The Power of Personalization in B2B Email Marketing
In 2000, a year before Amazon had turned its first profit, Jeff Bezos proclaimed the importance of personal touch. He described personalization through a simple anecdote.
Personalization is when you go into a bar and sit down, and the bartender puts a whiskey in front of you without having to ask what you want,” Bezos said.
And while email marketing still cannot physically pour your customers’ drink-of-choice, the power of personalization in email marketing has never been greater (or easier for that matter).
Throughout this blog, I will share more about the capabilities that personalization has to offer in email marketing and some tips and tricks that I have learned in my experience that help B2B businesses capture and nurture qualified leads.
“When you send everyone the same email, demand everyone learn from the same lesson plan or try to sell everyone the same service, you've missed it.” - Seth Godin
Table of Contents
Personalization Token
Personalization Tokens (or variables) allow you to show personalized content to your contacts based on their property values in your CRM. Gone are the days of “Dear Valued Customer” when CRM data and advancements in drag-and-drop coding editors allow you to easily and confidently address your audience directly and personally. The power of personalization tokens does not stop here. In the B2B space, personalization tokens offer even more capabilities. Communication between a new lead or current customer can be personalized to be directly from specific individuals within an organization.
For example, let’s say that a new lead from the Midwest fills out a form to learn more about a new product at Company XYZ. With a simple automation, Company XYZ could send an email with more information on the product or an invitation to schedule a call that is personalized from the company’s Midwest Sales Rep using the “Contact Owner” field in Hubspot or equivalent field in other CRM platforms. For a visual representation of how this would appear in HubSpot, take a look at the example below.
Segmentation
Just like you don’t talk to your grandmother the same way you talk to your old college roommate, the best brands communicate differently with their different customer groups. Not only does the collection of zero-party data allow brands to better understand their customers, but when integrated with an email marketing ecosystem, brands can communicate with these groups differently through email automations.
Just like in D2C, you don't want to send everyone the same email, which also applies to B2B. Account size, geographic region, and business category are all important things to keep in mind when sending email campaigns to a large group of customers or creating automations that nurture leads down the sales funnel.
Segmentation allows you to provide more relevant content to your customers which can ultimately increase the value of your brand in their minds (and Customer Lifetime Value). Moreover, it helps educate leads and address many of their questions before they schedule a call with a sales rep, saving the sales team time and improving lead quality.
Plain-Text Emails
Today, large companies are always trying to be smaller, and Plain-Text Emails are becoming an increasingly popular way for companies to talk to their customers in the way that they are used to communicating themselves.
Odds would tell me that the majority of your email list has zero experience in email marketing and primarily sends emails to communicate with coworkers. This is what makes plain-text emails so special. In the B2B space, plain-text emails are a great tool for internal automations. Are you wanting to automate the communication of a new lead from your marketing to your sales team? Look no further than a plain-text email.
In reality, internal communication can appear “fake” when it’s all buttoned up, so plain-text emails really are a better resource to automate internal processes. Not to mention, they are an excellent way to hit the inbox and boost deliverability scores.
Don't be Creepy
Today’s consumers, like you and me, have boundaries. So although personalization and automation can offer an incredibly personalized experience, it is important to remember that customers are always gauging what they deem to be over the line.
Here, the power of personalization really lies within context. Here’s an example.
“It’s been ninety days since you purchased 5 units of Product A. Here is a link to order some more and a discount code for 10% off your next purchase.”
In my humble opinion, it might be a little creepy (and ingenuine) to remind customers that it has been ninety days since their last purchase and to include a link to purchase Product A again.
Let’s reframe the message. “It’s been a while! Our team wanted to see how you liked Product A and share some other products that we think you’ll enjoy. Here’s a special discount code to stick with Product A or try some more of our favorites”
Conclusion
Now that you know the why of personalization and some strategies that you can apply to your email marketing efforts, it’s time to get personal! Through personalization tokens, thoughtful segmentation, and context-driven communication, you can master email personalization to truly deepen customer relationships with your brand.
Even though the means may change, the foundations of personalization are constant. As more brands continue to prioritize email personalization, it will be ever important for brands to be nimble to find new ways to be personal with their audience. Always be learning, never be creepy, and remember that personalization is truly the action of pouring your customers’ drink-of-choice — so be a good bartender!
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