Deciding what type of content to include in your B2B marketing emails depends on what type of email you are sending.
There are three main categories of B2B emails, these include:
- Informative Emails
- Newsletters
- Transactional Emails (Welcome, Thank you, Confirmation)
Below we will outline what type of content you should include for each type of email.
Informative B2B Emails
What do we mean by informative? Aren’t all emails informative by nature?
What differentiates this type of email is the importance of its content. The content of these emails wouldn’t be added to a B2B email marketing newsletter, because the content is too important to be bunched in with other information. This type of email communicates things like policy updates, new product or service announcements, company changes, or upcoming speaking engagements or events.
Informative B2B emails should stay focused—choose one to two topics so that communication remains clear, to-the-point, relevant, and easy to understand. If you want the reader to take action, include an easily identifiable CTA that takes the reader to a dedicated landing page for that offer, update, or event.
Personalization of this type of email is also appropriate. Whether you use a segmented list, or a custom personalized greeting, this personal touch will help to increase click-through rates.
Read more: B2B email marketing and lead nurturing – planning tips.
B2B Email Marketing Newsletter
The function of a B2B email marketing newsletter is different from that of a B2C email newsletter. In B2C industries, marketers are primarily striving to promote goods and services to an individual. In a B2B sales cycle, there are usually more people involved in the decision-making process. This means it typically takes longer to turn prospects into leads, and eventually into customers.
Your B2B email marketing newsletter should focus on offering help and insights to your reader first and promoting your products or services second. By addressing your subscribers’ needs and offering them helpful information via blog articles, white papers, webinars, or industry news, you maintain your authority as the leader in your industry.
When you focus on developing and maintaining positive relationships with current and prospective clients—you become the go-to in your industry.
Read more: B2B email marketing design optimized for conversions.
Transactional Emails
A transactional email is a message that follows an action carried out by a subscriber or a customer. An example of this type of email would be a welcome or thank you message for a download or purchase. This type of email is short and to the point but can help to provide customer satisfaction and trust.
Customers feel safe with a company that provides useful information at every step of a business transaction. Since transactional emails do not fall within the scope of CAN-SPAM, you do not need to include an unsubscribe link or opt-out instructions in your messages– due to this fact, it is essential to use transactional emails carefully.
It’s best practice for transactional emails to include a clear informative message, without any sales or marketing references.  And while it is not necessary to include an opt-out, it is best practice to provide a link to manage preferences.
B2B marketers should shift how they view email marketing as not just a selling tool, but also as a relationship-building tool.
