Top 10 tips on how to write the best B2B emails for effective lead generation

Today, we can use personal interaction, social marketing, and even social media for lead generation. However, one of the options has proven to be effective for decades – email! Below you will find the best tips how to make email marketing work for you.

All You Wanted to Know about Lead Generation but Were Afraid to Ask

#1 Who needs lead generation

What you really should know is that lead generation works effectively for the companies that use direct sales. Global companies are not that interested in such marketing methods.

#2 Who are leads?

Another thing essential to your understanding is that we are not talking about buyers or clients here. Your leads are not even prospects who CAN buy your product. Leads MIGHT buy your product or MAY forward the information about it. However, lead generation may be considered as the initial step of lead management that allows you to make your leads become buyers or, more likely in B2B sector, partners. This process called ‘moving down the purchase funnel.’ Schematically, your leads are moving down the funnel becoming your prospects, and then buyers. In other words, these are people you can contact and tell about your product or service.

#3 How to do it effectively

As mentioned above, there can be different sources of leads. Different types of businesses prefer various sources, but email has beaten them all. In fact, 60% of the US respondents claim that they prefer to get news from the companies via email. As opposed to 20% of those who like the social media better, this number is quite impressive. That is why paying the closest attention to your Email B2B lead generation appears to be reasonable enough. Here is what you have to do in detail.

Tip #1 Target

People normally see the difference between a personal email and the one sent for any reason connected with the business. However, the difference between a B2B email and B2C email is not that obvious for a beginner. Selecting the target audience among clients is quite easy, as it depends on your product hugely. But any company selling any product has to gain leads for their contact database in B2B sector, too. Once you’ve done it and before you have started your lead generation emailing, it is time to consider the peculiarities of your leads. The most common thing that you have to take into account is that your B2B leads don’t have spare time. So, you need to aim thoroughly not to overwhelm anyone with the unnecessary information. Another thing characteristic of B2B leads is that their decisions are much more rational.

Tip #2 Segment your audience

It is critical for you to segment and verify the email address of your target audience to ensure a good open rate. Statistically, the open rate of segmented email campaigns is higher by 14.32% than that of the non-segmented campaigns. You may base the segmentation simply on the size of companies under consideration, or rely on statistics, or try to employ the most challenging way – based on your audience’s needs. One way or another, segmentation will contribute a lot to the effectiveness of your emails.

Tip #3 Hit with the headline

First and foremost, an email headline has to be clear and direct. We have discussed already that your B2B leads won’t waste any time. They are not supposed to guess what your email is about. Don’t be over-creative – metaphors are entirely useless (even harmful) in such a case. You may use puns, on the other hand, but the message has to remain clear.

Here’s an example from GetResponse Team that highlights the urgency (only 500 accounts left) and gives the reader a sense of exclusivity:

Tip #4 Choosing the headline count yourself

You will hardly generate the best headline automatically. Although, you may try generators to get some variants that you can work with. You will still have to tailor them a lot. So, our advice is that headline generators can be helpful if you are completely out of ideas or lack experience and want to see how it works. Just like any other soft designed to think instead of writers, headline generators cannot be fully trusted.

Tip #5 Address your reader’s needs

Previously, a lot of companies were positioning themselves as the ultimate good for the client or even for all people. Today, such messages are out of fashion. First, nobody believes it anymore. Second, people are tired of being forced into buying something. With the help of the Internet, the majority of marketing tricks have become evident to the point of irritation. Besides, your leads are well-informed about the fact that you are not the only one in the market.

You must show them that this is all about them, not about you. How can they use your product to demonstrate their individuality? How can they benefit from it personally? How can they help others using or buying it? Here’s an example of how AWS does it:

The email might not be very visual, but the message is pretty simple – register for a conference that can boost your professional expertise now, before the tickets are sold out.

Tip #6 Make it convenient and useful to the reader

Besides, thinking about your leads’ needs also presupposes making your emails easy to read and comprehend. Make an email mobile-optimized, brief, and interesting. It can contain useful information, too. Essay writing services may provide leads with some examples of descriptive essays, for instance, to demonstrate their scope of offers and professionalism.

Here’s a great example from Grainger. The message ‘make the switch to energy efficiency’ clearly explains how the product can be useful for the reader.

Tip #7 Visualize your data

First of all, you really should make your email visual. It is hard to imagine a lead generation email without data visualization, including infographics. According to statistics, people consume 90% of information visually. The same source claims that 40% of us will respond to such information rather than the one written in plain text. You are still going to write the text for other needs, right? So, why miss the chance to attract as many leads as possible?

Here’s a great visual example of a flash sale that is brief, visual, and funny at the same time:

Tip #9 Don’t just show – Make them feel

Another benefit of using imagery in your email is that it helps you appeal to the reader’s senses. It is not enough to show your product, show what a fascinating experience it is to have and to use it. The same thing works with services. If you represent online essay writing services, include images of groups of people studying or writing together. Make your readers feel involved. In the case of B2B emails, this will help your leads a lot to forward the information to the end-user. So, your leads may soon become your prospects and, eventually, partners.

Take a look at this email, for example. Can you feel the Halloween here? This appeal to emotions seriously boost the chances of a message sinking through, even though GMOs seem nothing to do with the day.

Tip #10 DON’T make mistakes

Seriously. Of course, everyone knows about the importance of proofreading every piece of writing. And, naturally, you have checked your email for mistakes. Therefore, you might think that you can skip this tip and leave it for those who have no experience in email marketing at all? You know what? Instead of thinking about it, you could have spent that minute on rereading your message. It is great for a marketer to be confident in his or her skills, including the language ones. But imagine what the slightest grammar mistake, a missed comma, or a simple typo can do to the reputation of your company and your product. It is even more devastating in the B2B sector when your readers want you to be super professional to become your leads. Don’t just run your text through a grammar checker, although it is quite useful as well. Read every single word in your text and the pictures. Don’t let ‘sails’ instead of ‘sales’ ruin it all.

Lead generation has finally stopped being something unbearable for the majority of people. The times when a lot of marketers were terrified at the thought of trying to interest potential clients are long gone. With our tips, it is not even so toilsome for the B2B segment, where the level of responsibility is a lot different.