5 STEP GUIDE TO WRITING BETTER B2B EMAILS

Writing good quality B2B prospecting emails that get a reaction is not as easy as it seems. Doing it as a team is one way to improve your outcomes, as long as you have a set of guiderails in place. The following tips will help guide individual business development reps and account executives on how to optimize their outcomes. Getting your team together on a weekly basis to walk through what is working and what is not, will lead to greater success as the team can continuously improve their subject lines, email copy, and CTAs to improve your overall business impact.
1) Get it Open: Subject Lines That Work

• Keep it Short: 20 characters or less will get 27% higher open rates.
• Make it Relevant: Focus on topics that are relevant today (Covid, Hurricanes, Security, etc.) 48% higher open rates.
• Use: Words that create a sense of urgency like “Last Chance”, “Offer Ending Friday”, “Limited Time Offer” as well as trigger words like “Free”, “Exclusive”, “For Customers Only”, “Designed for CFOs”, “Private Access”.
• Avoid: Words like “meeting” or “urgent” and technical buzzwords.
• Consider: An emoji in the subject (one only, don’t push it).
• Is your subject line good? Benchmark it here.

2) Optimize Engagement: Messages That Resonate with Buyers

• Keep it Short: No more than four short lines of text (not HTML), many people will open on a mobile device.
• Relevant: Specific to role, person, and subject line, with the text personalized using “you” and the person’s name.
• CTA: The message should align to the subject line in a clear and relevant way, using key trigger words to get engagement. There needs to be a next step…things like: learn more, download content, take a meeting. Including a meeting setting link will increase meeting conversions.
• Authority: Use testimonials from existing customers or analysts to build authority or better yet, deliver authoritative company content.
• Negative is Positive: Use negative outcome (i.e. loss of data)...people are 2x more likely to want to eliminate risk than to get a reward. Its Loss Aversion that drives the way people react. 

3) Timing: When You Send Has a Significant Impact on Results

• ​Targeting and timing of emails (day/time), go to subject line and download their timing guide sheet.

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4) Following Up: Being Persistent is Key

• Follow-up cadence: 10x over two weeks. Just four touches vs. two will increases response rate by 47%. Topic sequence...offer introduction > time is running out > last chance.

5) ​Continuous Improvement: Analyze Results and Outcomes

• Measure outcome and continue to test what is working and what is not. Continuous improvement will enable you to improve response rates and react quickly to changing market and buyer dynamics.

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