There seems to be an ongoing debate about when and how to use personalisation in email campaigns. And for the B2B email marketer this challenge seems to be even harder. If you adopt the approach used by your counterparts in the consumer world, then you face the danger of becoming over familiar with your database and can very quickly undermine the business relationships that have been built up.

Email marketing is based on trust, and in the B2B world companies trust marketers to send them relevant campaigns that are useful for their business, and not to become overly personal. A business email should be concise and to the point allowing the recipient to quickly see the brand and the message within it. Many marketers are now personalising emails within the subject line, addressing the recipient to the actual content.

However, B2B marketers must be aware that although the database contains personal information, people do not like big brother watching them so closely. It is different across industries and sales cycles, so here are some general rules to follow:

The message headers - friendly from, subject line and sender address

Use this method to personalise your communications if:

• you’re sending targeted emails to a database of clients and prospects, and
• the recipients know your company well and have a relationship with you (i.e., via their account manager or sales representative)

This method is better than using personal details you have about your recipients in your database.

Friendly From: The account manager or sales rep will be known to recipients, so leverage that relationship and use mail merges to change the friendly from name to that of their account manager. Something as small as this can increase your open rate and conversion rate immensely.

Subject Line: The subject line in a B2B email must let recipients know why your company is sending this communication – is it your monthly newsletter or your annual reports? Tell them. By making it clear what the email contains people will be able to respond to it when it suits them. Annual reports might be a lower interest to your database than a support renewal contract, so empower the database to manage your communications. This will result in a much higher long-term ROI as your recipients increase their trust in your communications.

Sender Address: The sender address is something which is often overlooked as many companies seem to be happy with using the default email address that is set up with the account. This is not a good look for any company’s brand and should be invested in as a priority.

For example, although many companies use BT as their teleco provider within the UK (or AT&T in the United States), only a very small percentage of companies choose to use the default voicemail recording to take messages while they are away from their desks. Can you imagine phoning 3M and the voicemail stating, “Welcome to BT answerphone, the person you are calling is not available, please leave your message after the tone.”?

So why when companies are sending email communications to their customers would they not take the opportunity to personalise and brand their sending address? Having your own sending address is very cost effective and will complete the branding and personalisation of your email communication, and will also increase your deliverability rates – so it's win-win all round!

The body of the email

Having the email introduced correctly is now a given, so try to personalise it with the recipient's first name, or title and surname as appropriate for your business. Other types of personalisation that are well received include using the company name and industry. For example if you are promoting a training event:

Dear [Donna],

[Lyris] has been invited to attend our training event on 6th November. [Email Service Providers] have found this event historically very helpful for increasing sales performances across diverse teams.

The parts in [the brackets] are the personalised details based on the attributes stored in your database. This type of personalisation is very simple to execute and will not take hours of data collection because most marketing departments will already have it at their fingertips. If this data is not currently collected or is not required for your organisation, then any data that is available can be used to make the email feel more tailored without getting overly personal with the recipient.

The email sign off 

This is another area that is often overlooked, but a correct sign off with the most appropriate contact details works wonders! Giving the client the ability to pick up the phone or drop an email to their contact within your organisation shows them that you’re a unified organisation, and not a lot of disparate departments. This very simple-to-do personalisation can increase the ROI of a campaign by 100%, as the call to action within a B2B email is often not for an immediate sale but to develop the relationship. All personalisation details of the account manager can be easily inserted into an email campaign giving the message a tailored and professional appearance which will light the spark.

###

Related Resources:

• Subscribe to Inside Lyris HQ our monthly online-marketing newsletter.
• Download free online-marketing guides, tools and webinars in the Lyris Online-Marketing Resource Center.