While email is one of the oldest type of digital communications, numbers prove that they still have an impressive ROI, especially in the B2B space. According to Content Marketing Institute, 87% of B2B marketers report that email is one of their top free organic distribution channels.

Here at VA Partners, we use HubSpot for our B2B email marketing campaigns. HubSpot is not only a reliable customer relationship management (CRM) tool, but it is also great for sending outbound emails. It has helped us nurture leads and convert them into paying clients. HubSpot is handy when creating email that is visually appealing without needing any sophisticated design skills. We certainly recommend it for small and medium-sized companies that have limited manpower. 

Here are few tips to optimize your B2B email marketing outbound campaigns on HubSpot.

Develop buyer personas

Outbound emails are akin to a cold call wherein you reach out and try to establish a connection with a prospect for the first time. To make sure that the individuals you are communicating with would be a good fit, it pays to develop buyer personas.

Personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers. The better you understand your prospects, the better you can craft the right messaging that will resonate with their goals, challenges and aspirations. In a way, you are crafting a story and context around the individuals who are most likely to be interested in your product or service.

You can start researching your personas by looking into your database of past customers, talking to your salespeople and learning about the issues they are hearing from prospects, checking out your competitors and their current roster of clients, or even researching about industry trends. Buyer personas are at the core of an effective B2B email marketing strategy.

Create clear and concise templates

Statista states that there are already 4 billion daily email users, and this number is projected increase to 4.6 billion by 2025. No doubt that email is still one of the main channels for communications especially in business. But because most people are inundated with emails, it gets harder and harder to capture their attention. Customizing your HubSpot templates according to your personas can help you improve open rates and conversions.

Some points to remember when developing your templates:

• Always ensure that your subject lines are concise and direct to the point so that the receiver immediately knows what to expect.
• Use your buyer personas to craft a customized messaging that will resonate with specific group of prospects.
• Zero in on their painpoints and convey how your product or solution can adequately address them.
• Place vital information at the top part of your email to make sure that they will be hooked immediately and will read the rest of your message.
• Make your email easily scannable by using bullet points and keeping paragraphs short.
• Include a specific call-to-action at the end of your email. Do you want them to book an appointment with you? Do you want them to check out specific landing pages? Do you want them to join an upcoming webinar? Be clear about what you expect your prospect to do next after receiving your email.
• Keep your emails CAN-SPAM and GDPR compliant.

Don’t forget to follow-up

Don’t give up if your initial email did not get a response. In our experience, it takes us one or two follow-ups before we get a positive reply. According to a Yesware report, those following up to at least five times, generates 80% of sales.

When following up, refresh your prospects memory by referencing the earlier email you sent. One useful tip is that within the email function in HubSpot, there is a section there that indicates “reply”. When you click on this, it will automatically attach your previous email at the bottom so your prospect can easily see it. It is said that the recipient will be more open to your message if you mention that you have contacted them before.  

Your follow-up email could also be an opportunity to add value and develop an ongoing relationship. If you have white-papers or case studies that they might find helpful, you can include it in the email as a small token.  

There are no hard and straight rules when it comes to how soon and how many times you should follow-up. You can send it a week or two after your initial email and repeated for another 3-4 times. But the best way to find out is to experiment to see what would be the magic number to get your foot in the door.

Prioritize most engaged leads

The great thing about HubSpot is that not only can you see who has opened your emails and how many times they did so, it also provides you a way to check who are your most engaged prospects. After you’ve sent emails, you can go into the sales tab and into tasks where you will find a list the that indicates “most engaged”. You can start prioritizing these prospects when following-up since they have signaled some interest in your message.

Email marketing campaigns require hard work and patience, but if you are open to trying new ideas and remain committed to the process, you will eventually find what works best for you. If you’re being authentic and providing real value, your prospects will appreciate your emails, which will hopefully help you close more deals.

If you want to learn more about B2B email marketing, subscribe to our newsletter. You can reach out to our team to learn more about how we can help boost your conversions.