There are many ways to get your company’s name out there. Historically, word-of-mouth, advertising, sales and marketing have driven the way businesses connect. It remains to be seen how effective social media will be in forging B2B relationships, though it’s in no doubt promising. There is however one reliable marketing method that businesses have been taking advantage of for decades: direct mail, or in its more recent form email marketing.

Where do you start?

1) Choose your target audience/industry.

2) If you need to get off the ground quickly and building your own list is not an option, utilize an email list provider such as:

www.cstonecanada.com
www.sales-lead.ca
www.trackibd.com

3) Create an email. Invest some time here: think about the value proposition you’re offering, determine your call to action and most importantly read your email from the “what’s in it for me?” perspective.

Be succinct, don’t go into details about pricing, instead direct people to a landing page where you can provide them with more info. On the landing page allow people to enter their contact information in exchange for a white paper or case study that highlights your company’s value. Here is where you can have people opt-in to receive additional emails. You’ll want to do this because courting a new customer through email can be a lengthy process. This of course requires additional emails to be sent, so have a plan, determine incentives, and tell a story. Show each prospective client how your company will save them money, drive revenue and attract customers. Choose one theme and make sure every sentence hits the same point.

There are lots of don’ts, but here are some basic do’s for email marketing:

•    Send marketing emails from an important person in the company, nobody wants to read an email from sales@yourcompany.com. Research from the PEW Internet & American Life Project shows that over 50% of readers look at the “from” line when deciding to open an email.

•    Make sure your subject line cuts through. List key info first, you don’t have a lot of room; Gmail only gives you 75 characters. A few other rules of thumb: don’t start you subject line with “free” and stay away from too many exclamation points.

•    Be sure to include your contact info, most people would rather talk to someone than reply to an email address.

•    Invest in a graphic designer, even if this means you have to hire someone, it’s a worthwhile investment.

•    If you’re having trouble developing a persuasive story, consider hiring an experienced B2B copywriter.

•    If you’re on social media, give people a link to follow/like you. This is a great way to stay on the screens of your customers even if they don’t opt-in to future emails.

If you’re looking to create multiple email campaigns quickly and easily, WebCanada’s Email Builder let’s you create rich, visually appealing emails from custom designed templates with ease.