With face-to-face events cancelled to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, one channel is seeing a dramatic surge in popularity.
For B2B marketers, email is becoming the most effective channel as companies adapt to the new normal. At the start of lockdown, email volumes rose 29% in a single week, compared to the same period the previous year.
That same week saw open rates rise 53%. But simply sending more emails isn’t enough. Indeed, email volumes rose but response rates started to decline. This means emails must engage and add value while reassuring potential customers that they’re more than just a sales metric.
The new sales imperative
Generating leads and closing sales has taken on a very different look during the pandemic. Budgets may be squeezed, or even temporarily put on hold, and empathy is becoming a powerful currency. Marketers must use their savvy to meet potential customers’ needs at a time when closing the sale might not be the most effective way to generate long-term revenue.
But delivering personalisation at scale, even over email, can present a challenge for marketers. Tailoring the right message at the right time or amending it to suit rapidly changing circumstances is impossible for all but the highest-value, high-touch client relationships.
This is where automated email mixed with engaging creative steps in. Because email isn’t just a messaging platform. With the right technology and supporting data in place, it is also a highly effective advertising channel.
Making white space work for you
Most B2B emails are signed off with nothing more than the bland credentials and contact details of the sender. This space could be used to much better effect. What many B2B organisations don’t realise is that each email is effectively carrying with it a blank billboard –an opportunity to advertise a unique point of interest, product offer or event.
The email signature can be turned into an effective, engaging prospecting tool, targeted according to GDPR-compliant data sets. Depending on the customer profile, these interactive signatures can advertise a new event – real or virtual – and navigate the customer through to a registration page. Alternatively, they can use eye-catching visuals to deliver attractive, personalised discounts.
Importantly, campaigns can be pre-approved, automated and pivoted in real time. Sales teams can work remotely with confidence, knowing they have all the tools to nurture leads without having to go back to team leaders time and again to find new ways to change the messaging and respond to new client needs.
More email responses = better customer understanding
These needs include situations where click-to-conversion may not be the highest priority. Messaging in email signatures can shift from direct sales to highlight value-adding content, such as blogs, webinars, free trials and more.
By integrating analytics, it is also possible to track audience and content interactions in real time, helping you understand your customers’ preferences and needs and adjust messaging to suit. That information inevitably informs the wider organisation, which is looking for any insight possible into what is motivating and resonating with clients right now.
There is no doubt that these are challenging times. Businesses whose lifeblood is based on physical interaction are either struggling or in stasis and many face a long road to recovery. Those in the digital realm are faring better overall with the ability to adapt to new working norms and re-prioritise where necessary.
Making the most of building relationships, engaging prospects and getting the best value from all channels open to them – especially email – puts B2B marketers in the best position to emerge from lockdown intact. Or better still, with a raft of new growth opportunities.
