How To Build An Effective B2B Marketing Strategy

Did you know that over 89% of marketers use email for lead generation? Since email generates 4,400% ROI, it’s a popular choice across all industries.

Moreover, it came before instant messaging apps and social media platforms. 

However, cracking this marketing channel isn’t easy. For starters, you need the right strategies and the best tactics.

Read on to find out the six steps to create a killer strategy using B2B email marketing services.  

Start With A Competitive Analysis 

Determining what will work with your customers is only possible when you study the market. B2B email marketing companies can start by analyzing the following two things.

• Competition: Find out more about your competitors
• USP: Figure out the unique value proposition of your company with respect to the competition 

Doing the aforementioned two steps will help you identify the market gap. Most importantly, it’ll mean your marketing messages target users with precision. 

Define Your Target Market And Buyer Personas 

Once you’ve got a feel of the industry, it’s time to define the companies that’ll buy from you. The more you know about the target audience, the better you can appeal to them. 

Take a look at the things to find out for a B2B audience:

• Age
• Gender
• Geographical location
• Income
• Interests
• Hobbies
• Problems and pain points 

Apart from the above, organize clients by types and find out if they’re identical to the target demographic of your competitors. Finally, you need to discover the places your audience hangs out and ways to connect with them. 

Unless you know all the above about your potential clients, you can’t strategize ways to make them buy from you. 

Set The Marketing Goals

The above two steps will help you lay the foundation for your strategy, but unless you set the right goals in this step, it’s hard to succeed ahead. 

Here’s a general outline of the goals you should set:

• Your strategy is reviewed by the sales department and aligns with the common goals
• Define a clear timeline such as goals for next week, month, year, five years, and so on 
• Measurable plans to keep a track of the progress you’re making 
• Advanced analytics to strategize every B2B marketing tool you’re using 

Segregate Your Customers Into Different Lists 

Subscribers read your messages only when it applies to them. Research shows that over 85% of subscribers believe that over 50% of emails they receive are useless. If this is also your problem, segmentation can help you out.

The following will help you segment your list of contacts. 

• Geographical location comprising the nationality, state, city, language, climate, and area 
• Demographics refer to age, sex, education, income, industry, social status, family, and job 
• Psychographics include interests, activities, opinions, concerns, values, and personalities  
• Behavioral traits such as advantages they’re looking for, purchase history, the motive of purchase, and so forth 

Moreover, open-rates will jump by 31% and CTRs by 100.95% when you segment the email subscribers. 

It’s important that you manage your lists regularly.

For starters, clean up your list periodically because email contacts depreciate by 22% annually. Most of it has to do with abandoned domains, organizational changes, lack of interest or engagement, and so on. Scrubbing the contact list is great for your sender score as well. On top of it, the same can prevent high-rates of unsubscribes and bounces. 

Personalize Your Emails 

Generic B2B email marketing templates no longer captivate readers. Personalizing your messages can help you bond better with the clients. 

Here’s what you must do:

• Collect more details: You need details about your B2B clients such as the name of the company or representative, location, and so forth
• Optimizing the subject line: Statistics show that over 47% of email users decide to open a mail by its subject line alone. That’s why personalizing this can drive the open rates by 50%. The trick is to split test your subject lines and the initial lines of the message regularly to determine the best choice every time 
• Size of the email: While 200 to 400 characters in messages record a 3.5% response rate, 1,400 to 1,500 characters can shoot it up by 8%. The trick is to refer to the preferences of the recipients when deciding the length of the message. Generally, short is better and 200 words is a good volume to start with 

Use Visual Elements Alongside A CTA 

Over two-third of email users say they prefer messages with pictures, over those without them. Moreover, marketing messages with one to three images record the best CTR. 

Marketers can start by using relevant real-life images, animations, GIFs, videos, and more in campaigns.

When it comes to the call-to-action, stick to one persuasive sentence or phrase per mail. Remember to use CTAs that demand low commitment so that you can use high-commitment copies on the landing pages. In short, push your clients to take one action at a time without fail. 

Bottom Line 

The first step for creating the best email marketing strategy for your B2B clients is to conduct a competitive analysis to identify the market gap. 

Next, determine the target audience and set your goals. Then, segment the contacts based on their location, psychographics, demographics, and behavioral traits.

You can now personalize the content using B2B email marketing tools. Finally, add pictures and graphics to improve engagement, conversions, and the success of your campaigns.