Checking your emails is an integral part of the day for many businesses, so it’s easy to see why it has always been such a popular medium for marketers, especially for B2B marketing. But what is email marketing and how does it work?

In short email marketing has become an indispensable part of the more complex B2B buying process; used to build relationships, gather valuable data on clients/prospects and result in increased sales.

But does email marketing still deserve a place in your businesses marketing strategy? Absolutely!

We have found our customers still prefer to use their email as their primary contact and like to receive marketing promotions and offers through email.

With the emergence of big data email marketers have a fantastic opportunity to deliver high impact, relevant content to the right target audience straight to their inbox, giving them exactly what they want, as well as using it as an important tool for gathering and analysing customer data sets.

As well as the ability for gather customer data rapidly, there are many other considerable benefits in using email marketing:

• • Cost effective- compared to many other marketing channels it can be very low cost, as there are no print costs or fees for advertising space.

• • Great for attracting new prospects- email marketing is great for drawing in new clients, as it can reach anywhere globally and can be targeted directly to the appropriate data sets.

• • Easily measured- with most email marketing software you will be able track open, click-through and conversation rates, which can be measured quickly to show you results, as well as be able to show you where your campaign is going wrong.
    
  • Easy to launch- they are quick and easy to create, can be sent out almost immediately, there is no need for huge teams to design them, simple campaigns can even be created on internal platforms, or of course you can outsource and use experts.

If you’re finding that your email marketing is falling short, maybe it’s time to incorporate some new strategies and popular trends in order to make the most out of this channel, as well as to be one step ahead of your competitors.

Email Personalisation and precise targeting

The days of batch and blast emails are over. This approach is often ineffective and will only reflect negatively on your marketing campaigns. Email recipients and potential prospects expect tailored messages targeting their tastes, preferences and previous content consumption habits. By targeting these buying habits or particular preferences, B2B marketers are much more likely to draw interest and interaction. A mere ‘Dear first name’ in the intro just won’t cut it anymore.

Interactive and animated content
Interactive and animated emails push for user engagement, and beside attracting readers attention and looking attractive, this interactivity can result in a higher click through rate, website traffic and business conversation.

The rise of the mobile era continues- two-thirds of emails are opened on mobile or tablets, and emails opened on Outlook are decreasing, yet only 17% of marketers are using email responsive design. As more and more people use mobile rather than their desktop for checking email it is essential that email marketing campaigns are not only mobile friendly, but are tailored for mobile viewing .

Beat social media
After it’s introduction to the marketing scene, social media had a period of domination as a new, fun way to interact with customers. However, social channels are now flooded and it’s hard to grab the same level of attention as before, with B2B marketers required to run more outlandish promotions via social media than they typically would via traditional methods.

Email marketing has proven to be a more effective channel for results, why not run the competitions, promotions, giveaways and personalised interactions typically associated with social via email, and reap the rewards?! If all social buttons are integrated with every piece of your email marketing campaigns too, you’re sure to increase your follower count.

Automation
Crafting heavily personalised emails when you have a large email database can simply be too difficult. Luckily, email automation allows you to send personal, yet automated messages to your customers based on their behaviour. As this becomes more necessary we can expect to see automation tools become more useful and marketers using them more creatively, integrating them with apps and products.

Email marketing is becoming more and more sophisticated – and with the advances in technology, it is more relevant today than ever before. If executed well, B2B marketers can utilise email marketing as the most profitable and effective channel.

If you are ready to start your journey with email marketing we suggest you start by opening up a Mailchimp account. Mailchimp is a Free online email marketing tool which comes packed with lots of cool free features including email marketing automation which makes running lead generation tasks a breeze. mailchimp.com

We hope you have learnt a lot from ‘What is email marketing and how does it work’ should you require assistance in helping with an email marketing strategy, then please then Get in touch.