Operational ideas and practical tips for planning an email marketing
strategy for B2B. Here are the aspects to take into consideration to optimize
your campaign.
Inserting email marketing in a B2C communication plan is one of the
most used strategic moves, to create a preferential relationship both with
potential customers and with existing customers. Often the mistake is made of
thinking that in the field of Business to Business communication the dynamics
are radically different, ending up setting up B2B email campaigns in a non-optimized
way.
Although this channel has its own peculiarities and characteristic
traits that distinguish it from B2C, it is good to keep in mind that even
commercial exchanges between companies basically take place between people:
understand and segment your target audience , generate credibility, customize
your messages and fueling the interlocutor's engagement are some of the key
points that are also valid in email marketing aimed at business.
How to manage B2B email marketing effectively? Here are some
essential strategic tips to better organize your company's email campaigns.
·
Use email marketing to generate
authority
·
Design and format: focus on
readable and responsive emails
·
Make the most of audience
segmentation
·
Aim for the right decision
making unit
·
Personalize emails and take
advantage of dynamic fields
·
Use the email for promotions
and invitations to events
·
Choose the ideal time and
frequency of sending
·
Follow the process from first
impression to post submission
Use email marketing to
generate authority
For many professionals, e-mail is the preferred channel for
communicating with partners and colleagues, a place for exchanging information
and business interactions. Analyzing the data of the B2B sector, it is clear
that the emails exchanged in the professional field have significantly higher
opening rates and CTRs than B2C ones: in short, a communication vehicle that
should not be underestimated.
Among the basic objectives of email marketing is the cultivation of
profitable relationships with your leads and the transformation of prospects
into actual customers. With this in mind, the ability to build strong authority
in the eyes of potential customers is fundamental , in order to feed their
trust in the brand and guide them along the customer journey towards conversion
into acquired customers. How to gain credibility? Providing the audience with
content of value, complete, clear and really useful for them, from which the competence
and real preparation of those who have packaged them can be deduced.
The goal of email marketing, also therefore of B2B, is not limited
to the simple sale of products and services, but is mainly to create a direct
and personal relationship with the target . Winning email contents are for
example those that illustrate the company's products, their use or the
advantages of the service offered in an engaging way, or those that talk about
relevant case studies that have benefited from approaching the brand . The use
of reviews, testimonials and opinions is a highly persuasive tool. Make the
recipients of communications understand how it could improve their professional
life, and not only that, relying on the experience of the sending company, is a
key focus for convincing and for the success of an email marketing
campaign .
Design and format: focus
on readable and responsive emails
B2B and B2C email communications have a lot in common from this
point of view. In fact , clear, well-formatted emails with a strong graphic
appeal and easy to use are an essential requirement for the creation of successful
email marketing campaigns.
B2B interlocutors are attracted to emails with an attractive design
, functional CTAs and well-structured texts that can be scanned quickly and
easily with the eyes. The secret is to create content with a great impact,
which convinces in a few moments to deepen and continue reading. Persuasive
objects, copy formatted in short paragraphs and with bold and easily
identifiable key points help in this sense . As well as precise calls-to-action
that fluidly channel towards the desired conversion.
Emails optimized for mobile reading are now a must-have: it is
unthinkable not to consider how web traffic from mobile devices is now
increasingly relevant. Even a work email can be read at any time and in any
place and remembering it while studying the visual structure of your email is
particularly important.
Make the most of audience
segmentation
Conducting well-organized B2B email marketing campaigns means being
able to count on an audience segmented in an optimal way based on behaviors,
tastes, socio-demographic characteristics, interests and needs. Thanks to an
in-depth study of one's audience, it is possible to create within the mailing
list groups of contacts united by pre-established parameters , to which
messages created ad hoc based on their characteristics can be addressed: the
goal is to more easily intercept the interest of a limited target audience,
leverage specific needs and more easily guide those leads down the sales funnel
to a fruitful lower part of the funnel.
An optimal segmentation also allows to lead a specific audience of
already acquired customers towards the experimentation of new services or
alternative products . Through a properly designed content strategy , it is
possible to educate them and increase their interest. How to hook their
curiosity? Through content that shows how the services they do not yet use
could be integrated with those they have already chosen to purchase and further
promote the growth of their businesses. Gaining and maintaining the trust of
your customers is essential to be able to count on up sell and cross sell
strategies and increase the number of repeater clients.
Aim for the right decision
making unit
Among the tips for effective B2B email marketing is to keep in mind
that often decisions within a company are made not by a single figure, but by a
group of individuals, who together form the so-called Decision Making. Unit
(DMU) or decision-making unit . Each member of the DMU has a different
relevance within the group, but enjoys the opportunity to influence the
decisions of the other players.
Understanding who exactly are the people in your customers' DMU can
be a really effective ace up your sleeve. In fact, it will be possible to
create targeted communications, which leverage their different pressure points,
whether they are concerns, points of view or professional needs . Mastering
these psychological levers leads to incredibly satisfying successes in terms of
clicks, engagement and conversions.
Personalize emails and
take advantage of dynamic fields
The personalization of your email messages is crucial for obtaining
positive results. To be customized and endowed with a soul must first of all be
the sender of the message: never send emails from impersonal senders, but
always use a proper name that can make the recipient perceive a positive
feeling of confidence . Mail without a reference to real, or realistic people,
often ends up in spam or in the list of useless unread emails.
The same goes for the terms with which the recipient is addressed.
When you focus on a direct marketing tool such as email, you generally aim to
collect information on leads and profile your audience: part of the data
collected can be used to customize the email messages sent.
Such as? Through the so-called dynamic fields, codes capable of
automatically updating with the recipients' data . An example is the name of
the recipient, a precious detail for calling your potential customers by their
own name and creating a close relationship and a confidential atmosphere right
from the first lines of the email . Other customizable fields are company name,
professional sector, customer website URL, number of employees and other
similar details.
Use the email for
promotions and invitations to events
The possible contents that can be included in an email communication
are almost infinite. Among these there are certainly promotions and special
events. Often those who subscribe to a mailing list do so to have access to a
preferential channel that helps them stay up to date on the news in their
sector, including special offers or special discounts, updates and news to try
out in advance.
Creating exclusivity around shared content is useful for making
subscribers to your mailing list feel special : exclusivity that can also
translate into timed offers to take advantage of first or actions to be taken
within a certain time limit, which fully exploiting the principle of 'urgency
statistically lead to higher conversions.
It is also possible to use email marketing to inform your customers
or prospects of the next participation in events or trade fairs , proposing an
in-person meeting and creating a precious opportunity to get to know the
contact, trigger productive negotiations, or finalize sales processes.
Choose the ideal time and
frequency of sending
One of the most delicate points of creating profitable email
marketing campaigns is choosing the correct sending frequency. It is indeed
important to find a balance point and create a constant flow of emails, but
carefully timed . The best time to send a communication is also complex to
establish and requires a careful analysis of the target audience and their
working habits.
It may be worthwhile to send emails during business hours if you are
sure your target niche can focus on it while in front of the PC, but it may be
better to send emails before or after hours instead office to those key figures
who are daily too busy to devote sufficient time and energy to incoming email.
Analyzing data and experimenting with alternative solutions is the only way to
achieve perfect timing and frequency .
Follow the process from
first impression to post submission
No moment in the email campaign should be overlooked. Starting from
the welcome email, which is generally sent automatically by the email marketing
automation software you use. Even in marketing, the first impression is what
matters and that first message should be maniacally treated to make sure that
the first contact is positive.
A welcoming email thanking you for signing up in an open and cordial
tone is of great value. If the user has signed up to the contact list with the
promise of receiving free content, such as an ebook, the email should obviously
deliver what it promised. Otherwise it is still of great impact to offer
something in exchange for the transfer of your data, as a thank you: a
tutorial, a freebie, an interesting report on the sector to which you belong.
Focusing on the launch of the email marketing campaign and on its
operational management, you can easily lose sight of an equally fundamental
phase: the post-sending . Instead, it is crucial to define, before sending any
email communication, how the company team will have to take care of the
prospects and customers who will respond positively to the communication
strategy created.
First of all it is good to include in the body in the email clear
and correct contacts to which the potential customer can contact the company if
interested in receiving information or assistance: emails, fixed and mobile
telephone numbers, Skype or Messenger contacts are welcome and provide the
different user modes of interaction. A team of people informed of the campaign
and its purposes and above all carefully trained on customer management is then
decisive and able to determine the success or failure of an email marketing
plan and SEO
services in New York.
As already observed, in fact, even in the B2B universe, it is people
who count and it is only by orienting the focus towards individuals and their
concrete needs that we can aim for appreciable results.