8 Types of B2B Marketing Emails That Will Jumpstart Your Next Campaign
With sales cycles that last months, or even years, lead generation is always a priority for small, growing B2B or professional service companies. But referrals have slowed down. It’s time to look at other marketing channels. Over the years, you’ve grown a decent sized email list for your business. But many of those contacts are cold and you’re too swamped with the day-to-day to devote energy to email marketing. Even when you can, where do you start?
Get inspired with these eight different types of B2B marketing emails, used to engage with target buyers, solicit feedback, and generate new business:
Email subscription confirmation
Welcome
Survey promotion
Weekly newsletter
Ungated content promotion
Gated content promotion
Hard offer
Live event registration
1. Email subscription confirmation
Goal: to verify an email as authentic and to “warm up” your sender reputation
KPIs: open rate, click-through rate
Confirming email subscriptions does a few things for your marketing. First, it verifies that you have a legit email that can be used to reach each subscriber. Second, when a user opens the email and clicks “verify subscription” it signals to the user’s email service provider that your sender address is trustworthy. This is known as warming up your sender reputation. Confirming your subscribers’ email address will also keep your email marketing platform free from fake email addresses—a good way to keep your marketing costs under control if your platform makes you pay per contact.
2. Welcome email
Goal: to provide a good first impression to new subscribers
KPIs: open rate, click through rate
When someone new subscribes to your newsletter or opts into email communications, you have an opportunity to make a good first impression. Welcome emails can also introduce your company and its products or services. They can also be used to gather important information from the recipient, such as their preferences or contact details. Overall, welcome emails help establish trust and build rapport with new business relationships, which can be crucial for long-term success in the B2B world.
3. Survey promotion email
Goal: get people to take a survey
KPIs: click-through rate, survey response rate
Using email to collect survey responses can be an effective way to gather valuable feedback and insights from your target audience. These types of emails explain the purpose of the survey and include a link to the survey. When creating these emails, be sure to include a clear subject line, a compelling reason for the recipient to take the survey, and expectations of how long the survey will take. Monitor results and consider sending reminder emails over time to increase response rates.
4. Weekly newsletter email
Goal: to add value to an audience
KPIs: open rate, click-through rate
Weekly newsletter emails provide subscribers with regular updates and information about a particular topic or organization. This could include news, events, product updates, or other relevant content. A weekly newsletter email is typically sent out on a consistent day of the week, such as every Monday or every Friday. The goal of a weekly newsletter email is to keep subscribers informed and engaged, and to foster a sense of community among subscribers. It can also be used as a way to promote products or services and drive conversions. Overall, weekly newsletter emails provide valuable content to subscribers and strengthen the relationship between the organization and its audience.
5. Un-gated content promo email
Goal: to get email subscribers to consume content like blogs, podcasts, or videos
KPIs: blog page views, podcast downloads, video views
Email can be used to drive traffic to ungated content assets like blog posts, podcast episodes, or specific videos, or other web pages. Especially if the content provides valuable information. This is a key part of content distribution. Driving traffic to a web page via email also helps build your website’s domain authority. This kind of quality traffic signals that your website is trustworthy and has expertise or is an authority on specific topics.
6. Gated content promo email
Goal: to gather more robust 1st party data via progressive profiling
KPIs: positive increase in subscriber profile completeness
Some marketers might argue that an email address is all you need to convert subscribers into leads and sales. But some organizations have very specific firmographic or demographic profiles that are good fits with their business. In these scenarios, you might need to build out the profiles of leads. Many marketing automation platforms today, like Pardot or HubSpot have the ability to build out the profiles of existing contacts—a practice known as progressive profiling.
Progressive profiling is a way for a company to learn more about its customers or clients over time. Imagine that you are playing a game where you have to answer questions to move to the next level. Each time you play the game, you have to answer a few more questions. Progressive profiling works in a similar way. When someone visits a website or fills out a form, the company asks for a few pieces of information. The next time the person visits the website or fills out a form, the company might ask for a few more pieces of information. This way, the company can learn more about the person little by little, like in a game. Progressive profiling can help a company better understand its customers or clients and provide them with more personalized experiences. This can be a useful digital marketing tool for industries like management consulting, who have long sales cycles and often hyper-targeted criteria for ideal client profiles.
7. Hard offer email
Goal: to get email subscribers to convert into customers, or agree to a sales conversation
KPIs: sales meeting requests, intro meetings booked, lead quality
A hard offer is a marketing tactic in which a company makes a direct and explicit request for a purchase or other action from a potential customer. A hard offer typically involves a clear call-to-action, such as "Buy now," "Sign up for a free trial," or "Contact us for more information." Hard offers are often used in direct marketing campaigns and are designed to be more persuasive than softer, more subtle marketing approaches. They are often used when a company wants to drive a specific action or achieve a specific result, such as making a sale or generating leads. Hard offers can be effective in certain situations, but they may not be as well-received by all audiences, as they can be perceived as pushy or aggressive. For this reason, you must balance hard offers with other emails containing more value to subscribers.
8. Live event registration email
Goal: to get email subscribers to register for a virtual or in-person event
KPIs: click-through rates, registration rate, event attendance
Industry events can be a valuable tool for B2B companies to connect with potential clients or partners, educate and inform their audience, and promote their products or services. Email marketing can be used to promote registration and attendance to these events. These emails can include information about the event, such as the date, location, and speaker list, as well as any incentives or discounts that are being offered. Reminder emails sent closer to the event date can encourage attendance and help boost registration numbers.
Get the most from your email marketing efforts
Investing in email is an efficient use of marketing dollars, especially if you have an existing database of email contacts. If you want to engage with the contacts you have, but don’t know how to get started, request a free consultation. I’ll review your digital profile and recommend areas to improve.
