9 Tactics to Create More ‘Must-Read’ B2B Newsletters
B2B businesses understand the value of a smart and properly executed digital marketing strategy, especially when it involves email communication. To prove this statement, let me show you the proof:
- It’s been said that 86% of business professionals choose email communication over any other type of channel when they discuss any business related topics.
- The CTR of B2B email campaigns is 47% higher than the CTR of B2C email campaigns.
- 59% of B2B marketers suggest that email marketing is their best performing strategy in terms of revenue performance.
From developing integrations to strategic support, from creating creative concepts to optimizing results.
There you have it…the reason why B2B newsletters are a significant business booster and the reason why you should immediately step up your game and begin crafting super-performing newsletters for your B2B audience.
To improve your marketing results, you’ll need two important things: knowledge and action. In today’s post, I’m giving you the insights, the ideas, the “methods”, but you have to implement them using your own twists. Every email newsletter is unique, especially in the B2B field.
Pay attention, take notes, and apply.
The Purpose of a B2B Newsletter
Before we start discussing tips and tricks, let’s quickly reassess the main purpose of our B2B newsletters.
Unlike the B2C newsletters, which often involve persuasive copy, intense promotions, and conversion-driven marketing, the B2B newsletters’ purpose is to help the brand develop and nurture a harmonious relationship with the subscribers, a.k.a. the prospects and clients.
An effective B2B newsletter can have the following sub-objectives:
- Attract the attention of potential clients
- Help the already interested prospects to advance on the sales funnel
- Build rapport with prospects and customers to encourage them to come back again
- Improve your brand’s reputation by becoming an authority figure in the niche
- Raise the odds of stumbling upon amazing opportunities, both personal and professional
Of course, you can have all theseobjectives at once, but please don’t try to focus on all of them at once. Takeit step-by-step!
Let’s move on to our main topic and discussseveral important tactics that shall help you create an amazing newsletter that will convert and sell like hotcakes.
1. Get to Know Your Audience’s Needs and Problems
As I’ve already mentioned, the purpose of a B2B email campaign is mostly about improving your brand’s reputation and trust by using brand-to-customer rapport techniques like storytelling, educational content. Generally, your newsletter must offer useful information or services that your target audience might find appealing.
The main keyword here is “target audience”. After all, business is all about value exchange, so if you expect any promising results, you’ll need to be truly relevant.
Start asking yourself the following questions:
- How doyour prospects think?
- What dothey want the most?
- What dothey consider a “win” in a situation?
- What aretheir most pressing needs?
- What aretheir biggest personal and professional challenges?
- What aretheir beliefs concerning X, Y, and Z subject?
- What woulddraw their attention/respect/curiosity/compassion/empathy/etc.?
Get to know your audience well before youstart developing an automated newsletter that’ll serve as your maincommunication tool for the future.
2. Acknowledge the Fact that Time Matters
The timing of your email updates is asignificant factor that you must pay attention to. There are two importantthings you need to consider.
First, the frequency of your emails. How many times will you get in touch with your email subscribers? Once a week? Twice? Think like your audience thinks and try to find the answer.
Second, the hour of your email delivery is very important. Generally, business professionals mostly check their emails during early mornings and while they’re at work, though that depends on each person’s schedule and habits. There are usually several factors you must consider, so do your homework well.
Here are the most days to send emails, according to a scientific report that Mailchimp has published very recently.
3. Improve Your Headlines to Improve Your Open Rates
The email list of a B2B professional is often bombarded with all sorts of emails, from promotional to work-related ones.
If you want to be remarked, you’ll need to create remarkable headlines. If you analyze and assess the keywords that will have the most impact on your prospects’ subconscious, you’ll make them click every time. Of course, that means that you have a great understanding of their mindset and thinking.
Also, think about what attracts your B2B subscriber. Most of the times, the general B2B prospect seeks to learn new information and skills, seeks to discover fresh news, and chases opportunities.
4. Ditch the Selling and Start Educating
The B2B industry is very different than the B2C industry. The majority of people you’ll be reaching will be either educated, responsible, and perhaps bound to certain limitations and rules. Therefore, trying to go the “transactional way”, which is trying to obtain quick wins, will not help you improve your B2B email newsletter performance.
Ditch the selling and start providing real value in the form of educational information. Your B2B clients are happy to learn new useful things and discover fresh opportunities. If you can link your brand to these opportunities, even better.
However, you should focus on being helpful,useful, and relevant. The impression you make matters the most, as it’ll opennew doors and opportunities now and in the future.
5. Keep Your Mails Simple, Short, and Relevant
Simple, short, and relevant. How hard canit be?
Remember that nobody has time to read 1000 words every time you email them. Eventually, they’ll skip your content once. Then twice. And then, they’ll stop reading at all because you left them with a negative impression which says, “too long/too boring/too much/too irrelevant, too time-consuming”.
“Use visuals to skip explanations, go straight to the main topic, cut all the unnecessary words, and keep it all clean and readable.” – Mark Cubic, Digital marketing strategist at A-writer.com.
6. Keep the Content Quality Standards Critically High
Regardless of your email topics, target audience, or anything else, you must keep in mind that your content is the most important component in the entire equation.
People love good content because it makes them smarter and helps them feel better. It also provides good opportunities and ideas that can prove to be fruitful if properly applied.
Therefore, respect your brand’s image and your prospect’s time and improve the quality of your content. Very often, it’s quite advisable to approach professional writers, editors, or proofreaders to skyrocket the quality of your copy.
If you ask me, a paper writing service or an assignment help service is probably the best option that’ll connect you with above-average writers with very decent rates. Out of all services out there, two options have left me with a pleasant taste:
7. Leverage Color Psychology to Improve the Impact of Your Communication
If you want to further improve the impact of your newsletter, you should consider leveraging the color psychology, which is a good asset and strategy that many successful brands use to improve their conversion rates.
According to a scientific study conducted by two famous neuroscientists, men tend to prefer bright colors while women prefer pastels. The research doesn’t stop here. This comprehensive post should properly introduce you to the art of color psychology in marketing.
8. Everybody Loves a Good Story
Are you leveraging storytelling already? If you’re not, you’re missing the chance of building amazing rapport with your customers and prospective clients.
Effective storytelling helps you establish a deeper connection with the persons behind the desk, the human being who consumes and replies to your message. You’re not communicating with a company, but with an individual.
Since most individuals love good stories, you should offer them just that. Tell how your brand has managed to survive the fall and came back seizing the first place. Show emotions and seek emotions.
9. Track, Measure, and Optimize Your B2B Newsletter
Every email marketing campaign, whether it’s B2B or B2C, must be consistently tracked, measured, and optimized.
An email newsletter campaign is an automatic and continuous process that constantly needs improvements and adaptations. You must constantly be aware of how your content and marketing is performing, and you should always seek growth through optimization.
First off, you should establish your primary KPI (key performance indicators). These will be the metrics you’ll constantly analyze in order to see if your campaign is going well or not, and they’ll be your point of reference from now on.
Second, you should tap into the power of email marketing analytics tools or learn how to use your email autoresponders’ tracking and measurement features. You need to gather data because data will help you personalize your communication and avoid mistakes in the future.
Takeaways
B2B marketing is a beautiful yet challenging field that demands both creativity and hard work. As a B2B professional, marketer, or entrepreneur, your job is to skyrocket your business results by implementing constructive strategies.
A great quality B2B email newsletter will give you the opportunity to develop a massive quantity of followers that’ll not only raise your brand from the ground but will also protect it with their full power whenever it is attacked by hateful critics. Start improving your reputation by improving the way you communicate with your leads – start being a true B2B pro.