Email for B2B

Reach new clients and maintain relationships

By Ed Weatherall, Managing Director, Concep.

Email marketing within B2B has some similar challenges to those in B2C but there are fundamental differences. Each organisation we deal with usually has their own IT infrastructure which means that delivery to inboxes can be unsuccessful in one organisation and not an issue in another. Email in B2B is much more of a support tool to the business rather than something that will drive people to a shopping basket to buy the latest Xbox game. The important thing to remember is that the individuals in B2B are worth a lot more to us and it is worth the time and effort to get our campaigns right. This chapter will help you, the marketer, understand how email works in B2B, what to look out for and how email can add value to your business relationships.

Why is B2B different to B2C?

• You’re dealing with much smaller databases of people than consumer marketing.

• It’s often non-transactional, so you need to give it a little more thought than just sending an email and waiting for the shopping basket figures to tot up.

• Your recipients representing businesses are probably spending a lot of money which is not theirs. This is often higher and more disposable than consumer spend.

• They are busy people with bursting inboxes. Within a business environment people have even less time than consumers to browse emails and the internet.

Objectives and strategy

You need to understand what you’re trying to achieve before you start putting your messages together and selecting the channel. Ask yourself:

• Am I set up for the reports and analytics I get back to refine future communications?

• Is email aligned with the other channels and touch points in my marketing mix?

• How many marketing messages can my different audiences (such as prospects, customers, stakeholders or staff) receive and how many will they tolerate/welcome?

Then see which channels you are likely to use throughout the year to deliver your different messages. Set out how you will monitor each channel so you can quickly see what is working (both alone and together). You’ll also need to ensure that all your channels are aligned. You don’t want to have different messages/creative/branding on your website, advertising and emails. This will only confuse your target audience.

When you’re putting your email strategy together you’ll need to separate ongoing and one-off communications. It’s good to plan regular communications as your audiences will get used to receiving relevant content at regular intervals. Members of your own business will also know when certain content is being sent and can plan their own communications around these.

Setting up your campaign: Data

By Saul Parry, EDR Agency

When setting up your campaign, there are two main options when it comes to data: you can build your own email list or you can rent a list from a reputable commercial supplier.

So how do you go about building an opted-in email list?

One way is to use your website to allow customers/prospects to subscribe to a company newsletter to receive announcements - for example, new products and services or late deals and the like. Alternatively you could ask them to opt-in verbally.

Offline you can gather emails simply by asking customers for their email address just as you would ask for a contact address or telephone number if you do not already have a database containing such details.

Whatever means you use to gather email addresses you must ensure that:

• The customer has given their permission to receive information by email from you – never send an email to someone who does not want it. Whilst for B2B this is not a legal requirement, it is best practice and ensures a more responsive list.

• The customer always has the option to unsubscribe/cancel i.e. not receive further emails.

• You disclose how you intend to use their information in a privacy policy which is easily accessible to the customer - for example, whether or not you intend to pass on their details to a third party.

• You do not abuse the permission granted by the customer. Signing up to receive a newsletter does not give a company the right to send all sorts of other communications such as mail shots for example.

You don’t alienate and annoy your customers with a deluge of daily/weekly emails. Newsletters can be monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly. Periodically asking people how often they wish to receive your newsletter is sensible.

The best list is going to be one you have built yourself but the other option is to purchase an email list from a reputable list broker or owner. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has launched a searchable directory on its website of its member list brokers/owners.

Tips when buying a commercial mailing list:

• Only buy opted-in lists.

• Only use reputable list brokers/owners.

• Check the source of the lists you are buying – how, when and where people signed up and what did they agree to receive.

• Be specific when selecting your lists in order to target your audience - for example by location, industry sector
• contact job function, number of computers and the like.

• Generally personal rather than generic (info@ etc) email addresses work better.

• Get telephone numbers as well - a follow up sales call will often uplift response by up to 20 per cent.

Setting up your campaign: Creative

By Richard Bush, Managing Director, BaseOneGroup

Text vs HTML

Will this email be Text or HTML format? Many believe that HTML is always best because it looks more professional but it isn’t that simple. Text can be used to great effect to communicate the personality and character of your brand. On the other hand, HTML has the advantage of aiding recognition.

The subject line

Often ignored, the subject is the single most important piece of copy. This single line usually determines whether your email gets opened at all and, like a good envelope message, it has the potential to raise expectations and positive feelings towards the content before it is viewed.

The best principle to follow is that the subject line should be direct, open and honest, rather than clever, intriguing or over-promising.

Design and layout

The principles for effective email design follow those for web design and it is wise to develop some elements of consistency between your email format and the website that users will click through to. However it is not enough to simply copy the website design; it needs to be adapted for email use:

Make the branding elements smaller

The use of the preview pane on email applications means that many people judge emails before opening them. To make this possible you need to reduce the space used by the logo and other branding elements so that at least some copy is visible in preview. Also, this means that text is often more important than images that will rarely download automatically.

Keep the file size small

Many corporate companies are reducing the size of personal mailboxes causing larger emails to bounce-back. Consult your designers and developers to use methods to reduce file sizes of the emails.

Keep images small

This is mainly to speed up the time taken before the mail is fully visible. It won’t really affect the file size but it does impact on usability and therefore effectiveness. All images should be accompanied with the appropriate text so that people viewing offline can still get the gist.

Design for print

Whilst not universally accepted, it is believed that a significant proportion of people print emails to read them at a later, more convenient, time or to show them to colleagues. To accommodate this you may need to reduce the page width. To be safe put critical information on the left hand side.

Some additional HTML tips

HTML emails will almost always be too long to read without using the scroll bar, so it’s important that there is some meaty content within the visible area.

Image blocking is default in most email clients, so ensure your email is not relying solely on the creative to drive interactions.

Once you’ve completed the design it is strongly recommended to test it on a variety of different email platforms and operating systems both online and offline.

What’s the point?

Whatever layout you use, make sure the content is focused on the objective - usually that will be to get as many people as possible to click through to an online area. You rarely tell the whole story or complete the sale in the email itself.

Make your message short and powerful. The more persuasive you are, the better the results.

Setting up your campaign: Delivery

This is the more technical part of email. Less than 10 per cent of organisations do not change their mail filters to allow relevant email messages through (Concep London), so it is important that your email and sender profile tick the boxes to ensure your email arrives.

Reputation

Every time you send an email from your domain it has an effect on your reputation. It is important that you monitor your reputation with the ISPs, if you are sending lots of emails you can quickly get blacklisted or see your delivery rates drop. You can do this yourself or it may be easier to use a company (Return Path, Bonded Sender, Goodmail) who will manage this for you. By working with them, your reputation can be enhanced.

Authentication

This is a question of where the email is coming from. With more and more fraudulent emails being sent it is important that your servers are configured correctly. Make sure you have the DNS records set up for the domain you are using and if possible set up Domain Keys and Sender ID.

Tracking

One of the biggest mistakes busy marketers make is thinking that once you have pushed the send button the campaign is done. WRONG. You are also able to track users if you have the correct processes in place. Using this tracking can be essential to gaining valuable information about your recipients and translating that back into something your business can use.

Views

How well received was your message by the market? If people aren’t reading it or passing it on to colleagues, maybe you need to change your tact, or stop going on about it.

Clicks and downloads

What particular topics are your recipients clicking through on? Is this a cross selling opportunity or do you have enough people for a round table discussion?

Undeliverable

Pass invalid records back to the data owners to ensure your business is looking after its most valuable asset.

Opt outs

Find out why people do not want to hear from you by email and ensure that they are getting relevant messages from you in the format they want.

Domains

Make sure your emails are being delivered to particular organisations and that your key clients make up a good proportion of your mailing list.

Resources

Emails Standards Project - (Creative)
DMA - (Data protection and benchmarking)
Marketing Sherpa - (General)
Email Marketing reports - (General)

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