Email Marketing Best Practices for B2B Lead Generation

Email has been around for 40 years and has one of the highest returns on investment among all digital marketing channels. Many marketers use it for B2C marketing, but did you know it is one of the most trusted sources of information for B2B decision-makers and buyers? Even being such a powerful tool, many markets struggle to use it for their B2B lead generation campaigns. In this article, we will break down some proven best practices for using email for this purpose.

Start By Building a Strong Email List

B2B lead generation is about reaching the right decision-makers at the right time with the right offer. It, therefore, follows that the first thing you need to do when setting up your campaign is collect emails from people who fit this criteria and add them to your email list.

One of the best ways of doing this is using a lead magnet. This is something valuable that someone wants in exchange for their email address. Some of the most potent lead magnets include eBooks, gated whitepapers and webinars. The key is providing value and showing why the lead magnet addresses an issue or solves a problem that your audience is dealing with.

By providing value and solving a problem, you create a positive first impression and establish a relationship that will hopefully lead to a closed deal.

Sort Your Data and Leverage Segmentation

Once you start collecting emails and other data about potential leads, you need to sort it to make it usable for your lead generation campaigns. Start by segmenting it based on factors like industry, company size, job titles, number of employees, and other relevant criteria. You can use tags to keep track of all your data and to see the people in each segment quickly.

Next, you need to create different messages for different segments. Naturally, every segment will respond to different messages depending on what you include in your emails. The right message to the right people also ensures high email open rates because no matter how good your data and messaging are, it will be worth little if no one reads your emails.

In some cases, doing all this might be too much work for you, especially if you are focused on other aspects of running and growing your business. In that situation, you can work with reputable B2B lead generation agencies to help you craft the best emails and ensure they are delivered to the right people.

Use Available Assets

Businesses and decision-makers receive hundreds if not thousands of emails every day with the same stuff: a sales message, an explanation of features and benefits and a call to action. Go beyond this by using the assets you have available to you.

For example, you can include one or several customer testimonials in your emails. These serve as excellent customer reviews and recommendations and can push the recipient towards reaching out.You can also include additional assets like white papers and eBooks they cannot find elsewhere to continue providing the value required for a positive relationship.

B2B lead generation requires careful planning because you want to nurture relationships with crucial decision-makers. It requires careful planning and strategy that ensures your business relationship does not fail before it starts. Email marketing is an excellent tool for this type of lead generation, but you need to follow best practices that have worked in the past and continue to work for other businesses.