Most B2Bs use ongoing email as a primary element of their prospect-nurturing program. Most of them, however, probably use it in “sermon” style: I talk, you listen …and that’s even if they’ve gotten away from sell/sell/sell-type messages and into more subtle ones aimed at thought leadership.
This is unfortunate, since email is the medium that gives you the closest thing to a 1-to-1 experience with your readers. Writing in imediaconnection, Wendy Roth says that “building greater customer dialogue into emails has a number of tangible benefits. More often than not, this approach helps to build stronger brand relationships with customers and prospects and, more importantly, motivates them to act.”
How to do this? Wendy suggests…
Add contact links: not only your email and postal addresses, but also your customer support, call center or main office telephone numbers.
Add a feedback link: ask readers to express their opinions… about your products, company, or issues related to your market niche.
Start a user forum: link to it in your email messages, urge customers to join.
Publish reader comments: either some in each email, or perhaps devote an entire message to reader opinion.
Answer reader questions in your emails: for every one person who sends you a question, probably 100 or so more are thinking the same thing.
Use polls and surveys: either mini-versions in your regular emails, or link to a poll or survey on your website.
Synergize with your blog: publish the odd blog post and/or reader comments in your newsletter, with links to your blog’s site.
Synergize with social media: show your Twitter name in every email, and use the medium as a way to listen; use a blog-tracking service to see what others are saying about you.
Of course, none of this will do any good unless you pay attention and respond! You’ll need to designate one or two “point people” to monitor and respond to questions and comments, no matter where they turn up. Giving your subscribers a voice does take time and effort; but it will pay off in building deeper prospect relationships …and isn’t that what we’re all after?
