Email marketing is an invaluable tool for B2B lead generation. Once you have built a list of subscribers who you know are interested in your products or services, you have a strong foundation from which to grow your pool of prospects. Even though email marketing is a time-tried and trusted practice, many businesses still misunderstand the importance of manually building a base of subscribers. Here we are taking a look at why you should use email marketing for lead generation and the inherent benefits of building your own list.
When you manually build your list, you are ensured of a base of customers that already know your brand. This allows for communication on a more personal level and, due to the genuine interest, a much better engagement rate. If you opt to purchase a list (which we do not recommend!), your audience does not know your brand and therefore trusts you less. Engagement suffers as a result. Purchased lists, even if previously unused, carry no personal connection to your brand. Your mails will thus get mostly overlooked among the countless other marketing emails in your recipient’s inbox.
A self-built list is a huge asset which, if intelligently used, can continue to grow over time. A partnership with a marketing agency like JDR assists you in creating relevant content to be shared via email with your subscribers. A varied spectrum of content which understands and addresses the intent of your buyers is the best way to keep your audience interested. We can help you shape your emails in a way that best addresses your reader’s business queries.
Once you have established a relative degree of trust with your subscribers, you can begin to expand your understanding of them. Structure mails in such a way that they are interactive, at times requiring feedback. The feedback that you reap gives you valuable metrics which allow you to better shape your products, services and marketing. A research tool can easily form the backend for an engaging piece of content. Quizzes, questionnaires and step-by-step analysis pieces are a great way to bring in customer information, while supplying your customers with a customised data solution. Similarly, exclusive offers and free incentives can be offered to existing subscribers. Working with an agency lets you assess your list and target demographic and provide specific insights into how you can increase both you customer engagement and ROI.
Your email list should always be leveraged to its full potential. By including links and shares to social media resources, your social media brand presence can grow quickly and with no extra expense. Contacts who already follow you via email are far more likely to follow your social media profile as well. It is far easier and less damaging to your reputation, to test marketing campaigns via email before taking the leap to paid advertising. Test multiple subject lines to see which make the greatest impact. Isolate what works through monitoring email metrics such as:
While the same results cannot be expected of another advertising platform, this data does give you a rough evaluation of what is the best strategy to carry across to paid advertising. The creation of an email list is an endeavour which takes only a minimal investment. Once your list is established, you have a self-managed resource to use as a model to minimise risk in other areas of marketing.
Once you have established your own list and set in place a software solution to manage the sending of mail, you can begin to explore the many other value-added benefits of email marketing. Behaviourally triggered emails are invaluable to both you and your customers. Not only do structured, personalised emails allow you to guide a prospect through their buyer journey to the desired result, but your customers will appreciate the professionalism.
Milestone emails are another great way to cultivate a personal connection with your contacts. Automate the commemoration of birthdays, dates of establishment and notable industry achievements. A simple message showing your awareness of an individual or business’ achievements goes a long way towards building trust. In a similar sense, you can automate a request for feedback after any particular function of your site has been used. This is a great way to pull in the extra metrics that you need to fine-tune your marketing campaign.
While social media and paid advertising platforms such as Google AdWords offer fantastic opportunities when used correctly, they also come with a great deal of competition. On social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, you are competing with countless others for the attention of your readers. Paid advertising can be very lucrative, but if a campaign is not carefully managed, you can just as quickly lose your investment. Email marketing relies on a ‘warm’ subscriber list which you have built over time. The only form of competition that emails experience is competing with the subject lines of other emails. A subscriber list will continue to bear fruit in terms of new business as long as you can show a steady stream of content focused on the intent of your buyer. Clever, concise copy with a clear call to action and a striking email subject eliminates the competition and gets your brand noticed.
There is no marketing platform which is as flexible, nor as time-tested as email. A group of interested subscribers will continue to grow in size and trust for as long as you nurture its interests. Email marketing is also less fickle than other avenues, affording businesses a greater opportunity to experiment with new marketing models. If you have a vision but do not know how to implement it, turn to a professional marketing agency such as JDR. A partnership with an experienced team of thought leaders will bring your marketing strategy to life, supplying a solid foundation for long term growth at a minimal cost.