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Email marketing is a powerful tool that can help nurture leads and convert them into potential business clients. It involves a combination of different types of emails that guide prospects through the sales funnel. While many people think that a clever subject line is enough to generate B2B sales, there are actually many more touchpoints involved in an effective email marketing strategy.
If you have outsourced your B2B email marketing to a sales team, they may already be familiar with top-notch strategies. However, if you are handling your B2B sales strategy on your own, it is important to train your content and sales team to understand the subtle intricacies of B2B versus B2C email marketing techniques.
When it comes to B2B email marketing, the approach is different compared to B2C marketing. In B2C email marketing, the goal is to connect with consumers on an emotional level and sell the benefits of a product. In B2B email marketing, the focus is more on logic and reasoning.
According to statistics, 80% of business professionals believe that email marketing increases customer retention, making it an effective strategy for B2B companies. However, it takes longer to qualify a B2B prospect and turn them into a potential client. Unlike B2C email marketing, where you communicate directly with prospects, B2B marketing often involves multiple decision-makers.
Why Your Company Should Have a B2B Email Marketing Strategy
In today’s competitive landscape, it is essential for your organization to have a dedicated B2B email marketing strategy. Here are some statistics that highlight the impact of a well-executed B2B email marketing campaign:
- For every $1 spent, the average return on email marketing investment is $44.25 (Experian).
- 77% of consumers prefer to receive permission-based marketing communications through email (ExactTarget).
- 72% of B2B buyers are most likely to share useful content via email (Earnest Agency).
These statistics show that B2B email marketing leads to more engagement, which in turn generates more leads, conversions, and revenue. Email marketing is a cost-effective solution that can drive lead generation efforts and help build long-lasting relationships with clients.
Effective Ways to Carry Out B2B Sales via Email Marketing
To effectively carry out B2B sales through email marketing, consider implementing the following strategies:
Use a Comprehensive Email Marketing Tool
Email service providers offer unique capabilities to optimize your emails at every touchpoint. These tools are not only cost-effective but also provide value to your prospects, segment your audience, maintain email lists, run promotions, send bulk email blasts, ensure email deliverability, automate campaigns, track metrics, and more.
These marketing tools allow you to customize your emails and ensure they are mobile responsive. Since 35% of business professionals check email on a mobile device, it is important to fine-tune your emails for all touchpoints.
Check Your Lead Generation Strategy
Optimizing your landing pages and forms is crucial for improving your conversion rates. Faulty messaging can directly impact your lead generation efforts. For example, if you record 1000 visitors to your landing page and pay $2 for each visit, a form conversion rate of 1% would result in 10 leads at a cost per lead of $200. However, if your conversion rate is 4%, you would get 40 leads at a cost per lead of $50.
Most email marketing tools offer options to build custom forms and landing pages with an easy drag-and-drop feature. An ideal lead generation form should not exceed more than 2 or 3 fields. Additionally, consider outsourcing your sales team to generate high-quality leads, as 61% of B2B marketers find this to be the most challenging task.
Segmenting your leads into different target groups based on industry, occupation, location, or other factors can also help improve your lead generation strategy.
Employ an Effective Lead Nurturing Process
B2B sales require patience, as it takes longer to nurture leads compared to B2C sales. Before planning a campaign, make sure you have a well-defined buyer persona. Understanding your target audience is critical in B2B email marketing.
An effective lead nurturing process involves guiding potential prospects through the awareness, consideration, and decision-making stages. Run a series of email drip campaigns tailored to each stage.
In the awareness stage, make prospects aware of your brand by sending educational content. This content should address the problems they are facing. Examples include educational videos, blog posts, infographics, and more.
In the consideration stage, provide prospects with resources such as marketing playbooks, ebooks, white papers, case studies, short webinars, and your brand’s email newsletter. Email newsletters are critical to the success of 40% of B2B marketers.
In the decision stage, encourage prospects to take action by offering product demos, free trials, discount offers, and well-planned pricing tiers.
Craft Framework and Content of Email
Personalization is key when crafting B2B emails. While the tone and content may differ from B2C emails, providing value and keeping prospects engaged remain important.
Tailor your message to the prospect’s persona and position your brand as a thought leader in the industry. Your emails should provide information and address prospects’ pain points. A/B testing can help you understand prospect behavior and optimize your content.
Check Email Deliverability Factors
To ensure your emails reach your prospects’ inboxes, consider the following factors:
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Spam folder: Avoid having your emails land in the spam folder by passing spam authentication tests and filters such as DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), Sender Policy Framework (SPF), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC). Comply with spam laws like GDPR and CAN-SPAM act, and ensure your email content, images, and subject lines are not misleading or redirecting to malicious sites.
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Email service providers: Choose a reputable email marketing software that ensures the best email deliverability.
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Email send time: Determine the best time to send your emails based on research and tests. Consider factors such as the day of the week and the industry you are targeting.
Track Results and Re-engage Prospects
Tracking email metrics is crucial for optimizing your email marketing strategy. Analyze open rates, click-through rates, heatmaps, bounce rates, and other metrics to identify areas for improvement.
For prospects who did not engage with your emails, send a re-engagement email to pull them back into the sales process. Offer deals, check on their progress, or use other strategies to re-engage them.
Conclusion
Developing a relationship and providing value through content is the key to converting website visitors into long-term business prospects. Implementing a well-rounded B2B email marketing strategy can help nurture leads and drive sales. Remember to continuously refine your strategy based on performance metrics and adapt to the ever-changing landscape of email marketing.
This blog is written by Shivani Srivastava and originally appeared on https://www.scrollreads.com/.
