How to Create an Effective B2B Email Marketing Campaign
Email marketing is one of the most valuable tools in the B2B marketing toolbox. Email is essential for efficiently maintaining a loyal customer-base and improving ROI. Yet, some email campaigns are more effective than others. Marketers need to know how to craft email messages that make the recipient want to read and respond to it.
Making A B2B Email Campaign Work
A great email marketing campaign should be both effective and cost-efficient. Here are seven tips to make sure that your next email campaign is both.
1. Build a List: Buying lists can be a risky affair. Most purchased lists are not properly vetted and are rife with bad data, such as obsolete email addresses. If a list isn’t properly scrubbed, your email campaign will get a high rate of hard bounces. Also, recipients getting unrequested correspondence may mark the email as spam. Both of these occurrences could lead to an email service provider blacklisting a company’s email. A much more effective way to create a list is by having website visitor sign up for a newsletter, enter a sweepstakes, download a white paper, etc. Recipients who actually know the company are also more likely to open the email.
2. Make the Subject Line Stand Out: The email subject line is the most important part of the email in many respects. If the subject isn’t interesting enough, recipients are more likely to delete the email – even if they recognize the company that sent it. The subject line should be enticing, but also tell the readers what the email is about. Don’t just give the name of your newsletter; provide some insight as to its content.
3. Tailor the Message: Messages should be personalized to what the prospect is interested in based on past actions or the person’s profile. Don’t just send out generic messages to the entire list. For example, if someone downloaded a white paper on technology trends, the next email to them should refer back to that topic.
4. Properly Segment the List: One way to tailor a message is by breaking up the recipient list into segments based on interests, areas of the country, or online actions. The recipients in a particular segment will only receive a certain type of message or message themes.
5. Avoid Spam Trigger Words: Email providers like Gmail, Outlook, MSN, Yahoo, etc. are always trying to improve the experience of users. One way they do that is to scan emails to determine whether or not they are spam. This is often done by looking for words like “free”, “cash” and “offer”. Look at this list, and avoid using these words.
6. Test: Perform A/B testing to determine what type of subject lines and email body messages work best for the audience. Change up images and copy if testing particular elements as opposed to the email as a whole.
7. Evaluate results: Analyze the results to determine how well the email did. Look at open and click-thru rates. Compare current and past campaigns. See what messages best resonated with different audiences and use this data to improve future success.
If these tips are used for all current and future email marketing campaigns, businesses should see improvement in open rates, click-thrus and responses.
