Email is back on the hot list again, probably because every B2B wants to squeeze the max possible out of their lead funnel in this economy. We joined the parade recently with some pointers on keeping your subscriber list on-board and engaged.
Just lately we ran into this great post by Paul Gillen, giving us “The Rules” of email as he’s learned them over a decade of practice. We’ll supply just a sampling here, so do check out the full post for more:
- Maximize opportunities for your website visitors to subscribe by… putting a sign-up button on every page. Put it in your corporate email autosig template, if possible. As Paul says, “a Web contact is casual, but an e-mail subscription is a relationship.”
- Reward your subscribers with email-only offers. OK, it sounds B2C-ish… but if you give it some thought, you’ll probably come up with some things a B2B can do, too.
- Outsource to an email service provider (e.g., Benchmark Email, Constant Contact, iContact, Lyris…). Why? …Paul again: “For a nominal cost, you’ll get reporting, tracking and list management you’d never be able to duplicate yourself.”
- Provide a website version of your newsletter. You’ll make it easier for readers to share your content via social media, and boost your site’s SEO in the process.
- Construct your newsletter out of several short pieces, rather than one longer one. Subscribers have varied interests, so this approach gives your email a better chance of being at least partially read by more of them.
Your email marketing program is one of the big guns in a B2B’s arsenal; follow these guidelines to make it still more effective.
