Most of us are familiar with B2C email marketing. This is especially true if you shop online, because websites often ask to send emails when an order is placed. Sometimes they’ll even collect emails without an order, usually in exchange for a coupon. After that, you’ll likely get follow-up emails about every sale, promotion, and product launch that they have. You’ll also see a limited number of newsletters in B2C email marketing, especially with nonprofits, to keep B2C customers in the loop.
These days, B2B businesses are also wading into the world of email marketing. In fact, if you’re reading this, I am hoping that you are one of the 83% of B2B companies already sending newsletter emails. Sending notices to a business email is a great way to inform prospective customers about the range of products and services that are available. Combined with content and other marketing efforts, this is quite effective. Let’s look at some best practices for B2B marketers.
What is B2B Email Marketing?
Strictly speaking, B2B email marketing is the practice of sending emails from one business entity to another with the purpose of selling products and services. B2B email campaigns are usually sent from the marketing or sales team and are addressed to the decisionmakers in your target audience (companies). Decisionmakers can then include department managers, procurement, and anyone else with influence.
B2C VS B2B Email Marketing
One of the objectives of B2C email marketing is convincing people to buy something right now. Whether that’s a toy for a birthday, new seasonal clothing, or the latest beauty product, you’re asking the target customer to choose you over a competitor in that sweet spot between urgent and supportive. Unless a customer needs something immediately, offering a promotion is often the best way to sell things. For many of us, waiting until there’s a sale and then stocking up has become a way of life.
B2B marketing strategies do things a bit differently. While promotions are occasionally used, most B2B buyers need to make an informed decision, rather than jumping on an offer in an email newsletter. Smaller examples of this might include choosing the right company laptop for employees who travel or work from home. This level of buying decision is similar to the consumer process, except it needs to pass the procurement process–something that email content might not always get right in B2C emails.
Purchasing large machinery or an office full of printers and copiers is much more complicated. As a rule, the larger the purchase, the more corporate bureaucracy has to be dealt with. Some things like production equipment must meet certain standards to be effective. To that end, B2B email marketing requires a lot more information within email content. When the buyer determines a product is perfect after combing through educational content, they’ll call sales and negotiate a price.
Prepare Your B2B Email Marketing Infrastructure
Our first set of best practices focuses on preparing your infrastructure for future campaigns and dynamic content. Infrastructure includes email services, lead generation, automation, targeting, and more. These are things that you should prepare in advance for your B2B email marketing strategy.
1.) Choose the Right Email Service Provider for Your B2B Emails
There is no one definitive provider. Depending on your needs, there are many email marketing tools competing for your business. Big names for email management include MailChimp and Constant Contact. Most of them can be used for both B2B and B2C efforts, so if a tool works well for your B2C campaigns you might want to try that one first to keep your email subscribers in the loop and maintain any email templates you already have.
Sometimes your B2C email solution doesn’t work well for business pitches. In this case, choose a solution that has features that will help your B2B marketing, such as CRM functionality, social scoring, tagging, automation, and the ability to create popups and landing pages for your lead magnets. That way, you’ll be able to do all your B2B email marketing in one place.
2.) Create Lead Magnets to Fuel Email List Growth
B2B email marketing is all about providing valuable information to stakeholders. This information can include industry news, client successes (with permission), and product or service specifications. Overall, the idea is to both be of service by providing valuable content and help a potential client decide what their company needs. To that end, one of the best ways to grow your email list is by providing useful email content within your sales emails in exchange for joining.
This type of lead magnet is tried and true: One research study indicates that 36% of B2B decision makers consult white papers at the beginning of the buying process. These white papers tell this person and their team what is available on the market. From there, they can view specifications and compare them with corporate requirements. White papers often help justify the expense as necessary, making them a powerful asset for a B2B audience.
3.) Create Sophisticated Automations for Your B2B Customer Journey
B2B email marketing campaigns should be automated. Emails should be sent out based on the ideal customer journey from first inquiry to ongoing purchases. Typically, you want to send automatic emails to a business audience based on customer behavior, which encourages making a purchase. Automations should include the following:
Lead magnet autoresponder
An autoresponder sends out an email to segments of your target audience who participate in a lead magnet activity. It could be that they downloaded a white paper that requires an email address or filled out a response card. Either way, you’re looking to build a relationship with this person.
New user welcome
Did someone join your online community? Many B2B brands have a place where users can interact with their products and services. In this case, you should send out a welcome email. When the customer joins your email list through other avenues, such as requesting information or searching for more relevant content, you can also implement your B2B strategy.
Email drip campaigns
Sending just one email probably won’t get your products sold. At least, not as often as you need B2B email marketing to work. For that reason, you need to have automatic drip campaigns. This email strategy sends regular, targeted information to potential customers.
Re-sending to non-openers
If your email didn’t get opened the first time, send it again! You might not want to do this with every email, but you should still follow up on a regular basis to encourage email deliverability. This way, you get another chance at getting an email opened without investing in the frequent creation of new ones.
Further Reading: Email Outreach: 15 Tips on How to Create an Effective Campaign (with Templates)
Re-engaging with subscribers
Finally, some B2B email marketing efforts should be directed toward re-engaging your subscribers versus only sending cold emails. Many decision makers are busy, and they don’t have time to engage with everything coming their way. You’ll want to send promotional emails, blog posts, and other forms of content that encourage engagement for the best results.
4.) Don’t Forget the Welcome Email
Getting someone’s email address and permission to use it for marketing is only part of the battle. Once someone signs up, send them a welcome email. These should set customer expectations and answer questions they may have to improve customer experience. Answer questions in the copy or direct them to a web page where all the information is posted. You should also include any legally required disclosures.
Quality emails from a responsive brand are key to the success of your B2B email marketing. Many subscribers expect to get a welcome message within a few minutes of signing up. Meeting customer expectations in this regard makes a positive impression and may impact conversion rates down the road.
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5.) Create a Tagging System to Segment Your List Based on Engagement
Another way to maximize your B2B email marketing efforts is by tagging your email list. The idea is to send tailored emails for each group of customers, so they’re more likely to respond to a B2B email marketer. By far the best way to do this is to tag them based on interest level. This means determining what they interact with. For a marketing agency, that might mean segmenting the customers who are interested in a total makeover from the ones who might only want influencer marketing services. Buyer personas and company size can also factor into these decisions.
B2B Email Marketing Strategies to Follow
Having the best setup on the planet won’t ensure B2B email marketing success, however. You still have to use your resources to maximum effect over many campaigns. With the infrastructure in place, these are the best practice strategies to follow:
6.) B2B Email Marketing is All About Providing Educational Information to Allow Your Prospects to Make a Better Purchasing Decision
Both consumers and businesses like to be well-informed about major purchases and an effective email strategy recognizes this. While a pack of pencils isn’t necessarily a big deal, fixed assets are a major decision. Not only must these meet required specifications, but quality and customer service are important. Many business customers will want to know about the company and its reputation before buying something.
Studies bear this out. One study shows that among B2B subscribers, 26% are primarily interested in company news. Such news items can include product releases, but changes in management and acquisitions are also a frequent topic. As the saying goes: people buy from people. Make sure you have engaging content in your email design that delivers plenty of information to put prospective clients at ease.
Further Reading: 15 Best Free Email Marketing Services to Check Out
7.) Subject Lines are Critical for Your Marketing Emails
If you’re like most people, when you check your email, you’ll initially glance through the subject and sender line. Why? Because you want to see what’s most important and deal with them first. To that end, emails from your boss will get your immediate attention. Sales professionals will also read inquiries from sales leads or customers early on.
Marketing emails don’t typically get that much attention. In the case of purchasing decision makers, emails promoting products and necessary services will likely be read first. The rest are often ignored. Most people don’t open B2B marketing emails unless you entice them to do so through your email subject line.
8.) Personalize as Much as Possible
Most of us love personalization, as a glance into an office or a glance at a keychain can attest. Did you know that personalization within B2B email marketing helps, as well? Personalized subject lines are just the beginning. One study found that when an email has a personalized call to action, the email will perform 202% better than the ones with basic CTAs. Marketing funnels thrive on personalization, rather than cold emails without an attempt to personalize.
Further Reading: 8 Personalized Email Marketing Strategies You Don’t Want to Miss (with Examples)
9.) Include One Call to Action
It doesn’t matter how well your B2B email marketing material is written if you don’t include a call to action. After all, people who subscribe to your emails already have some interest in your company. Casual web browsers don’t typically cough up their emails. Not all CTAs are created equal, however. One marketing agency did a study did a study and found that, for 90% of CTA link texts, the words “more info” were more effective than “buy now.”
Once again, this shows the importance of providing B2B customers with information. Especially with major purchases, business buying is highly information-based rather than emotional. Demonstrate that your product or service is best for them, and when they’re ready to buy, you’ll have the advantage over competitors.
10.) Pick the Right Time to Send
Although getting people to open your B2B email marketing content is never going to be an exact science, sending it at the right time does help your email message get into the right hands. In general, the best time to send email is just before your customers are most likely to check their emails. For business customers, this is often 10 AM. Since many people get to the office between 8 and 9, the 10 AM slot is just after they’ve dealt with the most important messages they have received.
Once the typical decisionmaker has read and responded to important emails from their boss and coworkers, they’ll start looking at another type of emails, including marketing messages. Other popular times to send emails include midnight, 1 PM (catch the after-lunch email check), and 4 PM (last call for distractions). As always, pay attention to customer habits by checking open times. This will allow your company to fine tune its approach to email marketing automation and even email list segmentation; different customers may require different send times.
Further Reading: Best Time to Send Marketing Emails [Latest Research]
11.) Don’t Forget to Re-Engage with Your Subscribers
Anyone who does B2B email marketing needs to keep people from falling through the cracks. While people are often quick to subscribe to emails, many don’t keep up with everything that’s sent to them. This is one reason why one study has found that around 40% of a given email list is inactive.
To combat this problem, you’ll need to re-engage your subscribers rather than relying on boring, generic emails. There are many ways you can do this, such as by sending a few manual emails. Consumer surveys are another method you can use, as is the “we haven’t seen you in a while” email. As always, check to see if your jurisdiction requires the occasional re-subscription.
12.) Test Test and Test Again!
Testing in and of itself will help foster better long-term relationships and will help you identify effective strategies, but there are specific types of testing that will yield the best results. A/B testing is an invaluable type of testing, in which you test subject lines, call-to-action buttons, and even send times by evaluating two different versions of a product or technique. You might compare your conversion rates between two different times, or evaluate your open rates for two different subject lines.
Regular A/B testing can help you determine which practices are likely to develop customer loyalty and which are best left far away from your sales funnel.
Further Reading: How to Build Relationships through Email Marketing
13. ) Keep Your List Clean
Deliverability is paramount, and list hygiene plays a role in maintaining deliverability. The first step in maintaining deliverability is finding a reputable email service provider; email service providers are the backbone of your marketing campaigns, and you cannot deliver effective emails without them.
Being sent straight to the spam filter is the bane of email marketing metrics, so warming up your email domain is important. By sending a smaller amount of emails over time, and gradually increasing the number of emails you send each day, you can help ensure that you are not immediately flagged as spam. Email automation can be problematic if it is not used correctly, so tread carefully here, and do not start sending out numerous types of emails each day. Start slow, and increase from there.
Finally, make sure you regularly clean your email list. Bounced or undeliverable emails do not bode well for your email marketing platform, so make sure you are consistently going through your lists to make sure your email marketing services are not falling by the wayside.
Being successful in B2B email marketing is an important way to acquire and nurture sales leads. As email becomes a more important way of communicating, putting your best foot forward is more important than ever. Effective B2B email marketing is an art form that functions differently from consumer marketing. Luckily, by following these best practices, you have a good chance of success.
Do you use these practices in your own B2B email marketing list? If so, let me know in the comments!
