Just like everyday brands and businesses, B2B operations need to take marketing seriously. Fortunately, B2B businesses can use all the same digital marketing strategies everyone else uses such as social media, traditional advertising, and email marketing.
The best SEO London agency explains that email marketing is one of the oldest and most effective ways to reach consumers for any type of business. Most people have at least 2-3 email addresses and understand how to use email, which is why email marketing is perfect to reach all types of audiences.
However, with more than 300 billion emails sent per day, there is heavy competition for the inbox. Therefore, understanding how email marketing works and how you should adapt it to your digital marketing strategy and industry is crucial.
What is B2B Marketing
B2B marketing, or business-to-business, is any strategy that focuses on selling products or services to another business. Like B2C marketing, or business-to-consumer, many of the functions are the same. There are B2B advertisements, consumer behaviors, best practices, and more.
Further, many businesses can function as a B2B and B2C operation. For instance, Dell sells computers directly to consumers through B2C marketing, but also sells to distributors and retailers like Currys and Walmart.
What Should B2B Marketing Strategies Focus On?
If your business is looking to implement a B2B email marketing campaign, it’s necessary to understand your goals. Unlike B2C marketing which is mainly focused on selling a product or service, the goals of B2B marketing can greatly differ since the B2B customer relationships are more complex.
For instance, B2C email marketing is more focused on entertaining consumers whereas B2B email marketing may be more informative or seek to form stronger partnerships rather than transactional relationships.
Before creating your email marketing campaign, determine what action you want the recipient to take. From there, you can start building your campaign.
Understand Your Audience
To become a highly effective email content creator, it’s important to understand your audience. Unlike B2C marketing where the customer is usually one individual, the customer for B2B marketing can be whole teams or companies. That is why many businesses hire content creation experts who know how to appeal to various stakeholders across different industries.
For example, if your company sells IT software, you’re likely going to create an email marketing campaign that speaks to the IT professionals in the business and focus on more technical content that speaks to them rather than including marketing or sales statistics. Therefore, the more you know about whom you’re sending your emails to, the more specialized you can make your email marketing campaign.
Why Does Email Work?
Email marketing is one of the oldest forms of digital marketing and is still one of the most effective ways to reach consumers. In fact, studies show that 54% of small businesses believe email marketing is their most powerful digital marketing tool for driving sales.
Email marketing works because most people have personal and professional email accounts they can be reached at. With the majority of businesses having made the digital transformation, email has become the standard of business communication compared to in-person meetings and phone calls.
Further, email marketing is relatively cheap compared to other types of marketing. Through email marketing, companies can reach large, targeted audiences for very little money.
Finally, emails are incredibly customizable and can be used for a wide range of purposes. For instance, many companies find success in sending out weekly or monthly newsletters to their existing clients to inform them of new products and services or educate them on industry topics. Additionally, emails can be used to inform clients about new deals, be entertaining, and encourage customers to do several activities like sign up for an event or fill out a survey.
Since emails are so cheap and customizable, they are often the favorite for creating effective B2B marketing content for small businesses that generally have a limited digital marketing budget. If you’re looking to increase your content creation activities and engage new and existing customers, email marketing is a great place to start.
How to Create a B2B Email Marketing Campaign
Putting all your goals and strategies into an email marketing campaign can be challenging. Here are some key factors digital marketing experts suggest businesses focus on.
Find an ESP that’s Right for You
Finding a good ESP, or email service provider, is important. Rather than manually sending out emails, ESPs allow businesses to automate certain processes and provide useful analytics so businesses can perfect their email marketing strategies moving forward.
ESPs can range in prices and capabilities, so make sure to find one that makes sense for your operation. For instance, Mail Chimp is a popular service amongst small businesses that provide extremely cheap options.
Understand Your Campaign Goals
Readers should clearly understand the purpose of your email. Is it to educate on a new product, drive sales for a promotion, or reach out to new clients? Whatever the purpose is, the email should be concise and focused on that singular goal. Too many goals and the email become too long to read and can hurt your conversion rates.
To help, start by creating your call-to-action (CTA). A good CTA will explicitly ask what you want your readers to do, such as subscribe to a membership, buy a product today, or fill out a survey.
Build Your Email Lists
Building your email lists is arguably the most important part of creating an email marketing campaign. Deciding who your target audience is will ultimately determine what your message looks like. Further, building a list with qualified leads is crucial to maximizing returns on your email marketing campaign. You don’t just want to send your emails to anyone, you want to reach people you believe will want your product or service.
Email Marketing is an Effective Digital Marketing Tool
When done properly, email marketing can achieve many goals of any digital marketing team. It can educate buyers, engage new customers, and encourage readers to perform a number of actions. No matter the size of your business or the industry you operate in, email marketing should be part of your digital marketing strategy.
