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Email supplement
≤ For more on email marketing go to www.b2bm.biz/digital
send white papers and establish thought
“Too often marketers send out emails to
leadership so that when a buyer is looking
for a supplier you are front of mind, not customers with no explanation of why, or
for having sent irrelevant, irritating
emails, but for having given that buyer
what they expect the recipient to do with
something he or she truly valued.” it. It’s far better to treat it like a face-to-face
Integration is key
meeting. Begin by introducing yourself,
Weatherall also believes that, when it
explaining who you are, what you do, and
comes to B2B prospecting, there is a
great opportunity to link email to
why you’re contacting them”
telemarketing. He says, “Some of the most
Edward Weatherall, MD, Concep
powerful new business campaigns we
have run for our clients have begun with a important today, it is good practice to simply deleting or ignoring the emails.”
call to introduce the emails, then a series limit the message size to 40-50KB.” He believes that in the future we will see
of well-written, highly-targeted and timely B2B marketers taking a more sophisticated
white papers, followed up by a call with Brand, not sales approach to email marketing. “It will
an invitation to a face-to-face meeting or There will doubtless be other become less a medium for delivering price-
a round table event.” technological innovations and new ways based offers, and more a technique for
Furthermore, B2B marketers can do of adding yet more bells and whistles onto driving people to other environments, both
much more than they currently do to link emails. However, none of them will have online and offline, where they can access
email marketing into other online activity. any value unless you observe those three high quality content.”
Neil Morgan, EMEA VP for channels and fundamentals: use accurate data, build a In most cases, in B2B marketing, the
marketing at Omniture, says, “The most relationship, and provide valuable quality of content is not a function of the
important thing to understand is how your content. Fail to observe them and you will technology used, but of the ideas and
email marketing activity affects your soon find that your campaign suffers from information conveyed. That is where brand
other online activity. Do you see a spike in low response rates. supremacy truly lies for the vast majority of
search traffic following an email Weatherall says, “Many B2B marketers B2B marketers. That is where email
campaign? Is your email campaign think they’re doing well with their email becomes a key component in a long-term
influencing the behaviour of customers on campaigns because they’ve got low opt- brand-building strategy.
your site? Does it reflect what customers out rates. However, they’re not taking For many organisations it will be too
are looking for on your site? One of the account of the silent opt-outs. They’ve great a leap from viewing email as a cheap
biggest opportunities to use email probably got their data right – most way of boosting next week’s sales. However,
marketing this year is to integrate serious players in the industry have these for those who do manage to realise the full
it with the intelligence you get from days – but they’re probably sending low potential of this medium, the rewards will
web analytics.” quality content, and so recipients are be enormous.
Image is everything
Predictions vary on how email will
Top tips
develop as a B2B marketing tool. For
1. Be consistent. Make sure you have prepared a pre-approved set of email templates that
some the increasing possibility of
ensure brand control and brand consistency across all email and other communications.
integrating video into email is an exciting
new step forward. However it is fraught
2. Ensure key messages are visibile. Incorporate key messaging, and a good mix of text and
with difficulties. Alan Green, MD at
images ‘above the fold’ to counter the effects of image blocking.
agency Brand UK, says, “Most ISPs and
3. Have a prominent call to action. Place it in a link rather than in an image which could very
anti-spam systems still see video content
easily be blocked.
as potentially dangerous, even if the
4. Cater for recipients preferences. Consider the different circumstances and preferences of your
recipient has opted in to receive the
recipients. How they would like to receive the email? HTML, web, plain text, print friendly, PDF?
emails. The most effective way to embed a
5. Use a different domain. Rather than send marketing messages from your day-to-day email
video into email is to take a suitable frame
domain, it is advisable to send marketing messages from a different domain name.
from the video, overlay a ‘play’ button so
recipients will click on it to see what
6. Grab readers’ attention. Use a subject line that reflects the content of the email.
happens, embed the image in your email
7. Personalise the email as much as you can. This goes beyond just using the recipient’s name.
and link the image to your online hosted
You could refer to recent events, mutual contacts, etc. Make sure you take every opportunity to
video.”
find out more about your recipients and then use that information in your copy.
Green adds, “Image blocking is a key
8. Enable opt-outs. Offer a clear, straightforward opt-out/unsubscribe option.
issue with the latest versions of Outlook
and other proprietary inbox systems. The
9. Offer choice. In your online subscription form offer more options than simply ‘unsubscribe’.
‘above the fold’ content is key, as is
Give recipients the opportunity of receiving alternative content, or reducing/increasing the
combining text with images, to ensure
regularity of emails.
clear message impact with or without 10. Offer value. Provide recipients with content that they will value and that will help to boost their
images. And while message size isn't as perception of your brand.
B2BM JUNE 08 – www.b2bm.biz
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