Before You Hit Send: 5 B2B Email Marketing Best Practices – Step 1

All brands, regardless of their size or geographic reach, face the same challenge: ensuring prospective customers know they exist and that former clients don’t forget them.

Social media, content, and influencer marketing have become essential methods for engaging an audience. However, in a marketplace flooded with sponsored posts, this strategy lacks the targeting precision of email marketing. Well-crafted email marketing sends the right messages to the right recipients at the moment they are most interested in receiving them. 

With more than 200 billion emails sent daily, it can be challenging to capture someone’s interest enough to open an unsolicited message. However, with the right strategy and execution, an integrated email marketing campaign continues to be a cost-effective option for generating quality leads. 

A five-step process that employs the right practices will enhance not only your open and click-through rates but also the overall success of your upcoming lead generation campaign.

Step One: Know Your Target

Begin by identifying a specific target market. The key to a successful email campaign is to aim for the center of the bullseye, ensuring your message gets seen. Otherwise, you risk landing in the trash bin.

Taking Aim

To identify your target audience, examine the titles of your previously converted prospects. Were they decision-makers? You might still end up working with subordinates, but you’ll want to focus your emails on both decision-makers and mid-level employees; it’s best to avoid junior and entry-level representatives. 

Note: if you aim too high—such as at a CIO or CFO—you might miss your target. Instead, focus on mid-level decision-makers.

How this Works

By evaluating the traits of each successful client relationship you’ve had, you’ll also be able to create a more effective persona for your campaigns. Understanding who you're addressing and what they need to hear from you to say "yes" allows you to replicate your success.

Understanding how companies in your target industry are structured can assist in identifying decision makers. However, the better you comprehend the subject matter—and the issues and challenges your targets face—the more relevant you can make your message. This also helps your target audience see you as the solution to the problems they are currently experiencing.

As you gain traction with resonate messaging, you’ll refine a process for repeating your success in other industries.

Buy vs. Rent

When it comes to prospect lists, leverage your CRM and internal resources by purchasing high-quality lists from reputable sources. Industry association lists are a great starting point. They are targeted and already include verified information about current employers and titles. Maintaining clean lists helps ensure you are communicating only with the individuals who need your service, which can prevent your messages from being mistaken for spam.

How do you know if you’ve been successful?

• Your open rate average is >10% for prospecting emails and >30% for customer emails
• Your click-through rate is 2-5% for prospecting emails and 5-10% for customer emails
• Unsubscriberates are <5% on the first email and <1% going forward
• Bounce rates under 1% are ideal, so using ZeroBounce is recommended to filter out potential bounces before sending your email. Services like HubSpot may block you from sending emails if your bounce rate exceeds 1%

About Innovaxis Marketing

Business owners and marketing leaders who want marketing to drive sustainable, double-digit revenue growth rely on Innovaxis. Let Innovaxis help you articulate your value to more of the people you serve by fully leveraging marketing strategy, brand storytelling, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing, marketing automation, and other B2B digital marketing agency services. Innovaxis will partner with you to increase your thought leadership, demand generation, and customer acquisition – often starting with a marketing audit and followed by the execution of a marketing program customized for your organization. Innovaxis custom marketing programs typically generate an ROI of 300-1,000%+ within the first 12-18 months – Innovaxis only grows if you grow. More: https://www.innovaxisinc.com