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Successful email marketing: beating the barriers in your next campaign

Contrary to popular perception, even at the end of 2014, email marketing was still the most widely used marketing communications channel in the B2B arena.  (B2B Marketing)

If you are not seeing the email channel as a money making machine, you have the wrong strategy ~ Hans Smellinckx, Online marketing guru

There are a few tricks of the trade, that will make all the difference when it comes to having marketing emails (referred to as eDMs) opened, read and then the all important acted upon as click throughs, subscriptions and purchases.

In this post, we explore the most common barriers to email marketing success; and offer some hot tips on how to override them to win business and build leads. We want to set you up for successful email marketing campaigns.

Successful email marketing barrier 1: In-box Overload

Email marketing remains a widespread practice, making inbox overload one of the biggest barriers to getting the attention of potential buyers. You might like to also read our post on email marketing which explores how to maximise key targets for your campaigns.

For the best results, markers must try to understand who the target audience is and then, from whom the email should come from.

Solutions:

Successful email marketing barrier 2: “This email isn’t for me” >> DELETE!!

Click Me! Click Me! People have their own way of deciphering which emails are clickable, and which are not.  Having a killer title to spark their interest is important. Hand-in-hand with this goes the content of your email. Knowing your market first is what will set you apart from competitors every time. Understand your prospects; what do they want? What would they like to hear and most importantly what can you offer them?  If you can convey all this in a snappy, to the point subject line, you’re winning.

Solutions:

Successful email marketing barrier 3: Wariness of sales oriented emails

Many prospective clients will see your email, but can automatically assume that the contents are indeed to sell. In these instances, the perceived value to the prospect for reading your email is low.

Matt Byrd offers some great advice here “Use low commitment CTAs. Emails are invites, landing pages are parties”. You might like to review our article 'How to write a CTA that packs a punch' for more detailed ideas on how to make this work.

Solutions:

A recent example for a Make It Happen B2B client, prompted readers to visit a registration page and sign-up for a complimentary webinar/session with a consultant.
This idea of offering something through your email justifies why you have contacted them in the first place.

Successful email marketing barrier 4: Time Constraints

Time constraints come in from two angles. One being when your prospect is most likely to be receptive to opening and reading your eDM. The other being how much ‘time’ your prospect is willing to put into considering the content of your email.

Solutions:

Successful email marketing barrier 5: Spam Filters

Email marketers who may be sending permission-based emails are spam filtered frequently. As a general rule you can expect to lose 10-20% of emails, mostly due to overzealous spam filters.

Solutions:

See also: HTML vs. Plain Text for Email Marketing?

Today’s buyer is harder to persuade, but using these effective and considered email marketing techniques will surely help. Get in touch with b2b marketing agency MIH to discuss your next email marketing campaign. We know what works!

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