Taking charge of your email marketing is essential if you want to succeed as a B2B company owner. Email interaction is a popular form of communication amongst B2B customers. Plus, it’s a super powerful way to drive leads as it allows you to consistently educate, inform and support your audience.
As an experienced email marketing agency, we know a thing or two about B2B email marketing best practices. We’ll be sharing them with you right here, so consider this your B2B email marketing crash course. Oh, and be sure to take notes because once applied, the following info can really help grow your business.
Everything you need to know about B2B email marketing
What is B2B marketing? As the name suggests, B2B email marketing is targeted at other businesses instead of individual customers. And as such, B2B marketing strategies are typically used by wholesale companies or suppliers whose customers are mainly business owners.
What sets B2B email marketing apart is the fact that its email campaigns are more 1 on 1 and customer-focused. The customer in this case being the business owner. The aim of this is is to nurture leads and customers alike. After all, once you have someone that’s interested in what you're offering, you need to keep them hooked. That’s where B2B email marketing comes in.
B2B email marketing best practices
Without further ado, here are some important B2B email marketing best practices to follow:
List Segmentation
First things first, determine who your audience is and segment them. This will make it easier to create targeted campaigns that speak directly to your intended customers.
The best way to splice your audience is through list segmentation. B2B segmentation requires that you divide your email list into smaller segments so you can create better-targeted campaigns.
Instead of wearing out your brand by presenting it to anyone and everyone, you can get the message out to those most likely to embrace it. And be sure to create different lead profiles, taking note of each buyer persona.
The most important thing is to make your customers feel appreciated. They should get a sense that your products and services can really enhance their own businesses. But, give them time. It’s called nurturing for a reason and you don’t nurture something in a rush.
Most of your leads will need more engagement before turning into conversions and automation will play a major role in this regard.
Automate
Whenever you get a new customer, it’s important to observe social etiquette by giving them a warm welcome. And, with pretty much all ESPs, you can trigger a welcome email that’ll shed some light on your brand values while introducing them to your products and services. Now, say you want to hook in ‘the one that got away'. That’s what abandoned cart emails are for.
Email automation also offers auto-responders and chatbots that’ll provide customers with relevant answers to questions they may have at any time of the day.
Picking Providers
You can’t just send out emails to businesses and call that email marketing. You need an ESP platform that will help you to direct your campaign and customize your email messages so that they’re eye-catching yet functional.
Some providers will help you cater to more subscribers than others and some will offer more features and functions. You’ll have to compare each one according to your needs and determine the pros and cons for yourself.
Some well-known options include Klaviyo, MailChimp, SalesForce, and Hubspot to name a few, and we’ve worked with them all - and then some. If you need help deciding on the best ESP provider for you, check out this handy guide we created to compare the best ESP marketing software options available.
Optimize your Design
People are usually interested in things that are packaged well. Your layout must adapt to the device it appears on, as that’s how you keep people from losing interest. Just because you’re dealing with businesses, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider how your emails will appear on smartphones and other handheld devices.
It’s also advisable that while you explore your email design options, you try to keep it as simple as possible, so as not to overstimulate the audience. Professionalism is key when it comes to designing B2B emails.
Get your Content in Check
When thinking about content, be mindful of your subject lines as they will play a huge role in improving open rates. It’s the first thing that meets the reader’s eye, so it needs to be an unforgettable tease that leaves them wanting more. Take the time to think of something unique but representative of your brand. Keep it down to just a few words and use verbs that’ll get your customers to spring into action.
When it comes to the body of the email, you want to show just how much value you can offer without using too much professional vocabulary. Providing solutions is what you need to be focusing on, anything else might elicit disinterest.
Your content must also align with what your data suggests. Basically, after segmenting your list, you’ll have to send messages appropriate to your subscribers’ behavior, their age, and so on. A good email marketing software or manager allows you to capture important information that you can use in creating a personalized experience for subscribers.
A good rule of thumb is to avoid salesy clichés. Unlike ordinary customers, businesses are more concerned with long-term arrangements as opposed to buy-and-go situations. That’s why you need to create the right tone through the language you use.
Keeping punctuation to a minimum is one of the best things you can do for your content. Too much of it can be distracting, adding unnecessary complexity to your communication. Rather invest your energy into making sure the grammar and spelling are on point. Sometimes all it takes is a misspelled word to tarnish your brand.
Why You Need a B2B Email Marketing Company
Normal email marketing is tough enough, B2B email marketing can be downright daunting. Think about it; you’re dealing with serious business owners here whose main objective is to grow their own brands.
That’s why you need to work with an experienced B2B marketing agency like CodeCrew to help you take the reins of your B2B email marketing strategy and successfully attract (and retain) your ideal customers.
We’ve worked with some of the most exciting wholesale businesses on the market, helping them grow and expand beyond their wildest dreams.
Try our full-service email marketing services for yourself and get in on that 1, 300% average ROI that our customers have enjoyed.
