How many times have you received an email and wondered who it came from? Ever seen an email so ugly you can’t imagine ever having signed up to receive it? What are your lasting thoughts about the company who sent it? Went down in your estimations a little? We’re not surprised.

What’s in a brand?

When over 80% of the worlds email traffic is classified as pure spam (unsolicited messages sent with the intention of fraud or virus spreading), and with 1.9 billion ‘real’ emails sent every day (The Radicati Group) the fight for the inbox is a fierce one. And as consumers we take no prisoners; your email needs to impress first time, or find its way to the bin. Simple.

In theory anyone who receives your email should already have had some interaction with your brand, perhaps signing up via your website, Facebook page, at a trade show or in your bricks-and-mortar shop. Those people have identified with your particular brand, for one reason or another.

A brand isn’t just a logo, its far more than that, and when maintaining a brand, being consistent with it is vital. Are you aware of your company’s brand values and ethos? Do you think your clients find them easy to identify when visiting your website, or reading your email marketing? If not, then it is time to think about how effective your branding really is and what impact not adhering to (or having) brand values could have.

Should branding be different in email and online?

Any brand should have a coherent message, a coherent tone of voice and stance on all things that matter to your industry. You should have brand guidelines for staff that indicate what is expected from all parties.

Branding sets expectations, and lets the target customer know what to expect.

If your brand values have been communicated correctly, when the customer is ready to buy then you’ll be top of the list.

Branding for an online business is very important. If you think of your website and email marketing communications as your ‘shopfront’: what your customers see when they ‘visit’ you. Think of well known brands, like Thomas Cook, Ikea, Starbucks, Apple, Marks & Spencer etc: you know exactly what you are going to get when you walk in, how the staff will act, how you will be greeted and what the surroundings will be like. The same principle applies to your online presence, it’s about associating your visual identity with your values, to become familiar to your customers and prospects.

If your online marketing doesn’t correspond with what you say offline, or even worse you send mixed messages through different online channels, you serve to confuse the customer, or miss the target altogether.

Branding for competitive advantage

In our hypercompetitive marketplaces of today, differentiation through branding encourages loyalty (through perceived added value). It’s one of the leading ways to set a sustainable competitive advantage. Matching your email design to your online branding will help customers remember and recognise you, which can only be a good thing.

It’s a common scenario: you suddenly realise that it’s nearly Halloween/Christmas/Pancake Day, and a timely marketing email would be great to promote your products in the pre season rush!

You are all excited (and stressed) about sending your first email campaign in over six months.

“My goodness”, you cry, “has it really been that long, where does the time go?”

Finally it’s sent. You’re hopeful to receive some quick wins.

The reality? Your recipients saw a one-hit-wonder, at a time when email volume was already high. They can’t remember who you are, or signing up to your emails. At best, your email is ignored. At worst, they mark you as spam – and you endured all that stress for very little return.

Why you need a schedule

Without planning your campaigns months in advance you can fall into the trap of sending ad-hoc campaigns that lack relevance and deliver poor returns.

Creating a schedule of sends means you’re more likely to stick to regular and relevant communication. Long term, regular sends will benefit your business far more.

Instead of sending a last minute campaign, if you communicate all year round, it’s likely you are already at the forefront of mind. Subscribers will already know you offer great deals, content, interesting emails to read: they will naturally buy from you when they are ready.

When to schedule

The schedule could be as simple as a calendar, with content planned around peak times/seasons. For quieter months, there should be ideas in the pipeline of how to improve open rates and responses.

You don’t have to write all the content six months in advance, but having an idea of what you want to say will mean you’re more likely to stick to your plan and execute it well. Equally, resources (in terms of staff, time and budgets) can be allocated accordingly: your crucial pre-event email will be successfully sent, not wasted.

How often should you send marketing emails?

Added to this, it is important to remember that sending just because it’s that time to send or because you’ve got stuff to sell isn’t a good idea. Put yourself in the recipient’s shoes; previous experience with your email will determine whether recipients decide to open again. Sending just because it’s the time to send isn’t good enough. You need to make sure there is true value and relevance to your email campaigns. If you really have nothing to say, don’t say anything at all. Your subscribers will thank you for it and you will reap the rewards in the long term.

When you’re creating an email campaign to engage your readers or attract new business, it’s important to consider your audience. Rather than sending a ‘blast’ style email, have a think about who’s reading, what they’re interested in, and how you’re going to get them to click. Tailoring your content to your audience will result in better responses and more engaged subscribers.

Here are a few tips and tricks for sending marketing emails to both B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) audiences.

Before you start

Before you create a B2B or B2C email marketing campaign there are a few questions you need to ask before you begin:

• What response do we need to make this marketing email effective?
• Is there anything I can do to improve the quality of my data?
• How are we going to monitor the results?
• What will we do to follow up or nurture the leads we generate?

Once you have the answers to these questions, you can begin to create your email campaign.

What are the key differences between B2B and B2C email marketing?

B2B email marketing can be more taxing than B2C. According to inbound marketing experts Hubspot, 37% of B2B email marketers say lack of user data is the major obstacle to effective segmentation. Not only is it difficult to get hold of quality data; B2B recipients are also more time constrained, and less likely to have the same emotional interest in a business message than they might with a consumer message.

So what else makes B2B email marketing more difficult than B2C?  Buying data for B2C is quite different from buying data for limited companies. Buying business data unwisely could cause more harm to your brand than good. It’s worth speaking to an expert if you’re tempted to buy data for B2B email marketing campaigns, just to make sure you know the risks. (It’s worth noting that it is no longer legal to buy data for B2C email marketing. If you’re unsure, please get in touch and we can help.)

Other things to consider when targeting B2B: the sales cycle is often much longer and more complex than the B2C environment. On the plus side, in most instances B2B clients appear to be less fickle, with competition and loyalty being less problematic.

Best practices for email marketing

When it comes to email marketing, many of the best practice principles for B2C also apply to B2B. These are our top best practices:

• Give the same thought and consideration (if not more) to B2B email marketing campaigns as B2C.
• Always consider the competition, how will your email stand out from the crowd?
• B2B is typically more about value or information exchange for lead generation, rather than a quick sale – what will you offer your recipients?
• Creating great content that nurtures leads and customers at each stage of the sales funnel is vital for success.

Essentially, B2B email marketing is all about building trust and loyalty that eventually leads to advocacy and retention. Sending out interesting, timely and helpful offers will encourage word-of-mouth recommendations of your company, and can be great for list building, too.

Who’s reading your emails?

Every business’s data will be unique, but generally the difference between B2B and B2C email recipients can be summarised like this:

Consumer email recipient:

• I am interested
• I have signed up
• I have free time, usually reading my emails during down time at work, at home, or on my phone

Business email recipient:

• I have no time
• I am not interested in generic business messages offering to save me time, make me money and give ROI
• I’m happy with the provider I’ve got
• You’ll need to give me a compelling reason to click to find out more
• Did I really sign up to this, isn’t it spam?

Taking the time to consider your recipients’ needs will help you to give them what they really want from your email.

Creating a B2B marketing email – final points to remember

• Know your audience; tailor the message and remember one size does not fit all. It’s best to segment your data based on interaction and previous behaviour.
• Test subject lines and “from” names, they will be crucial to open rates
• Keep it short and to the point; one clear call to action.
• Consider how the campaign will look across platforms and with images turned off. Outlook is most common business email client and is notorious for not displaying images by default – so your beautifully crafted email may not look its best for the majority of your recipients.
• Make it mobile friendly with ‘responsive design’. More and more execs ‘triage’ their inbox on their phones (during down time or on the run), if your campaign doesn’t instantly impress, chances are it won’t get a second look.
• Don’t be afraid to pull the emotional/personal perk strings; although the motivation for a business customer may be more rational and price orientated than B2C. Afterall, the B2B audience usually isn’t spending its own money.

Negotiating the gaps between B2B and B2C email marketing really isn’t that tricky. We’re becoming savvier marketers, keen to see great ROI and to streamline the process through the sales funnel. So it’s clear that, when used properly, email marketing has an essential role to play in gaining, retaining and nurturing customers.

It’s all very well reading all about email marketing; learning how to write effective subject lines; and diligently applying a list of “rules” to your emails, but really, the fun in email marketing is seeing the difference a few tweaks here and there can make.

That’s where A B split testing comes in. It’s simply a way of splitting your data, or your “list” in to two (or four!) parts and sending each list slightly different emails.

How to split your list

Generally, your list must be split according to activity. It’s no good splitting your readers alphabetically, the only way to get a good split is to make sure the two halves are as similar as possible in their levels of activity during your previous email campaigns.

N.B. This list-splitting is very different to data segmentation, A B testing simply requires that you have equal numbers of active subscribers in each list.

What to test?

It’s vital when you’re testing to only change one thing and keep everything else constant: then you know exactly what you’re measuring.

One of the first things you’ll test, (as it’s one of the most important things) is the subject line.

The subject line is the most persuasive part of any marketing email, and so experimenting with what works best with your audience is essential.

You might want to try putting the most compelling offer in the subject bar, or a selection of compelling offers from within the email in short form.  Test which offer is more compelling:

10% off today only!
Free delivery today only!

Or test using one compelling offer over several:

Christmas shopping without the hassle – Free delivery today only
20% off Christmas Gifts / Free Delivery / Handy List App

You can test the order of the offers (which offer goes first):

10% Off All Purchases & Free Delivery For Today Only
Today Only – Free Delivery & 10% Off All Purchases

Or you can test style, for example does title case have more impact than sentence case?

Special treat for you! Free delivery today only, on any order
Special Treat For You! Free Delivery Today Only, On Any Order

Test the tone of voice – sensible and straightforward vs. chatty and personal:

Christmas Sale – Stunning Gifts with Free Delivery
Not feeling festive yet? You will when you see these gifts…

Some things to try in addition to subject line testing are:

Layout and space at the top of your email: Do you have a company logo, strap banner, letterhead or white space at the top? Move it to the bottom and test the difference by leading with the offer text.

If you must keep the branding at the top of the email, try using a smaller logo at the top, or right aligning it. Getting most of the text ‘above the fold’ will increase its effectiveness by a mile.

Call to action: Do you underline your call to action? Is it a different colour? Do you use a coloured button instead of text? Do you include the words “Click here…”?

All these simple things can make a huge difference to the response… try it and see.