As consumers, we receive a lot of emails every day, many of which we often disregard. If done correctly, newsletters offer an effective way to get your message across and encourage a call to action (CTA) from readers, for both B2B and B2C organisations.
As a well-established medium, emailers provide a cost-effective, targeted and analytical tool for all types of business. Even with the popularity and success rate of newsletters, many B2B organisations are still not maximising the potential of their email campaigns. The challenge for many businesses is in developing and carrying out a suitable strategy.
According to research from the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), a trade organisation focused on advancing direct marketing, the lack of strategy is the biggest challenge to successfully executing an email campaign. Inefficient internal processes and the limited content also rank as some of the major concerns within organisations.
Without an objective or strategy in place, organisations run the risk of creating emailers that are not targeted or even relevant to the audience. In fact, according to DMA, while 95% of marketers categorise email campaigns as ‘very important’ or ‘important’, only 9% say all their emails are relevant to their customers.
To address some of the main concerns, we highlight the following 5 steps B2B organisations can take to improve the success of their email campaigns:
- Identify the objective
The first step to a successful email campaign is to identify the objective of the emailer. The objective varies from organisation to organisation and could focus on engagement, sales, lead generation or brand awareness depending on what you want to achieve. It is up to the organisation to identify and cement the overall objective.
- Know your customer
Who is your audience and what do they want to see? This is where having an up-to-date mailing list with relevant contacts is key. The email campaign brings no value to the organisation if the mailing list it uses is full of bounce-backs and irrelevant contacts. Having a subscriber sign-up option on the website can be highly effective in achieving this.
- Be creative
The email campaigns need to catch the attention of the reader which doesn’t necessarily mean complicated designs and overbearing colour. Quite often the simplest design choices can be the best.
Taking advantage of new technologies in designing and delivering email campaigns can ensure the content is well-presented with complementing colours and images.
- Link it back to your business
It is also just as important to link the email back to the business. By enabling CTAs and linking content, you are giving your customers the touch points they need to your business.
- Chase the lead
Finally, chase the lead. Many newsletter management platforms offer an array of analytics including Click-through Rates (CTR), Open Rates and Bounce Rates. Using this data to follow up with the customers that have shown interest can bear fruit in achieving your objective.
We see many creative B2C email campaigns. Take BuzzFeed as an example. Its well-designed and entertaining content has millions of subscribers enjoying the weekly newsletters. As a B2B organisation, it is possible to take the same concept and apply it to your business strategy.
For a B2B organisation, email campaigns are one of the most valuable tools in your belt. Following these steps ensures that the content you create is fit for purpose and relevant to those that matter, your potential customers.
At Ilex, we develop email campaigns that work for you. We identify the message and develop the content to create multiple touch points for your business. We take the complexity out of the whole process. If you would like to learn more about how we make email campaigns work for you, please contact info@ilexcontent.com.
