5 Key Elements to a Killer Introduction Email (B2B)

by Roger Leyden | Oct 4, 2018 | Communications, Marketing, Training

Using email marketing to introduce your organizations products and services to potential clients and partners is still a very important piece of the overall B2B marketing mix.

According to Hubspot’s Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing:

“Email isn’t dead. It’s one of the few marketing channels we can use to build an authentic connection with the humans that keep our businesses alive.”

Vital Design adds to the importance of email marketing from a recent Salesforce.com survey:

-For every $1 spent, $44.25 is the average return on email marketing investment (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)

So how does one write the perfect email introduction? Well first of all let’s consider what not to do:

x Too long – We are the Twitter generation, brevity in written correspondence is king.

x Too many proposals or ideas – Although tempting as it is to get all your company’s amazing products and solutions down in one email, concentrate on the single most appropriate for now, too many will just confuse readers.

x Too self-centred – Make sure your emails are about potentially solving problems for your customers rather than constantly tooting your horn about how great you are.

Now that we know what not to do, how do we structure a killer B2B introduction email?

Create an exciting subject line for your Introduction Email

The subject line is often the gate keeper to whether your email gets read or not. Do not under estimate its importance and make sure to test before sending any mail.

Introduce

Make it personal. Introduce your company and explain why you are sending them this email.

Build on your Introduction Email

Build on your email with an example of a customer (preferably well-known brand name) you have already helped and the results they were able to achieve.

Make an offer

Give your prospects a reason to respond, make sure you have a CTA (call to action) in your email body.

Follow up

Remind them that you will be following up but also offer them the opportunity to ‘opt out’ of your email marketing database.

6 Simple Steps to Create Wonderful Email Marketing Campaigns

by Roger Leyden | Jul 18, 2018 | Business Development, Communications, Marketing

Why should your organization be interested in developing email marketing campaigns? According to CampaignMonitor.com there are 3 times as many email accounts than Facebook & Twitter accounts combined, and email is 6 times more likely to get a click-through than Twitter.

Here are the steps that will help you establish a great email marketing campaign:

1. Establish your goals

But before jumping in head first and starting your first email marketing campaign, it’s worth taking a minute to think about your goals and what you really want to achieve. Who do you want to target, what content should you include and how will you measure success of the campaign? The key to establishing the correct goals for your email marketing initiative is to align them with your company’s wider marketing goals & KPIs. Is the goal to drive new signups for your product? New leads for your sales team? More attendees for your event? Or more donations for your charitable cause.

Email marketing is the single most powerful channel to reach your audience, and it can be used to achieve a number of different objectives, so it’s worth spending some time thinking about what you want to achieve with it before rushing in.

2. Build your email/target list

Now that you have established your goals and what you want to achieve from email marketing, it’s time to build your email list so you can start sending campaigns that those goals. There are a couple of different ways you can build your email list, but the right method for each campaign really depends on the goals you establish in Step 1.

Import a list of contacts

If you plan to use email to keep in touch with existing customers and prospects on your database, then your email list can be built largely by importing your existing customers and prospects details into your chosen email marketing tool. Before you import any contacts though, ensure you have adequate permission to email these subscribers.

Build a new list from scratch

If you plan to use email to communicate with an audience whose email address you might not have yet, then you’ll need to start capturing email addresses and building your list from scratch.

3. Select the type of email marketing campaigns you want to send

There are a number of different types of email campaigns you can send to subscribers, and the type you choose really depends on the goals you have already established. Here are some of the different campaigns that can help you achieve your email marketing goals.

An email newsletter is a regularly distributed email campaign that is generally about one main topic of interest. If your goal is to keep in touch with a list of people you already know (i.e. existing customers), then a newsletter is the perfect type of campaign to send. It will keep your business and your products top of mind and drive people back to your website.

Marketing Offer

A marketing offer email is essentially any campaign you send with the goal of driving a direct response. This can take several different forms, including:

A campaign showcasing some of the latest stock and encouraging people to purchase
A campaign offering a discount or special promotion on your products or services.

The marketing offer email is effective if your goal with email is to directly drive sales. It presents a product or discount offer and includes a direct call to action for people to click-through to your website and make a purchase.

Announcement

An announcement campaign is an email sent to your subscribers announcing a new product, feature, or service

Event Invitation

An event invitation email is a campaign designed to increase awareness of your event and encourage people to attend. It should list date, time and venue of event and encourage your audience to RSVP with their details.

4. Ensure your email marketing campaign is relevant to every subscriber

According to research, campaigns that are sent to segmented lists and contain relevant information can achieve up to a 760% increase in revenue from email. So instead of sending one campaign to everyone, you should segment your lists and send relevant offers and content to each unique segment.

5. Make it easy to convert

To drive your subscribers to click through from your email campaigns, you must make it as easy as possible for them to do so. According to CampaignMonitor.com 41% of email opens are happening on mobile devices, so if your campaigns aren’t optimized across all devices, then there’s a good chance you’re making it unnecessarily difficult for your subscribers to convert.

6. Measure the results

There are two places through which you can track the success of your email marketing campaigns: Your email marketing tool and your website analytics tool (such as Google Analytics). The reports section of your email marketing tool is the place to go to understand how people interacted with your email campaigns. Metrics to be measured should include number of unique opens, number of bounces, number of emails opened, click through rate, unsubscribe rate and shares.

These metrics give you a high-level overview of how your subscribers are interacting with your email marketing campaigns and allow you to compare the success of one campaign to another. Once you’ve spent some time analysing how people interacted with your email campaign, you can take it a step further and look at what happened after they clicked through to your website.

If you would like help with starting or improving your email marketing campaigns, contact us today here.