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5 Elements of Successful B2B Email Marketing An email marketing campaign is a direct marketing tactic with relatively low costs and potentially high Return-On-Investment. In order to achieve ROI from an email campaign, you need to know what makes a great email.
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Targeted List One of the crucial elements of a successful email campaign is the list. A list with tens of thousands of contacts will get your email into a lot of inboxes, but are you reaching people who may be interested in your services? If the answer is no, then your email will likely get looked over or deleted and you’re wasting your time and money.
Instead, a high-quality, focused list will get you much better results. Keep track of anyone you meet at industry events, past prospects and clients, newsletter sign-ups, association members, and other business connections. Over time, you will build a list of contacts who have an interest in your services or products, making them much more likely to convert to a qualiďŹ ed lead from an email.
Relevant Message You’ve probably heard this before, but it’s one of the most important aspects of any marketing campaign, so here it is again: content is king. A successful email campaign promotes content that resonates with its recipients.
Choose topics that have meaning to your audience. Put yourself in their shoes. What would they be interested in reading about? Also, think about where you can add value. Is there a topic that you are considered an expert on? And, as always, be current — stay informed and provide a perspective on the latest “hot topics” in your industry. Finally, keep your email brief with a strong message. You don’t want to give too much away (or bore your reader!) before your call-to-action.
Inspired Design While content is ultimately what keeps readers interested in an email, a great design can help initially draw them in. Your email should be professional-looking and visually attractive, but not overly designed, as email systems will often send HTML-heavy emails to the junk folder. It’s important that the design and layout relates to your message. Are you promoting an event? Consider a feature area with key event information. Are you announcing a new product? Perhaps you can showcase product images within the email.
Make sure the email features your brand. The design should include your company’s logo, color palette, and any graphic elements that are used throughout other areas of your marketing. This will help recipients make the connection between the email and your company, increasing brand awareness and recognition.
Unbeatable Offer A successful email campaign should entice the audience to take action. Pick a call-toaction that will benefit them if they open, read and act on your message. Ideally, your call-to-action will be a compelling offer that your audience can’t refuse.
Don’t give away everything within the body of your email. Your email should be a “teaser” that has just enough information to make the audience want more. A strong call-to-action could be downloading a whitepaper, viewing a webinar, signing up for an event, or filling out a survey. Make your call-to-action prominent within the body of the email and include multiple links for readers to take the next step.
Email Optimization RE: Read this!
Timing is (almost) everything.
Test, Test, Test.
The first thing people see of your email campaign is the subject line. It is important to get these items right or the chances of your email being opened drop significantly. Subject lines should be brief (some email systems cut off long titles) and highlight the benefit to the audience. If possible, get personal by including the recipient’s name or company in the subject line and salutation.
The timing and frequency of your email campaigns also affects your success. While opinions differ, most experts agree that Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are the best days to send emails, as your audience has (usually) settled in for the work week, but are not wrapping up for the weekend yet. In terms of frequency, don’t annoy your audience by sending too many emails. Depending on your business, once a month or once a week could be the right frequency to keep your company on your audience’s minds. It depends how much quality information you have to share.
Finally, close the loop! Test and track all of your email campaigns. One thing that experts can agree on is that testing the campaign is important so you can optimize results over time. Try varying elements of your campaign using subsets of your list to optimize performance. Analyze email performance reports and web analytics to learn what works best for your market, audience and organization.
Do you need professional help with your email marketing? Sagefrog Marketing Group is a full service business-to-business marketing, interactive, public relations, and advertising agency. We specialize in health, technology and business services marketing for companies based in the greater Philadelphia and New Jersey area.
For more information, please contact us: (215) 230.9024 » info@sagefrog.com » www.sagefrog.com
©2012 SAGEFROG MARKETING GROUP, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED