10 Types of B2B Email Marketing Campaigns
Email is crucial element of digital marketing for every company that wants to get more engagement and leads which leads to more conversions and sales, but especially for those who own or manage a company specialising in business to business (B2B) sales or services.
Unlike business to consumer (B2C) relationships where an emotional connection with the buyer comes firmly into play, a B2B relationship depends on the goals that matter most to a business. This will be different for each company, but typically includes their budget, time, and resources. To convert a sale, they'll need to have a great customer experience with your company to convince them you're reputable and professional and know enough about their needs to truly be a benefit to them.
Email is one of the best marketing tools to establish this relationship of trust. It was shown in this marketing study that B2B email marketing is a significantly more effective way to acquire customers than social media, with a whopping 138% more spent by those who received email offers than those who do not. In addition, 13.6% of those surveyed by SalesCycle, indicate that marketing emails influence their purchase decisions.
An excellent B2B email marketing campaign can help guide your prospects to make their purchasing decision.
How B2B Marketing Emails Benefit Your Business
Emails should be an integral part of any marketing strategy for B2B companies. Savvy marketers understand just how important these emails are in a buyer's journey, moving someone from being a lead to a prospect, then on to becoming a customer.
Not only does sending creative and effective emails keep your audience engaged and offer a great customer experience, but it also helps to build your business in these ways:
Increases brand awareness
Establishes a reputation for expertise, creativity, and clarity
Allows you to capture leads and qualify prospects
Since emails are such an integral part of your brand experience for customers, your goal should be to create fantastic content marketing collateral to be delivered via email that will be interesting, relevant, and something that they will look forward to reading. Most importantly, your email marketing should reflect your brand's ethos, tone of voice and treat people as they would wish to be treated.
While creating an effective B2B content marketing and email marketing strategy can be challenging for any business, some tips can help you achieve success.
First, you must be aware that there are two main types of marketing emails: engagement and transactional. Here are the definition, concept, and examples of both types of B2B emails for effective marketing.
Engagement Emails – This type of email is more about branding, establishing rapport and telling your company's story versus trying to make a sale. The goal of engagement emails is to keep your subscribers interested and engaged, even when they're not in the market to buy. Ultimately, they will already be familiar and trusting of your company when it does come time to make a purchase, and you will be in a better position to get their business. Be creative with these engagement emails and be sure to add visuals or embed links to videos to hold their attention.
Transactional Emails - Transactional emails are explicitly created to make and close a sale. This type of email is based on transactions and experiences customers have had with your business. Transactional emails can also be used to send updates to customers about their orders, such as when they will be shipped, and are always automatically triggered by customer actions. Although they serve a different purpose, it’s still important to pay attention to email design and to have email templates that suit this type of communication.
To be successful, you should prepare to send out a variety of different types of marketing emails to engage customers and close the sale. An effective and strategic marketing plan will include a mix of emails intended to engage and some meant to close the deal.
A combination of both is a great idea to help ensure your brand message is consistent with each email communication and is also recognisable and trusted…and that your business is on their minds when they are ready to buy.
Great advice to follow no matter what type of email you are sending, is that even though you may be sending out a bulk email, you have to frame it as though it only has an audience of one. Consider how each prospect will receive it and how you can personalise it and make it more relevant. Our marketing automation platform is able to personalise emails by adjusting the text and images that each person receives, so whilst it feels to you as if you’re sending a large number of emails to an email list, each person has an experience that is personalised.
To ensure that emails are a valuable and valued element of your brand experience for customers, here are some additional tips to creating several different types of B2B emails to get the most from your email marketing campaign and increase sales.
10 Types of Effective Marketing Emails for B2B
Welcome Emails
Since this is the first email your subscribers will receive from your company once they have given you their email address, it is vital to make it one to remember. According to Experian, your company's subscribers are more likely to open and read your "Welcome" emails compared to any other kind of promotional emails with a whopping 57.8% open rate. Every "Welcome" email should contain a thank you for signing up, links for different ways to stay in touch, a call to action (CTA), and additional information about the product or service you offer. Providing people with a step-by-step guide to getting the most out of their new relationship with you can make people feel more welcome and also reduce the number of requests for basic support you get in the first few days.
White Papers, Helpful Tutorials and Tips
Sending instructive and educational marketing emails to help subscribers in a way that is uniquely relevant to your business is a great marketing idea. This allows customers to become familiar with your brand's products and services and will clearly show them how they can benefit by using your business to achieve a goal or solve an issue. Once they have learned something helpful from your company via a "how-to tutorial" video or a series of emails, they will trust your expertise and remember your brand when it's time to shop. Your contacts won’t be on your website every day, so it’s worth promoting relevant blog posts to them via email as well.
Brand Stories
Sharing a personal story about your brand or company is a great way to create a rapport with subscribers and give them a way to identify and connect with you. These marketing messages contain an opportunity for emotional connection as part of your brand experience for subscribers as you communicate something about your purpose or company culture that they can identify with.
Re-Engagement Emails
If you find that some of your email subscribers are not as engaged as others; you should endeavour to change that. A study by Return Path about re-engagement email marketing campaigns indicates that almost 12 percent of people who received them opened and read them. Regaining the attention of previously inactive subscribers and revitalising their engagement with your brand again is a potentially quick win. It doesn’t mean they were disinterested customers. Emails that contain a subject line indicating that the company misses you or wants you to come back are on the list of examples that work well and have received good open and response rates.
Shopping Cart Reminders
If your business has an online store for other business to shop for goods or services, it is crucial to be prepared to send a cart abandonment email. A potential customer receives this email when they have added items to their online shopping cart, but for some reason do not complete the purchase. According to this Baymard Institute study, the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is almost 70 percent, which means even achieving a percentage of these sales could significantly increase your profits. Your cart abandonment email should include a CTA and well-worded copy to remind them why they wanted the products in the beginning.
Customer Stories and case studies
Since these stories come from your existing customers, it helps give a real sense of community, social proof and builds brand credibility. Email subscribers feel that they can quickly identify with other customers and share their buyers' experiences. Sharing customer stories in your marketing emails and other content marketing efforts via visual mediums like video and photos is a great way to share the good news about your business.
Time-Sensitive Promotional Emails
Make them an offer they cannot refuse with a time-sensitive promotional email. A successful email will include an offer that is set to expire relatively quickly to persuade them to act now. The details can consist of a discount offer, exclusive time-limited deals, or to announce the limited availability of an item or service. Make sure the subject line makes the time-sensitivity of the email apparent to ensure it is opened as soon as possible.
Receipt Emails
Typically, online stores send customers an order confirmation or acknowledge the receipt of emails when an online transaction is complete. Including a coupon code for future purchases at this point can help you to maximise on sales. Also, be sure to take advantage of this email to reinforce your branding with customers.
Order Follow-ups
Take advantage of the time before the customer receives their online order from your company to communicate with them about order status and when they can expect it to ship and be delivered. Also, be sure to contact them to let them know it has arrived. Use this as another opportunity for branding, coupons for future purchases, and other information such as contact details for customer support.
Request Customer Reviews
Do not be afraid to request a review from satisfied customers to use on your website and online store, social media pages, and even third-party review sites. Testimonials establish social proof that your business is trustworthy, increase confidence among potential customers and can increase clickthrough rates.
Automation Helps To Manage Your B2B Email Marketing
Marketing automation is the perfect complement to your marketing team's talent to take your efforts to the next level. Working with dynamic lists and behavioural triggers can simplify and streamline your email marketing, giving you the tools to create campaigns and customer experiences that deliver results.
According to a 2018 Email Marketing and Marketing Automation Excellence study, marketing automation offers these benefits (and more) for your business.
Value of Marketing Automation
Time savings
Lead generation
Increase in revenue
Customer retention
Easy tracking and monitoring
Shortened sales cycle
When you focus on improving the customer experience, you achieve better results. Marketing automation is designed with this in mind, supporting and enhancing your marketing and sales functions and enabling them to deliver the information your prospects need at precisely the right moment. By increasing your understanding of your audience, you can capture leads and build a relationship based on relevant, useful, and entertaining emails that they want to open and read.