Successful Strategies for B2B Email Marketing

Blue Sky Factory Driving Email Marketing Performance Successful Strategies for B2B Email Marketing Presenters: Amy Garland & Joanna Lawson-Matthew August 20, 2010 at 2:00 PM (ET) Twitter: #bsfwebinar Baltimore, Maryland Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Getting Acquainted Feel free to submit questions via the GoToWebinar dashboard or #bsfwebinar on Twitter. Amy Garland Joanna Lawson-Matthew Marketing Manager Senior Client Services Manager @amygarland @joannalm Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

About Blue Sky Factory Blue Sky Factory is both a full & self service ESP. Design, execute, and track your email marketing communications with Publicaster. www.blueskyfactory.com Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Agenda 1. Best practices for growing and maintaining your list 2. Best practices in email design 3. Deliverability must-do’s for B2B marketers 4. Learn how to leverage social networks 5. We answer your questions! Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Why Email Marketing? • Highest ROI of any other marketing channel • $43.62 for every dollar spent (2009) • $42.08 for every dollar spent (projected for 2010) – Direct Marketing Association • >90% of Internet users between 18-72 send and receive email, making it the top online activity. - Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2009 • 58% of people start their online day by reading emails (20% search engines, 11% Facebook). – ExactTarget’s Email X-Factor Study, 2010 Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

B2B Email Marketing • B2B online marketers focus on lead generation (38%), retention (34%), and awareness (28%). – eMarketer, March 2010 • 87% of B2B marketers use email marketing for targeting customers and prospecting. – B2B Marketing Insight Report, 2009 • Top online marketing areas that will see spending increases are: • Website development (71%) • Email marketing (69%) • Search marketing (62%) • Social media (60%) – BtoB Online, 2009 Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Why a B2B-specific webinar?  Because many of our clients asked for it!  As B2B marketers ourselves, we find the resources specific to us are lacking.  It’s important to realize there are major differences between B2C versus B2B marketing, and the approaches you take with each should be different. Let’s talk about some of those differences … Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

B2C vs. B2B Marketing B2C Marketing • Product Driven • Maximize the value of the transaction • Large target market • Single step buying process, shorter sales cycle • Brand identity created through repetition and imagery • Merchandising and point of purchase activities • i.e., coupons, displays, store fronts • Emotional buying decision based on status, desire or price Source: http://vista-consulting.com/marketing-b2b-vs-b2c/ Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

B2C vs. B2B Marketing B2B Marketing • Relationship driven • Maximize the value of the relationship • Small, focused target market • Multi-step buying process, longer sales cycle • Brand identity created on personal relationship • Educational and awareness building activities • i.e., webinars, whitepapers, demos • Rational buying decision based on business value Source: http://vista-consulting.com/marketing-b2b-vs-b2c/ Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Best Practices for Growing and Maintaining your B2B Email List Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Permission-Based Email Marketing The key to email marketing: Send relevant, timely, targeted, and valuable emails to subscribers who have asked to receive them. Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

“How do I build my list?” • Set Expectations • Privacy • Frequency • Keep your promises! Flickr Photo Credit: wallyg Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

6 Ways to Grow Your Email Database • Web/website • Social Media • Offline • Mobile/SMS • Email Campaigns • Email Strategy Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Web: Opt-in Form • Easy to find opt-in form on every page of your website • Short, sweet & easy to fill out • No pre-checked boxes • W.I.I.F.M. – What’s in it for me? • Set expectations for content and frequency • Show a sample email • Confirm subscription immediately with a Thank You page Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Web: Welcome Email • Immediate (within 15 minutes) • Email should be consistent with future email campaigns branding • Thank them for subscribing (with a gift?) • Explain the benefits of subscription again • Reiterate the content and frequency they can expect • Prompt them to whitelist your From name/email • Link back to your website and/or email archive • Provide a link to opt-out and update preferences Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Web: Opt-in & Welcome Email Example Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Web 1. Include testimonials on your subscription page 2. Promote sign-ups via contests 3. Consider your domain name Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Web 4. Ask during webinar or online event signup Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Web 5. Entrance or exit pop-ups Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Social Media 1. Share with Your Network (SWYN) Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Social Media 2. Facebook fan page (email sign-up form, updates & wall posts) Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Social Media Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Social Media 3. Twitter: Let followers know about your campaigns and include a link to past newsletters. Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Social Media 4. Encourage employees to be active on social networks Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Social Media 5. Company blog (include sign-up form & republish content) Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Offline 1. Ask while on the phone (Sales, Client Services & Customer Support) 2. Include a link on your business cards 3. Promote your email campaigns with direct mail Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Offline 4. Talk about your subscription center while networking or speaking at events 5. Ask while exhibiting at tradeshows Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Mobile 1. Use a mobile application to collect email addresses 2. Facebook Connect (http://blog.blueskyfactory.com/email- marketing/build-your-subscriber-base-with- publicaster-and-facebook-connect/) Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Email Campaigns 1. Make it easy to share & ASK people to share Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Email Campaigns 2. Promote in employees’ email signatures 3. Be smart with the unsubscribe • Give subscribers the option to opt-down • Ask for feedback Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Email Campaigns 4. Send re-engagement email with incentives Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Email Campaigns 5. Advertise in other email campaigns Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

How to Build Your List: Email Strategy 1. Targeted, timely & valuable 2. Prioritize retention (attracting new customers vs. retaining the ones you have) 3. Search optimize your newsletter page 4. Honor your privacy and trust commitments 5. Identify, contact & engage your brand advocates Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

50 Ways to Build Your Email List Download your free copy here: http://www.blueskyfactory.com/b2bwebinar Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Keep Your Subscribers Happy 1. Subscriber preferences 2. Follow through with expectations 3. Two-way communication 4. Again, make the unsubscribe easy Flickr Photo Credit: libraryman Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Best Practices in B2B Email Design Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Email Design: The Basics Your recipients should be able to understand and act on the call-to- action of your email within 5 seconds. You have a pain point at work. Let me show you how I can solve it. Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Email Design: The Basics Email design best practices • Design for the email inbox & plan for blocked images • Ensure consistent branding and design across all campaigns • Keep your email width under 650 pixels (300px for mobile) • Make sure your main key elements are “above the fold” • Keep your email content brief, use teaser blurbs • Remember to include an opt-out mechanism and physical mailing address (per CAN-SPAM) Read more in our Email Design Guidelines: http://www.blueskyfactory.com/resources/BSFEmailDesignGuidelines.pdf Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Email Design: The Basics Subject line best practices • Keep it 35 characters or less • Consider including your brand/company name • Avoid “spammy” words and phrases • Don’t use ALL CAPS • Minimize or don’t use symbols (?!?) • Per the CAN-SPAM Act, avoid deceptive subject lines • Make it actionable by providing a sense of urgency and call-to- action (think verbs!) Most importantly, make sure it reflects the email content and entices the reader to open your email! Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Email Design: The Basics B2B Subject Lines that Work • Look like a Star to your Boss with [product/service] • Complimentary Webinar: [webinar name] • Should your Company Outsource [product/service]? • Breakfast & Secrets for how to [insert problem you solve] • Again, you have a pain point at work. Success Tip: 5 Ways to a Better [xxx] • Register Today: [event name and date] Let me show you how I can solve it. • Entry deadline is fast approaching • New White Paper: Best Practices for [problem/solution] • Your Weekly Alert: [topic] • 5 Ways to Maximize Holiday Sales • Marketing on a Tight Budget, Part 1 • Get a $30 Gift Card for 30 Minutes of your Time • Frustrated with Graphics in Microsoft Outlook? Source: http://www.theemailguide.com/email-marketing/verticalresponse-offers-29-great-b2b-email-marketing-subject-lines-that-work/ Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Email Design: The Basics From line best practices • Should be easily recognizable to your subscriber • Use your company name versus a person’s name • Avoid using donotreply@domain.com – that’s not very friendly or trustworthy! • Be consistent with the From name and From address • Monitor potential replies to your From and Reply addresses • Set up role accounts for your domain (e.g. admin@, postmaster@, abuse@ and info@domain.com) Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Challenge #1: Image-to-Text Ratio Both B2C and B2B emails depend on the marriage between images and copy to get the message across. However, there are some differences in the balance… Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Challenge #1: Image-to-Text Ratio B2C Emails: • Design weighted more heavily towards images • Images are used to paint a pretty picture for the reader and to grab their attention • Powerful images are often necessary to strengthen the message Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Challenge #1: Image-to-Text Ratio B2B Emails: • Design weighted more heavily towards copy • Images are used to add richness to the design, and for branding purposes • Images are simpler and secondary to the email’s copy • Message is not dependant on images Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Challenge #2: Email Rendering Use a tool like Inbox Preview to ensure your email renders properly across all email clients with images on and off. Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Challenge #2: Email Rendering Image credit: http://fingerprintapp.com/email-client-stats Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Challenge #3: Mobile Devices 64% of key decision makers are viewing your carefully crafted email on their Blackberry and other mobile devices. MarketingSherpa/SurveySampling (2007) Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Challenge #3: Mobile Devices Email Dominates Mobile Web Time Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Challenge #3: Mobile Devices Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Challenge #3: Mobile Devices Keep your HTML design simple, and allow your message to get across without having to download images or click through Create a simplified mobile version that recipients can click through to from the HTML version • Build this as a glorified plain text version, with simple HTML branding elements • Keep this version at 300 pixels wide to fit in the mobile window Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Challenge #3: Mobile Devices Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Challenge #4: Corporate Spam Filters Use a spam check tool to ensure your email does not contain anything that may trigger spam filters. Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Design Idea #1: Consistency Using a consistent template will help with branding, and will allow your subscribers to easily find the call-to-action Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Design Idea #2: Be Dynamic Dynamic content allows these static templates to be personalized to the individual subscriber • Customize email content based on location, past behavior, areas of interest … any data you have on the subscriber! • Be careful with “Dear [first name]” personalization Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Design Idea #2: Be Dynamic Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Deliverability Must-Do’s for B2B Marketers Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Permission-based Email Six Core Elements of a Trust- Based Approach: 1. Permission 2. Privacy 3. Reputation 4. Preferences 5. Expectations 6. Compliance Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Permission-based Email The key to email marketing: Send relevant, timely, targeted and valuable emails to subscribers who have asked to receive them (i.e. permission). Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Permission-based Email • Permission is defined as explicit, affirmative consent from a potential recipient • Affirmative consent comes from requiring action on the part of the potential recipient (i.e. asking them to check an opt-in box) • Building your list without explicit, affirmative consent opens your company and domain up to spam complaints and potential blacklisting Warning! It can take months to overcome from a tarnished IP or domain-based reputation. Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Deliverability Use a tool like Return Path’s Sender Score to monitor your IP reputation (http://www.senderscore.org) Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Deliverability Work with your tech team and/or ESP to continually monitor your email placement to corporate gateway firewalls (Postini, MessageLabs, Barracuda) Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Deliverability • Ensure you are subscribed to all available Feedback Loops (your ESP should do this for you) • Set up authentication records (Sender ID, SPF, DKIM/Domain Keys) to help with deliverability • Learn more about authentication on our blog: http://blog.blueskyfactory.com/deliverability/authe ntication-a-key-to-getting-your-emails-delivered/ Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Deliverability Ask your subscribers to whitelist your From address to ensure delivery to the Inbox Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Compliance with the Law 4% of retailers are not in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act. That's on par with 2008 levels. Smith-Harmon "Retail Email Unsubscribe Benchmark Study" (2010) Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Compliance with the Law The CAN-SPAM Act, enacted in January 2003, imposes a series of requirements on commercial email, including: 1. Bans false or misleading header information 2. Prohibits deceptive subject lines 3. Requires that your email gives recipients an opt-out method, and that opt-out requests must be honored within ten days 4. Requires that commercial email be identified as an advertisement and include the sender’s valid physical postal address (P.O. boxes are ok) Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Compliance with the Law Want more information on CAN-SPAM and compliance with the law? Read more on the Blue Sky Factory blog or subscribe to our 52 Email Marketing Tips. Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Social Media Explosion Over 400 million users 752% growth in 2008 30.1 million users & growing 100 million videos viewed daily 3 billion images uploaded Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

B2B Email Marketing • 86% of B2B firms are using social, compared to 82% of B2C. - BizReport May 2010 • Top applications for the use of social media for B2B marketers are: • Thought leadership (59.8%) • Lead generation (48.9%) • Customer feedback (45.7%) • Advertising on sites (34.7%) - BtoB Online November, 2009 Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Email + Social Media Email is the digital glue of social media. Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

B2B Email Marketing • Asked to rate the effectiveness of specific social media sites in their marketing efforts, 51% said that Facebook was “extremely” or “somewhat” effective, LinkedIn (45%), Twitter (35%). - eMarketer, March 2010 (Based on Outsell study) • In contrast, when Hubspot surveyed B2B companies in North America about lead generation through social channels, 45% rated LinkedIn effective, compared with just 33% who said the same of Facebook. -eMarketer February 2010 Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Email >> Social Use your email list to build your social community Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Social Sharing SocialTwist Social Media Sharing Trends 2009 (Tell-A-Friend) Image credit: http://tellafriend.socialtwist.com/sharing-trends-2009 Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Social Sharing Give subscribers incentive to share! Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

SocialSync How do I know which social sites my company should be on? Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Social >> Email Use social media to build your email subscriber base Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Social >> Email Get instructions on how to add an email sign-up form to your Facebook page here: http://blog.blueskyfactory.com/strategy/youve- got-something-in-your-widget/ Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Social >> Email Don’t forget the original social tool: Forward to a Friend Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Real World Email Marketer Advice: Visit Baltimore • Where are your customers communicating? Be aware of conversations that are relevant to customers. • Linkedin Groups, Facebook Groups, Twitter and Hashtags, other industry networks • Develop tools they can use and create value: • Conversation tracking for meeting planners • Mobile applications for meeting attendee • Become an authority. • Developing a meetings industry blog for Tom Noonan, Visit Baltimore’s President and CEO • Be a friend and a resource; don’t always try to sell Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Jones & Bartlett Case Study Launched social media presence with new brand & website in early 2010 • Primary goal: Increase number of Facebook fans • Secondary goal: Awareness for company Twitter account & blog Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Jones & Bartlett Case Study • Initially added “Follow Us” buttons to homepage, but wanted to get the word out to their existing, loyal customer base. • Turned to Blue Sky Factory for guidance in how to best communicate this message to their database. Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Jones & Bartlett Case Study •Email sent to over 178,000 customers on May 25, 2010 •Within one week, their Facebook fan count grew 65% Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Email + Social Media • Ask your customers to follow you on social networks via email links, landing pages, your website and all customer interactions • Include links to your social media pages in all email communications (even transactional emails!) • Include a SWYN tool in all email, and encourage sharing with valuable, share- worthy content • Mention your social presence in all marketing channels • Include an email opt-in link whenever you share content on social sites • Remember to be consistent to your brand across all channels • Identify your objective for each social channel, and tailor your message on that channel to your audience there Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Thanks for Attending 50 Ways To Build Your Email Marketing List Download your free copy here: http://www.blueskyfactory.com/b2bwebinar Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Please Contact Us Please submit your questions now via the GoToWebinar dashboard Amy Garland Joanna Lawson-Matthew Marketing Manager Senior Client Services Manager agarland@blueskyfactory.com joanna@blueskyfactory.com www.blueskyfactory.com Contact Blue Sky Factory: blog.blueskyfactory.com Twitter: @blueskyfactory Copyright Blue Sky Factory 2010

Successful Strategies for B2B Email Marketing

by Blue Sky Factory on Aug 20, 2010

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