The Content of Business-to-Business Email Blasts: Educating not Selling

By Stanton R. Mehr

President, Revisions Communications & Editorial Services

www.revisions-editorial.com

stan.mehr@revisions-editorial.com

So you’ve decided to try your hand at Email marketing to your existing and prospective clients. Let’s assume for the moment that you have gathered or purchased a list of Email addresses and have them ready to go in a database. For some people, that was the easy part! Deciding what to broadcast may be more difficult—and not necessarily because of the writing process but because of the choices in front of you.

For the foundation of the Email campaign, the decisions you next make should be the same whether you are manufacturing widgets, marketing financial services, or selling videogames. In order to attract current and future clients, your Email content has to present something useful or valuable to them. And that doesn’t mean the client needs a blatant marketing lesson on why your company is the greatest and cheapest. Instead, one of the best approaches to successful campaigns is to provide some aspect of education regarding your (or even their) business. This can involve facts about the services or products that you know they need. It may be information on how to optimize the use of a product or how to make the best decisions in purchasing it.

Let’s consider the owner of a small print shop who wants to boost business card revenues from local clients. He or she can include information about the value of business card exchange (e.g., “Did you know the most important elements to be included on a business card?” or “Did you know that clients hold onto business cards from contacts for an average of X months?”). These 3 or 4 lines can then be added to a discount promotion code (with a link to the website) for future business card printing and design services. This concept can be extended easily into an Email campaign, in which every weekly message builds upon the previous one, with more educational information on the same or new topics.

For most readers of Email, the subject line of the message is the clue as to whether it will be worth their while to click on it. This decision is nearly instantaneous, as you can attest: You and I both spend less than half a second deleting Emails that scream “Save 80%!!!!” This may work for some segment of the consumer population, but in business-to-business communications, the target client needs something else: The subject line of the Email should communicate true value to the viewer—and not be perceived as a sales pitch. That value is proven in better knowledge, including not only tips, but why it is important for their business. The educational approach frames in your clients’ mind that your business is knowledgeable, professional, and maybe most important—helpful.

Stanton Mehr is President of Revisions Communications & Editorial Services, an organization that is focused on providing top-notch writing, editing, and communication services for your business.