Subject: [Hello, Blog Reader!] It’s a tale as old as Netscape. Another email marketer, here to talk to you about something relatable and hopefully start a connection.

As a reader, you know that an Email Marketing Strategy can be helpful (or at least entertaining) when it’s done right, but downright annoying when it’s done poorly. The power is in your hands to convert leads using meaningful strategies—not lead them directly to the “unsubscribe” button.

Today’s blog will touch on building an effective email marketing strategy for your business.

Where Does An Email Marketing Strategy Begin?

It depends on how you are securing the contact from your customers.

If a customer has supplied their information to your funnel, they presumably are interested in your product. Building a funnel could be entering an email for a free download or giveaway contest entry, checking a “subscribe to our newsletter” box on service sign up, or hopefully, a customer supplying their information willingly due to a genuine interest in your content.

If you’re collecting emails from LinkedIn or an app like ZoomInfo for cold email, you will want to segment your outreach into a semblance of pointed communication. Writing an email to a B2B CFO should sound a lot different than a recruiting email sent to recent graduates.

Tailor your message to the audience—a cold email should be inquisitive and collaborative while a newsletter or solicited email should be value-driven and connect readers directly to your services. After all, they’re here for a reason!

Trade Them Value For Their Time

When you’re busy at work, you don’t have time to entertain every conversation that comes your way. The same applies to folks reading your emails—you better have a good reason for interrupting their day.

Value can take many forms. It could be related to your brand in obvious ways, such as a product line expansion or sale. It could also take the form of a story from the industry or breaking news that impacts hobbyists or professionals in your field.

Ultimately, you want to maintain trust between your brand and the reader. Nothing kills customer interest faster than feeling like you are just another number or sale to them.

Think of the kind of content that makes you roll your eyes and stay away from it in your copy.

The best email marketing strategies also consider this value-for-time equation in regards to the number of emails sent. If you have nothing that the customer wants to hear, you’re better off saying nothing at all. If you press too much, they will not only ignore your future correspondences; they may unsubscribe from your emails entirely. Worse still, if your emails are flagged too often as spam, you’re going to have troubles with your internet service provider.

It should feel like a treat to open your email—not like missives from a clingy ex.

Craft Catchy Subject Lines

This is perhaps the most crucial piece of an email marketing strategy—crafting a good subject line.

Your subject line is the handshake of your email—it should inspire and compel the reader to open it! If your subject line is generic, there’s a good chance they will not even think of your content before it heads to the trash. Just think of how many unimportant emails you receive a day—are you really eager to jump up and down for even more of them?

Having your emails ignored or deleted is troubling for two reasons. Firstly, you are wasting your effort on content that is not converting, and secondly, email filters will begin to assume your email is spam the more a user ignores it. Too many unopened, deleted, or flagged emails, and you’ve got a one-way ticket to the spam box.

Connecting with people is the heart of any B2B enterprise. Email, when wielded correctly, can effectively open dialogues with new customers and drive sales with existing ones. Building your strategy might start with these tips, but there is plenty more opportunity to go up from here.

The strategies of this blog apply to mass email campaigns and cold email, though I do offer consultation on services such as outreach, email copywriting, and general sales coaching.

No matter how you’re looking to grow your business, I’m eager to discuss. Let’s get in touch and see how we can scale you and what you do best.