B2B email marketing: A strategic approach for lead generation

As Jordie van Rijn rightfully points out – “nobody ever bought an airplane after reading one email”.

This is where B2B marketing truly differs from B2C; for a vast majority of B2B organizations, a business transaction is nothing like popping to the shop, seeing something new and grabbing it. It takes time and discussion between various decision makers. 70% of B2B buyers purchase to solve a problem, and 30% purchase just to gain something. This means that the majority of people reading your emails will only engage with you if they’re already aware of a problem within their business, and believe your business can help them solve it. An average of 7 decision makers are involved in a B2B purchasing process, so one of them won’t come to you unless they’re in desperate need, or they’re sure at least a few others will agree with them.

This means that your email marketing has to be strategically planned in waves that reflects a journey. The first is received and acknowledged, and from there, referencing the previous contact and offering something further or new, you’ll begin the nurturing process. After time, you’ll notice leads come forward and ask for more, and these nurtured leads will be far more likely to move through your sales pipeline successfully. Though some may come forward after the first email, there’s a chance they haven’t really thought about their needs and they’re less likely to go on to buy.

The biggest take home from this is quality over quantity. Email marketing isn’t about slamming the send button as much as humanly possible, it’s about explaining to people how you can help them and why they need you, in detail. This detail is what can help them to realize a problem that they have or, a problem they might have in the future that ultimately, you can help to solve. When looking to generate business leads, remember the end goal – obtain more customers; so make sure they’re interested and informed enough to buy.