Maximizing B2B Email Performance 2014 by Kevin Miller CMO at Salesfusion

1. Tips for optimizing your B2B email campaigns

2. Who we are
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Pioneer in lead to revenue management - the only MA platform
built on a CRM database
The best marketing automation platform in the industry for
integrating marketing to sales
750+ Clients in 22 countries
Known for unique approach to client services & training
All-in-one approach to marketing platform

3. What we’ll cover today
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The state of B2B email marketing
4 most commonly used email campaigns
Email design considerations
Building for mobile
Ensuring high deliverability

4. Trends
www.SalesFUSION.com
© 2013 SalesFUSION

5. State of B2B email marketing
Overall spending and growth
increases
• Social has not killed email
• Email usage continues to grow despite
budget dilution from other channels
• Newer types of email marketing
(drip/trigger/nurture) have increased
where/when email can be used

6. The fundamentals of B2B email marketing
Relevancy Ensure you are delivering relevant content
Personalization It's no longer good enough to greet a recipient by name. Use purchase
history, website activity and customer relationship management (CRM) data to learn
about your audience and create the exact content they want to see
Optimization Testing has moved beyond simple A/B to optimized outcomes and
optimized content flows
Mobile Optimization Responsive design is quickly becoming the norm to ensure your
emails read read and digested on mobile devices

7. 4 Most commonly used B2B campaigns
Bulk/Blast Single, linear blast email targeting lists & segments
Drip Date-based, linear, multi-thread email targeting lists, segments and responders
Trigger Relative date, personalized, linear email targeting dynamic segments and
individuals who have taken an action
Nurture Non-linear, relative date, multi-thread combing both marketing actions and sales
actions targeting lists, segments, individuals and responders

8. How are B2B marketers optimizing?
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Content Optimization
Mobile Optimization
Delivery Optimization

9. Content Optimization
Simple ways to optimize email content to improve CTR
Trigger-based emails from web forms
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Multiple choice questions
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Product
Industry
Role
Nurture campaigns based on web activity
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Identify interest based on activity (specific web content)
Time email communications based on last web visit

10. Content Optimization
Simple ways to optimize email content to improve CTR
Content Quality
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Content funnel
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Educational
Use Case
Product

11. Mobile Optimization
Over 50% of your audience is opening up your email on a mobile device:
More email is read Mobile than on a desktop email client. Stats
say 51% of email is now opened on a mobile device Litmus –
”Email Analytics” (Jan 2014)
Mobile email opens have grown with 21% in 2013, from 43% in
Jan to 51% in December. Litmus –”Email Analytics” (Jan 2014)
Mobile received the largest percentage of unique clicks (40%),
webmail was a strong second with 35% – Experian “Quarterly
Email Benchmark Study” (Q2 2013)
78% Of US Email Users Will Also Access Their Emails Via Mobile
By 2017 – Forrester Research “Email Marketing Forecast 2012 –
2017″ (2012)
www.Salesfusion.com
© 2014 Salesfusion

12. What is Responsive Design
Optimize your Email Marketing
Responsive email identifies a device’s screen or display size using the @media
query and serves the appropriate layout determined by the designer.
As opposed to Scalable design, Responsive design allows room
for a designer to modify, hide, stack, add or expand/collapse
content to optimize usability for narrow screens.
Responsive design offers the most flexibility and control.
Some email clients strip out CSS style sheets and don’t support
@media queries. However optimization will be supported if synced
with the phone’s native email application.
Responsive design uses flexible grid and fixed-width layout in the
HTML template, and should be tested problematic clients.
www.Salesfusion.com
© 2014 Salesfusion

13. Tips for Responsive Design
Optimize your Email Marketing
www.Salesfusion.com
© 2014 Salesfusion

14. Tips for Responsive Design
Optimize your Email Marketing
1. Design for mobile first
4. Optimize for touch
Begin with the mobile experience and work up to
desktop. This approach is much easier than to try to fit a
desktop experience into a mobile phone.
Position CTAs in a way that aligns with how people hold
and use touch-enabled devices. Simplify for mobile and
decide what needs to stay on the screen.
2. Stack your content
5. Make it legible
Rather than scale down images, transform horizontal
assortments into vertical at the 480px breakpoint.
Optimize your content on mobile by choosing easily
readable fonts, increase line spacing, and font size.
3. Design for the masses
6. If it doesn't sell – expel!
Design your email template around Android and iOS
users. Don’t compromise your design to perfect the
experience on a less popular device.
Consider hiding extra text and menus that push down
your most important content.
www.Salesfusion.com
© 2014 Salesfusion

15. Delivery Optimization
Ensuring your email gets to the inbox & gets opened
Trigger-based emails from web forms
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Multiple choice questions
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Product
Industry
Role
Nurture campaigns based on web activity
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Identify interest based on activity (specific web content)
Time email communications based on last web visit

16. Delivery Optimization
Subject Lines
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Single biggest driver of open rates
Keep simple, honest and compelling
45-65 characters max
Avoid obvious issues – Free, Offer, Expire – or adjectives that are over the top (Massive,
huge)
• Avoid Characters in subject lines *&%$@!
• Use A/B Testing and optimize on open rates

17. Delivery Optimization
Call to Action
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Big buttons – simple CTA messages
Limit CTA to one – no extraneous links in email
Big buttons tend to show best in mobile
A/B Testing on CTR – test on color/placement/verbiage

18. Delivery Optimization
Spam and device optimization
• Test emails against myriad of clients & devices
• Ensure optimal viewing
• Test against spam filters for deliverability

19. Delivery Optimization – tips & tricks
Subject Swaps
• Send multiple variations of the same email with varied
subject lines at different time intervals
• Vary subject lines between formal/casual
• Progressively send to non responders over the course
of 1-2 weeks
• On average this practice doubles open rates
• Does not increase unsubscribe rates

20. Delivery Optimization – tips & tricks
Subject line variations
• Informal
“Hey ++FirstName++, I wanted to share a cool infographic with you
• Formal
“New industry report available for download”
• Categorical
“*Live Webinar+ – Join us tomorrow for an industry best practice session”
• Time-based
“Some reading materials for the weekend” – sent Friday late PM
“Hi ++FirstName++, I wanted to send this to you before the week gets too busy” –
early AM Monday

21. Delivery Optimization – tips & tricks
Time variations (used in subject swaps) for North America
• Industry accepted norms
Tues – Thursday between 11AM and 2PM US EST
• Weekenders
Saturday early (before noon); Sunday Evening or Morning
• Early Birds
Monday early AM
• Last Chance
Friday between 3-6PM US EST

22. Delivery Optimization – tips & tricks
1 – 2 Punch
• Trigger a complimentary product asset within 1-2 days following standard email open
• Trigger an analyst report within 1 hours of asset download
• Trigger link to a complimentary blog post relative to the email asset
• Triggers of this nature average open rates of 40-50%

23. Delivery Optimization – tips & tricks
Humor versus Serious
• Humor in email marketing can dramatically improve open rates
• Making fun of yourself a little can lead to a lot of good will
• Use in both subject lines and content
“yeah yeah….I know your busy and you didn’t open my last email, but seriously,
this is really important”
“alligator attack” or “alien abduction”

24. Delivery Optimization – tips & tricks
Give a little to get a lot
• If you don’t need to gather info in a form, don’t require it
• Mix content and offer some with no CTA (video is optimal)

25. Final Thoughts
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Be relevant – deliver the right content to the right people
Always lead with educational content
Always ask if you can send more
Create opt-ins on everything (forms, blogs, emails…etc.)
Build long-term trust in your house file

26. Q&A
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Learn more at www.salesfusion.com
See a live demo
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