In today’s dynamic marketing environment email marketing has got a unique place as it is still  one of the most preferred tools to engage with your potential prospect.  Email marketing helps the organization build brand awareness, increase their engagement with the prospect and bring new leads for their business.

According to an interesting survey from Adoric, it is expected that 3.9 million people use email and the number is expected to reach 4.48 billion mark by 2024. That is a huge customer base to have and if utilized properly it could generate a lot of business opportunities, not only that! When we consider the ROI from email marketing, its estimated that every dollar that is spent on a good campaign can result $42 dollar in profits.

So, now that we have discussed how effective email marketing can be for your business the next question should be why not just start sending emails to the potential buyer’s. I would like to quote Seneca here.

“To the person who does not know where he wants to go there are no favorable winds.”

For the best use of any tool you need to have a robust strategy as it provides your efforts a direction and outlines all your action plans. Read on to know what are the strategies that you can use for B2B email marketing.

Let’s start with knowing the difference between B2B and B2C marketing strategies. 

Now you may think that B2B and B2C email marketing strategies are same but that’s not the same as: 

  • The target audience in B2B are other businesses whereas in B2C the potential customers are retail buyer’s.
  • As the target audience is different so the approach to engagement  with them should differ.
  • When drafting messages for B2C you are interacting with a single customer whereas in B2B your interaction is with basically everyone in the purchase  decision making process.

I would not go in detail about this as while i walk you through the strategies you would get a better idea about how your approach should be with the B2B target audience.

Before I move ahead with the strategies I would like to delight you with a fact that will motivate you to plan your email marketing strategies efficiently.

According to a report by Direct Marketing Association studying email marketing stats, it has an ROI as high as 4,300%.

5 awesome B2B email marketing strategies

So, here are your five impactful B2B email marketing strategies that should work for your growth. Let’s take a deep dive in them one by one.

Find who your potential prospect could be 

It is one of the most crucial steps as if you are right here the results would be exponentially increased. All your further efforts of engaging would not go to waste.

How to select your potential buyers?

Start by creating an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) first. Build a customer persona that has all the details about your potential buyers like their demographic, their interest, their role at the company and more. This will help you identify your potential prospect and what should be your approach towards them. 

Build an email list

After you have identified your potential, try to reach them and find their email address. Your website could help you with building your own email list, design a website that proves your legitimacy and include an opt-in email form. An easy to navigate interface will help you get more traffic to your site. SEO which refers to search engine optimization can help YouTube  websites rank higher in search results of search engines like google.

Create awareness of your product and services

Once you have built a good emailing list you have won half the war. Now you are free to use your skills to engage your prospect who might or might not buy your product. Way to do that are:

  • Send a welcome email where you give a brief about your brand and what are the further 
  • Activities your prospect should expect in future. Don’t start selling your product initially.
  • In B2B business the products of the company are not commonly used so you would want to educate your prospect about the product and services that your company offers.
  • Onboarding emails are the next step to move your prospect further in the pipeline. Share resources like blogs, newsletter, articles, educational video and more to create awareness about your product as well as your company.
  • Now this might sound simple but there is a catch here especially in B2B business. When you are dealing buyer’s in a B2B business you are not dealing with a single individual you are dealing with all the personnel who are involved in the purchase making decision.  
  • Segmentation is very essential here as it is one of the key factors that will decide the entry and sustainability of the prospect in your sales pipeline. 
  • Example: While your buyer is in the initial stage of the sales funnel, educating about the benefits of your product and why it is a good fit for them is important. As your buyer moves further, now you might deal with the actual user of the product so your email should have blogs about the usability of the product, further as the buyer moves into the sales pipeline you will encounter the personnel with the authority to buy. Here you should provide resources that focus on the ROI of the investment in your product and product pricing.  
  • This might sound a bit complex and close to impossible when you want to do it as a sale but automation can help you achieve this goal with efficiency. Use of sales engagement software can help you with segmentation and more to optimize your sales process.
  • Another key factor that decides the success of your email is the subject line. Subject line should be compelling enough that your prospect will open your emails. There is a fight for the limited attention span of your prospect as every email in his inbox wants to be read. You can win this war by writing a compelling subject line. I would suggest you make your subject line short and personalized. 
  • According to OptinMonster, Almost 33% of recipients open your email because of a catchy subject line and 69% will report an email as spam based on the subject line. I think that it is quite an interesting fact to take your subject line seriously.
  • There is no quick fix when it comes to writing a compelling subject line or email message, you have to get there with trial and error. With A/B testing you can know which email is working for you. Analyzing key metrics like open rate, click-through rate, bounce rate and more can help you with that.
  • It is observed that 87% of marketers say that data is an underutilized asset. With automation you can get key metrics so that you can make an informed decision and utilize your data to optimize your sales process.

Present your value proposition and customize your offerings

As your prospect moves further in the pipeline and approaches towards the deal closing, your approach should get more personalized. So that, you can close the deal. Closing the deal is the ultimate goal of all your time and efforts you put in the sales process.

Now that your prospect is aware about your product and services it’s time to propose to them your value proposition, keep them in loop and complete the sales cycle.

In B2B business your buyers generally give you good business but at the same time it is a lengthy process as there are many people involved in the decision making process and at the same time it is usually a big budget deal. Customize your offer according to your prospects’ needs. Be consistent with your follow up so that you can solve doubts of your prospect and keep them updated with the latest happenings in your company.

80% of buyers say “no” four times before accepting at the same time 92% of sales reps give up after four negative answers. I know you might think it’s easier said than done! But, here a good part you can move closer to you closing the deal with few more follow ups.

Two things to keep in mind that can help you especially in B2B business are:

  • Approach your buyers around the time when their organization is allocating their budget. 
  • Use sales methodologies to move your prospect further in your sales pipeline.

According to the Forbes human- to-human marketing and conversion optimization is amongst some of the emerging B2B marketing strategies.

Use automation for optimization of your sales process

Automation can increase the efficiency of your sales process. Things like personalization at scale, analysis of key metrics, reaching your prospect on multiple platforms and selling them your product are a lot of activities for an individual sales rep to attend. Amidst these activities your sales rep could get lost and this could affect your sales. Let automation do the administrative task so that your sales rep can focus on selling. Technology will never replace an extraordinary sales rep but technology in the hands of an awesome sales rep is transformational.

Conclusion

Above strategies will help you plan your email outreach and marketing strategy. While acquiring new leads can be beneficial for your organization but at the same time retention is also important for the sustainability of any organization. Don’t forget your buyers once you have closed the deal. Engage with them and enhance your relation with them as they are the one you trusted and your product.