11 Email Marketing Tips for 2019

According to Chief Marketer’s “2018 B2B Lead Gen Outlook” report, the top source of leads for B2B Marketers is Email Marketing. The report goes on to say that Email Marketing not only produces the most leads, but the highest ROI leads for B2B marketers.

Say what?!

That’s a bit surprising because a lot of the press about what’s important in marketing focuses on Content Marketing, SEO, AI, and Account Based Marketing – all worthy of attention, but as marketers we run the risk of losing sight of what’s working best because we are chasing the “next big thing”.

So, we thought it might be good to review some of latest tips and techniques for Email Marketing because it is still a very valuable tool in the marketing toolkit. So here goes nothing…

1. Have Clear Goals. Whether it’s Sales, Branding, Lead Generation, or List Building, having clear, quantifiable goals influences all the other aspects of the campaign. Direct marketing is all about seeing if you can improve upon past results. Having goals helps you measure success or failure and then adapt accordingly. As Yogi Berra said, “If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”
2. List. If you have all the prospect names you need in your marketing database, you are all set. However, if you are missing big chunks of your target market then you might need to purchase an email prospecting list. Be sure to check how frequently the list is updated and/or ask for a sample in a geography that you know so you can vet the list. And remember, it’s better to buy a smaller, more targeted list and email it several times than to buy a bigger list and only email it once. Repetition is important in any ad campaign.
3. “From” Line. Nothing identifies an email as “unsolicited” more than a From line that says info@ or sales@. Make it from a person – the salesperson whose territory it is or an executive in the company – anything but some generic functional title.
   
4. Subject. Just think about how you scan all the unsolicited emails that you receive and decide which ones to open. Something about that subject line has to speak to your needs, or pique your curiosity, or make you an offer you can’t refuse.
5. Body. There’s some research out there that says email “attention span” is increasing. Still the importance of the first few sentences cannot be overstated – starting with personalization. Then make sure that your copy delivers on the promise in your subject line, provides a clear and concise explanation of why you are reaching out to them, and then has compelling calls to action. The imagery and graphics you use need to support your message and convey a sense of who you are as a company.
6. Landing Page. More often than not, it’s a mistake to simply dump someone who clicks on your email onto the Home Page of your website. In fact, it’s recommended that you provide a custom landing page for each email blast that echoes the messaging in that email and guides the customer to the next step – a purchase, filling out a form to get a White Paper, registering for a webinar, or whatever it may be.
7. Marketing Automation. Underpinning your campaign should be a marketing automation platform that can not only help you get the message out but also track responses, track visits from prospects to your website, and enable trigger campaigns to Non-Opens, Opens, and Clicks.
8. Market Specific. You may sell to multiple markets and you may want them to buy the same products but the way that you speak to them, the terminology you use, the benefits you proffer, may be vastly different from one market to the next.
9. Frequency. How often should you email? The answer, unfortunately, is “It depends”. Generally, B2B marketing doesn’t tolerate the high frequency email campaigns that consumer marketing can. You don’t want to email so often that your prospects mark you as Spam, but you don’t want to email so infrequently that you leave the door open for your competition. It really depends upon your market and the frequency of the need for your products. If you are selling office supplies, you can email more frequently. If you’re selling something with a longer sales cycle - like capital equipment – you should email less frequently.
10. Test. The most important thing you can do in any direct marketing is test. Test Subject Lines, Lists, Body Copy, Offers, Frequency, etc. Build a winning Email Marketing Campaign and keep testing until you can beat it.
11. Opportunism. We had a client whose major competitor had supply issues because one of their factories had been damaged in a hurricane. We quickly fashioned a successful marketing campaign that targeted the competitor’s customers letting them know that our client had the products they need. The point is that, while you should have a schedule for your email marketing campaigns, don’t be afraid to change it to take advantage of an opportunity that presents itself.

If you would like some help in developing an email marketing strategy and executing it, please feel free to call SFA Marketing at (203) 255-1356. Or you can email our Director of Business Development, Tom Croarkin, at [email protected].