Email Marketing Trends Upward

1. Find the Right Messaging Mix

Email marketing for B2B companies should not be a “hard sell” pitch. While emails can deliver timely news and information customers may want to act on, the real value is in building brand awareness and keeping your contacts engaged. Finding the right mix of content that educates the reader, presents technical innovations, and offers tips and news helps to show your brand respects the reader’s time. Remember that even segmented email lists typically reach a mix of readers – prospects, existing customers, expert pros, new hires, etc. Delivering value to the entire group is key. Email campaigns certainly can highlight news and offerings from your company– but at the core you need to think “why would someone want to read this” before hitting send.

2. Be Clear, Engage the Reader & Incorporate Clear Calls-to-Action

Statistics show a drop off in email readership after 20 lines, or about 200 words, so it is critical that your content is succinct and clear. Hard to read phrasing, content that seems irrelevant, and emails that lack a design “hook” that drives the reader throughout the full layout simply will not perform with today’s digitally-savvy customers.

After you’ve found the right messaging mix, deliver well-crafted content that engages your reader – that makes them want to keep reading. Finally, be sure you incorporate clear call-to-action links or buttons to move that reader to the next step in your marketing funnel – often via a link to your website. Tracking software in both your email application and your website analytics will help you monitor engagement and trends to optimize future campaigns.

3. Get Your Entire Team Involved

A successful email marketing strategy requires the support of a cross-functional team. Engineering, sales, HR, customer service, management, marketing and more should collaborate to develop effective content. Understanding customer concerns, the meaning behind technical information and how each department in your company views current business considerations helps to create diverse content that customers will value.

After you’ve hit send on that campaign, keep your team in the loop. Consider adding employee emails to your distribution lists, so team members can forward news to their contacts, and team members who weren’t involved in the content development process are informed on corporate communications. Additionally, most email campaign providers provide a URL link to an email once it has been launched. Consider posting this link on your social media channels to help grow your readership.

4. Categorize Contacts & Messaging

Contact lists can be organized and segmented, which can allow you to send different email content to different audiences. This can be especially beneficial for companies that serve a diverse variety of industries or customer personas, each likely to have unique concerns, questions and motivators. Similarly, with automated response-based emails, which can be sent based on where a customer is in your sales funnel, categorizing the content and messaging may be valuable – connecting with prospects in one department differently than prospects in another. By segmenting your contact lists you can improve your overall relevancy, keeping contacts engaged, and also obtain a more detailed perspective of results and insights.

5. Managing Frequency & Timing

In a time when readers have become increasingly bombarded with digital noise, you want to make your voice heard with the right impact. A recent study by Omnisend reported that B2B companies that sent marketing emails once a month had the highest open rate (28%) and highest click-through rate (7%). Organizations that sent emails 2-4 times a month dropped to 21% open and 5% click-through rates, and companies that sent emails more than 5 times experienced a significant drop-off in performance.

Additionally, be mindful of day and time an email is sent. Typically, sending mid-week after lunch or mid-morning, especially on a Tuesday or Wednesday, yields better results. For companies that serve customers in multiple time zones, one can find the “sweet spot” in that mix, or again leverage list categories to segment contact locations, reaching each group at the optimal time.