While social media and LinkedIn get a lot of attention in the B2B space these days, email is still an extremely effective B2B marketing tool – a proven, cost-effective way to reach a large number of potential customers as well as hand-picked decision-makers in target firms. 

Whether you’re looking to target mass audiences or decision-makers like CEOs or HR managers, email marketing allows your business to deliver targeted messages to your audience, build relationships, and nurture leads over time – all at a fraction of the cost of most other methods of outreach.

Email allows your business to deliver personalized messages, tailor them to the needs and interests of your audience, and segment your contact lists to deliver more targeted content. Personalization and segmentation can increase open rates, click-through rates, and engagement with your brand.

Email marketing is also highly measurable, allowing your business to track and analyze results easily and affordably. Using the best in email marketing softwares and platforms, you can track open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, then use this data to optimize your campaigns and improve your overall strategy.

B2B email marketing can be an effective way to reach decision-makers at target firms. Still, whether your target is in the C-suite or the HR department, it can be challenging to cut through the noise and capture their attention. At LSC Marketing group, we’ve been using email as a major part of our outreach since the beginning, and in this article, we’ll explore some strategies for making contact with decision-makers at your target firms through email marketing.

First, we’ll list the steps to any email marketing campaign – whether you’re targeting a mass audience or handpicked individuals and groups of decision-makers like CEOs, CFOs and HR managers – and then give further details on each step to craft an impactful B2B campaign.

7 simple steps to any B2B email marketing campaign

  1. Research and define your target audience
  2. Craft compelling subject lines for every email
  3. Provide value in your emails
  4. Personalize your emails
  5. Use a clear call to action in every email
  6. Send follow-up emails strategically
  7. Test, measure, and optimize your campaigns

Now that we’ve listed these steps to a successful email marketing campaign, let’s dig deeper and examine specific priorities for B2B campaigns.

Research and define your target audience

Before you get into crafting your emails, you need to define who you’re going to send them to – your target audience. Who are the decision-makers you want to reach? What are their pain points and needs? What are their interests and priorities? You can use tools like LinkedIn and contacts from list brokers to research your target audience and build a profile of your ideal customer.

CEOs, CFOs, and HR department heads are all very different types of decision-makers, and they have different priorities, pain points, and preferences. Therefore, it’s crucial to understand what motivates each of these personas, and what their main challenges are.

Craft compelling subject lines for every email

Your subject line is the first thing your target audience will see when they receive your email. It needs to be compelling enough to convince them to open your email. Your subject line should be short, clear, and benefit-driven.

Avoid using generic or spammy subject lines such as “Buy now” or “Limited time offer.” Instead, try to personalize the subject line by using their name or company name. You can also use a question, a teaser, or a benefit-driven headline to grab their attention.

Provide value in your emails

Your email should provide value to your recipient. It could be a relevant industry report, a free trial of your product, or a helpful tip or insight. Make sure your email is relevant and valuable to your recipient and make sure your emails are concise and scannable – in any B2B campaign, showing that you value your target’s time is key.

The value you provide in your email must be tailored to your audience. For example, CEOs are usually focused on growth, innovation, and revenue, while CFOs are more concerned with financial performance, risk management, and cost reduction, and HR department heads are responsible for recruiting, training, and retaining employees as well as maintaining a positive company culture. Understanding these differences and addressing your targets’ needs and goals will help you create tailored email campaigns that provide value and resonate.

Personalize your emails

Personalization is critical when it comes to B2B email marketing campaigns. CEOs, CFOs, and HR department heads receive hundreds of emails every day, so it’s crucial to make your email stand out from the rest. 

Personalization is key to making your emails stand out in a crowded inbox. Address your recipient by name, mention their company or industry, and tailor your message to their specific needs and interests. Use data and insights from your CRM, marketing automation platform, and LinkedIn or other social media research to personalize your emails at scale.

Use a clear call to action in every email

Every email you send in your B2B campaigns should have a clearly-defined objective. You’re not looking for pen-pals – you want your target’s business to do business with your business in some way. Your CTAs should reflect your objectives and where your target is in the marketing process (or sales funnel, if you prefer that term.)

Business decision-makers like CEOs and HR department managers are not usually going to make split-second decisions based on a single email, so don’t go for the sale right away. If you’re just beginning the marketing process to a certain target or group of targets, consider inviting them to take a look at more in-depth information on the subject of your email, like a website article, ebook, or trade paper you’ve published, as your CTA. This will establish authority in your field and deepen their engagement with your brand.

Send follow-up emails strategically

Don’t expect a response from your target audience after the first email. It often takes several touchpoints to make a meaningful connection. Follow up strategically, using different channels, content, and messaging. But don’t be pushy or aggressive – respect your recipients’ time and preferences, and be patient with the process.

Test, measure, and optimize your campaigns

Testing and measuring your email marketing campaigns is crucial to understanding what works and what doesn’t – as well as next steps to take. There are several metrics that you can track, including open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates.

By analyzing these metrics, you can determine what elements of your email marketing campaigns are working well and what needs improvement. For example, if you have a low open rate, it could be because of a weak subject line or poor email deliverability. If you have a high click-through rate but low conversion rate, it could be because your landing page needs improvement.

On the other hand, if you are seeing that a target has a high rate of engagement with your emails and other content, it’s likely that you should be pursuing next steps and moving toward the big close.

The big close

We hope this brief primer on B2B email marketing strategy is of benefit to you and your business. At LSC Marketing Group, we have over 40 years of experience in all aspects of direct marketing, and we’ve been at the forefront of digital marketing since the rise of the modern internet. Whether you’re looking to get started in digital marketing, or just have some questions on how to improve your email marketing campaigns, contact us today. We’ll be happy to hear from you and to show you how our full suite of plug-and-play marketing solutions can take your business to the next level.