B2B Email Marketing Tips - Part 3

B2B Data Experts - Tips for Email B2B marketing

This is the next blog in our series of suggestions "B2B email marketing tips (part 2)" on how to create more effective emails:

1. Brand



Your content will change with each email. But B2B marketing is largely about consistency, so it’s a good idea to retain any themes such as the colour scheme, logo and even a 'house style' of writing. Winning a new customer can take many 'touches' before rapport and understanding is properly built, and you hope that rapport will strengthen over time. Your reader needs to remember you and relate to the evolving relationship. Keeping these elements consistent will also avoid any clash if, as you hope, they move from your email to your website.




2. Share




"If you liked this email": add a link in your newsletter that will encourage your readers to forward your newsletter to others. Perhaps it’s worth considering adding a 'register for future emails' option. This allows new viewers to register for future email. In B2B marketing, a growing opt-in list will always be a bonus!




3. Call to action




Having excited the reader about the benefits of your products and services, they need to know how to move forward. Normal B2B marketing practice says it is good to include a link or two to your web page, as well as an email address, your phone number and postal address. It’s often a very good idea to inject a sense of urgency and encourage action NOW! Maybe a time limited special offer – it helps to avoid undoing all your efforts, you have got them interested but it’s not uncommon for people to forget. Most of all, tell them what to do: "Call us now!"




4. "Consciously uncouple"




Think hard about how you sign-off. In the last set of tips we shared the importance of a consistent personality. Your B2B marketing strategy should aim for consistency across the board. Perhaps your your company prides itself on being professional, so perhaps a formal sign-off is suitable – perhaps you have cultivated the persona of 'alternative, avant-garde or new', so you should sign off accordingly, perhaps just stopping! Your parting words and the impression they leave are almost as important as your first impression and needs to be tuned to fit you and your organisation.




5. Clearly display a link for recipients to unsubscribe




Make sure that recipients can easily find the feature to unsubscribe from the newsletter. This will show the integrity of your business ... and anyway it’s the law!

We hope you have found this series of blogs useful and have been able to start creating more effective B2B marketing emails. If you’re looking to buy B2B data for email marketing campaigns then contact us for an alternative quote.

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Targeting your new customers

Finding the right people for you, those most likely to buy what you are selling is key to generating the best return. No matter how well-crafted your campaign, how enticing or generous your offer, if you target the wrong people your marketing will fail to generate the best return. If your targeting is way off the mark you might even be looking at a complete waste of time and resources.

Do you have a clear idea of who your best prospects are? What has worked in the past with some success?

Equally useful, who hasn’t responded to what you had to say and offer? Being able to identify both is important to your targeting.

Questions, questions , questions - your choices …..

THE WHO

Your target companies, your target contacts; selecting decision making authority or Job title. Don’t discount people without a specific job title. In many organisations, especially smaller ones, its often the case that people may have more than one hat, and as they say, if the hat fits then wear it. Or in this case target them with your message or offer. It can also betrue that marketing to decision makers who don’t wear a functional job title might prove to be very productive because they have received fewer marketing or sales messages and approaches. For more information about which contacts to use, see our article 'B2B data for UK campaigns: Decision Making Contacts or Job Titles'

THE WHERE

Where are your ideal prospects? We have covered what they do but what types of companies do they work for, in which sectors, what do those organisations do? How large or small should they be; and what’s the best way of making sure they aren’t too big or small; number of employees within the company on a site basis or nationally, or by turnover?

Geography – does it matter to your sales and distribution if they are hundreds of miles away? If the answer is yes, its quick and straightforward to search from a single point, regionally, by county, town or postcode or even by distance from your location.

THE DON’T DO

We’ve quickly covered some of the basics but you also need to consider who you would not wish to market to. You would not want to market to your competitors! You would wish to re-introduce yourself to existing customers, but probably would want to use a slightly different approach, so you would need them identified separately. You should also try to exclude companies which could not be interested in your products. Sending irrelevant marketing to people is definitely a waste of your marketing budget, and may even create a poor impression of your brand or even prompt critical PR. Excluding the ’wrong’ contacts needs a moment’s thought but is simple to do.

THE HOW

We have covered who and where but what about how? How are you intending to communicate, mail, phone or email or perhaps a combination of all three. It’s important to consider the channel.

The right people, in the right jobs in the right organisations, contacted at the right time in the right way.

Double check your planned marketing and your data to make sure it is compliant with the law before you press the “GO” button. There are a range of legal requirements including exclude lists and suppression files, data protection and distance selling legislation. Of course you might have rules that apply specifically to your company, especially if you are in a regulated sector like financial services.


Finally, once you have chosen the who, where and how it’s still important to draft what you say, and ensure it is relevant to the contacts you hope will buy from you. As you write your copy it’s a good idea to access your mental profile of people who are within your marketing list, doing so should help you fine tune your message and gain the greatest success.