With the importance of email in B2B marketing, it is essential to keep the focus on continuous improvement and optimization of your email marketing efforts. While there is a huge list of components that can contribute to the success of email campaigns, there are three, that when nailed down, will drive the most engagement from audiences.

Timing

The first of three primary email marketing components is timing. When should an email campaign be sent? There are so many questions about when the best time to send emails is, and most of the time, there is no universally correct answer. It depends on what works for each organization. Some might find sending on Tuesday first thing in the morning yields the highest engagement while another organization could see the best results when sending on Thursdays in the early afternoon.

To discover what works best, it is important to conduct A/B testing. To figure out what timing is most successful, it can be optimal to start with testing days of the week. Once a day with the highest engagement has been found, move to test morning versus afternoon times, narrowing in on a time range for each.

While we emphasize that the best timing is unique to every organization, there are some general best practices to follow including:

• Avoid sending campaigns on Mondays and Fridays. The influx of emails from the weekend can cause an email to get overlooked on Mondays and Fridays, many take off early or focus on other tasks that might not have been addressed during the week and not check email.
• Avoid sending late in the afternoon. Unless your organization has seen success with sending later in the afternoons, it is best to try to send earlier in the afternoon or the morning. With differences in time zones and work schedules, a campaign can easily slip through an inbox unnoticed.

Subject Lines

The second of three instrumental email marketing components is the subject line. This is the first thing that someone sees when your email hits their inbox. If it doesn¡¯t grab their attention with creativity or relevancy, there is a good possibility the email goes unopened, or even worse, deleted altogether.

Different organizations could see variations in success based on the included content or style of subject lines, so it is difficult to say exactly how to write one. Here again, A/B testing can help determine what works best for your audience. Also, following these best practices will help increase open rates and overall engagement.

• Keep your subject line short and sweet. Get the point of the email across but avoid adding ¡°fluff¡± to the subject line.
• If there is a special offer, call it out using brackets in the subject line. This helps it stand out when someone scrolls through their inbox.
• To avoid an email being marked as spam or junk, refrain from using words like ¡°free¡± and ¡°click here¡± in the subject line. An email provider will see this as suspicious.

Content

Now that you have gotten someone to open the email, the email content is the final of the three email marketing components. It needs to make an immediate impact. Similar to the subject line, keeping content short and to the point also matters. A majority of the time, readers will skim the content. Focusing on key terms and links can help engage and encourage your audience to take the next step. Consider these best practices to craft the most effective email content.

• Use bullets or numbered lists at the top of your email. This shows those that skim the email what are the main focus areas of the content.
• Always use clickable links. What does this mean? It¡¯s the difference between ¡°Visit our website¡± and hyperlinking to the website versus ¡°www.launch-marketing.com.¡± The first is a clear call to action and much more compelling.
• Always use a greeting such as ¡°Hello [First Name].¡±  While it is not a huge effort of personalization, it does make a difference.
• Have a singular call to action. This can mean talking about one asset or one offer in the email versus several assets or offers. Plus, it narrows down what a user can click on and engage with.

Interested in learning more about how Launch Marketing can elevate your B2B email marketing engagement? Contact us today or request a free consultation to learn more! We have helped many B2B technology clients create content and messaging for successful email marketing efforts.