Email marketing serves as an important channel for communicating with B2B customers and potential customers. In many ways, email can help B2B companies to build upon relationships in ways that B2C businesses cannot.
Strengthening relations via email is a complex task, though; one that must be carefully considered in order to take full advantage.
So how should businesses interact with their customers through email communication to grow relationships? Here are five important tips.
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Segment your list
Segmentation is a vital element of any successful email marketing campaign. This could not be truer than in a B2B environment. Sort your contacts into various segments, allowing you to send a more focussed message to each of them.
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Personalize
Given the relative size of the target market, B2B email lists are usually much shorter than their B2C counterparts. There is an advantage to this, though. With a smaller list, you have more time to effectively personalize your email’s content.
There are numerous ways you can personalize your emails. When communicating with existing customers, you can tailor your emails based on the products or services the customer has purchased in the past. For customizing emails to prospective clients, you can use information such as their industry and company size to deliver more relevant content.
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Endless sales messages aren’t well received
Driving fresh leads and new customers is the ultimate objective in all marketing efforts. However, that does not mean you should be selling all the time. You can really build on the relationship you have with existing customers by offering them assistance on using your products. Similarly, you can demonstrate your industry expertise but offering free advice to prospective customers.
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Demonstrate your value
Business purchasing decisions are generally a lot more thought out than consumer buying decisions, and impulse decisions are far less common. As a result, you will have to carefully craft your emails to effectively convey your message. “Free shipping” or “Buy one get one free” will not do the trick.
They key to getting through to your audience is to understand your customer, what problems they have, and how your products can help to solve them.
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Don’t rely solely on your list
Your email marketing efforts should not focus solely on your list. Building stronger relationships with your customers requires more than sending out mass emails. Taking the time to send direct messages to customers is essential. You can put all the resources you want into producing content for email campaigns, but often a simple “How are you doing?” will go a lot further towards building a strong, long-lasting relationship.