4 Best Practices to Harness the Power of B2B Email Marketing
- Dean Ara
Has the rise of tools like influencer marketing and social selling made you consider shifting marketing dollars away from email? It shouldn’t. Email marketing remains one of the most popular — and powerful — tools in your arsenal. And we’ve put together a series of B2B email campaign best practices to help you get the most bang for marketing buck.
Did You Know?
77% of marketers saw email engagement increase between July 2021 and July 2022.
We learned a lot attending Ad World this year. But we also discovered a ton of new marketing trends and techniques out there promising to deliver bigger results, faster, with less work or financial investment. B2B email marketing campaigns may not be sexy, but they still tick all those boxes.
Obviously, just employing the same strategies you’ve been using since your career began won’t work — methods that worked a few years ago won’t work forever (hyper-aggressive and clickbait-y subject lines, I’m looking at you). That’s why it’s essential to stay current on best practices to really harness the power of B2B email marketing.
So here we go: four steps to creating B2B email marketing campaigns that deliver.
1. Identify Your Audience
The first step to developing an effective campaign is to identify who you’re trying to reach — the more detailed you can be, the better. Ensure you have well-developed buyer personas and a clear picture of who you’re targeting based on their:
- Company
- Role
- Stage in the buyer journey
- Lifecycle stage
Segment Your Send
Avoid wasting your efforts or complicating your sales team’s work by defining the qualities of your ideal recipient – and qualities of contacts who should absolutely not receive this email. Sort your contact list according to these factors.
Less is more! Sending out the same message to everyone on your contact list (or worse, using purchased lists) may seem like it gets your message in front of a huge audience. In reality, it increases your chances of getting caught in spam filters and reduces the efficacy of future sends. Subscriber segmentation is one of the most effective ways to ensure your message gets through.
2. Choose the Right Content
74% of people hate being shown irrelevant content, so choosing the perfect content for your B2B email marketing campaign is critical. Different types of content will be more or less valuable to readers at various stages of the buyer journey. Ensure the content you select will provide the maximum value to the audience you defined in the first step.
Pro Tip:
Offer, don’t ask. Every email you send should offer more to the recipient than it asks for.
The content for your campaign doesn’t have to be new — take stock of your existing library to keep costs low.
- Awareness: Blog posts, infographics, and educational videos can assist prospects who are just starting to explore topics related to what you do
- Consideration: Those further along in their buyer journey will need content that dives deeper to give them value – ebooks and invites to webinars or live events are a great asset here
- Decision: If you’re emailing leads ready to make a decision, help them pull the trigger with detailed pricing information, product demos, or free trials
Remember, this is a B2B email marketing campaign — not a sales push. Make sure every piece of content you send offers value to your audience, whether or not they choose to buy from you.
Don’t Skimp on the Landing Page
Once you’ve chosen or created the perfect content for your campaign, build a powerful landing page (if needed) for the asset you’re promoting. Remember, the sole purpose of your landing page is to direct visitors to your content — make it easy. Avoid external links and stick to a single CTA.
3. Set Campaign Length and Frequency
How long should your B2B email marketing campaign run? How often should you send emails?
Email marketing frequency best practices are a bit harder to pin down. There is no one right answer or magic number to answer these questions. The length and frequency of your campaign will depend on the length of your sales cycle and the action you’re trying to get recipients to take. Develop a strategy based on recipients’ needs — not what you’re trying to sell.
A good rule of thumb is to only email when you have something of value to say. Avoid sending a message just because you feel like you should send something. While the exact numbers for every campaign at every business will be different, here are some rough guidelines:
4. Write Some Killer Copy
Carefully planning your strategy is a critical first step, but your B2B email marketing efforts will still fall flat if the messages you send aren’t opened, read, and acted on.
B2B marketing copywriting can feel boring and repetitive. Our topics are dry, and we don’t get to use some edgier tactics B2C marketers can leverage. But every part of your email should be human and helpful. Here are some tools and guidelines to help write emails that spark action.
Did You Know?
59% of B2B marketers cite email as their top channel for revenue generation.
The Anatomy of a B2B Marketing Email
- Goal: A clear understanding of what you’re trying to achieve is key to creating an effective, engaging email. How will your reader know what you want them to do if you’re not even sure yourself?
- Subject line: The door to your email: the subject line is the main factor that determines if your email is delivered and opened. Keep it short and sweet, and make sure it aligns with what’s inside your message.
- Preview text: 24% of email recipients will decide whether or not to open your email based on what they see in the preview text, but some email clients allow users to turn this feature off. Make sure content here is readily available in your body copy as well.
- Header: Use this space to get right to the point of your email in an enticing way. Your headline should make it clear to your recipient what they’ll get if they keep reading.
- Body: Here’s your chance to make your case to the reader. Get creative, but remember to keep it focused on them – stories about problems recipients will relate to are a great way to engage. Be sure your body copy is easy to scan and only includes links to your CTA.
- CTA: Your work is nearly done! If your recipient has made it to this point, all you need to do is provide clear, actionable instructions on what they should do next.
Marketers can measure whatever they want but it’s important to know what KPIs you want before you get started. There are three key questions to ask when deciding what to measure:
Does Your B2B Email Marketing Need a Boost?
Want to know more about B2B email marketing best practices? At Total Product Marketing, we eat, sleep, and breathe B2B marketing. Our Hubspot-certified email marketing experts can help you optimize your strategy to avoid spam filters and create campaigns that deliver the results you need. Contact us today to discuss what we can do for you.
