How to send b2b emails that people actually give a sh*t about
(5 things to ensure >70% open rate)
Let’s be honest here, our inboxes are regularly filled with newsletters and in the spirit of this month, Black Friday discount codes. But, you know that email marketing is an essential tactic. You haven’t got to grips with it for your business yet, you’ve been thinking about it for a long time.
You might even have some emails on an old Mailchimp database.
But the blocker you always face — what would I even say that my audience would care about?
Time-pressed teams without a clear strategy find setting up even a simple monthly email overwhelming. I recently spoke to a prospect who had implemented an email system 9 months ago and was only just seeking support on the first campaign.
Many will say ‘email is dead’, ‘inboxes are full’ etc - and the reality is, that’s a lie. There are many benefits for b2b organisations, and the stats back it up:
Direct access to your clients and prospects — 77% of B2B buyers say they prefer to be contacted by email than any other channel.*
Ability to segment & personalise messaging — Personalised emails are opened 82% more than generic bulk-send emails.*
Build brand awareness, educate, promote and nurture those who aren’t ready to buy just yet — that 95% who are ‘out-market’.
Whilst working with Your Majesty, I was responsible for the bi-weekly email ‘10 Things’. A collection of interesting, inspiring and educational links from around the internet, curated by the expert team. We always got great feedback about the email, online and in-person, with an average 70% open rate, a 10% click rate and it even produced leads.
Here are 5 things I did to help maintain its quality and success:
Consistency — the email went out, every other Friday without fail.
Ongoing Database Management — only sending to ‘engaged’ readers, sending a re-engagement campaign every 6 months and keeping the data clean to avoid poor deliverability.
Welcome Flow — after signing up, remind readers what to expect.
Unique Sources — thanks to the cross-team input, we added value for our busy audience, demonstrated our expertise and offered unique insights.
Human Tone — speaking to our audience like the humans they are, essential in all modern communications.
The key to all of this is ensuring you’re offering value to your audience. For Your Majesty, 10 Things gives readers a curated list of interesting news and insights that cut through all the online clutter.
As David Baker said in an article on this exact topic (which I encourage you to read too) “The idea is that you should be able to write things that make the reader feel like you have a camera planted in their office”.
But where to start? Here are three questions to help you get started in defining an email strategy:
What pain points does your audience face that you can address with insights, advice, or resources? Do you have a recent client story to demonstrate this?
What action do you want a reader to take after reading your email?
What does success look like? Choose metrics: open rate, click-through rate, leads, replies, sales.
Quickly get started with Substack, Beehiiv or Kit (which is what I’ve been using). Each platform helps you grow your audience and share your posts in a formatted archive for people to look back at.
They’re all super simple to use, so what are you waiting for?
