B2B Email Marketing Best Practices for Conversions and Engagement

No matter how tough B2B email marketing gets these days, it is still one of the most effective ways to gain leads.

The only trouble is that there are way too many ways how carefully curated mail can end up in the trash bin. A small error in the subject line, the wrong tone, and a promising lead can go dead. You don’t want that.

Instead, you want methods designed to help you build trust that nudge your lead to take the desired action. What are those methods?

That’s what this guide is all about. We will look at some of the best B2B email marketing tips that can power up your sales strategy and help you hit your goals. Let’s jump in.

Contents

• 10 best practices for your email marketing strategy for B2B
• #1 Know your target customers and profile themo
• #2 Time for email personalization
• #3 Only focus on content that screams value in your B2B email campaigns
• #4 Create punchy subject lines that get your foot in the door
• #5 Make going through your emails an enjoyable experience
• #6 It’s also in the timing
• #7 Invest in the right tools
• #8 Use templates (they make life easier)
• #9 Unsubscribing should not be a complex process
• #10 Track everything…regularly
• Conclusion

10 best practices for your email marketing strategy for B2B

There is a lot of great advice out there, so it’s easy to get lost. But don’t worry! We have tested and compiled the most effective best practices for you. So, here they are — some of our top email marketing optimization tips:

#1 Know your target customers and profile them

You have to know your people to woo them successfully. Yes, we are using old-timey tips to talk about your email marketing promotion, but stay with us.

No matter how old-school this sounds, it’s one of the best ways to shoot your shot successfully using B2B email marketing strategies. But here is a thing — your customers will be made up of different people, so how do you get to know how to market to them all?

First, you gather all the strategic information you can about your target company’s buying center. This includes everyone from the executive guy who makes the call to the end users of your product or service.

You want to get a complete, composite picture of what they are like — age, behavior, preferences, pains, etc. You know, the kind of stuff you ask on the first date. Just kidding.

The goal behind this is that the more you know a person, the easier it becomes to think like them. This means you will understand what makes them buy.

Source: Zendesk

#2 Time for email personalization

So now you know your target customers better than their own mothers. What’s next? Well, you know, knowledge is power, and with great power comes….

That’s why your best bet is to put all that knowledge to good use — mainly crafting emails that don’t bore anyone to death. This is why personalization is a huge deal on any list of top B2B email marketing tips.

Personalization starts with segmentation. This means dividing your customers into groups based on the data from the previous step. Each group on your list will get a different version of your email tailored to match their needs in the right way.

Source: Dr. Gary Fox

For example, your top guy wants solutions that improve productivity. At the same time, your user wants to understand how the product makes their workflow easier. Understanding this helps you align with their needs and personalize your email to each person.

To further target your emails, you should:

• Use the recipient's first name.
• If there was any previous contact made, then slip that into your email — it could help make people more receptive to your ideas. But only do this if the last meeting was a positive one. You don’t want to do this if they had an unpleasant experience with you.
• Don’t talk about how your product or service can help them in vague ways. Be as clear as possible. Mention specific pain points and how your products can help solve them. You can even include examples, testimonials, and customer success stories,

Pro tip: Be sure to update your marketing B2B email list from time to time — people leave jobs, roles change, and this can affect your list.

#3 Only focus on content that screams value in your B2B email campaigns

Most professionals are busy people and likely get tons of emails every day. Yours really needs to be value-focused and include something special to be worth their time.

We know what you're thinking. What kind of content falls under this category? We've got a little handy list:

• Industry insights and hot trends (obviously);
• Case studies;
• How-to content;
• White papers;
• Free resources like templates, etc.

The point is to ensure that your content constantly provides solutions to a problem your customers could be facing. Keep them updated with the latest news and only share verifiable data that actually helps them.

Your content should never be another run-of-the-mill post out there just spouting off facts and numbers. It has to be unique, interesting, and memorable. That’s why there is nothing wrong with injecting a bit of your ideas and personality into them.

One more thing — keep your contents scannable.

Source: Really Good Emails

The most effective emails are usually not the longest. The busier people are, the less likely they are to skim through long emails.

So, make sure that every sentence online is packed with information that will get your readers to click that CTA. Of course, this means the B2B marketing email must match not just their interest but also where they are in the buyer journey.

There's no rule that all emails must be text-only and nothing but text. Feel free to add a visual, an infographic, or a video thumbnail with a play icon that leads the clicker to the actual video.

This has the potential to get you maximum engagement. Plus, it helps people remember your content longer.

#4 Create punchy subject lines that get your foot in the door

Knowing how to write catchy subject lines is the first basic skill you must master when learning about B2B email marketing best practices.

Chances are that you already know to keep your subject lines under 60 characters so that it’s seen. But there is more to a good subject line than just keeping it short and simple.

You need it to be inspiring or, at the very least, persuasive and interesting. Got some hard data to help sell your idea? Throw that in the subject line.

“Use this secret tip to cut costs by 39%” sounds better than “We help you cut costs.” Plus, it makes your offer clear from the jump.

Notice how we used active voice and action-oriented language? Yeah, you should do the same. A little urgency wouldn’t hurt either. You just need to not tip the scale into sensationalism.

Source: Word Stream

Besides, since you are on a first-name basis, it’s okay to use that in the subject line now and then. A little namedropping might also be the “magic” you need.

Of course, your emails actually have to deliver on the promises and claims made in the subject lines. Do that, and you’ll unlock a way to sell without selling — being likable and trustworthy.

One more thing: whatever you do, avoid words that trigger the spam filter. These include “act now, cash, fast, etc.” There’s also no need to make your subject all caps — that’s just rude at this point.

#5 Make going through your emails an enjoyable experience

Emails, like websites, need to be optimized to make reading them a pleasurable experience. For web pages, it might include alt text, slug SEO, and other optimization tactics, but for emails, it’s a bit different.

Imagine B2B email marketing campaigns where the copy isn’t only long but also too small to read and takes forever to load.

You probably would feel like you've wasted those precious seconds of time it took to take in the situation before sending it to the trash. You definitely don't want your target customers to have this reaction to your emails.

So, in addition to keeping your emails short, make sure the font is at least 15pt or more. This makes it easy for those on mobile devices to still read your text without stress.

Plus, try not to overload your emails with too many images and graphics. The images you do use need to be lightweight (ideally under 70 KB). Using that logic, background images are a no-no. You want your messages to load quickly.

Be sure to add alt text for your images, this helps every screen reader provide needed context for visually impaired recipients.

Now, there is one more thing we should address. Your CTA doesn't need to be a whole page. Sure, you don't want your recipients to miss it, but your CTA also doesn't have to scream at them.

Anything between 45-57 pixels is good enough to click. Make sure it's pretty, and the text is clear enough to avoid confusion.

Source: Really Good Emails

#6 It’s also in the timing

Sometimes, the key to a hit B2B email marketing campaign is timing. It’s better to send your emails at the right time. Imagine sending your messages to someone in a different time zone, and they get it at midnight. Exactly.

So, you have to consider not only the time zone differences but also their time schedules and even what day of the week it is. How do you figure out what the best time is? That is the easy part.

You can try sending out B2B marketing emails during the middle of the morning and at noon. Many people believe that lots of B2B prospects clear their inboxes earlier, so this time, they are more likely to see yours since their inbox is empty. Warning: results may differ. So, test your way through.

Send emails at different times of the day and observe which time seems to give you the best engagement rates.

Resist the urge to follow every advice online regarding the best time to send emails. Some are great, but your prospects may just respond better at a different moment. You have to experiment till you find what works best for you based on your timezone differences.

Finally, try not to flood anyone’s inbox with emails. Too much, and they might feel like you are spamming them (more on why this is bad later). Too few and they might lose interest before they get to the end of the sales funnel. One per week sounds just right (for most, at least).

#7 Invest in the right tools

A lot of the time, automation is the lifeblood of the email marketing optimization game. Imagine if you had to do follow-ups manually for each new lead! Not only would it limit your capacity, but you’d also waste money and time.

Automation solves that problem right away and allows you to expand easily. In the digital marketing world, there is a tool for almost everything.

There are tons of options that allow you to set up workflows for different stages of your process. Some are designed to help you find and verify already existing emails.

Then, you can use them to send out personalized emails to different customer segments at your scheduled times. From welcome emails to follow-ups, you decide what triggers the next message using some carefully selected filters.

Source: Reliable Soft

Simplifying your process with B2B email automation saves time and energy. After all, you get to start and manage campaigns, track performance, and more without too much manual effort.

#8 Use templates (they make life easier)

While we are on the topic of saving time and energy, now’s a really great time to talk about templates. Yes, it’s almost like there is a template out there in the wild for everything these days.

And this is a good thing, especially if you are looking to improve your B2B email marketing strategies. They can shave time off your routine and improve your productivity.

You can find pretty much any template for your emails. You will find everything from welcome emails and follow-ups to surveys and gated content emails. Websites like HubSpot and Zapier can be a great place to start if you have no idea where to look.

Source: HubSpot

It’ll take you some time to build a library of useful templates, but keep going. Don't forget to go for responsive templates, though.

Naturally, you will want to tweak them to fit your own unique needs. It wouldn’t do to just insert a business name and brand elements and call it a day. You also want to personalize each template to fit your own customer’s unique interests.

#9 Unsubscribing should not be a complex process

Do you know what happens when B2B email marketers try to reduce the number of people unsubscribing by hiding the “Unsubscribe” button? The recipients get frustrated and simply block, report, or send the email to the spam folder.

Once you get flagged, your reputation can take a hit, which means that fewer of your emails get delivered.

If enough people send your mail to the spam folder, email providers might decide to blacklist your domain entirely.

We don’t want that at all. So, put the unsubscribe button where it’s easy to see.

Source: Really Good Emails

Let's say you have done that, but now what’s next? Just a few more things to know.

For those in selected countries like Canada, the US, and the EU, the anti-spam laws require you to remove those email addresses from your mailing list. You want to check the compliance laws for your country to make sure you’re doing everything right.

Even better, go through your email list from time to time and remove the unresponsive addresses. Do the same for invalid and disengaged emails. A small but clean mailing list is far better for your deliverability and engagement rates than a bloated one.

#10 Track everything…regularly

This is like the golden rule of anything marketing, and B2B email marketing funnel strategies are no exception. Proper tracking helps you know when something is working as intended. You know, like all good marketing data should.

So, what if it’s looking good? You can celebrate your efforts paying off by finally opening that bottle of champagne you have been saving for ages.

Sometimes, though, the outcome of your B2B email campaigns won’t be what’s expected. Maybe the open rates, click-throughs, or conversions will be lower than expected. What’s then? Well, there’s no need to cry. It just means you need to tweak your strategy a bit.

Maybe your subject lines can do with a little makeover. Check your previous performance and see which types of emails got the most engagement. Then, study their subject lines and email body. Plus, don’t neglect A/B testing — it can do wonders.

Overall, tracking is this crucial because it can give you a strong context for what your customers like, and you can then adjust to fit that.

Conclusion

Creating the best email marketing strategy for B2B will not be a one-day process. Sometimes, you need to try out different things.

You will choose what works best for you and then discard what no longer does its job. Sounds like a long-term process, and it is. But this becomes easier the more you stick to it.

At the end of the day, the goal is not to send a trillion messages a day but to build real relationships with real people. This can only happen if your emails actually add tangible value to their lives.