B2B marketing has always thrown up its own set of patience-testing challenges. From reaching the right-decision makers to nurturing prospects through an often long and complex sales process, these challenges need to be met through the right choice of marketing channel.
While you’re deliberating whether your target will be more receptive to traditional or technology driven approaches, spare a thought for the channel that’s most likely in front of their eyes for most of the day – their everyday email. Because eyes that may have long since become blind to the batch and blast of bulkmail are still very open to personalised one to one everyday email.
Which is why ‘email branding’ creatively branding your daily one to one business email with bespoke, interactive, trackable marketing banners and signatures – is a channel ideally suited to tackling the challenges facing B2B marketers.
But isn’t email a bit…boring? Just because it’s not the latest AI or the shiniest new social channel, its effectiveness shouldn’t be overlooked. Remember, it’s a channel you already own and which every employee uses every day, making it a particularly cost-conscious, smart way to market B2B.
While B2B prospects might ignore a bulk email campaign, they’ll always open an everyday email from a personal contact. What’s more, when it comes to click-through rates, email branding delivers four times more than bulk mailing, achieving 12% versus 2.7%.
B2B marketing is about personal interaction
It may be B2B but it’s all about people. When you extend your marketing mix to include email branding, you are reaching out to people you have a real relationship with – personal contacts. You can amend the email banners they see based on a conversation you had that morning. It’s relevant, it’s immediate and it moves the relationship forward.
B2B campaigns need to persuade all parties in a complex decision process
Even on an email with the same content, email branding allows different recipients to be targeted with different banners, personalised to them and linked to the supporting information they need, so whilst the finance director receives a banner stressing ROI, the IT director receives one on system compatibility.
B2B campaigns need sales and marketing close together
Introducing email branding across your organisation can help achieve closer sales and marketing alignment with central control, enabling the sales team to retain control of their personal contacts, while the marketing team sees brand consistency and nurture-campaign content delivered with every email.
B2B campaigns need to harness the power of opinion-formers
Email branding banners are the perfect place to highlight an endorsing quote from an industry expert, link to a glowing review in a trade journal, or feature a client testimonial that directs them to a case study success story. In fact anything that makes their research easier and positively positions your brand.
B2B campaigns place importance on your company brand.
Whilst your campaign might be for your latest product or service, it’s your company brand that can give your customer the reassurance they need to purchase. Not only does branding every email consistently create a strong, unified brand image, it shows you’re in control which together can translate into that most important emotional connection – trust.
When it comes to B2B marketing, Rocketseed email branding is up to the challenge. To find out more about how Rocketseed email branding can get you up close and personal to your customers…
