Email marketing is one of many ways B2B salespeople can reach prospects, nurture leads, and increase sales. Similar to social media where anyone can log in and start posting, anyone can send out a virtual newsletter and call it email marketing, but the chances of those campaigns being successful are slim to none.
These 3 B2B email marketing best practices are what distinguish successful email marketing programs from wannabes.
1) Campaign Testing
Sometimes one good guess can cause an increase in open rates, but more often than not, productive email programs that generate leads are the result of trial and error. Or in other words, continuous testing and re-testing.
What are the main elements of an email marketing campaign that you should be testing?
Good question. Here's what other successful email programs are doing.
The results of a study done by Pardot show that 58% of B2B marketers test to see what type of content results in the best click-through rates. 57% test for a correlation between subject lines and open rates, and 46% test to see how the time of day affects open rates.
2) Audience Segmentation
“Email blast” is a phrase that shouldn’t be in your vocabulary.
To see the best results from your program, you can’t be blasting out content to anyone and everyone. Audience segmentation is an absolute necessity if you want to reach prospects who are most likely to convert.
The different buckets you should split your audience into are up to you and your goals. Here are a few simple segmentation options to get you started.
- Geography
- Gender
- Organization type
- Job function
- Seniority level
- Content topic
- Interest level
- Education level
- Stage in the sales cycle
3) Preview Pane Optimization
Besides your headline, the preview pane—the first six lines in your email—is the most important real estate you have to work with.
Many companies will fill that space with company logos or headers that may or may not show up in a prospect’s inbox depending on his or her security settings.
You have to make sure those six lines pack a punch so memorable they’ll keep reading and (hopefully) click through to your webpage. If the preview pane isn’t any good, it’ll act more as a barrier than a doorway toward conversions.
If you start with these 3 best practices, you’re already on your way to reeling in more leads with your email program.
What other email marketing best practices have you learned over the years?