Mastering the Driving Force of Effective B2B Marketing

The Truth & Tactics to Effective B2B Email Marketing
Adam Q. Holden-Bache
@adamholdenbach
@socalbma •

• Founded Digital Marketing Agency Mass Transmit
in 1996, sold to Striata in 2015
• Developed proprietary email platforms
• Author of “How to Win at B2B Email Marketing”
• 20+ years Email Marketing experience
• Director of Email Marketing at Enventys Partners
@socalbma •Adam Q. Holden-Bache

b2bemailmarketingbook.com

2015
MarCom
Gold Award
2016
Axiom Business Books
Gold Award

TAKEAWAY
TIP

Emails are sent every minute

The average U.S. worker spends
of their time reading and answering emails.

• IT’S UBIQUITOUS
WHY IS EMAIL STILL DOMINANT?
• Guaranteed Delivery
• PEOPLE CHECK IT Frequently & Respond
• It remains visible until deleted
• It’s FAST & MEASURABLE

WHY IS EMAIL STILL DOMINANT?
• It’s Cost Effective
• It’s Own-able
• It has a Low Cost-Per-Acquisition
• It has a high Return on Investment

73% rate email as “Good” or
“Excellent” at generating ROI.
Most marketers only allocate 16% of
their budget to email.
BUT…

That 16% of budget contributes
of total sales.
23%

• Your name
• Your Email Marketing experience
• What you hope to learn at this workshop
• Company name and position
• Icebreaker: Your favorite Smell

• What’s the worst thing about email?
• The one thing that would help you most
with your Email Marketing

• Email Strategy: Plan for Success
• The Email Message
• Deliver Relevance
• Data: A Marketer’s Goldmine
• Testing
• The Future of Email Marketing

CAMPAIGN Goals Fall into two Categories:
WHAT IS YOUR
• Soft Metric Goals
• Hard Metric Goals

• Increase revenue/sales
HARD METRIC
• Generate leads
• Reduce acquisition cost
• Improve conversion rates
• Increase retention
• SHORTEN SALES CYCLE

• To EDUCATE
SOFT METRIC
• Improve Sales/Marketing Alignment
• Improve Insights
• To Provide Information

• High delivery rate
SUCCESS
• High click-through rate
• Low spam complaints
• High open rate
• Low Unsubscribe Rate
• Increased shares, forwards, web site visits

• Generating and Nurturing Leads: 78%
B2B Marketers Goals:
• Enhancing/Building Brand: 68%
• Driving Sales: 59%
• Strengthening Thought Leadership: 52%

Constantly establish and
refine benchmarks and try
to improve them for every
campaign.

• Existing Customers
Who is your audience?
• Prospects
• Leads
• Colleagues
• Competition
• Media

• Who are you sending to?
Questions to ask:
• Why are you sending the message?
• WHAT DO THEY expect?
• What don’t they want?
• Is the email focused on the goal?
• How will you measure success?

• Longer Sales Cycle
B2B vs. B2C: Differences
• Relationship Driven
• Education Required
• More Complex
• Group Purchasing Decision
• Considered Decision-Making Process

• Immediate Impact
B2B vs. B2C: Overlap
• Relevance required
• Right Message at the right time
• Must learn from results
• It’s all about the relationship

• Financially Driven Buyer
2 Types of Business Buyers
• Solutions-Focused Buyer

• Makes decision based on price
Financially Driven Buyer
• Price consideration may include Support,
options, maintenance, upgrades, internal
expertise, training

• Makes decision based on how well a
product or service solves existing
business problems
Solutions Focused Buyer

Answer the following questions:
1. What is your email marketing goal?
2. What metrics do you measure?
3. Who is your audience?
4. Are your buyers financially driven or
solutions focused?
Workshop Applied

YOUR EMAIL MARKETING EFFORTS

Increasing email list size
should be a top priority
for marketers.

Your list size is IRRELEVANT if you
don’t have QUALITY subscribers.

Attract the audience
you desire.

95% of people who opt-in to
email messages from brands
consider the messages useful.

Workshop Applied
1. Make a list of all the place you can
collect email address date
2. Put an asterisk beside all the places
your are currently doing so

1. Website
WHERE TO COLLECT DATA
2. Blog
3. Offline Events
4. Online Events
5. Registrations
for Downloads
6. Surveys
7. Facebook
8. Twitter
9. LinkedIn
10. Videos
11. Sweeps &
Promotions
12. Email Signatures
13. Print ADS
14. Direct Mail
15. QR Codes
16. Mobile Apps
17. Mobile Text
Subscriptions
18. Point of Sale

1. Provide Value
2. Disclose Frequency
3. Give the Subscriber control
4. Ensure Privacy
THE OPT-IN PROPOSITION

1. MAKE IT EASY
2. Only collect what you need
3. Validate Opt-In DATA
4. Send A Confirmation Email
THE OPT-IN FORM

1. Dedicated Page: 58%
2. Home Page: 56%
3. Footer: 38%
4. Header: 15%
WEB SITE Data Collection
5. Pop-Up Window: 2%

Pop-ups can result in a
400% Increase in signups

Treatment 1 Treatment 2

If you collect the data,
make sure you use it.

Allow users to manage
their data through
preference enters.

1. You’ll Risk your Reputation
2. You’ll be labeled a spammer
3. Your deliverability will suffer
4. It’s not effective
Do Not Purchase An Email List

It’s not just an email address.
You are communicating with
a human being.

WHAT EMAIL IS NOT:
• A blast
• A digital version of a print ad or direct mail piece
• A web page
• One big image
• Like any other marketing channel

Email is Experienced in Stages

STAGE 1: The INBOX

STAGE 1:
The INBOX
GOAL:
Get the Recipient to OPEN

STAGE 1: The INBOX
STAGE 2: The EMAIL BODY

GOAL:
GET the CLICK
STAGE 2:
The EMAIL
BODY

STAGE 1: The INBOX
STAGE 2: The EMAIL BODY
STAGE 3: The WEB SITE/LANDING PAGE
Always Drive Users to Conversion

STAGE 3: The WEB Site/Landing Page
GOAL: Get the Conversion

STAGE 3: The WEB Site/Landing Page

STAGE 1: The INBOX
• From Name
• Preheader
• Subject Line

STAGE 1: The INBOX
• Business Name or Persona Name? Test it.
• Don’t Exceed 23 Characters
• Be Consistent with From NAME
• Be Consistent with From EMAIL

35% of email recipients open email based
solely on the subject line.
Subject Line

• Put the main point first
• Keep it short (50 characters or less)
• Create interest and urgency
• Review for word truncation issues
• Beware of personalization
• Use clear language
Subject Line

• Provide a call to action
The PREHEADER
• Generate interest
• Summarize
• Always support the subject line

75% of emails are
displayed with preview
text in the inbox.

The PREHEADER

Workshop Activity
Check your personal or work email
inbox and share a quality subject line
and preheader.

STAGE 1: The INBOX
STAGE 2: THE EMAIL BODY

STAGE 2:
The EMAIL
BODY
GOAL:
GET the CLICK

STAGE 2:
The EMAIL
BODY

Subscribers respond
POSITIVELY
to messages that
Inform and Educate.

• MAKE IT SCANNABLE
DESIGN YOUR COPY
• USE headers and subheaders
• Break apart the copy
• Use bullets and lists
• Use bold, italics, and font size variations
• Use color and whitespace

80% of people are only
scanning your email.

IMAGES
Use images to enhance
(not deliver)
your email message.

Images Best Practices
• Minimize the use of Images
• Compress images to lowest file size possible
while retaining quality
• Chop up larger images
• Do not use larger images and resize via HTML

Prepare for images OFF
43% of Gmail users read email
without turning images on.

Gmail images off

The Bulletproof Button
• Appears as a button even with images off
• Highlights important CTA
• Works in all email modern clients

Bulletproof Button Generator
http://buttons.cm

• Increase revenue 109%
Animated GIFs
• Increase click rates 42%
• Increase conversion rates 130%
(and people like them a lot)

GIF CASE STUDY: DELL

GIF CASE STUDY: DELL
Results:
• 42% increase in click rate
• 103% increase in conversion rate
• 109% increase in revenue

Benefits of using video in email:
• Increased Click-through rates: 65%
• Increased Time Spent with email: 44%
• Increase in Sharing/Forwarding: 41%
• Increased Conversion rates: 24%
• Reduce Unsubscribe rates: 25%
• “VIDEO” in Subject Line increases opens 19%

• Don’t sell, educate
HOW DO YOU GET THE CLICK?
• Solve a problem
• Save, save, save
• ENTERTAIN

Have one clear, strong call to action. Use it
multiple times in the email.
CALL to Action
• Button near the top of the content area
• As a text link within the body copy
• Button at the end of the message

STOP USING “CLICK HERE”
(Mobile users don’t click, they TAP.)

Emails with a
single call to action
increase clicks 371%
and sales 1,617%.

• Use a color that stands out
CALL to Action Tips
• Make it look clickable
• Keep copy short
• Use action words: Get, Reserve, Own, Try
• Use urgency words: Now, Today, Limited
• Make the button the next obvious action

Make It
STAND OUT

TEST
Different
Incentives

Finish the sentence: “I want you to…”
CALL to Action Copy:
• Download the e-book
• Register for the webinar
• Watch the video
• Read the case study

Call to Action

Call to Action
Have some fun

STAGE 3:
The WEB Site
/Landing Page
GOAL:
GET the
CONVERSION

Landing Page
• Should be an extension of the email
• Focus on the conversion
• No distractions
• Remove or minimize navigation
• Needs to be mobile optimized
• Don’t leave them stranded

• Grow or strengthen brand awareness
Newsletters Benefits
• Establish thought leadership
• Educate recipients about products & services
• Strengthen existing relationships
• Retain and upsell current customers
• Increase retention/reduce customer churn

56% of executives rely on email
newsletters more than web sites
or news sites as their primary
source of industry news.

• Select content that appeals to all audiences
Winning Tactics for Newsletters
• Segment and use dynamic content
• Get readers to your website
• Include some company news
• Link away

Don’t value your
newsletter more than
you value the recipient.

Workshop Activity
Share your favorite email newsletters and
why you enjoy receiving them.
Provide thoughts on ways they could
be improved.

of smartphone owners
use it to read email.
(THAT’s more than use it to make phone calls)

Say email is the most popular
activity on their phone
Social Media = 20%
Gaming = 19%

will delete an email that doesn’t
display correctly in a mobile inbox.

Optimize for Mobile
1. Less content
2. Easy to click
3. Stack content (no columns)
4. Remove or link to low priority content
5. Use responsive design

Responsive emails will detect readers’
screen size and adapt the layout to
optimize the viewing experience.
RESPONSIVE DESIGN

Brands that use responsive design will see
24% more clicks than those who don’t.

< Desktop
Mobile >

Responsive Design
1. Body Copy: 16px minimum
2. Headlines: 22px minimum
3. Buttons: 44x44 minimum
4. Whitespace: 40px between elements
5. Make things tappable

Apple Watch

71% of mobile purchasing
decisions are most
influenced by emails
from companies.

There is no one-size-fits-all
solution to email marketing.

Relevant emails drive
18 times more revenue
than broadcast emails.

Relevance = Results

High-quality content leads to
increased trust, which leads
to more engagement, which
leads to more conversions.

Achieve Relevance through
Personalization & Segmentation

Personalized emails will improve:
EMAIL PERSONALIZATION
• Open rates 26%
• Click-through rates 14%
• Conversion rates 10%
• REVENUE 17%

• Subscribers that receive personalized
content are 6x more likely to complete
a transaction
EMAIL PERSONALIZATION & ROI
• Revenue from personalized emails is
5.7x higher than non-personalized emails

EMAIL PERSONALIZATION OPTIONS:
1. Subject Line
2. Message Body Copy
3. Images
4. Design & Layout
5. Content

SEGMENTED emails will improve:
EMAIL SEGMENTATION
• Open rates 14.4%
• Click-through rates 65%
And will lower:
• Unsubscribes 9%
• ROI up to 760%

Segmentation Strategies
• Behavioral
• Demographic
• Psychographic
• Geographic
The Four Basic Segmentation Strategies:

1. MARKET SEGMENT
2. BEHAVIOR
3. DEMOGRAPHICS
4. PSYCHOGRAPHICS
5. Geography
6. Sales Cycle Stage
7. VIP’S
8. Job Role/Title/Position
9. Size of Business
10. Source of Acquired Data
11. By Device
12. By Email Platform
List Segmentation Strategies

Geographic
Segmentation

1. List the options that you have at your
organization for personalization and
segmentation.
2. List the things you can do to improve
future personalization & segmentation.
Workshop Activity

Lead nurturing guides a prospect through a
process of having minimal knowledge about
a product or service to being someone who
is prepared to become a customer.
Lead Nurturing

73% of leads are still in early
stages of research and are not
ready to engage with sales.

Today’s business buyers do not
contact suppliers until 57% of the
purchase process is complete.

Lead Nurturing Benefits:
1. Maintains contact with the lead
2. Improves quality of leads
3. Creates perceived brand value
4. Shortens the sales cycle
5. Results in larger purchases

Lead Nurturing Tactics:
1. Segment your leads to deliver relevant content
2. Analyze responses to determine future content
3. Follow up with leads based on their actions
4. Continuously offer valuable content

Nurtured leads make
47% larger purchases
than non-nurtured leads.

Customize Lead Nurturing Content
STAGE 1: Awareness
• Welcome Emails
• White papers
• E-Books
• Guides
• Checklists
• Infographics
• Educational webinars
• Cheat sheets
• How-to content
• Videos

• Product/Service Webinars
• Data Sheets
• Demonstration Videos
• FAQs
• Research
STAGE 2: Consideration

• Case Studies
• Testimonials
• Comparison Information
• Presentations
STAGE 3: Decision

• Free Trials
• Live Demos
• Consultations
• Proposals/Estimates
• Coupons
STAGE 4: Purchase

• Product Demos
• New Product/Service Announcements
• Community Sourced Content
• Newsletters
• Educational Content
STAGE 5: Retention

Workshop Activity
1. Make a list of the marketing content
that you have at your organization.
2. Determine what phase of the sales
cycle would be most appropriate for
it’s use.

Email Automation
Email communications delivered
at predetermined intervals.

Email Automation
• 197% Higher Open rates
• 406% Higher Click-through rates
• 203% Higher Click-to-Open rates

Email Automation
• Welcome emails have 50% higher open rates
• Birthday emails lift conversion rates by 60%
• Thank you emails with an offer drive 13x more value
• 25% of new customers purchase after clicking
on a welcome email

Automation Benefits:
• Reduced manual process
• Timely, relevant communications
• Streamlined lead nurturing process
• Ensured regular communications
• Simplified identification of highly engaged leads

Types of Automated Emails
• Remarketing/Abandoned Shopping Cart
• On-boarding
• Early Activation
• Reactivation
• Welcome

Types of Automated Emails
• Real-Time Triggers
• Account Notifications
• Personal Events
• Milestone
• Transactional

Welcome Emails
• Those that receive show 33% more engagement
• 4x higher open rates
• 5x higher click rates
• 74% of subscribers expect a welcome email

Automated Campaign Content
• Determine incentives
• Determine steps recipient must make to get there
• Consider your goal
• Keep progressing towards goal

A series of prepared email communications
that will be sent to a segment based on an
action, behavior, or where they are in the
buying cycle.
Nurture Campaign
• Interest
• Milestone
• Transactional

A series of prepared email communications
that will be sent on a predetermined schedule.
Drip Campaigns
• Calendar dates (holiday/birthday/anniversary)
• Time after a milestone

• Welcome series: A series of emails sent at
predetermined intervals after a new opt-in
Drip Campaign Examples
• On-Boarding series:
A series of emails sent to new customers

Workshop Activity
What types of automated messages do
you use at your business?
What types of messages could you
automate in the future?

Don’t be afraid to send more email as long
as you deliver value every time.
FREQUENCY

You may not be emailing enough. Especially if…
FREQUENCY
• Some campaigns do abnormally well
• If you see high repeat visits to your web site
• Increase of non-email volume to your web site

Testing is your
secret to success.

What Do You Test?
• Subject Line
• Message Copy
• Layout
• Call to Action
• Offer or Benefit
• Personalization vs. Non-personalization
• Images
• Length of Content
• Preheader
• Animation vs. Static

• A/B Testing
Two Types of Testing
• MultiVariate Testing

A Methodology in which two variants are
tested to determine how they affect user
behavior
A/B Testing (Split testing)
Version A = control
Version B = modified version

• Software company has 35k subscribers
• Control: 15% discount on upgrade
• Goal: Test if one year free support Performs better
A/B Testing Champion Example
Version A = control to 5k subscribers
Version B = free support to 5k subscribers
Winning version is sent to remaining 25k

ALWAYS approach
TESTING with a
GOAL in mind.

GOAL: Test if audience is more motivated
by discounts or benefits
A/B Goal Testing Example
Version A = Get Optimizely Certified for 50% off
Version B = Get Optimizely Certified & Advance Your Career
Winner: Subject Line B (13.3% more opens)

Choose Your Test Winner Carefully

Only 30% of Marketers
Conduct A/B Testing.

Allows marketers to test multiple
variations at the same time.
Multivariate Testing
Used to determine which combination of
content and creative achieves the best
results.

Steps for Multivariate testing
1. Determine what you want to test
2. Create the variations
3. Run the test
4. Analyze the results

Increasing opens & clicks
should be secondary to
increasing conversions.

Increase Opens
1. Subject Line
2. From Name
3. From Email
4. Preheader

Increase Click-Through
1. Content/Message Copy
2. Call to Action Copy, Placement, and Design
3. Layout
4. Animation vs. Static Images
5. Video vs. Non-Video

Increase revenue
1. OFFER Copy and Placement
2. Landing Page
3. List Segmentation
4. Personalization

After the test
1. Review your results
2. Summarize key findings
3. Determine how to implement changes
based on what you’ve learned
4. Implement changes
5. Test some more

Workshop Activity
Make a list of the things you want to test on
your upcoming campaigns.
If you are already testing, share some of
your learnings/results.

• ROI is media agnostic
ROI RULES
• Every resource has value
• Only calculate after yielding a return
• Must be calculated in dollars

How to improve ROI
1. Know the value of your goals
2. Design campaigns to be measurable
3. Test and analyze results
4. Focus on decisions that improve ROI

• ClickZ: Email Marketing
Email Marketing
• Marketing Sherpa: Newsletter
• Direct Marketing News: Email Marketing
• MediaPost: Email Marketing Daily
• Marketing Land: Email Marketing
• MultiView: MultiBrief

• Chief Marketer: Email
Email Marketing
• MarketingTech News: Email Marketing
• Business 2 Community: Email Marketing
• Target Marketing: Email Marketing
• Entrepreneur: Email Marketing
• VentureBeat: Email Marketing

• Litmus
Email Marketing
• EmailMonday, Indiemark, Email Critic
• Only Influencers
• Any email service provider
• CRM/Automation (Hubspot, Marketo, etc.)
• Email on Acid

Email Marketing Trends
• Becoming more PERSONALIZED
• Becoming more AUTOMATED
• Increased use of ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
• Becoming more INTERACTIVE

Interactive Email
An action in an email that triggers an
event within the same email.

Interactive Email
• Hamburger Menus and Navigation
• Carousels, Image Galleries, and Sliders
• Add-to-Cart Functionality
• Offer Reveals
• Quizzes

IN-EMAIL Transactions

Rebelmail

Dynamic Real-Time Emails
• Includes real-time information
• Changes based on when/where opened
• Hyper-personalized

Dynamic Real-Time Platforms
• Movable Ink
• LiveIntent
• Powerinbox
• RealTime Email by Liveclicker
• NiftyImages

Predictive Email Marketing
The practice of extracting information
from existing customer datasets to
determine a pattern and predict future
outcomes and trends.

User-Generated Content
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Pinterest

HTML5 Video
• Featured video in an email
• Video background in an email

HTML5 Video
• Works in Apple MAIL &
Outlook for Mac 2011
• Fallback image displays
in other email clients
• VIEW EMAIL

HTML5
Background Video
• Fallback image displays
in other email clients
• Works in Apple Mail &
Outlook for Mac 2011
• VIEW EMAIL

Gaming
• Using CSS to create an interactive
gaming experience

IN-EMAIL
Payments

RECAP:
• Plan for success: HAVE A GOAL
• KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
• Data: Quality over quantity
• Drive to Conversion (Open -> click -> CONVERT)
• Optimize for mobile
• Deliver relevance
• Testing is your key to success

Questions?
Adam Q. Holden-Bache
LinkedIn.com/in/adamholdenbache
B2BEmailMarketingBook.com
@AdamHoldenBache | @B2BEmailBook
/socalbma
/company/socalbma
/socalbma
/socalbma
Mastering the Driving Force
of Effective B2B Marketing
SoCalBMA.org •

Mastering the Driving Force of Effective B2B Marketing

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