Email marketing is one of the most beneficial methods for reaching your customers and building relationships with them, but so many struggle to effectively communicate their message. B2B email marketing requires different language, call to actions and content from B2C, and should be a key part of wider marketing strategies for B2B.
B2B email marketing must offer highly relevant and straight to the point content that stands out from the hundreds of emails businesses receive every day.
Why Email Marketing Still Works
Email marketing is a highly effective marketing method if it is done correctly. Not only can it drive sales and increase revenue, but it can also build trust, generate website visits and help to build an understanding of who your customers actually are. This is why many businesses still ask, is email marketing still effective, and the answer lies in having the right approach.
Common Reasons B2B Email Strategies Fail
Many B2B strategies fail, and it is usually because of one of these reasons:
- Confusing messaging
- An overcomplicated email marketing strategy
- Too many emails
- Poorly timed emails
- Generic emails
- Weak call to action
- Emailing everyone
Email marketing can seem like an overcomplicated process, but with a simple, well organised B2B email marketing strategy, driving growth is simple.
What Growth Means in B2B Email Marketing
What does growth actually mean for email marketing in B2B? Campaign metrics need to focus on website visits, customer engagement, email responses and click-through rates (which show how many people are engaging in your content).
Building an email marketing strategy that drives growth is not simply sending emails randomly and hoping one will perform well. Email marketing in B2B requires continuous monitoring and changes based on results.
Key Elements of a Growth-Driven Strategy
Building an email strategy that will result in growth looks like:
Understanding your audience: Growth comes from relevance. If everyone is always receiving the same email from you, you may not be segmenting your audience enough. Understanding the industry, roles and funnel stage of the subscriber means that more targeted emails can be sent that are more likely to be opened, this is a core part of any successful B2B email marketing strategy.
The Purpose of the Email: A high growth email marketing strategy doesn’t simply involve sending updates. The email should have a clear purpose, whether that be to build trust, create problem awareness or encourage a sale or initial call. Having a clear goal gives an email a more directed message.
Mapping the Buyer Journey: Random campaigns are only wasting time. Creating a funnel helps to build sequences rather than random blasts, strengthening your overall B2B email marketing approach.
Personalisation: Personalising an email isn’t as simple as ‘Hi, first name’. Growth strategies use specific pain points the business will resonate with, role relevant messaging and easy to digest emails, which is essential for effective email marketing in B2B.
Automation: Businesses typically do not have the time to manually manage and send emails at scale. This is where automation becomes essential. By combining automation with segmentation, emails can be triggered and tailored to different audiences automatically. For example, sending a welcome email when someone signs up, or a follow-up email after an enquiry. This is a critical part of scaling a b2b email marketing strategy.
Segmentation: This is the process of dividing an email audience into smaller groups based on factors such as industry, company size, behaviour or stage in the buyer journey. This allows businesses to send more relevant, targeted content to each group.
Constant Revision: Email marketing growth cannot take place without adapting based on analytics. Analytics such as click through rate allow an understanding of what emails people are reading, what links they are clicking and how many people aren’t opening the emails at all. The unsubscribe rate is useful too, and although it’s important not to get caught up on it, it can be a useful measure of whether you may be sending too many emails, or emails that are coming across as spam. A poor open rate can signify emails are landing in junk mail, which can impact your overall email marketing strategy.
Why Email Marketing Remains Effective
Did you know that email marketing is statistically one of the most effective marketing channels? This is why email marketing in B2B continues to be a key focus for many businesses.
Although email marketing can seem overwhelming, once clear objectives and strategy are established it becomes a case of continuous review and small tweaks and improvements over time, something every strong B2B email marketing strategy relies on.
Additional Mistakes to Avoid
When it comes to a B2B email strategy, some other common mistakes to avoid include:
- Inconsistent branding and tone
- Failing to optimise for phones (email should display correctly on all devices)
- Using click-bait or boring subject lines
Final Thoughts
B2B email marketing has proved a highly successful marketing strategy for many of our clients, and we want to help you too. With a carefully curated strategy our team can implement and monitor a successful email flow for your business, as part of effective marketing strategies for B2B.
Is it time for your business to start reaching new clients by the click of a button? Get in touch with us at caitlin@fabuzz.com and let’s chat!