One of the most effective ways to grow your business is by acquiring new customers. The more customers you have, the more products and services you’ll be able to offer, which means more significant revenue potential for your company.
Sending out B2B cold emails means you are fighting against the current of” spam” and using all that you know to increase response rates, acquire new customers, and create ambassadors of your recipients with a bit of luck.
This guide will not waste your time with fluff or discuss what you likely already know, as the Internet is full of the same generic information covering basics with time fillers.
Without the practical knowledge of what you need to know, you’re losing valuable leads from your email data list.
It’s highly costly to your business to have unsubscribers and painfully have to remove them from your email list. It’s even more painful when you are simply not getting the response your company deserves.
The focus of this guide is to help you reduce unsubscribers, increase new customers, and get better results. This need-to-know, not-so-obvious but informative guide is intended to reinvigorate your email marketing campaign for the better.
Email marketing is the most affordable and efficient means of reaching potential customers. It’s also in your best interest to make use of this tool as much as possible because it will set you apart from other companies by giving them a more personal touch!
Acquisition VS Retention Using Email Marketing
An email has become a powerful tool for customer retention; there’s no doubt about that due to the speed and cost benefits. However, their primary focus is acquisition and finding ways to increase it using email marketing for new fledgling businesses.
Research shows that many businesses have abandoned email marketing to capture new customers. They prefer to use it only for existing customers and care little to use it for anything else. This comfortable strategy may work for well-established brands or companies that do not wish to expand further.
For online businesses and new fledgling businesses, the process of acquiring new customers is vital for their survival. Even though email marketing used for retention is far more successful than the acquisition, it is still very much worth using for cold email marketing.
Factors That Influence Response Rates In Cold Email Marketing
During the initial campaign process, key factors you need to pay special attention to can be easily overlooked even by experienced marketers.
Authority – Email senders of different types of authority are a significant factor determining the open rate in your email marketing campaign. For example, emails from event organizers, managing directors, and department heads to their employees will certainly have an exceptionally high open rate.
Professional organizations use authority to influence recipients’ behavior towards opening the email, browsing the website, and subscribing to newsletters.
There are techniques cold email marketers use to engage positively with recipients using authority. One such technique is known as “domain expert,” where marketers show their credibility and expertise in their business niche.
Subject Line – Quantitative research supports a significant correlation between the subject line and email response rate. Furthermore, there is a substantial increase in the open email rate if the subject line is in conjunction with a targeted email list and “legitimate interest,” relatable content.
The number of links – Godin states the relevance of links in the email content to directly influence the number of unsubscribes and response rate of an email marketing campaign. Without abusing and using a bit of tack, you can reduce unsubscribers by increasing the number of links in the email content.
This is likely due to the recipient not quickly identifying the unsubscribe link instantly due to the other links. Uninterested recipients may not spend more than a couple of seconds searching for the unsubscribe link. If they don’t unsubscribe, this leaves it open for you to send more relevant emails next time.
Incentives – The percentage of unsubscribes will decrease when your email campaign uses appropriate incentives suitable for the target audience. Incentives also help increase your open rate, as discussed by Godin in many of his research articles.
Use at least one incentive incorporated into the email design and mention it in your subject line. A better-targeted list with good motivation and the subject line will become a staple ingredient to help improve your email marketing campaign.
The number of scrolls – The length of the email is highly influential in the responsiveness of the recipients, and the longer the email, the lower the response rate. Given that all the other factors are working, you must also pay attention to how much content you send out.
A lengthy email article will pose a more significant challenge to the email marketing creative designer. Also, you are forcing the recipient to stay on the email longer and exhaust their attention time, thus, less likely to click through to your website. Email messages must be clear, concise, and have no more than one scroll of the screen.
Imagery – The email design is a critical element in improving response and reducing unsubscribes. More colorful and attractive emails generate more excellent response given that it’s also relevant. A minimum of one image in the email content has shown to be helpful to a more positive campaign.
Targeted Email List – Godin strongly believes that a targeted email list is the fundamental backbone of a good email marketing campaign. You should be headed to your optimal open and response rate with a substantial incentive in the subject line and relevant content.
Analyzing the targeted age demographic shows that the 18-24 age group is one of the least responsive. At the same time, 30 to 40 age groups are the most responsive and the highest likely to click-through and purchase. Mainly because the 30-40 age groups are high earners and spenders have disposable income, presenting as your financially viable target group.
Examining Pass-Along Viral Emails
Not much is known about the motivations, attitudes, and behaviors of those who pass along emails to others. One sure thing is that there are identifiable characteristics of what makes an email suitable to be given to others.
Similar to word-of-mouth advertising, there is evidence, although anecdotal, that viral pass-along email marketing can lead to high rates of business success.
From your cold email marketing results, you can see that recipients often hit the delete key when they know it’s from a marketer. However, they are reluctant to do so when the email is from someone they know.
It is highly conceivable to think that “buzz” plays a critical role in the purchasing process. Therefore, for your business to increase sales, it is only logical to invest time and effort into what creates “buzz.”
What Constitutes A Good Pass-Along Email?
There is always someone you know in your workplace that sends you these funny, sometimes motivational, or championing social causes emails. I’m sure you can recall forwarding these emails to your friends and colleagues. The attributes that persuade most people to deliver emails can be a combination of the two listed below:
The correct motive – Research is clear that one of the main reasons people forward “pass-along” emails is its driving factor. An appropriate funny meme gets passed around in the office to colleagues and customers alike.
The individual’s motivation may show they have a specific type of humor in their personality trait. It’s also an easy way to “break the ice” and keep themselves memorable to a customer.
A good “pass-along” email for B2B is the type that “helps others.” In a sense, recent related helpful tips, news, and motivation. Tactfully combined with “entertaining,” your email can spread from existing clients to new clients.
The emotional reaction – Recipients had reported having experienced positive emotions when they sent pass-along emails. They feel a sense of being helpful when they pass along a generous tip. Many have occasionally reported not noticing who the sender was as they moved by the subject line.
Based on current findings, it has emerged that women are twice as more likely than men to pass along an email. Given women’s significant influence in retail purchasing and their heightened representation online, marketers will do well to prioritize targeting “pass-along” emails to this demographic.
Conclusion
Email marketing is a potent tool for customer acquisition and customer retention. Experienced marketers even create multi-chain emails that recipients happily pass on to their friends and colleagues.
Pay very close attention to the factors that influence the success of your email marketing campaign. Marketers often overlook authority, yet it is one of the most powerful techniques to acquire new customers. Spend time and effort using sources correctly in your email content, and it will surely return your investment.
The occasional viral “pass-along” email to your existing customers can lead to new customers, and it also helps to keep you in their active memory. Follow the proven techniques to create infectious emails to be part of your email marketing campaign.
How to get your first 1000 email subscribers:
