Maybe you send the occasional newsletter or shoot out a product announcement here and there, but if you've invested thousands of dollars in a marketing automation tool, this is just scratching the surface of what email marketing could mean for your business.
Imagine the traffic, engagement, and conversions that could be generated if email marketing was a core part of your strategy instead of an afterthought.
We can! (Well, we don’t actually have to use our imagination given this is something we help clients with every day.)
Need some further proof? How about some of these recent email stats?
- 50% of marketers say email is their most impactful channel
- People are 3x more likely to make purchases from email marketing than social media
- 50% of people say they buy from a marketing email at least once a month
- 80% of people are more likely to make a purchase from a personalized email
They paint a clear picture: There’s power in email marketing.
That’s why I’m sharing my 10 years of email marketing expertise and more than a dozen ideas that you can start using right away to turn your email efforts into a powerful, results-driven channel. Several of the ideas I’ve shared are single sends or series that can be automated, in that you can set them up to send based on predefined triggers or schedules, taking some of the manual lift off of your team on-going.
Email Marketing Ideas for B2B Companies
1. New Client Onboarding Series
The first 30-90 days of a new B2B customer relationship are make or break. In addition to the touchpoints your team may be having with a new customer, consider scheduling the send of a multi-email series that guides clients through onboarding your product or service, providing them with tutorials, tips, and resources to ensure a smooth transition.
2. Event Promotion
Do you have a booth at an industry tradeshow? Are members of your sales or product teams attending a fe local events? Are you planning a webinar series around important industry topics? Don't sleep on your email list as far as promoting your attendance at or hosting of any of these events. Ideally, you can segment your list to the most relevant events, whether geographic location or prospects vs. current customers.
3. Lead Nurture Campaigns
Whether you gain new leads through a gated asset, webinar or event, having a plan to nurture these leads over time is critical. Start with a scheduled 5-email drip series sending an email every 7 to 10 days with content that leads them down a certain track. Start with higher funnel content like relevant blogs and then get into some more consideration content like case studies or customer testimonials. Over time, you can build on this and take your drip series from 5 emails to 7 or swap in more relevant content as it’s created or you see what’s performing well.
4. Cross-Sell Campaign
If you sell a product or service that has a very similar user or audience base as another, it should be a no-brainer to set up a cross-sell campaign. This type of campaign is more strategic in nature and can even be paired with an ad campaign if you want to really drive results. Sometimes we even like to throw in a few plain text emails that appear to be from a sales rep to help close a deal at the end of the series.
5. Re-Engagement Campaign
If you admittedly haven’t sent many emails in the last year, a re-engagement campaign might be a good place to start, used to either re-engage dormant leads or maybe even customers who have been pretty quiet. Even if you’re using email more regularly, this can also be scheduled to enroll any subscribers who haven’t opened an email in ~6 months. This idea can include a series of personalized emails that offer exclusive deals, new content, or invitations to a webinar or event, reigniting their interest in your brand or offering. After you have sent 4 or 5 emails, it’s important to look for and delete any non-openers, or those who haven’t engaged with any of those emails. This is the best way to ensure your emails will continue to be delivered to other’s inboxes and won't be flagged as spam based on the inactivity of those you can’t seem to engage.
6. Industry Trends and Insights
If you really want to position your brand as a thought leader, content marketing is going to be key. Send regular emails sharing industry updates, your own research and insights, and emerging trends. This keeps your clients and prospects informed while subtly showcasing your expertise and letting them know you’re keeping up with the latest info.
7. Product Feature Highlight
Another great way to use email is to keep your clients informed about new or underused features of your product. Send an occasional email showcasing these features, explaining the benefits and use cases to encourage your clients to use them. Consider incorporating tips from product team members or testimonials from customers related to each feature to diversify these emails’ content.
Email can also be leveraged to share what your product roadmap looks like, giving customers a look into what’s coming next.
8. Quarterly or Bi-Yearly Survey
A great way to check in with your clients is to send them an occasional survey to get their feedback and insight. This can be an opportunity to proactively learn about any issue they might be facing and address it. Alternatively, they may share their continued excitement and kudos, which, with approval, can be used as testimonials in your marketing or to inform your product or brand messaging.
Email Marketing Ideas for B2C Companies
1. New Customer Onboarding
This idea has legs in the B2C world, too! This is an excellent way to share important information with customers up-front, whether you're an ISP and have important information about their internet installation, an e-commerce brand that wants to tell more of the story behind your brand, or a subscription-based service that has important info to share around billing and terms. This will help not only create a great user experience from the get-go but also alleviate some of the customer service calls that you might otherwise get early on. Later in the scheduled series, you can provide customers with information about other products and services as well, in an effort to cross-sell and make them stickier.
2. Seasonal Product Marketing
If you’re not taking advantage of email marketing to promote your seasonal products, you’re likely missing out on a huge revenue stream. Brands like Nespresso, Olive & June, and Alani Nu lean heavily into promoting their seasonal products to past customers, nearly ensuring that repeat buyers will return for more. But don’t just stop at one email promotion! We recommend building anticipation ahead of major seasonal periods by offering sneak peeks, exclusive early access or VIP discounts to email subscribers so they feel extra special.
3. Abandoned Cart Campaign
If you’re an e-commerce business and don’t currently have an abandoned cart email strategy, it could be a missed opportunity. This requires a more mature martech stack and integration, but when setup, can be powerful. In fact, an automated abandoned cart email flow can generate up to 30x more revenue per client. If possible, schedule a short series of emails over a few days reminding the shopper about their abandoned items, perhaps offering a limited-time discount, showcasing customer reviews, or suggesting related products to prompt action.
4. Post-Purchase Follow-Up
Depending on your product, sending an email a few days after a purchase or delivery can be a great way to build customer loyalty over time. This could include product care tips, relevant customer photos or testimonials about their use or styling of the product, or maybe recommendations for complementary products. But be warned, asking someone to be a repeat purchaser too soon might hinder their experience so focus on offering value rather than getting the next sale with this follow-up.
5. Refer a Friend
A referral program can be highly effective for some businesses, but if your customers aren’t aware that you have one, they’re unlikely to put much effort into referring others. That’s where email marketing comes in. Promote your referral program by sending a dedicated email twice a year as well as including reminders in other, relevant email campaigns. This will help raise awareness so that when a friend mentions they’re looking for a product or service like yours, your customer will gladly refer them.
6. Post-Purchase Survey
For some businesses that have a little more complicated of a sales process, sending a survey to new customers to get immediate feedback about how their purchase went could go a long way. For other businesses, it might make sense to let the customer use the product or service for a month or so before asking for feedback. Either way, a few-question survey sent via email is a great way to make sure what you offer is meeting expectations, if there is any friction in the purchase or onboarding process and more.
7. Generate Social Proof
Email can be a great cross-promotion opportunity to generate reviews, gain new social followers, or encourage user-generated content. Look for potential triggers or schedules, such as after a repeat purchase, to send a customer and ask to leave a review on any relevant site or follow one of your most active social media accounts for the latest going on with your brand.
8. Appreciation Emails
We're always looking for ways to help our customers excite and delight their customers! Look for opportunities to schedule emails that show your appreciation for your customer base. This could look like acknowledging their birthday, their anniversary with you as a customer or their 5th, 25th or 100th purchase with you. Consider including a special discount or reward—or maybe you can include a personalized message or message "directly" from company leadership.
Start Sending
If you’ve read through this blog and thought to yourself, “Wow, we’re not leveraging our email lists in any of these ways!” that’s okay. We’re here to help! We’ve consulted on and developed successful email marketing strategies for dozens of clients to make email the machine it was meant to be. Reach out today for help strategizing email marketing campaigns for your specific industry and business.