Oddly enough, it is very common to find marketing emails that must be prepared and do not fulfil their essential purpose, even with serious writing problems. It is a defect that usually manifests itself in brands not used to working in day-to-day marketing and is even more magnified in those of the industrial sector.
Industrial marketing or B2B ( business-to-business) is focused on attracting professional buyers who need a special type of communication and content specially designed to attract them. Even though it seems minor, email marketing is a highly effective tool, with the newsletter as the star content for industrial, engineering, or technical profiles. Their influence is such that 43% of industrial engineers tend to open most or all of the newsletters to which they are subscribed and review their content.
With the data on the table, there is a better time for companies to waste resources and effort in designing an email marketing strategy. Above all, they must reflect on preparing the content they offer. Do you need advice? The best way to create effective marketing emails is to follow this simple set of recommendations.
1. Work your database and segment according to the type of public
All emails have a specific audience, including those that can become more generic. A well-worked segmentation can make your messages reach deeper and reach the recipients interested in them.
Nowadays, a list of contacts can be managed and filtered by any email manager; however, in the face of problems that may arise in the delivery capacity of your contacts’ inboxes, it is advisable to use specialized tools for email marketing.
In this platform, you can have a group of lists based on the established filters. In turn, it can be complemented with the automation of the emails themselves to save time in repetitive processes. For example, new customers will directly receive a welcome email.
When creating an effective database, you must ensure that users have given their prior permission to receive your commercial information and that it is not labelled as spam. It is a very sensitive issue that ends up showing suspicion and doubts in the recipient regarding your brand, especially if you violate the data protection and anti-spam laws that apply in most European countries.
Also Read: 5 Mistakes To Avoid In Cold Emails For A Better CTR
2. Personalize your emails to engage the reader
The mail cannot be a means of cold capture; it must establish trust and create a link with the recipient. In this way, it is recommended that the email look close, with normal language without too formal resources or falling into absolute informality.
The origin of the email also plays an important role in opening it since it will always be more reliable for an email to be sent in the name of a real person than a company. And if, in addition, you are part of the sales team and know the recipient himself, the chances that the email will be opened increase considerably.
The personalization of the subject and the body of the email is key to attracting the attention of the receiving public. Don’t worry; all email marketing platforms currently have personalization tags that automate the personal name, email, company, and a list of characteristics of each individual, always based on the information you have in your database. For example, we are all used to seeing it in the greetings or introductions with which the emails begin.
3. Set realistic expectations in your email subject
Among the many errors made in email marketing, one of the most serious that you can make is not getting the recipient hooked on your email and that it is completely inconsequential. Faced with this situation, the first thing to do is focus on the email’s subject and generate expectations towards it.
You must compete daily with many email accounts that bombard the average user. Therefore, you must be attractive and direct enough to convince him to read that email. In turn, what you express first must be truthful and not promote clickbait, which leads to disappointment and false expectations.
To get attention, you can ask a question, exclamation point, or other types of best practice that gives the recipient a first glimpse of what they will find and why it is something they should open and read. Instead, it is better to refrain from using certain words, such as “Free,” because anti spam filters penalize the use of these types of terms, considering them linked to promotional emails.
4. Avoid the sense of commerciality
Linked to the two previous points, a marketing email should do without an excessively commercial tone as far as possible, even though this is the ultimate goal of any company.
First of all, the email must respond in some way to the doubts raised by your lead or possible client to better add value and avoid excessive anxiety by going directly to a sales pitch.
The key to email marketing is to keep a flow of communication flowing and not to abruptly close or end the interaction. The use of “No respond/Do not reply” is a fairly common detail in sales emails, but very annoying for recipients because it gives them the feeling that you do not consider their opinions.
Also Read: Why And How To Implement A Marketing Automation Strategy
5. Share quality content from your company
Email marketing revolves around the quality of the message, which is why previously (in point 3), we recommend that you write an impressive subject line that is faithful to the content of the email. However, everything will fall under its weight if you do not unite it with the company’s content strategy.
In the same message, you can share various educational and informative materials from your brand so that recipients can expand their knowledge and make sound purchasing decisions, whether they are success stories, downloadable guides, blog posts, etc. These contents will be suggested according to the lead’s profile, previously segmented, and included in a specific group of recipients.
This practice of accompanying leads throughout the purchasing process through content loyalty is known as “lead nurturing,” a fundamental step in inbound marketing. This commercial methodology attracts new customers with valuable content, and it is highly recommended for companies with long-term business cycles, such as B2B companies.
6. Optimize templates for a good user experience
The visual effect of your email will lead to greater interaction among recipients. The best way to achieve this is to choose an appropriate email template that helps highlight the message you want to convey.
Currently, most email marketing platforms have infinite template models adaptable to the brand’s image or at least with the possibility of building the template you want yourself. They are very simple builders and easy to use for any user without prior knowledge. Within them, you can easily add a call to action or CTA (Call to Action), which guides the reader to the content that interests us—for example, download buttons for a technical sheet or access to a corporate video.
Whichever template you use, it’s best to use design elements that make the content easy to understand quickly: bold headlines, a main image, short paragraphs, and that prominent call-to-action.
Suppose your recipients are unhappy with the emails you send them. In that case, the best thing to do is include the possibility of unsubscribing through an “Unsubscribe” button that is visible to the user, usually at the bottom of the mail. In turn, some people prefer to read an email as a web page (in the browser) and thus avoid the limitations of certain email managers. For this reason, a link “Web version / View in browser” is usually added that allows them to view the email in their default browser.
Optimize your mailing template for mobile devices to create effective marketing emails. Not taking this matter into account can be very negative for the brand since a good adaptation to mobile generates 24% more clicks on emails. Although it sounds complex, email marketing managers have “responsive” designs or adapted to multiple devices that avoid their design from scratch.
7. Review and test
It may seem like a minor issue, but a timely review of all mail before sending can save you from any unforeseen errors or overlooked details. Email marketing tools allow you to send text messages to see how the final recipient will receive them.
In addition, it is also possible to optimize the results of a campaign through A/B tests, which allow you to test different alternatives to find out if any element included in the email can mean an improvement in the number of openings and the percentage of clicks.
8. Check the operation of the campaign
Finally, the work is still ongoing once the mail has been sent, but the performance of the entire process must be checked to improve the performance of future shipments.
Email marketing tools allow you to follow and analyze different statistics, whether they are email openings, clicks, or bounces, to find out what works and what doesn’t to improve weak points in the future.
Following all these tips, it is likely that you are already prepared to create effective marketing emails that increase your company’s credibility.
Also Read: How To Send Email Marketing Campaigns Through Gmail