Best Practices For B2B Emailing, “How Often Do I Have To Email?”
You’ve got your business up and running and it’s growing. You’re reaching customers, making sales, and building your client list. Things are going well, but how do you keep up the momentum?
Sure you’ve got your socials, word of mouth, and a sleek, interactive website, but how can you be sure that your current and potential customers are aware that you exist and that you’re available?
Easy: email. B2B emailing is one of the sure-fire ways to stay relevant with your many contacts. Email marketing itself is a marketing branch that businesses think about, but not always enough. One or two emails at the start of a business relationship isn’t going to cut it—you have to do more. But how much more? How often should you be emailing clients and other businesses? Thankfully, we’ve got the answers for optimal B2B emailing success.
Email For As Long As The Sales Cycle Takes
One thing to remember as a B2B company is that when it comes to the sales cycle, no matter what you’re actually selling, you have to be in for the long haul. The average sales cycle can take anywhere from 6-12 months, and even then timelines will vary. This means that you can be in touch with another business for up to a year or more before a sale is closed. If you want to keep the ties between you strong as you journey through a year together, you have to communicate. However, doing so too much or too little can have an adverse effect on your business relationship and success. Some businesses send an email or two every single week, but imagine getting up to two emails a week, every week, for the next 12 months. That’s over one hundred emails! Sounds pretty annoying and overwhelming, right? And all you’d accomplish is flooding your contact’s inbox with spam that they likely won’t even see.
So yes, you need to email as long as it takes to complete a sales cycle, but this doesn’t mean you start spamming other businesses. Instead, be strategic and thoughtful: one to two emails a month is ideal, especially if they’re spaced out adequately. The key is keeping your business at the forefront of their mind without being in their face, which brings us to our next point: it doesn’t matter if your email gets read.
Seen and Deleted? That’s Okay.
Yeah, you read that right: your email being read isn’t really part of the strategy here. To be clear, you want all your email content to be well-written, polished, and relevant in case it is read (or at least skimmed), but your main objective is for your name to be seen. If your contact sees your company’s name and then deletes the email, you’ve won. If they actually read the email? That’s a bonus!
How often you email isn’t so much about your message as it is about being remembered. Even if your contact immediately sends your stuff to the trash, rest assured that they’re seeing your company’s name and brand message as they highlight the message to send it to the digital bin. The goal here is for your name to stick out. If your contact is deleting an email from you each month, you’re going to stay in their memory amid all the hustle and bustle of their business. This steady email regimen also shows that you’re active and aware of your current and potential customers: you remember them as they will remember you.
Not Only When You Need Something
An important rule of thumb is not to email only when you need something. Your customers and clients can catch on pretty quickly if you’re MIA most of the time and then pop up with some request or new sales pitch. Your customers and clients are sure to feel used if you only appear to request they buy your new product or service after weeks or months of silence. It also shows inconsistency in your marketing strategy and poor relationship-building skills. But what if you do have a new product or service you need to push? Mention it in your monthly or bi-monthly email amid other news, ideas, and check-ins, not just when you’re trying to make a sale.
When it comes to B2B emailing, you want to be consistent enough to stay relevant. While what your email says is important, remember that your main goal is to be seen. At the end of the day, you want to gently nurture your relationship with other businesses and clients by being present but not overbearing. Visit us today to learn how our team of expert marketers can help you craft the perfect emails to reach your goals and keep your clients aware and interested.
