B2B marketing requires a different approach compared to B2C marketing. And this is true of B2B email marketing too.
When you’re a business reaching out to people in other organizations, it’s important to remember that you’re not just communicating with customers, but with your peers or potential partners too.
The stakes are higher in the B2B sphere and getting your email marketing right is critical.
Not only do you have to build a relevant B2B email list but you also have to up the ante when it comes to personalization, offering value, and reaching the right person at the right time.
And email marketing is the most solid way to do this.
Here are some B2B email marketing statistics to consider:
- 40 percent of B2B marketers find that email marketing is critical for success
- 77 percent of B2B companies use emails as part of their marketing strategy
- 70 percent believe that email is the best channel to share content
- And 59 percent of marketers state that email is the highest source of revenue
So, email marketing is necessary and powerful. And it can be hard to carry out. So, it helps to have a few B2B email marketing examples to inspire you.
Keep reading to get powerful ideas on how you can connect with other businesses without forgetting that there are people behind these organizations too.
Dive in.
B2B email marketing examples to learn from
1. New product features
Airtable sent out a newsletter about their new product features. This included the addition of a progress bar and a new homepage that makes navigating through content much easier.
This is an effective way to keep people informed and engaged with the product.
Informing your B2B audience about new product features is a great way to show that the product keeps getting better and that you’re still keeping up with industry trends.
2. Brand updates and news
WeWork is a great example of how to use news and updates as a way to engage its B2B client effectively.
They highlight the value of investing in their space and offer compelling reasons to engage with the brand.
This is also a powerful way to feature its company culture since it goes beyond offering office space to its clients.
Along with news and updates, it finishes its email newsletter by talking about its additional B2B services like cloud hosting and financial services.
Use this kind of email marketing as an example; you can share news and updates but also add information about your services that could lead to sales.
3. Virtual event invitations
Education is a key marketing aspect of B2B relationships. This is because B2B products and services are often more complex and require educational material, good customer support, and plenty of live virtual events to help customers make the best use of such offerings.
So, one important example of B2B email marketing is sending invitations for virtual events like workshops and webinars.
Hosting one-hour workshops, Q&A sessions, and similar virtual experiences is a great way to engage customers and help them with common pain points.
It’s important to send timely emails with information about such virtual events so that customers can plan to attend.
You also need to add a landing page with event registration features to collect leads and send the virtual event information to participants.
Check out the following example by Slack, a messaging communication platform that is widely used by businesses.
In this example, Slack promises businesses that they will learn how to improve employee productivity. And not only that, they sweeten the deal by offering a free coffee to the first 100 participants.
Create similar educational and engagement opportunities with virtual events. And, of course, don’t forget to invite users to these events through timely emails.
4. Industry reports
In the B2B industry, white papers, reports, and studies are valued and expected.
This is because good research can help B2B marketers learn more about their industry and the key players in it. And useful and timely reports ensure that corporate and business professionals stay informed about breakthroughs, changes, and other important information.
With such knowledge, it becomes possible to make better business decisions and market better.
As a result, one of the most important and engaging types of B2B email newsletters you can send is a white paper, report, or study. You can even curate such content by creating a roundup of relevant industry statistics and data if you can’t create such content through original research.
When sending this type of content via your newsletter, add a few snippets of exciting statistics and data points in the email body. This will give readers a preview of your report and compel them to download your paper.
The following image shows how the content marketer community Superpath creates value for readers by sharing relevant and actionable data with its audience. It links with other B2B business and content marketing experts to provide industry information to give people the means to make professional decisions.
Attract the attention of your own B2B audience by sharing reports. It’ll build your authority and help your audience too.
5. Blog posts
Do you create informative blog posts for your website?
Then share them with your B2B audience via your newsletter. Make sure that you space out how often you send such emails. And, of course, it’s vital that you share those blog posts that are useful and customer-centric, addressing pain points that your audience needs to fix.
Search Engine Journal sends a daily roundup of useful blog content to their SEO community.
Here, there’s a roundup of different types of posts that include podcasts, interviews, trends, and a workshop. This kind of variety and clear and focused value is certain to win over your audience. So, share blog content and curate useful posts that will help your B2B audience grow.
6. Industry updates and trends
We’ve looked at newsletters where you send industry reports as B2B email content. Here, we’ll talk about how sharing industry news, updates, and trends is also a key type of B2B email marketing content.
In this case, you’re not delivering a body of research to your audience. Rather, you’re curating useful pieces of information from various sources and delivering them to your audience. And the topic is all about the latest news and trends in your industry.
This is useful because it can be hard to find useful B2B information through general searches on Google. Content about technological changes, legal developments, economic trends, and the like can be hard to find. They’re often available behind gated content in B2B groups. And sometimes, only a handful of experts and professionals in the field know about them.
If you can build a newsletter that helps business professionals stay abreast of such changes, you’ll create a loyal and engaged readership.
Check out this example from MonsterInsights where it updated its audience with the latest news in managing website data. Google Analytics removed the Bounce Rate metric and introduced Engagement Rate in its stead. And then, after a while, it brought Bounce Rate back again.
Such changes and ups and downs in your industry can be hard to track, which makes such content all the more valuable.
Use this content idea to inspire your next email newsletter: curate and share the latest industry news, trends, and updates right to your audience’s inbox. This will help your B2B audience, and they will appreciate getting such information from you.
7. Case studies and success stories
Sharing powerful success stories and case studies doesn’t just build social proof. They also give your B2B audience a clear idea of what working with your brand can look like. Or they can illuminate how to use your products and services to create better results.
Case studies and success stories include data points, real-life problems, and the actual solutions that your business came up with.
As such, they act as stories that bring dull business problems to life and turn marketing communication into practical and actionable steps.
So, make sure to build case studies based on your customers’ experiences. And share what you and your B2B customers learn with your email list.
The image above features a success story or case study by Time Doctor. By adding a ‘Download Now’ button and linking it to a landing page, the brand creates engagement and enables the collection of data, which shows how effective this email campaign is.
In this way, you can also use case studies to provide your audience with useful and engaging content.
Tips to make your B2B email marketing effective
The examples I’ve shared will help you build powerful email strategies for B2B marketing.
However you choose to engage your B2B email list, you want to keep the following tips in mind.
- Use a CRM platform to manage your audience’s experiences and journey with your company. A good CRM platform will help you keep track of relevant customer information to improve your services.
- Personalize your email content by addressing your user with their first name in the subject line or in the body. Using a person’s name attracts their attention and makes them feel that the content is relevant to them.
- Avoid sending emails too often. Scarcity often leads to the perception of higher value of the scarce object; you don’t want to send emails too frequently, as this will dilute the value of your outreach. Send emails regularly but ensure that they offer value and are well-spaced out.
- Focus on your audience’s benefits. B2B professionals and decision-makers often have to justify their investment in a product. Always link your offerings to specific benefits and outcomes. And showcase proof of the same with case studies and research.
- Use emails to lead your audience down the buyer’s journey path i.e., deliberately plan the sequence of your emails to move your audience from gathering information to taking action by investing in your products.
By following these tips, you stand to make your email marketing powerful and lead to improved engagement and sales.
Turn your B2B email marketing campaigns into revenue-generating engines
As a B2B marketer or business owner, you can’t afford to miss out on the benefits of email marketing.
I shared several useful examples that will help you create better emails and give your audience what they want. Use them as references in your own campaigns.
Also, follow the additional tips that I shared. And finally, check your analytics and email marketing reports to find areas of improvement. With time and practice, you’ll turn your B2B email marketing campaigns into revenue-generating engines.
