B2B Email Marketing Best Practices: From Subject Lines to Segmentation Tips

Businesses that target and sell to other businesses are always looking for ways to amp up the volume of their services and products. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend every penny of your marketing budget to get more eyes on your organization. With the right techniques, email marketing can take you a long way.

B2B marketing tools are a specialty here at WebUp. Email marketing is often underrated, but this targeted marketing approach has an unbelievable ROI — up to $40 for every dollar spent.

Like anything in life, perfecting your email strategies takes time and tenacity, and it may require some trial and error. If you want to see the messages you put out there bear fruit, here are some email marketing best practices to maximize your efforts.

What is B2B email marketing?

Businesses in many industries cater exclusively to other organizations rather than end users — and they need goods and services too. Email is an excellent way to reach them. B2B email marketing is a powerful and adaptable tool that you can use to connect, inform, and spur action.

Simply put, email marketing bridges the gap between you and your customers, giving you direct access to something they look at regularly — their inbox.

What’s the difference between B2B and B2C email marketing?

Email marketing is not a one-size-fits-all solution. While B2B email campaigns share similar principles to B2C (business-to-consumer) efforts, there are critical distinctions.

Audience

Knowing your target audience is crucial. Where B2C emails appeal to everyday consumers, B2B email marketing is directed toward the decision-makers and other business professionals within organizations.

Tone and content

Most B2C emails are casual and attempt to evoke connection, emotion, or urgency in the reader by highlighting offers or discounts. In contrast, B2B emails should take on a more professional tone. They focus on elements like the following:

• Service information
• Solutions to unique pain points
• Industry insights
• Products that address challenges

Goals

Most B2C email marketing aims to drive engagement and boost sales. B2B campaigns want something with more longevity. These email efforts seek to foster relationships with other businesses while increasing brand awareness.

Though B2B emails ultimately still seek to generate leads and sales, the process is understood to be more lengthy and complex.

5 best practices to focus your B2B email marketing efforts

Now that you have a basic understanding of B2B email campaigns, it’s time to look at specific techniques for how you can utilize this highly targeted business strategy to increase the scale and scope of your marketing efforts.

1. Build your email list to target the right audience

One of your first hurdles is to grow your email marketing list. This is a list of email addresses from businesses requesting regular updates and information from your brand in their inbox.

While purchasing an email list or paying for leads may be tempting, don’t do it. This could cast your business in a bad light and make your company appear intrusive or spammy.

It’s far better to attain emails organically. Some of the best sources for business emails are:

• Client lists: These parties already have a stake in your business.

• High-value content: Tempt new subscribers by publishing educational or informative content, such as white papers, ebooks, or research material.

• Opt-in forms: Make sure your landing page and online content have engaging opt-in forms to incentivize staying in contact with your business.

• Webinars: While definitely a time investment, these one-time events can bring in a bounty of qualified users.

• Conferences: Take advantage of industry events to target different customer segments.

2. Understand your B2B email marketing goals

What do you want your B2B email campaign to accomplish? Before writing a single line, focus on concrete goals. Your main objectives should underpin your B2B email efforts.

While there are dozens of different marketing goals, here are a few that you could use to generate email marketing ideas:

• Lead generation
• Brand awareness
• Education and thought leadership
• Traffic
• Loyalty
• Product promotion
• Increased sales revenue

3. Grab attention with a masterful subject line

The inbox is a highly competitive space. Keep your email from getting lost in the shuffle by using a captivating subject line. A subject line is your first (and sometimes only) chance to grab the recipient’s attention, as it influences whether they will open and read your email or leave it untouched.

If you can get someone to open your emails, you’re well on your way to directly impacting your email marketing goals.

A masterful subject line:

• Captivates with curiosity and intrigue.
• Is short and to the point.
• Creates urgency.

4. Personalize through email segmentation

Segmentation is tailoring your email marketing to appeal to different segments of your target audience. When you understand your users and appeal to their needs, they are more likely to engage with your email efforts.

Everyone on your email marketing list fits into different categories. These classifications may be defined by factors such as the following:

• Past customers vs. new contacts
• Active vs. inactive contacts
• Roles or positions at their company
• Paths they used to join your email list
• Their position in the marketing funnel
• Unique interests in your business

By employing segmentation strategies for your B2B email list, you can improve your marketing campaign’s performance. After all, who can resist a timely email tailored to their unique interests and expectations?

5. Create a clear call to action

If all goes according to plan, your audience will receive your email, open it, and read it to the end. Now what?

A clear call to action gives your audience the next step. What do you want them to do? Read related content on your site? View your products? Request a quote? Make sure your CTA is clear, concise, and exact. Readers should have no questions as to what they should do next.

Let WebUp guide your B2B email marketing efforts

There’s an art to writing the perfect email — one that will capture your audience’s attention and move them to action. The expert team at WebUp can guide your B2B email marketing campaign in the right direction.

Contact us online to learn more about our email marketing services and speak with a strategist about your unique marketing goals.

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