#1 The right Email header/title
Your email header must be unique, professional and personalized. Many companies fail to find the right wording for their email titles. If you don’t get the title right, all your campaign efforts will be in vein!
A strong email title drastically increases the email open rate. In B2B, avoid using emoticons, exclamation marks, special characters and caps lock.
In some cases, the right email header helps bypass spam filters that use exempt rules (or AI for spam detection). To elaborate, when you are using the company name in the header, it could be recognized as internal communication, which switches off filters.
In B2B, you need to work hard to keep you emails from getting flagged. Start by fixing your Title.
#2 The right Email content
There are many ways to build your email content for your email campaigns. I will give you the structure that I use:
Here as an example of how I compile content:
Some people advise using pictures and videos. Due to formatting issues and blockers, I avoid it. However, you can always attach additional files.
#3 Leverage Email perception
One important facet of email marketing is the email perception. Marketing experts often neglect it as they do not understand consumer behavior.
I will reveal one (of many techniques) that I use to influence my audience. When reading emails, the reader “Z scans” the email. Z SCAN is the process of perceiving written information. The eyes scan through the information in a Z pattern; hence the name.
While Z scanning, some of the information is absorbed by the subconscious mind. That’s usually highlighted and coloredbuzz words along the pattern. This tends to passively influence the behavior of the reader; in ways we’re still trying to understand…
Please note that most professionals use mobile devices to check their mailbox. This means that your email needs to be responsive! It has to adapt to mobile interface! Test and review emails internally with your colleagues prior to sending out. I can’t stress it enough, make sure your email is in line with your strategy across all significant devices!
#4 A/B Test & Analyze
Lastly, I would advise using Google Analytics (or similar software) to study your email campaign. You want to keep track of behavioral changes when implementing a new strategy.
Start by differentiating audience groups and understanding good/bad behavior. If you notice an underscoring group, see if there is an underlying denominator; e.g. region, language, industry, etc. Then go ahead and tweak your email parameters to sync with your target group.
# Bonus Tip
There is no perfect strategy… Each audience is different and requires trial and error until you get it right.
As a bonus, I want to warn you about frustration and failure… Yes, you will run into a conundrum… Marketing is both logical and intuitive, you’ll have to trust in your marketing efforts, otherwise you will lose.
FromBuzzToScience 