Creating a B2B Email Newsletter is a Great Way to Connect with Leads and Increase Sales!
A B2B email newsletter can help you get the word out about important aspects of your business, connect with your current customers, answer FAQs, and even increase traffic to your website.
Why Should I Start a Newsletter?
Email marketing is a powerful way to engage customers at all levels of the sales funnel and increase website traffic without increasing your budget.
The statistics behind email marketing speak for themselves:
- 4,200% ROI– email generates $42 for every $1 spent
- 4 out of 5 marketers said they’d rather give up social media than email marketing
- 78% of marketers have seen an increase in email engagement over the last 12 months
- 87% of B2B marketers say email is one of their top free organic distribution channels
- 31% of B2B marketers say email newsletters are the best way to nurture leads
- 74% of Baby Boomers think email is the most personal channel to communicate with brands
- 99% of email users check their inbox every day, with some checking 20 times a day
For more email marketing statistics, check out HubSpot’s Ultimate List of Email Marketing Stats for 2021.
How Do I Start a B2B Email Newsletter?
When starting a newsletter, no matter the size of your business or audience, you are going to want an email marketing tool. HubSpot is our #1 choice– we use it for our own newsletters!
But before we begin building the newsletter, you must have the website, content, and audience needed to start an effective email campaign.
Updating Your Website
A strong newsletter will direct traffic to your website, so you want your site to be fresh and updated. Your website will leave a huge impression with any user who sees it, so you want to make sure you represent your brand in the best light.
Most importantly, remember that you’re not sending out a newsletter just to send it out – the goal is to attract people to your website, so you want to ensure your site is going to attract and convert visitors.
To read more about why we love HubSpot, see How to Benefit from HubSpot in the First 90 Days.
Connecting With Current Clients
If you’ve built up an email list, use it! Many businesses collect emails but never actually do anything with them – and that’s a mistake. Review your customer email list and try to segment the groups by needs or interests, or position in the sales funnel. This will help you to provide more targeted, relevant content that will inspire action.
Newsletters are not meant to be spam. They’re full of relevant, valuable information that you’re sending to people who have already expressed an interest in your business. Since your readers have already connected with you once, you’re giving them a chance to do it again.
This can be especially effective for companies looking to re-engage cold leads and clients. Use email to remind past purchasers of what else you have to offer, or restart the conversation with a prospect who has gone cold. A newsletter can share important information with these customers which can spark action and drive sales.
Things to Include in Your B2B Email Newsletter
When you’re deciding how to start a newsletter, be sure to always include something of value. As an industry expert, consider sharing your knowledge and expertise with them – the better you explain a subject, the more likely they are to trust you.
Newsletters can also be used to share unique content – offers, blogs, coupons, and so on – that you’d normally share on social media. This helps to build sustained traffic for your blog (and ultimately your website as a whole).
Not all of these subjects are relevant to every business – but when deciding how to start a B2B email newsletter, these are the topics you should consider first.
- Upcoming Sales and Deals: If you’re marketing to people who have bought from you in the past and might buy again in the future, telling them about special deals can encourage them to make a purchase while the deal lasts.
- Industry News: This is where you can really share your expertise. Discussing things happening in your industry – and in particular, how they relate to your customers – means you can provide them with timely information that actually matters to their lives.
- Upcoming Events: This part of a newsletter can discuss your own events (online and offline), as well as other local events and things that your audience might be interested in. For example, if your audience likes dogs, you could discuss upcoming canine award shows.
- Interesting Articles Pertaining To Your Business: A few links to other good news articles can help flesh out the content and make your recipients happier to read what you’re saying.
- Recent Original Blogs: Similarly, you can link to good blog posts (and here, “good” means “ones that are getting decent amounts of traffic”), since they’ve already demonstrated that your audience is interested in that content.
Remember to mix up what you’re sharing – it doesn’t have to be all about your own business. You can link to other blogs, to articles and videos, or even to other local businesses you like. Your readers will greatly appreciate an honest exchange of information over a sales pitch, so remember to provide value over trying to make a sale.
For tips on improving your open rate, read 3 Ways to Increase Email Newsletter Opens.
How Do I Put Together a Good B2B Newsletter?
B2B email Newsletters are like a one-sided conversation, where you open your customers up to great information, and your readers respond by engaging with your content and website.
To structure a B2B email newsletter, start with a brief intro and try to make it personal to the receiving audience. Mix it up, and have a variety of content (pictures, blogs, articles, etc.). Use engaging headlines, eye-catching images, and clear CTA’s to make the email attractive and easy to read, and to encourage the most clicks.
We recommend using services like HubSpot or Mailchimp. Both offer free subscriptions up to a certain number of emails, so they are a great way to get started.
They both offer templates for putting together eye-catching emails, with drag and drop features that make it easy for anyone to use. They also provide analytics so you can see valuable, important information such as how many subscribers opened your email, what they clicked on, and how many clicked through to your website. Tracking and using this information is key to consistently creating newsletters that provide relevant and well-received information to your specific audience.
Adding a B2B email newsletter to your marketing strategy is cost-effective and produces great results. We highly recommend this form of marketing to all of our customers!
Thanks for stopping by,
Laura
Editor’s Note: Originally published in 2019, this article has been edited and updated for content in April 2022.
