Six Quick Tips for B2B Email Marketing

b2b-email-marketing

Make every email count

Hey, if you haven’t heard, inboxes are full. It’s valuable real estate. So it’s probably a good idea to optimize every element for your best chance at conversions. B2B email marketing focuses on some of the same best practices for consumer emails. But there are caveats that matter.

And just to be clear, email is not dead. Consider these stats from Campaign Monitor.

  • For every $1 spent, there is a $38 return on investment (ROI).
  • Emails account for 40 percent more customer acquisitions than social media.
  • Most emails are now opened on mobile devices.
  • Personalization increases the likelihood of opening by 26 percent.
  • Segmented campaigns can increase revenue by 760 percent.

Those are some strong data points that show that email does provided ROI and what should inform your campaigns. Let’s look at X B2B email marketing quick fixes.

Quick Tip One: Emails should come from a “real” person

Send emails from a real name. Sending emails from info@, customerservice@ or any other “list” name severely impacts the email being delivered into a primary inbox. Outlook, which is a typical email platform for organizations, will probably flag it and turn it to junk. If you’re sending to Gmail accounts then Google will dump your email in the promotions tab.

So the push back in your head right now may be that you don’t have a specific person, or you don’t want emails to be attributed to a certain person because the person may leave one day. These concerns are warranted. Here’s what you should do:

If you want to send from a real person and their email address, then choose someone in a leadership role that the receivers may actually recognize. But, don’t leave this person to respond to any replies. Most any email system should allow for different send and reply emails.

If you feel that you can’t find a real person to take this role, create an account. Use a simple name. Consider this name to be an avatar that represents parts of your organization. Many companies do this all the time, as it’s seen as a personal interaction.

One other thing, in the “from” field instead or writing out the person’s whole name, use first name and recall your brand. Example, our customers get emails from Doug at Doug Brown Design.

Quick Tip Two: Design for mobile first

As indicated above, more emails are not opened on mobile more than any other device. So, when you start designing, design for mobile first. Determine how you can provide a great user experience (UX) on mobile. Are fonts and buttons large enough? Have you provided design elements that guide the user and let them know they’ve successfully completed a transaction. An example would be offering an ebook with a “Read Now” button. You’ll want to ensure that something happens when they hit the button that provides them what they want, which is to read now. Also, as a reminder, if you are sending users to a landing page for an offer or more information, ensure it’s mobile friendly as well. That can kill any goodwill your email received.

Quick Tip Three: Not everyone should get the same email

How do you segment customers and leads? By industry? Region? Product or service needs? If you aren’t segmenting then get started. By segmenting your list, you can ensure your relevance to the receiver. There are many ways to segment as noted above related to attributes or products. You should also segment by where they are in the buyer’s journey: awareness, consideration or decision.

When you create emails based on these elements, you’ll be offering real value in a prospect’s inbox rather than just more noise. An example may be that you have a group segmented by industry (manufacturing) and buyer’s journey (consideration). At this point, the buyer is aware of the problem and is actively seeking solutions and more information. This is a perfect time to offer them a demo or invite them to a webinar.

Quick Tip Four: Let’s get personal

Many may think that personalization is just for consumer email marketing. Not so. Remember, even in B2B it’s really just people to people. Neither you nor your prospect is an organization. So, your emails should sound as though they are coming from a real person and that they are meant for a real person. So, what does that really mean? You can’t just slide in a first name and be done. Personalization is much more detailed than that and includes:

  • Using a conversational and human tone in your writing
  • Being specific about a user’s last activity (e.g. Glad you joined our webinar, thanks for signing up for our newsletter, etc.)
  • Understanding the buyer’s needs (What products have they browsed? What content have the read? What previous services or products have they purchased?)
  • Connecting relevance based on time of year or season (e.g. Messaging school administrators in the summer as they prepare for the new year, or reminding businesses that the holidays are coming and they’ll need XYZ.)

Quick Tip Five: Be consistent in design

Your email designs should be in line with your brand and have a consistent look. That doesn’t mean you can’t have different templates. Of course, you can, depending on the message. But don’t go to crazy. It’s better to keep it simple. Users should be able to tell when they look at your email that it’s from your brand.

Quick Tip Six: Optimize send times

If you’ve been sending email campaigns for a while then you should have access to what days and times equate to the highest open and click through rates. Now, does this mean that you should every email on a specific day and time? No, but use this data to draw conclusions. If you operate across the country, also consider time zones and how that impacts campaigns. The point is to use the data to spot trends and leverage those. Don’t just send based on what you think or what you’ve always done.

These are just a few quick tips for B2B email marketing. Beyond all these tips is also the need to have a defined email marketing strategy. You must start with this, or it’s going to be very hard to reap results. Learn more by read more blogs on email marketing.

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