by Claudia Bruemmer

B2B marketers can take advantage of the power of email to enhance their image and sell more product. Email is a top digital marketing tactic, second only to search marketing. It is a cost-effective way to nurture your customers and prospects by creating and maintaining a relationship over time and throughout the long B2B sales cycle.

A B2B email newsletter can serve different purposes, such as attracting leads, encouraging prospects to close a sale, connecting with customers to reinforce your business relationship, and establishing your company’s authority as a industry expert. You can make your newsletter more effective by creating a reader-centric newsletter with the following tips.

1. Create personal copy
Speak directly to your recipients by expressing a personality that matches your brand, product, or market niche. That means giving your newsletter a voice that might sound like a colleague offering business advice over a cup of java. All companies have a personality, and your newsletter copy should reflect that voice.

Remember, you are marketing to individual decision makers; always envision your recipients reading your copy, and write it as if you were talking directly to that person.

2. Ask recipients to take action
The heart of your email message is the call-to-action, be it a request for product information, whitepaper download or webinar signup. B2B newsletters typically focus on product or company information, industry news, or how-to’s and tips on industry opportunities or problem solving of interest to customers.

You can focus on turning a prospect into a solid lead, converting a lead into a customer, or to keeping existing customers active. Have a specific goal in mind for each message in your email campaign with a clear call-to-action in each message, whether it’s downloading a white paper, requesting a product demo or taking advantage of a special offer.

A good way to encourage engagement is to add a relevant one-question survey to your next newsletter. You might ask recipients to check or click the newsletter section they find most valuable. Then report back to your readers on the results and action taken if applicable.

3. Segment Your Audience
Divide your customer database into well-defined segments and sub-segments; then develop content that addresses the needs of these segments. You may not be able to achieve a high level of segmentation; however, you can simply segment by geography. Send one version of the email to your North American audience and a different one to the European and Middle Eastern audience, with yet another version to your Asian audience. The foreign versions can be similar to the U.S. version but provide different articles or offers reflecting subtle differences that are culturally appropriate.

Another possible segmentation is prospects vs. customers, or targeting those who signed up for more information (white paper, phone call, webinar, etc.) separately from those who are inactive.

4. Avoid information overload
This can happen if you include multiple topics to cover all of your audiences. However, this can turn people off when they don’t have the time to scroll through to read what applies to them. You can focus on different audiences sequentially by offering at least one article in each issue that targets a specific audience.

5. Create unique landing pages for each article link
Don’t send readers to your homepage. Many are likely to get frustrated and click away rather than try to find the right article. Set up informative landing pages that also link to related information like case studies, press releases, etc., sending readers deep into your site.

In conclusion, your company newsletter is apt to be the first place you make contact with potential customers. Therefore, let it convey your authority, expertise, and company personality in a nutshell. Bringing your newsletters closer to your readers, with a personal voice, offering an action they can take immediately without committing to a sale, can help you create newsletters your readers will read and value.