discount or rebate that you’ll want to share with your recipients.  My client, however, offered a “3 day only” offer for his services knowing full well that he’d offer the same “deal” at any time.<strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>7.       </strong><strong>Closing:  </strong>This one should be simple.  Do you normally sign your emails with your own name or just that of your company?  <strong></strong></p>
<p>Put yourself in the shoes of your recipient, keep your message simple and you’ll find that writing great marketing pieces is easier than you think!</p>
<p> Karen Fredricks<br />
<a href="mailto:blog@techbenders.com">blog@techbenders.com</a><br />
www.techbenders.com</p>
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		<title>Drip Marketing Campaign Checklist – Part 2</title>
		<link>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/drip-marketing-campaign-checklist-part-2/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/drip-marketing-campaign-checklist-part-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:26:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Lori Feldman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Drip marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drip marketing campaign]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drip marketing campaigns]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/?p=744</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[This is Part 2 of my article outlining a get-started drip-marketing checklist. You can read Part 1 here. 
Like any complex, overwhelming task, launching your first drip marketing campaign is easier if you break down big concepts into discreet, do-able action items. Here’s the second half of the checklist.
5. Set up your campaign in your drip marketing automation content [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>This is Part 2 of my article outlining a get-started drip-marketing checklist. You can read <a title="Drip Marketing Campaign Checklist" href="http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/drip-marketing-campaign-checklist-part-1" target="_blank">Part 1</a> here. </p>
<p>Like any complex, overwhelming task, launching your first drip marketing campaign is easier if you break down big concepts into discreet, do-able action items. Here’s the second half of the checklist.</p>
<p><strong>5.</strong> <strong>Set up your campaign in your drip marketing automation content editor</strong>. If you don’t yet have one, I recommend <a title="Drip Marketing, Email Marketing" href="http://www.thedatabasediva.com/swiftpage" target="_blank">Swiftpage</a> because it’s easy to learn and one of the least expensive (I am a reseller of this program). Create a template for each message you wrote in step 4. Then set up the timing between each stage.  Build in several call-list stages to follow-up with contacts who are most responsive at each stage of  your campaign.</p>
<p><strong> 6. Add the contacts you coded in step 2 and launch the campaign.</strong> By the time you complete steps 1-5, this step will seem very anti-climatic because you already went through the entire thought process. However, if you’re a uber-perfectionist, you may want to launch your campaign to yourself first to see how and when it arrives.</p>
<p><strong>7. Analyze the results.</strong> There’s no such thing as a “perfect” drip campaign. You can dot all the i’s, cross all the T’s, and strategize till the cows come home, but you still won’t be intuitive enough to know what your contacts will think or how they’ll behave after receiving your messages. If you engineer a feedback loop into your messages, you’ll get questions or suggestions that may make you rethink your drip strategy. The campaign reports are also valuable for showing you disconnects in your thought process.  Don’t be afraid to incorporate direct and indirect feedback. Tweak everything &#8211; messages, stages, sequencing.</p>
<p>Once you’ve launched your first live drip marketing campaign, you’ll see how much easier it is to build and integrate the next one (and the next one, and the next one) until all your business’ black holes are plugged up.</p>
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		<title>Drip Marketing Campaign Checklist &#8211; Part 1</title>
		<link>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/drip-marketing-campaign-checklist-part-1/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/drip-marketing-campaign-checklist-part-1/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:41:17 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Lori Feldman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Drip marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drip marketing campaign]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[drip marketing campaigns]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/?p=741</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Most businesses don’t communicate with their customer base enough, so they miss sales because of their inability to “clone” their salespeople. So it’s not hard to see the benefits of adding drip marketing to your marketing plan, which automates the follow-up process and identifies the *hot* prospects from the ones who are only “half-baked.”
The roadblock [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Most businesses don’t communicate with their customer base enough, so they miss sales because of their inability to “clone” their salespeople. So it’s not hard to see the benefits of adding drip marketing to your marketing plan, which automates the follow-up process and identifies the *hot* prospects from the ones who are only “half-baked.”</p>
<p>The roadblock to implementing is the execution. Drip marketing is inherently overwhelming, with its multiple steps, if/then processes and prolific copywriting requirements. It can morph into a never-ending project.</p>
<p>Can, but doesn’t have to.</p>
<p>I’ve compiled a 7-point checklist to help you overcome your roadblock. The checklist works if you don’t skip ahead or jump around the list. To complete your first successful drip marketing campaign, you don’t move to the next step until you’ve completed the first–even if a single step takes a month to complete. This checklist is the process I teach in my <a title="Drip Marketing Camp" href="http://www.thedatabasediva.com/catalog/drip-marketing-camp" target="_blank">DripMarketingCamp</a>, and I’m sharing the process with you to remove some of its mystery.<span id="more-741"></span></p>
<p>This post contains checklist steps 1-4. In my next post I cover checklist steps 5-7.</p>
<h2>Drip Marketing Step-by-Step</h2>
<ol>
<li><strong>Pick one “trigger event” in your business where  you have the worst follow up.</strong> (It’s probably on my list of the “<a title="drip marketing campaigns" href="http://www.dripmarketingletters.com/ph-7drips" target="_blank">7 must-have drip marketing campaigns</a>.”) Plug up that black hole first. It may be hard to focus on only one campaign. It may feel like that one “blends” into another one you struggle with. If you can’t decide which one to start with because they’re each problem areas for you, no worries. Just pick one. Eventually you’ll complete them all.</li>
<li><strong>Define your target audience for this campaign.</strong> This will be a lot easier now that you’ve focused on your starter campaign. Code the contacts in your database that qualify to receive this drip campaign, so you have an easy way to group them. (This is called <a title="database list segmentation" href="http://www.thedatabasediva.com/14-ways-to-segment-your-customer-database-part-1" target="_blank">list segmentation</a>, which is the first step in having more meaningful conversations with your contacts.)</li>
<li><strong>Determine which messages you want to send, and the sequence you want to send them in.</strong> The easiest way to do this is to select a contact you actually know from the target list. Where is this person in your sales process? What does he or she need to know at this stage of your relationship in order to take the next step with you? What “call to action” is appropriate: Asking them to join a webinar? Read a white paper? Offering a special promotion? Join a demo?  What’s the next logical step you want them to take with you? Plot it out. Now that you know who you’re engaging and what you want to say to them, you’ll know how to space out the messages. Is one a day too frequent? One message a week? Following up on a proposal has a different pace than following up on a website lead. Knowing who you’re focused on in a drip marketing campaign makes sequencing a common-sense decision.</li>
<li><strong>Write each message,</strong> including a subject line for each email message in the drip.<strong> Hot tip</strong>: Revisit the history of your last 5 big sales. Research what you did to move them through the sales process, in the order you did it. Check your email “sent” folder for message ideas. That’s a rich ”library” of information you tend to repeat with each of your contacts, and these messages typically have a logical progression to them. Won’t it be nice to have a relevant templated response for all future prospects in your pipeline?</li>
</ol>
<p>I’ll share the second part of this drip marketing campaign checklist in my next post. In the meantime, feel free to ask me a question about drip marketing or share your ideas for your own drip marketing campaigns.</p>
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		<title>What Do You Stand For in Your Drip Marketing?</title>
		<link>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/what-do-you-stand-for-in-your-drip-marketing/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/what-do-you-stand-for-in-your-drip-marketing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 Dec 2009 11:32:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Lori Feldman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Drip marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[automated drip marketing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/?p=674</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
In the late 80s, I was Regional Sales Manager for a national database company that sold business intelligence and mailing lists primarily through onsite seminars and inbound marketing (pre-Internet marketing!)
The company invested more than $50,000 in a contact management system that was programmed to spit out follow-up drip marketing letters every 7 days once a prospect [...]]]></description>
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<p>In the late 80s, I was Regional Sales Manager for a national database company that sold business intelligence and mailing lists primarily through onsite seminars and inbound marketing (pre-Internet marketing!)</p>
<p>The company invested more than $50,000 in a contact management system that was programmed to spit out follow-up drip marketing letters every 7 days once a prospect identified himself.<span id="more-1781"> </span></p>
<div>
<p>The daily routine worked like this: Arrive at the office. Grab coffee. Data enter all the contacts we didn’t have time to enter yesterday. Code them by product interest (Check out my blog post on the <a title="14 Ways To Segment Your Customer Database" href="http://www.thedatabasediva.com/14-ways-to-segment-your-customer-database-part-1" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2361a1;">14 Ways To Segment Your Database – Part 1</span></a> and <a title="14 Ways To Segment Your Database" href="http://www.thedatabasediva.com/14-ways-to-segment-your-customer-database-part-2" target="_blank"><span style="color: #2361a1;">Part 2</span></a>). </p>
<p>Hand off our notes and slips of paper with only partial contact info to our Admin who looked up missing info in the phone book. Next we’d press the “today’s letters” button on the computer keyboard. Kerchunk! Kerchunk! Kerchunk! The CRM software queued up the three-tray printer with…<span id="more-674"></span></p>
<p>14 number 1 letters<br />
16 number 2 letters<br />
25 number 3 letters<br />
18 number 4 letters<br />
30 number 5 letters, and<br />
Multiple sheets of #5160 Avery labels printed with matching addresses</p>
<p>For the next hour, my sales staff and I hand signed each letter. We wrote personal notes on many of them. Then we folded and inserted each letter into a #10 envelope, sealed the envelope, “licked and sticked” first-class postage and peeled off the address label to place it on the proper envelope (taking care to match the person’s name on the letter to the address label!) Then the mail carrier picked up our letters when he dropped off our daily mail.</p>
<h2>And then drip marketing magic began…</h2>
<p>Within a few days the phone would ring all day long. Prospects placed orders or requested more information. The fax machine hummed with completed registration forms for our upcoming seminars. Our conference room only held 15, so we’d fill up several seminars at a time.</p>
<p>We were a sales organization that never had time to go on sales calls or make cold calls (we barely had time to go to lunch). We were too busy talking to customers and prospects who stopped by our office or called us.</p>
<p>When we did have to compete for business, our win rate was impressive. We were a national company with a local following, and we excelled at understanding our customers needs and staying in touch with them from their first inquiry, thru placing the order, to post-sale customer service.</p>
<p>Our daily drip marketing activity was the linchpin in our sales processs. We loved stuffing those envelopes! It was guaranteed money in the bank.</p>
<p>When I started my own company, setting up my database was the first thing I did–even before I was officially open for business. There was never a doubt that drip marketing would be the cornerstone of my marketing. Consequently, my company actually made sales before I had to pay my first rent check.</p>
<p>Doing business today is tougher, there’s no doubt about it. The communication channels have evolved. Trying to connect can be a professional salesperson&#8217;s nightmare. Prospects (and even some customers) hide behind their voice mail, fax broadcasting has pretty much been outlawed, and direct mail is more expensive, and responses takes longer than email. Email is often ignored or sent directly to the junk folder.</p>
<p>Fortunately, one most important thing hasn’t changed: People still want to solve problems.</p>
<p>Back when I did my drip marketing manually, there just weren’t that many BTB marketing choices. Phone calls, snail mail and trade shows were pretty much it. Today, there are many more choices for marketers <em>and</em> for buyers.</p>
<p>And buyers aren’t waiting around for us to educate them anymore–they’re doing sophisticated searches online to educate themselves and make their own buying decisions, often without you ever finding out they were in the market for what you sell. The pre-sales process is in hyper-drive, and as marketers, we’re the ones drinking from the firehose.</p>
<p>This velocity causes confusion for a lot of people. My friend, Martha Conway, calls it the “message vs. mechanics” dilemma. Martha is a veteran public relations expert who places authors, speakers and authorities on national TV and radio shows and gets their story into print media.</p>
<p>She has seen this phenomenon thousands of times because it’s her job to figure out her clients’ USP–their unique service proposition–the interesting nugget that sets you apart from all the other people who do exactly the same thing you do.</p>
<p>Martha says those with well defined USPs are the ones who ultimately influence their customers to buy. Once the message is in place, “no matter what mechanic you employ, you’ll have success.”</p>
<p>Defining your USP is the single most important step in launching a successful automated drip marketing campaign. Once you&#8217;ve nailed that down, it&#8217;s easy to develop a laundry list of topics to educate and entertain your readers.</p>
<p>Whether you&#8217;re stuffing envelopes for a direct mailing or setting up an automated drip marketing campaign, you must be clear on what you want to ultimately accomplish. All the noise behind whether you should Twitter, write a blog post or post a status update on LinkedIn should not be confused with the unique message you want to stand for.</p></div>
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		<title>Postmortem on a Simply Terrible Email Marketing Campaign</title>
		<link>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/postmortem-on-a-simply-terrible-email-marketing-campaign/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/postmortem-on-a-simply-terrible-email-marketing-campaign/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:14:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Lori Feldman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Drip marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email marketing campaigns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[junk email]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/?p=520</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As an email marketing consultant, I read more than a normal amount of simply terrible email marketing campaigns. I don&#8217;t mean junk email, because nobody reads those. I mean breathtakingly feeble attempts at online promotions that sincere business owners or wannabe marketers deliberately compose in hopes of selling somebody something. (Somebody? Anybody?)
Usually my suppressed lizard [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>As an email marketing consultant, I read more than a normal amount of simply terrible email marketing campaigns. I don&#8217;t mean junk email, because nobody reads those. I mean breathtakingly feeble attempts at online promotions that sincere business owners or wannabe marketers deliberately compose in hopes of selling somebody something. (Somebody? Anybody?)</p>
<p>Usually my suppressed lizard brain activates my delete key finger within seconds of a subject-line scan. But today I came across this message which may win the Nobel Prize for Most Violations of Common Sense in a Single Email Marketing Campaign.</p>
<p>So in homage to a spine-tingling, gruesome Halloween in Marketingville, I offer up this 8-point postmortem examination and dissection in  hopes that you will strike these transgressions from your email marketing repertoire at once. I promise, this patient was already dead before he reached my Inbox.<span id="more-520"></span><a href="http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/bad-email2.JPG"><img class="size-full wp-image-557 alignnone" title="bad-email2" src="http://h47072wp.setupmyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/bad-email2.JPG" alt="bad-email2" width="431" height="348" /></a></p>
<ol>
<li>A Yahoo email address on a business email? Really? Dude, on first glimpse, all I read was &#8220;glob.&#8221; [Delete]</li>
<li>Who the H is Josh Walker? And how does he know what I&#8217;d be interested in? [Delete]</li>
<li>First, if Josh wants me to see his webpage, I&#8217;m much more inclined to click on a text link rather than this gnarly HTML (too intimidating). But if he must flash the entire URL at me, can he not think of something better to call it than &#8220;advertising-information?&#8221; [Delete]</li>
<li>There&#8217;s Josh again. And now he wants me to hurry? Josh, why do I care about your brand new program? [Delete]</li>
<li>One word: Proof Read! (Oh wait; that&#8217;s 2). AND QUIT YELLING AT ME WITH YOUR ALL CAPS. (We learned this in 1998.) BTW, you&#8217;ve exceeded your exclamation point quota&#8230;and, um, please tell Josh I&#8217;m still waiting for the &#8220;why do I care&#8221; part. [Delete]</li>
<li>Another URL? Which one do I click? You haven&#8217;t explained either one. Josh, you&#8217;re confusing me. And confused readers [Delete].</li>
<li>Well, look! It&#8217;s Josh himself signing off on this email. Note to Josh: Pick a narrative to write in&#8211; First person or third&#8211;unless you have multiple personalities. In which case, get 2 email accounts. [Delete]</li>
<li>Uh huh. I made it to the bottom of your email, Josh, and I trust you less now than I did when I first opened your message. So I kept scrolling down to see if I could find your CAN-SPAM footer and opt out. Not surprisingly, the only way I can opt out of receiving anything from you is to reply to your glob Yahoo address. I&#8217;d rather right-click and tell Microsoft to &#8220;add sender to blocked senders list.&#8221; Or just [Delete].</li>
</ol>
<p>Now, stop haunting everyone&#8217;s email inbox until you can show us why we should care about anything you have to say.</p>
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		<title>Recession Woes? More Business Is Right Under Your Nose!</title>
		<link>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/recession-woes-more-business-is-right-under-your-nose/</link>
		<comments>http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/recession-woes-more-business-is-right-under-your-nose/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2009 12:11:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Lori Feldman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Drip marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Email Marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[act software]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[follow-up marketing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sales follow-up]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.thecrmalliance.com/?p=311</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Two years ago I had a custom closet built in my bedroom. The closet company did a great job and finished promptly. So I asked them to give me estimates on two more projects. My thought was to do one custom closet per year.
Well, as you know, life happens. But this year, when I was [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p></p><p>Two years ago I had a custom closet built in my bedroom. The closet company did a great job and finished promptly. So I asked them to give me estimates on two more projects. My thought was to do one custom closet per year.</p>
<p>Well, as you know, life happens. But this year, when I was finally ready&#8230;I couldn&#8217;t remember the company&#8217;s name. I couldn&#8217;t find the receipt from the job they did for me. And in all this time, they never called! They never wrote! I haven&#8217;t heard so much as a peep from them.<span id="more-311"></span></p>
<p>I don&#8217;t get this. Is the closet organization business the only one that is booming during this business downturn that&#8217;s affecting everyone else? Is there such a backlog of overflowing closets belonging to women-entrepreneur workaholics that this company doesn&#8217;t feel the need to do any marketing?</p>
<p>The truism that it costs significantly more to get a new customer than to sell additional products and services to existing customers is TRUE.</p>
<p>The closet company already had given me estimates for my new projects. I was pre-sold. Yes, I was a &#8220;not now&#8221; customer at the time, but I was <em>their not-now customer! </em>All they would&#8217;ve had to do was send me a postcard or call me up and say, &#8220;Are you ready now?&#8221; and I would&#8217;ve been theirs. No big ad campaign; no salesman site visit for measurement. I was as close to low-hanging fruit as it comes.</p>
<p>If you own a business or you&#8217;re in sales, it should be in your DNA to do whatever you can to continue long-term relationships with customers. The profit is in the second and subsequent sale! Why?</p>
<p><em>There&#8217;s no advertising cost!</em></p>
<p>Why wasn&#8217;t I at least invited to receive an email newsletter from this company? I wouldn&#8217;t mind seeing pictures of other perfect closets (especially since I have two other ones waiting for makeovers). I&#8217;d have opted-in to get special sales info or any coupons they have. In fact, a coupon might have motivated me to pull the trigger on my next order sooner.</p>
<p>As a CRM consultant, this lack of follow-through drives me crazy. That&#8217;s because there IS one more thing you can do to attract new business to your company during a downturn, instead of waiting until the economic tides turn on their own.</p>
<p>All this closet company needed to stay in touch were two inexpensive tools: 1) a customer database (like <a title="ACT Software" href="http://www.thedatabasediva.com/act" target="_blank">ACT! Software</a>) &#8212; for under $350 and 2) an email service provider.</p>
<p>The email marketing service I recommend is <a title="Swiftpage Email Marketing" href="http://www.thedatabasediva.com/swiftpage" target="_blank">Swiftpage</a>. There are hundreds of excellent email service providers but this is the only one that integrates with ACT Software. That means there&#8217;s no need to export and upload lists, an extra step that prevents a lot of businesses from sending consistent marketing campaigns.</p>
<p>Swiftpage also rates as my top email service because starting this fall it will automatically be part of the new version of ACT Software, known as ACT! e-Marketing.  The cost to send  3,000 emails is about $55/month.</p>
<p>Swiftpage comes with ready-made templates or you can create your own. Deliverability is higher with Swiftpage than sending through Outlook because Swiftpage works with the major ISPs who recognize them as a professional service and not some untraceable spammer out of Nigeria.</p>
<p>Swiftpage also monitors opt-outs (the service is entirely CAN-SPAM compliant, which is a law, not an option). Best of all, it shows who opens your email, who clicks on your links (so you see who&#8217;s interested in what) and it generates call lists of hot prospects to hand off to salespeople for follow up. Salespeople can see the contact&#8217;s readership score &#8220;diary&#8221; by looking in the ACT marketing database history.</p>
<p>Swiftpage&#8217;s Team and Pro versions also allow you to &#8221;schedule send&#8221; or &#8220;send as,&#8221; so you save time by programming a month of messages in advance to be sent out under the sales rep&#8217;s name (instead of a spammy &#8220;from&#8221; address like sales@company.com).</p>
<p>Once you&#8217;re comfortable sending basic emails, move your business up to the next level of sophisticated (and time-saving) stay-in-touch marketing messages with Swiftpage drip marketing. Drip marketing lets you string together a series of email templates based on business triggers&#8211;in the case of my closet company, they could&#8217;ve sent me a reminder or a coupon once a quarter and then scheduled a sales rep to call me if I hadn&#8217;t called the company by then.</p>
<p>Like everyone, I get a lot of spam. I delete messages on vitamins, sex aids and stock tips. But a nice newsletter from a company I&#8217;ve done business with before would be fine. It may even remind my failing memory to place another order that I meant to do anyway.</p>
<p>So don&#8217;t let good customers forget about you. The replacement cost of losing a good customer is far more expensive than a $55/month drip-marketing follow-up system.</p>
<p>P.S. At the end of July I&#8217;m holding my 4th <a title="Drip Marketing Camp" href="http://www.thedatabasediva.com/catalog/drip-marketing-camp" target="_blank">DripMarketingCamp</a>. In under 30 days, I teach you how to professionally design, write and launch one customized follow-up campaign for your company&#8217;s &#8220;not now&#8221; customers and prospects. Check it out; just one drip marketing campaign could plug up a major black hole in your sales follow-up process.</p>
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