Buying process in the B2B segment takes longer than in the usual B2C segment. The reasons for this are typically large investments, higher stakes, and the involvement of several decision makers in B2B marketing. Most B2B marketers have been using e-mail marketing for decades, but an astounding 53% of them continue to struggle with their low click-through rates. All this and more are part of a recent report released by Dun & Bradstreet NetProspex.
The objective of this report is to understand the most challenging obstacles to the success of email marketing that B2B marketers have been encountering all this while. It also includes the insights given by many of the business, marketing, and sales professionals; most of whom are from the B2B marketing segment.
The report underlines some important findings that are elaborated below:
• E-mail marketing very important tactic for B2B marketers: Among B2B marketers, 87% consider email as one of their major tools to accumulate leads. For 60% of the respondents, increasing engagement is the most important objective of their email marketing strategy. In order to achieve this purpose, it is essential to begin a conversation with the target audience before getting them to consider the offer. Relevance of the conversation also plays an important role in email marketing.
• Improving click-through rate (CTR) is a big challenge: More than half of the respondents covered in the 2015 B2B Benchmarks survey have cited improving click-through rates as the toughest challenge of their job. None among the target audience would like to click an email that does not interest them. Knowing the audience is the first step, while having meaningful and relevant content in the email comes next. The idea is to inspire the target audience to take action with the help of effective engagement.
• Good design and well-crafted call to action are both important: The use of a great design and attractive graphics seldom cover up a poorly crafted call-to-action. Useful information or an attractive deal communicated in the most engaging and personalized way is the most effective method for increasing click-through rates. If the B2B marketers succeed in doing this, the target audience would not only click on the targeted link, but would also be grateful for the offer.
• Targeting the right audience is critical: Identifying and targeting the right audience is absolutely necessary to yield results in e-mail marketing. By working hard towards developing a clean and accurate list, B2B marketers can make a greater impact with their personalized messages and calls to action. Among the respondents of the survey, 43% feel that listing profitable segments for targeting is the most difficult methods to execute.
• CTR is most important metric: Among the survey respondents, 73% are of the opinion that click-through rates are the most effective means for measuring the performance of e-mail marketing, closely followed by conversions. Most of the marketers felt that they were very successful with email marketing as compared to the previous year.
Continuous refining of e-mail marketing strategies based on the lessons learned from previously executed campaigns is the best way for B2B marketers to expect more success in their future campaigns. A/B testing and other methods of research can help in learning what drives the reader or a visitor to click on the targeted link and get converted to a customer.
More than 70% of the B2B marketers have acknowledged that they can benefit from the expertise outside of their organization, and this is the reason why they have outsourced their email marketing programs either wholly or partly.
For more details, download the e-mail marketing trends report.
- NetMarketer Editorial Team
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