B2B Email Marketing is still considered a very effective marketing approach when creating a buzz about your company, product, or services. When planning any B2B email marketing campaign, several considerations need to be addressed.

Without a Vision, Campaigns Perish

Any successful campaign needs to have a well thought plan of action. What are the goals of your campaign?
· What businesses are you targeting?
· Who is your audience?
· Do you know your competitors, what they are they doing, and why they are successful?

Direct email targeting is effective. When specializing in a type of industry or product, you will need to look at the types of businesses, their size, and their location. Think of a business as a prospect with its own unique characteristics and demographics. You cannot send out the right messages and offers to those people who will not benefit from its purchase. Taking the time to research your perfect audience will bring a guaranteed return on your investment.

Use your competitors’ knowledge for your own advantage. Your competitors, like all other marketers, are using social media tools for their power and effectiveness. Get on their websites, blogs, and forums. See what they are talking about – what issues they deem important. If your product or service is not considered a type of specialized niche, you will have to see what gaps are in your competitors’ products or services, an area that you can fill, an area that may be unrecognized and neglected. Utilize your email marketing campaigns to distinguish yourself from the crowd, beyond the act of pure competitiveness.

· Do you have the right resources?
· Have you built a solid email database list of interested prospects?
· What is your bait? – What is your hook?

Every strategy and marketing mix needs the right foundation. What are your available resources? Do they fit your marketing mix and strategies? One of the most important foundations for any business, service, or campaign is your in-house database lists. Every email marketing campaign needs a starting point of reference. Client lists, newsletter subscribers, and prospects, that have opted-in, or have expressed a genuine interest in furthering their knowledge of your company, is worth more than gold.

Build your e-campaigns on specific demographics and behavioral statistics. Every response and outcome of your email marketing campaigns is another step and opportunity to closing the gap between you and your recipients, as you collect the data needed to build accurate and specific behavioral patterns. That type of data can only be obtained with the help of good email campaign software; which enables you to track every campaign from start to finish. Smart marketers adapt their campaigns according to the facts and stats they receive. People are not the same, and their lives are constantly changing. Many people marry; move, change jobs, and have children. Life changes paralleling new priorities and different needs. Information and services that may have been relevant and meaningful before may not be anymore. Make sure you are maintaining an accurate database, applying the appropriate updates and changes. Having too many of your email campaigns returned, bounced, or trashed, can unfortunately lead to the label of spamming, culminating in unwanted results.

A call to action must be compelling. How will they benefit from clicking on your call to action? Offering free rewards is effective. Giving away eBooks on relevant topics of interest, free software, newsletter subscriptions with coupons, anything, and everything that you are convinced is meeting some relevant need. That is why you need your campaign results to guide you. Finding out what people want, is always the key. Be consistent in providing value at all times. It is your prospect’s perception and opinion not yours, that you need to address.

Make it Simple, Easy, and Worthwhile to Know You

Whether joining your newsletter, watching your video, or clicking on your call to action, make it easy for your prospects to find you and communicate with you.

· Your call to action needs to be clear, precise, and easy to follow.
· Your signup page should be visible, not overwhelming them loads of personal questions.
· Always have a recognized name and company in the sender’s address box. No one today opens unrecognized email.
· Make it easy for them to unsubscribe, do not hold prisoners.
· Your landing or squeeze page should always match your email campaign’s call to action. Do not leave them wondering what you are talking about, or where they should click.
· Your recipients should be able to contact you. Have a clearly defined contact link within your campaign.
· Your content must be engaging. Relevant information should be in the very first paragraph. Few people read an entire email campaign.
· Monitor inactivity as well as activity. Knowing why people unsubscribe is vital when looking to audit your own campaign strategies and presentation.

Email Marketing – Nurturing Client Loyalty

It is a fact that it is easier and more cost-effective to get repeat sales from loyal clients, than to pursue new prospects. A business is not built on impulse purchases. It is constructed and developed with loyal clients – repeat buys, and viral campaigns stemming from compliments and satisfaction. Household names do not happen overnight, nor are they obtained from quick sales schemes.

As you climb up a ladder systematically, step-by-step, to reach a destination, you must climb the ladder to success in much the same way. As no one wants to fall off a ladder, no marketer wants to invest in campaigns that are not built from the right foundation.

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