B2B companies: what do you WANT to do with your EMAILS?
Plus: underrated hacks for your growth :)
Welcome to Orange Owl’s newsletter, where we discuss driving growth, branding, positioning, and everything that makes sense in marketing for companies and marketers. Grab a coffee or matcha and let’s get started ☕
By the end of this edition, you’ll better understand email marketing in B2B, the most effective strategies, and how to tap into them to build your business audience.
B2B emails are not dead - sorry AI
Email and B2B are OTP - one true pair.
If marketing were a sport, email would take the gold. 49% of U.S. B2B marketers rate email as the top channel for driving engagement. It boasts an astounding ROI of $57 for every $1.36 spent, translating to a 4,200% return on investment—far surpassing other marketing channels. Compare this to SEO, which has a solid but much lower ROI of 317%, and PPC advertising, which trails even further at 200%. Simply put, when it comes to delivering measurable results and maximizing marketing budgets, email is unmatched in its effectiveness.
On the performance front, the average open rate for B2B email campaigns is 23%, and a click-through rate (CTR) of 5% for manual, one-off emails. To put this into perspective, the average CTR for Google Ads is just 1.91%, highlighting email’s superior potential for driving traffic, generating leads, and ultimately boosting revenue.
This effectiveness is why companies have been increasingly investing in email marketing. In 2019, businesses spent an average of $84,355 on email marketing, up from $77,552 in 2018 and $66,668 in 2017. These growing budgets reflect the ongoing value that email marketing provides as a key driver of business growth in the B2B landscape.
B2B emails require B2B strategies
General email marketing tactics often fall short in B2B campaigns because, much like how a generic tool can't fix every type of machinery, one needs tailored approaches for different audiences. Each business or startup requires a unique strategy to address its specific needs and challenges.
Listing a few reasons why general email marketing falls short in B2B campaigns:
Target segmentation
General email marketing campaigns are designed for individuals, but B2B campaigns target companies, which means engaging multiple stakeholders within the organization.
For example, when a SaaS company reaches out to different individuals within a targeted organization, the tone and content of the email should be tailored to the recipient’s role:
- For a CEO: Highlight how your software can boost the organization's overall productivity.
- For a CFO: Focus on the cost savings your software can deliver to the company.
- For a CSO: Emphasise how your software can drive revenue growth for the business.
When identifying a B2B target, we deal with a group of decision-makers and influencers within the company. The online marketing strategy should be tailored to address the unique needs and perspectives of each key contact within that group.
Whereas a B2C email focuses on every stage of the recipient's (buyer journey) completely different way of content and tone.
Takeaway: To get maximum ROI from email marketing campaigns, focus on tailored emails to different individuals within the same target company to ensure the message resonates with each recipient.
Cycle length
Buying something on your own is quick and straightforward: you decide, you pay, and it’s done.
For a company, however, the process is much more complex. Coordinating between departments—like finance, procurement, and end-users—especially when a purchase needs budget approval, can feel like herding cats. It takes a lot of effort and patience to get everyone on the same page.
Takeaway: Email marketing campaigns must align with the length of the B2B customer journey. Since decisions involve multiple stakeholders, expect marketing cycles to take longer than in B2C.
Email content and convey
When writing B2C emails, it’s okay to be direct about selling—consumers expect it. Promotions, discounts, and sale announcements are common and effective. However, this approach doesn’t work for B2B emails. Businesses are looking for value and solutions, not just sales pitches, so the tone and content are more professional and focused on addressing their specific needs.
B2B emails are more effective when they provide value through informative content. Sharing educational resources like trend reports, industry benchmarks, how-to guides, and webinar recordings demonstrates the brand's expertise and builds trust with B2B subscribers.
Takeaway: Create content specifically tailored for B2B audiences—repurposing B2C content won’t cut it. Develop new content types and formats, like detailed guides, case studies, and industry insights, that speak directly to the needs of your B2B prospects.
In short, in both B2C and B2B emails, the content should align with the recipient’s motivations. As a B2B marketer, it's crucial to step into the shoes of B2B buyers, understand their challenges, and deliver content that addresses their specific needs and interests. The goal is to provide value that resonates with them and meets their professional objectives.
How to be a B2B Email warrior?
Be spam-free
In B2B email marketing, particularly cold outreach, it’s important to start by “setting up” your email account.
Most companies when venturing into B2B end up marking their email as spam from their potential users. One thing to take care of is always keeping the domain of the email and website different. This leads to keeping the core domain unharmed. How?
E.g. if your core domain is orangeowl.marketing, ensure to send emails from other domains like orangeowl.io
Skipping this step affects the email deliverability rates and causes the majority of the emails sent through this account to end up in the recipient’s spam folder.
Next is the Email warm-up process of gradually building trust and a positive reputation for a new sender account before diving into cold outreach. This step helps ensure emails land in inboxes rather than spam folders, setting up the company for successful engagement from the start.
Start with sending no more than 20-30 emails initially, and gradually increase this number over the next few days.
It typically takes 8-12 weeks for an email account to reach its peak deliverability potential, so it’s important to take a slow and steady approach during the initial weeks.
Other points to note:
Give value in emails 90% of the time and ask for something in return only 10% of the time. Asking for a demo or meeting in the first email without offering value will likely result in recipients ignoring future emails.
Personalization goes beyond using the recipient's first name; it involves addressing specific pain points in the copy, making the reader feel understood.
Avoid bombarding low-intent content downloads with aggressive sales follow-ups. Sending “ready to book a demo?” emails to someone who has only downloaded an eBook or checklist can scare them away. Instead, focus on nurturing the relationship and providing value through emails until genuine interest is shown before requesting a meeting.
Keep emails focused on a single pain point, offer, or goal to maintain clarity and relevance.
Schedule emails for optimal engagement on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Launch a newsletter to regularly engage and add value to the audience.
Cisco’s Success with Email Marketing
Cisco, a global leader in networking hardware, telecommunications equipment, and high-tech services, had a tough time in 2023 and needed a more effective way to communicate its service offerings to potential new customers. The key challenge was connecting its diverse data security solutions with the right buyer needs, a task that proved difficult using data-driven marketing alone due to the complexity of predicting each buyer's specific requirements.
To tackle this challenge, Cisco developed a targeted email marketing campaign. The goal was to engage data center buyers directly, understand their needs, and guide them through the sales funnel with tailored email content.
Campaign Strategy:
The email campaign provided buyers with valuable content options based on their needs, including:
E-books on data security best practices
Video talks from industry experts
Invitations to webinars addressing common challenges
Product demos tailored to specific use cases
Opportunities to speak directly with Cisco product specialists
CISCO’s strategy focused on reaching likely data center buyers and retargeting visitors who had shown interest in Cisco’s data center solutions. This precise targeting helped to ensure that the emails reached the right audience at the right time.
Results:
The email campaign delivered impressive results:
An open rate of over 62%, reflecting strong engagement and interest.
A click-to-open rate of 7.6%, indicates that the content resonated with recipients.
A lead conversion rate of over 14.6%, significantly surpassing Cisco’s target, while reducing conversion costs.
Cisco’s email marketing approach effectively bridged the gap between its service offerings and the unique needs of its potential buyers, demonstrating the power of personalized and strategic email campaigns in B2B marketing.
Conclusion:
B2B email marketing thrives on understanding your audience, delivering value, and building trust. It’s not just about sending emails but creating meaningful connections by addressing specific pain points and nurturing relationships with targeted relevant content.
Strategic email warm-ups, effective targeting, and gradual outreach help boost engagement and conversions. True personalization means understanding buyer challenges and consistently offering value before making an ask.
By balancing giving with asking and focusing on the customer journey, businesses can turn email into a powerful tool for sustained growth.
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