6 Tips for Making Your B2B Emails Stand Out
Take a guess: how many emails are sent per day around the world?
When you have a number in your head, add a few more zeros. The number sent is a lot higher than you think.
Projections show that by the end of 2019, we can expect to see 2.9 billion worldwide email users (which is more than one-third of the global population). Specific to emails sent per day worldwide, about 269 billion (yes, b for billion) emails were sent and received each day in 2017. According to Statista, that figure is expected to grow to almost 320 billion daily emails in 2021.
What can a marketer do to make their B2B emails stand out in a crowded inbox? Try these six tips for more effective emails.
1. Be a Trusted Friend
The most important strategy to get recipients to look forward to your emails and open them in a cluttered inbox is by being a trusted friend. Write content as if youâre talking to another person, one-on-one. And trusted friends offer clear insights and valuable insights â and the same applies for an effective email too.
Take trust a step further by ditching the ânoreply@â email address. Send from a real name and email address to create a personal connection â and put a face to your companyâs brand.
2. Strong Subject Lines and Preview Text
A strong subject line can make or break whether an email gets opened or deleted. It can be tempting to try click-bait tactics to boost open rates in the short term, but donât. Too often misleading subject lines create distrust or frustration with readers and make it harder to earn trust back.
In our experience, the best subject lines are those that pique curiosity or offer a glimpse of the valuable content in the email. There are clever and creative ways to do this. It just takes a bit of work to find what resonates with your audience.
And donât forget the importance of preview text too. A subject line may catch a readerâs eye, but a relevant or interesting detail included in the preview text also helps drive an email open.
3. Appeal to the Eyes
After someone has opened your email because of an interesting subject line, you want to keep their interest by appealing to the eyes.
Modern email marketing designs typically include:
- Easily skimmable headlines and short paragraphs
- Interesting visuals and pictures (optimized for fast load times)
- Colorful call-to-action buttons that direct to next steps or visible hyperlinks for additional information
4. Make it Personal
When we talk about making it personal, effective email marketing today goes beyond adding a recipientâs name.
Most email marketing platforms offer valuable insights and analytics that can be used to develop list segments. For example, if you have a core group of people who consistently open your emails, create a âVIPâ list and send special offers or exclusive deals to that segment.
Or if youâve collected data over time about product or solution interests, create product-focused list segments and send tailored email newsletter content to those groups.
List segmentation allows you to personalize content and deliver more effective messages.
5. The Right Timing
Look online and youâll find conflicting advice about the best times to send emails. A few important considerations about the right email timing:
- Keep your audience in mind. No one knows your audience better than you. Review past email analytics and see if thereâs a discernable pattern about when your audience opens your emails. You may find those times vary than typical best practices.
- Donât be afraid to experiment. If your email open and click-through rates have been static or if you want to get a lift, shake it up by sending on a different day and time. Because so many emails are read on mobile (more on that below), some marketers have found success sending on weekends.
- Think about frequency. The quantity versus quality debate continues to heat up. Rather than contributing to the clutter, some savvy marketers are focusing on a less is more, quality strategy. If you make a frequency change, give loyal readers a heads-up about the adjustment.
6. Make it Mobile-Friendly
According to the latest statistics, mobile opens account for anywhere between 46 to 61 percent of all email opens.
With a high percentage of mobile opens, donât forget to write and design email content for those on-the-go:
- Use an email marketing template that seamlessly renders and sizes appropriately across different devices
- Check font size is readable on mobile devices
- Make any call-to-action buttons large enough for finger taps
Because of its effectiveness, email marketing isnât going anywhere anytime soon. But getting emails opened in a cluttered inbox requires staying up-to-date and regular refreshes of your email marketing strategy. Contact us for more fresh ideas to increase your email effectiveness.