A B2B Guide to Successful Email Marketing

The 2009 Guide to Creating a Successful B2B Email Campaign Email Marketing in a Recession

Late st research indicates that email will continue to be a key tactic for marketers in an economic downturn due to the need for ROI.

“ In a difficult economy, marketers of all types are turning back to email... low cost, targeted, and able to move the needle with prospects as well as current customers, email is at the front and centre among marketing tactics in the current downturn. ” Marketing Sherpa 2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide

Steps to Success With more B2B marketers using email in 2009, competition in the inbox is fierce and your emails need to be crafted for maximum impact. The success of your email campaign hinges on getting the right message, to the right person at the right time.

Have you got the right message? • Is my offer or incentive really compelling? • Is the product/service right for the recipient? • What sort of tone will the reader respond best to? • Have I chosen the right call to action? • Is the length of copy correct?

Beechwood tip! Be Considered… Make certain that your email contains information that the receiver will want. A sales pitch is not valuable content. Instead, think about what will be useful and of interest, e.g. research studies, market trends, white papers and case studies could all be of value.

What’s Hot! Have you considered building an online resource centre or creating an e-book?

3 2 1 Make your email ‘sticky’ In just 3 seconds of opening an email, the reader will decide whether to delete or read on!

Beechwood tip! Be Creative A well designed email will not just lead to better click through rates, but will look professional and engender brand loyalty and trust.

Create professional, eye-catching emails • Get the balance of graphics to text content right. • Make sure your key messages stand out from the body copy. • Make sure the calls to action are clear and enticing. • Personalise your emails.

h tml vs text “ HT ML emails have emerged as the popular choice for email marketing given that their more dynamic appearance can often pull a higher response that plain or rich text format emails. ” Direct Marketing Association

But be careful! HTML emails that don’t follow best practice can end up being: • Blocked by firewalls? • Marked as spam? • Blacklisted. Make sure your emails don’t put your business at risk.

Send to the right person • To ensure that you get your email to the right person, you need to have good data. • When buying data, be sure of the quality of the source. • Create highly effective house lists with the latest email technology solutions. • Segment your database of customers and prospects for effective targeting.

Permission based Marketing Email is not the same as direct mail, you need to be sure you have permission to email someone. Seth Godin, esteemed marketing blogger has this to say: “ The definition of permission marketing: Anticipated, personal and relevant messages delivered to people who actually want to get them. Nowhere does it say anything about you and your needs as a sender … ”

So, are you ready to broadcast? A few final checks: • Ensure that your emails can be clearly identified by ensuring your company name appears in “ Fr om ” field every time you send an email. • The subject line should be attention grabbing and entice the reader to click for more. • Send your email at the right time.

Beechwood tip! Be Brief Before you hit the send button, ask yourself ‘could I make this email shorter?’ P eople read on-screen copy about 25% slower than a printed document.

Beechwood tip! Be Clever Try split stream testing to find the best time to send your email... segment your database into groups and send the identical email at different times and days of the week to see if open rates vary. Split stream testing is also a good way to see what subject lines work best.

The future of email • Email is still popular, but look at linking emails to social media to maximise opportunities. • Grow your opt-in email lists by using digital advertising and social networking opportunities to drive large volumes of traffic to your pages. • Be ready to respond to leads generated from email marketing. Don’t let warm leads get cold! • Move from single emails to drip campaigns.

And finally … “ Those organisations that use email successfully throughout the downturn will be those that practice email responsibly and efficiently – through creativity, personalisation, segmentation, testing and pristine list management ” Marketing Sherpa 2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide

Emma Large  Beechwood 2009 For more information please call +44 (0)20 8547 4229 [email_address] www.beechwood.uk.com

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A B2B Guide to Successful Email Marketing

by Beechwood Creative Consultancy Ltd on Feb 12, 2009

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