Lead generation is vital for any digital marketing strategy that promises remarkable growth in business ROI. One of the most effective ways to generate B2B leads is through email marketing. According to a recent study, against every $1 invested in a B2B email marketing strategy, you can scale your ROI up to $40 – $45. This significant improvement in ROI clearly reveals the impact of email marketing lead generation.
Another research reveals that around 85% of lead generation experts leverage B2B email marketing strategy to hook and nurture most of their leads. But what makes B2B email lead generation one of the most effective lead generation strategies and how can you curate the one for your business.
This article will discuss some strategic initiatives and tested B2B email lead generation tips.
What is B2B email lead generation?
B2B email lead generation involves sending personalized emails and collecting email leads via lead forms in exchange for something valuable like gated content, tutorials, promos, etc. The overall process is much more comprehensive than it sounds as it involves collecting information and insights into prospects’ data, evaluating their behavior, and their likelihood of becoming a sale.
It also includes a series of lead nurturing steps to improve the quality of leads and eventually convert them into sales. As a result, email lead generation produces remarkable outcomes when carried out perfectly by skyrocketing your ROI and reducing customer acquisition costs.
Why B2B email lead generation is Important?
If you want to improve the bottom line of your B2B business and increase your sales, you need to set up an impactful B2B lead generation strategy. Without such an optimized lead generation funnel, you will continue to struggle with attracting, engaging, and retaining your customers.
According to recent research, around 60% of lead generation experts heavily rely on email marketing to generate high-quality leads. A practical B2B email marketing strategy can be beneficial for your business in the different ways like:
- Allowing you to attract and hook your target audience.
- Helping you revamp and improve your brand awareness campaign
- Offering remarkable sales opportunities as more leads directly translate into more paying customers.
Best B2B email lead generation Examples that you can use
SuperOffice Example
This personalized email by SuperOffice stresses the need to download Free Guide. Customer case studies and reports related to industry data and trends serve as the final push toward sales.
Kissmetrics Example
Kissmetrics is a web-based analytics tool that allows businesses to monitor and evaluate different KPIs of their online business. For example, consider the following lead generation email by Kissmetrics that asks the recipient to register for the Webinar related to Email Marketing.
Also, leverage these lead nurturing email examples to build relationships with your prospects.
How to improve B2B Email lead generation campaigns?
Let’s take a deeper look into some tested & fruitful email lead generation tips and strategies for B2B.
1. Find targeted prospects
The foremost step to creating a firm base for your B2B email marketing strategy starts with building the right buyer persona for your business. A buyer persona is your ideal customer profile. It helps you target the prospects who are more likely to become a customer. Creating a buyer persona requires comprehensive research into your ideal customer demographics, interests, behavior, expectations, and priorities.
Once you create your buyer persona, filter all your lead data and target those who match your buyer persona. You can also leverage a 3rd party email finder tool that enables you to find individual or business email addresses from online platforms or websites.
2. Send Personalized emails to increase response rates
Personalized emails are the key elements that determine the success of your B2B email lead generation. To persuade your email receivers to click and open your lead generation email use personalized subject lines. It is also recommended to craft your email content around the prospect’s business, industry, designation, pain points, and expectations. It will ensure your readers a vibe that they are not interacting with the robot or algorithm and are most likely to continue their journey with your brand.
3. Avoid Lengthy and Boring Emails
The research reveals that the ideal length of any B2B lead generation email ranges from 50 to 150 words. Emails with the recommended length or word count promise a significant increase in engagement. Therefore, it is necessary to make your emails relevant and concise. Try not to clutter your email body with too much text and break your paragraphs into bullets for better readability.
4. Use catchy subject lines to grab the attention
Catchy subject lines that trigger the curiosity of your email receiver ensure better email clickthrough rates. A recent survey shows that over 35% of email recipients open emails with catchy subject lines. Make sure not to make clickbait or irrelevant subject lines or your email will be more likely reported as spam. Instead, incorporate personalization and relevance as much as you can and try to grab user attention by targeting their pain points.
5. Experiment with CTA’s
Why push a range of emails to your leads? You want them to take action like downloading a case study or an ebook, booking the consultation, or purchasing the product. It is necessary to conclude your email with a clear and persuasive CTA. Experiment with different CTAs with different colors, sizes, and positions and opt for the one that converts more leads.
6. The Secret Recipe of email marketing
When it comes to B2B email lead generation, you need to think critically about the time and days of sending emails. For multi-national businesses, it is vital to consider differences in time zones and send emails during business hours and working days.
Another vital factor is the frequency of follow-up emails. Firstly, don’t make your follow-up emails sound like a sales pitch. Secondly, refrain from spamming the chatbox of your prospect by sending multiple emails in a single day.
It is recommended to keep a margin of 48 hours between each follow-up email and give your email recipient enough time and space to consider the original email and make up their mind. In case you’re sending an email to a person having a critical job role or busy schedule like VPs or CEOs of enterprise-grade organizations, give them more time, like 3 to 5 days after sending your first email.
7. Use Email segmentation to improve ROI
To make your B2B email marketing strategy more efficient and effective, try segmentation by categorizing your email leads into subgroups based on different aspects. This segmentation can be based on timezones, demographics, position, industry, age, quality of leads, and other vital attributes of your buyer persona.
8. Leverage Social media for building email subscribers
You can post, publish and promote your valuable gated content on social media platforms and drive your social media audience to your lead pages or CRM. For social media lead generation, consider platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook, where your B2B businesses and professional individuals spend most of their time.
You can also host a webinar on social media and ask your audience to signup for your newsletter at the start or end of your Webinar. Another effective way to leverage social media for creating an email subscribers list is to create Facebook lead generation Ads and target custom audiences for higher engagement.
9. Be creative and playful with your newsletter content
Plan, design, and create valuable content with a long-form format like blog posts, industry news or trends, and customer case studies to ensure authority and strengthen trust with your B2B prospects. Publish and promote your blogs and newsletter with the necessary CTA to drive customer actions and ensure conversions.
10. Automate email
How is it possible to send hundreds of emails to different businesses or professionals in a single day? Email automation is the key to creating and sending emails to the right prospects at the right time. You can use different email marketing automation tools like Active Campaign, Hubspot, and drip to streamline your B2B email lead generation campaign.
11. There is always room for improvement (A/B test)
A/B testing or split testing is an effective way to test your email lead generation campaigns and strategies. There is always room for improvement. A/B testing allows you to test the efficiency of two email marketing strategies or individual emails against each other & determine which one is more impactful. It helps you reduce customer acquisition costs (CAC) by choosing the most optimal and effective B2B email lead generation model or strategy.
12. Focus on lead nurturing step to build meaningful connections with prospects
Lead generation is not a standalone process. Once you capture leads, you need to nurture them with the right content and add value to their CX throughout their journey with your brand. It will help you build a trustworthy relationship with your prospects. Incorporate these lead nurturing strategies to retain your existing customers.
13. Send irresistible offers
The most effective way to engage your prospect is by pushing irresistible offers in your B2B marketing emails. Offer giveaways, ebooks, free consultation, and extended trial periods to your prospects in exchange for their contact info. You can also create a sense of urgency by offering limited-time offers or promos to trigger the impulsive purchase desires of your prospects.
14. Focus on a mobile-friendly email design template
According to the stats, over 60% of B2B prospects make a purchase from their smartphones or tablets. You cannot afford to lose such a gigantic customer base, right? Design and create a mobile-friendly B2B lead generation email template to give engaging and interactive UX to your B2B users who are searching for their next purchase on their mobile phones.
15. Keep monitoring the analytics of your email marketing campaigns
As said earlier, there is always room for improvement. To keep improving your B2B email marketing strategy, you need to keep observing and evaluating different KPIs and engagements with your emails like:
- Open rates
- links clicked
- Bounces
- TR
- Email replies
- Op-outs
- Conversions, etc.
Conclusion
This is how to generate email leads for B2B businesses and improve the ROI of your lead generation campaigns up to a notable extent. Start by creating your buyer persona, incorporate lead generation tools, personalization, & creativity, and keep improving your B2B email marketing strategy for better conversion rates and reduced customer acquisition costs.
