5 tips for best practice B2B email marketing
Email is a powerful B2B marketing tool. According to HubSpot, email marketing has an incredible ROI of 3800%, and 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months. In this post, I’ll go through a few tips and best practice recommendations to help you level-up your B2B email marketing game.
Before we dive in, we’ll assume you already have the basics in place. Like getting your data in shape, segmenting your list, applying basic personalisation, and using a well-optimised email template.
With this in mind, here’s five advanced tips I’ve used to improve deliverability, engagements, and results:
1: Avoid these keywords to get past SPAM filters
SPAM filters are getting more advanced. They not only scan the subject line but the entire email and its links. While some keywords are hard to avoid, I find it forces you to get creative with your copy and strip out more words. Which is never a bad thing.
While businesses all have their own filter rules and exclusions, HubSpot has a comprehensive list, I often refer to. Here’s a few examples:
COVID-related: COVID, COVID-19, coronavirus
Greetings: Hello, dear, friend
Marketing: Click here, increase sales, trial offer, we hate spam
Free: Free consultation, free offer, free trial, free quote
Top tip: Watch out for false clicks. When you check your click report, it might look like an individual has engaged, yet this might be the SPAM filter. You can identify false clicks by looking at the timings in your click report or API data feed. The clicks happen within seconds after opening, and it might look like an individual has clicked on every piece of content.
2: Keep the human touch
It’s really hard to like a faceless brand. It’s true that people buy from people they like and trust. The depth of the trust required varies, but there must be at least a base-level of trust in place before anyone will spend with you.
Somewhere along the way, we started acting as if we were marketing to emotionless businesses. But people run businesses, and that’s who we need to be talking to — people.
While the language in your email copy should always remain professional, your tone doesn’t have to. Don’t be stiff and impersonal. Bring some personality into it. You’ll be far more likely to see an increase in engagements and build stronger relationships.
Another way to build connections with people is to include a real person’s name in the “from” section. It not only builds a human connection but also increases open rates. An A/B test conducted by HubSpot found that emails sent by a real person are more likely to be clicked on than emails sent from a generic company name.
Finally, automated emails aren’t always the best way to go. While it appears to make our lives look easier, it doesn’t always have the impact we’re looking for. Take a good look at each individual situation and decide when a real Outlook message is more inclined to get the desired response. This simple, personal touch is often at the heart of the strongest client relationships.
3: Focus on multiple touches
People don’t invest large sums of money on an impulse or because of a single email. In most cases only a relatively small percentage of your customers will be ready to make an immediate purchase, leaving upwards of 90% of your inbound leads on the table.
They need to be nurtured through the sales funnel. This is where multiple touches come in.
On average it takes 5 to 10 touches to convert a lead to a customer. But, sending useful and high-quality information that addresses the pain points of your leads will help them to quickly trust you, which reduces the number of touches you will need.
In addition to email, consider how you can use a mix of content types like social media, webinars and events, personal Outlook emails, or even direct mail, to nurture your prospects into customers.
4. Educate and inform
Success in business is about knowledge, and one way your B2B audience tries to stay ahead is by gaining access to the latest information. Whether it’s sharing your own content, such as blogs, whitepapers on reports, or just linking to information from industry thought leaders – people want to be educated, not sold to.
So rather than making your email content seem promotional, help your audience to do their jobs more effectively, and to see you as a useful resource.
Analysis conducted by Admitter, found that in 90% of cases the call to action link “more info” converted better than “try me now” or “buy now.” Indicating that content or informing your audience before selling works better in most cases.
5. Report on insights at an individual & account-level
One of the most exciting parts of your email programme, is looking at the end results. After each email campaign or sequence of emails, I build out an engagement report.
The key metrics you want to report on will depend on your overall objectives, but I tend to report on;
the most engaged contacts and accounts
the most popular content
engagements by sector and seniority
All this insight provides sales with crucial information to follow-up on (if appropriate). It also helps you to demonstrate to business leaders the impact of marketing.
Because nurturing happens over time, the reports you generate are going to be more useful when looked at over time. So, don’t panic when you pull the first reports and you don’t see masses of insight. Your reports will come into their own as you build up the picture with regular reports that can be compared and contrasted.
Final thoughts
The trick to breaking through the clutter of B2B email marketing is to find a balance between sharing your business’s value while keeping in mind that you are speaking to a human. It’s all part of that core strategy of making yourself relevant and helping them to be better at their job.
Email is one of the most powerful tools in your B2B marketing toolbox. Use it wisely and strategically, and you’ll enjoy the benefits.
Ultimately, you’ll find out what works best for your audience by continuing to test, track, and tweak your results.