In this episode of Actionable Marketing In Minutes we discuss email marketing and whether or not it is still a valuable marketing platform.
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Problem:
Automation tools, SEO, programmatic advertising and predictive analytics have opened new frontiers in B2B marketing. In such a scenario, some businesses and marketers view email marketing as an outdated approach. Others think that email marketing cannot deal with the demands of the long B2B buying cycles as recipients are not likely to buy the instant you email them. So is it time to declare email marketing for B2B, dead? Or should businesses still concentrate on list building and other email marketing activities?
Solution:
Quite simply put, email marketing works! Almost everyone uses email and users can now check their email from anywhere on a variety of devices. Email marketing allows businesses to deliver their message directly to their target audience, with a significant return on investment. In fact, some studies show that email marketing is ahead of content marketing and SEO when it comes to closing B2B clients. Here are a few more reasons to say ‘YES’ to email marketing for B2B.
1. Creates lasting relationships
In B2B the goal is to build meaningful relationships with prospects. Receiving emails that deliver consistently appealing content in the form of useful advice, latest information, validated facts, reference cases, etc, can help draw prospects and customers in and make them feel more connected to your brand. Concentrate less on selling the product and more on delivering content aligned with the interests of the B2B recipient.
2. Increases brand awareness
Without email marketing, your business will be missing out on valuable opportunities to link up with prospects and customers and stay top of mind. Leveraging email and marketing automation through event-triggered email communication can help you touch your customers more frequently and in a more strategic fashion, based on their level of engagement.
3. Precision marketing platform
Dynamic email campaigns can be hyper-personalized and targeted down to an individual user level, which leads to higher open rates and clicks. With email marketing software it is possible to build email lists by segmenting prospects based on demographics, job titles, industries, behaviors and activities, while customers can be segmented based on purchase history, product owned and so on. Prospects and customers respond better to personal and focused messaging based on their behaviors and buying cycle.
4. Prompts action
Successful email marketing naturally prompts a response from readers such as reply, forward, click-through, etc. You can drive this impulse to react by including direct calls-to-action (CTAs) with specific action verbs and clear benefits in your messages. Try different forms of call-to-actions to see which converts the best and use those!
5. Highly Measurable
Email marketing campaigns present precise and objective metrics, including delivery rate, open rates, click-through rates and subscriber retention rates, among others. These value metrics also provide insights about customer behaviors and interests. You can use your email marketing campaign as a tool to evaluate your own performance and from there, make data-driven strategies about how and where to optimize.
Benefits:
Email marketing still works but it does take some finesse to get the recipient to open the email. If you want to unlock the full potential of email marketing, remember to include optimized subject lines, strong call to action language and relevant information for the recipient. With a well drafted B2B email marketing strategy and a strong message, your business is sure to benefit from email marketing.
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