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Great Email Campaigns Start with

Great Audiences6 WAYS To Make Sure Your Email Marketing Plan Stays On Track

Email marketing remains among the most effective ways to reach and market to professionals today. Seventy-seven percent of B2B marketers consider email the top channel for driving leads, according to Demand Gen Report’s 2016 Demand Generation Benchmark Survey.

There are many reasons for its sustained popularity, but foremost among business professionals is its ubiquity. Email is inextricably linked with the workday in most organizations as a primary means of communication, both internally and externally.

THE POWER OF EMAIL

70%U.S. internet users who cite email as the preferred communication channel with businesses

73% Marketers that say email marketing is core to their business

20% Marketers whose primary revenue source is linked to email

However any email strategy deployed by a marketer can only be as good as the data they possess for those prospects and customers, as well as the process to maintain it. That holds true whether marketers create the most basic email campaigns or employ more sophisticated segmentation and personalization strategies.

Introduction

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DATABASE CHALLENGES

82%B2B marketers that don’t have a solid database strategy

56%B2B marketers that say there is room for significant improvement in database strategy

B2B marketers also continue to struggle with data quality issues. Survey respondents said the top challenge to maintaining data quality is old or outdated information.

This has always been a stumbling block for marketers with B2B data, and this latest research means they still have not been able to implement effective processes to maintain data quality.

This white paper will address the critical need for data quality and will focus on the importance of getting this piece right in order to ensure your email marketing strategy stays on track. We’ll cover the six data considerations to factor into the campaign strategy, including:

Data sourcing and data quality1Email marketing strategies and campaign planning guidelines2Integrating advanced marketing strategies with email3Segmentation strategies for personalized messaging4

Measurement and campaign analysis6

Deliverability and data governance5

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There is no shortage of data available to marketers today, but it can be challenging to find actionable data on customers and prospects, and maintain data and information on customers on an ongoing basis.

IHS is a $2.5 billion publisher of information in support of capital-intensive industries such as aerospace, defense, automotive, chemical, maritime and energy. Byron O’Dell, Senior Director of Corporate Marketing, said the IHS email strategy is an equal mix of targeting new prospects and marketing to existing customers. Refreshing that data is crucial and appending additional information to existing contacts is necessary to

achieving a complete customer view that can be leveraged by several stakeholders.

“We want to target new prospects, and we also need to enrich our current records with data points like title, job function and revenue bands,” O’Dell said. “Our data is accessed by both our sales and marketing teams, so it needs to be complete.”

IHS enlisted a database provider to enrich the company’s existing data and find new, relevant contacts. The partnership has worked out well for IHS, O’Dell said. Three specific advantages have been his ability to:

1. TARGET BY GROUP. “Thiskind of prospect data, beingbehavior-driven, is muchmore indicative than just titleor job function,” O’Dell said.

2. ACCESS JOB HISTORYDATA. “It’s important toknow when a contact, whowas in our database asworking at Ford, may havemoved to Volvo. We getbetter match rates, as well asbetter targeting, by using this‘resume’ approach.”

3. RECEIVE REAL-TIMEUPDATES. “The minute anew record enters our CRMsystem, it’s immediatelyrefreshed,” O’Dell said.“Our reliance on new lists isdiminishing, and we get betterthan average append rates.”

Data Sourcing And Data Quality

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How to avoid dubious data providers

Marketers are often hounded by people claiming to sell B2B data. Unfortunately, some of these are fraudulent, or peddling old data that won’t work and may get you in trouble. Check potential vendors against the following questions:

1. Do they have a website that proves a physicaladdress, the names of the management teamand a list of clients?

2. Do they have a company page on LinkedIn?

3. Do they claim some kind of guaranteed levelof accuracy for their data?

4. Do they require 100% pre-payment?

5. Is the sales rep using a Gmail or other emailaddress unrelated to the company name?

The right answers are:

} YES to the first 2 questions, and

} NO to the last 3.Source: Ruth Stevens, eMarketing Strategy

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The most successful email campaigns are carefully planned and executed. That begins with setting clear objectives that are as specific as possible, choosing data sources wisely, crafting relevant messages and compelling calls to action, segmenting your target list, determining the most effective communication channels, and appropriate post-campaign follow-up.

Email campaign planning begins with setting clear objectives.

Weebly is a website platform that enables its 30 million customers to build websites without the help of designers and developers. Email is a central component of

marketing strategy for Brianna Dinsmore, Head of Demand Generation at Weebly. She explained that detailed and up-to-date customer data is crucial to her success. “We need to know everything we can before reaching out,” she said. “We want our email messages to be as relevant as possible.”

When Weebly is exhibiting at an upcoming trade show and they receive the list of registrants, Dinsmore said she always runs the list by her data provider. The record that comes back is updated and enriched with additional contact information that helps the team segment that list and create effective, targeted pre-show email messages.

After the show, leads are run through Weebly’s data partner again before being entered into the CRM system. That helps her sales counterparts determine the most effective follow-up strategy.

“Our sales team uses the data to prioritize whom to call, when and why. The data is an important decision-making tool for them.”

Email Marketing Campaign Planning

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“Don’t leave subject lines

to the last minute. It’s the

most important part of the

email. Write at least 3-4

subject lines upfront, and

ideally test two of them by

splitting your list for each

send to constantly learn

what can get you a higher

expected open rate.”

Matt HeinzPresident, Heinz Marketing

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1. IDENTIFY YOUR EMAIL CAMPAIGN GOALS. Who is the

target audience, and what do you want them to do—or think —

and at what cost? Make your goals very specific, e.g.: To

generate 75 qualified leads at $350 per lead among CTOs in

energy companies larger than $25 million.

2. DETERMINE THE SOURCE OF YOUR DATA. Rent or

purchase? Use in-house data? If so, does it need to be

refreshed or enhanced before you proceed?

3. DEVELOP AN IRRESISTIBLE OFFER. You need an offer to

overcome your prospects’ inertia and motivate them to take

the desired action, like fill out your web form or register for

your webinar. The number one offer in B2B email marketing

is a piece of downloadable content, such as a white paper or

research report, gated with a landing page that collects their

contact information (for prospects) or additional hard-to-get

data elements (for current customers).

4. USE YOUR DATABASE TO RESEARCH the needs and

interests of your target personas, and develop compelling

messages tailored to each.

5. DETERMINE YOUR TOUCH STRATEGY. Will this be a

multi-touch triggered email campaign? Will it be

integrated with other campaign media, like direct mail,

telephone, or business events?

6. PLAN YOUR METRICS, your measurement of data-capture

methods, and the post-campaign action steps.

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Six-Point Planning Guide for Email Marketing Campaigns recommended by Cyndi

W. Greenglass, Professor of Marketing at DePaul University and

Senior VP-Strategic Solutions at Diamond Marketing Solutions

B2B marketers often plan their email programs as one component of a larger sales-and-marketing strategy, such as account-based marketing (ABM), e-commerce or channel marketing. Email is such a versatile medium that it plays a variety of valuable roles in this context, from inquiry generation, to lead scoring and nurturing, to account penetration and referral requests.

Having accurate information is the foundation of any advanced marketing strategy. Integrating

email into an account-based marketing strategy requires all relevant individual contacts within target accounts, in order to communicate intelligently with prospects and deepen the relationship. It requires an understanding of details, such as job functions and the role they play in their company’s buying process, in addition to more dynamic details that can be incorporated over time.

Having accurate information is the foundation of any advanced marketing strategy.

Integrating Advanced Marketing Strategies

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“Consider moving away

from HTML-formatted

email templates. At

Terminus, we have tested

plain text versus HTML,

and learned that text is

more productive. This is

probably because it feels

more like a real email

written by one person to

another. We don’t use

any headers or templates.

This is how we improved

our response rates and

increased engagement.”

Nikki NixonTerminus

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Terminus B2B Account-

Based Marketing provides a software-as-a-service platform for managing account-based marketing (ABM) activities. The company’s own marketing strategy to its customers includes an ABM approach.

Nikki Nixon, Marketing Manager at Terminus, wanted to attract high-value prospects to the #FlipMyFunnel B2B Marketing and Sales Roadshow, a multi-city industry event. The goal was to drive attendance at the shows from

particular accounts identified by Terminus through its account-based marketing process.

Terminus prepared copy targeted to each persona, and used its data partner’s platform to search for prospects who met these criteria.

Nixon and her team selected targets first based on the industry, then key decision-makers based on job functions, and rounded that out based on behavioral and technographic characteristics.

Using a series of email touches, augmented by display advertising, phone outreach and social media, Terminus was able to attract 11 of their top tier accounts to the first two events in Chicago and Boston, and generated 19 opportunities from those highly desirable accounts. Based on that success, Terminus extended its participation in the event to three additional cities.

} LOCATION: Chicago and Boston.

} INDUSTRY: Modern, technologically-savvy organizations—such as software, hardware andtech services companies—with a high propensity to practice sophisticated marketing.

} JOB FUNCTIONS WHERE ABM IS USED: Marketing, sales, customer success. Thesebecome the personas for message targeting.

} JOB LEVELS: Director, VP- and C-level executives.

} TECHNOGRAPHICS: Group members and users of marketing automation and CRM.

The email data targeting process identified several characteristics and personas as follows:

TERMINUSATTRACTED

11OF THEIR TOP TIER ACCOUNTS TO THE FIRST TWO EVENTS

TERMINUSGENERATED

19OPPORTUNITIES

FROM THOSE DESIREABLE ACCOUNTS

Audience segmentation is an important strategy for breaking targets into smaller groups with like interests and needs, and then marketing to them with personal and relevant messages. Email—a direct and targetable media channel —gains dramatically from segmentation.

Business marketers segment based on a variety of criteria. The most common segments are:

} Company size

} Industry

} Geography

} Product usage

} Job function

} Buying role

Once you have identified your segments, you are ready to customize your email creative and offer to each segment, for maximum relevance. That requires a keen understanding of each of your prospect segments.

Matt Heinz, President of Heinz Marketing, said the key to effective messages and offers to each is an understanding of target customers and buyers from the get-go. Marketers need to answer certain questions in order to gain their attention, he said, such as, “What do they care about, independent of you?

What issues have their attention right now? How do you combine their objectives and obstacles into a message, theme or campaign that challenges their status quo and leads them to consider change? What stage of the buying journey are they in?”

The key to effective segmented email is understanding your target customers and buyers.

Brainshark is a cloud-based presentation software company that helps sales, marketing, training and HR departments increase the impact of their communications.

Finding the right targets for email campaigns has been the secret to the company’s prospecting success, according to Kate Sarkissian, Database Marketing Manager at Brainshark. Sarkissian said one of the best ways for her to find the right prospects today is by using data sources based on social

media profiles. Social data has turned out to be “a key driver in our micro-campaigning strategy,” Sarkissian said.

And data quality is key. While segmenting based on industry, job function, and department, she and her team also need as much insight as possible about prospect needs at new and existing customer accounts to generate relevant messages.

Within a few short weeks working with her database provider, Sarkissian saw an increase of 150% in lead list size for targeted accounts, meaning more of the right decision-makers within existing accounts. She also found higher quality leads with precision accuracy at new companies, using social fields, such as groups, keywords and skills. In addition, the buyer profile information unique to social media enabled meaningful messaging and, as a result, generated higher email response rates.

Segmentation Strategies For Personalization

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Email needs to reach the recipient and comply with legal regulations in order to remain a powerful and effective component of marketing strategy, and careful adherence to industry best practices is critical.

Email marketing veteran Regina Brady, President of Reggie Brady Marketing Solutions, recommends the following checklist for email marketers:

CHECK YOUR EMAIL REPUTATION WITH SENDERSCORE. Set up a free account with Return Path’s Sender Score—a service that grades the reputation of outgoing mail servers—and enter your domain to get a report for the past 30 days on how your company is viewed on the web. The higher your score, the better your reputation. Brady cautions anything below 90 is a red flag.

USE ONE OR MORE EMAIL AUTHENTICATION

METHODS.Large enterprises often use anti-spam solutions, such as Barracuda and Postini, to verify authentications to manage and filter inbound emails. Industry standards, including SPF, DomainKeys and DKIM, can authenticate email and help marketers avoid the spam trap. When authenticating, be sure to consider and include all the sending servers (IP addresses), domains and sub-domains in use around your company, in places like customer service, field sales teams, list forwarders and mobile.

BE AWARE OF CANADIAN ANTI-SPAM LEGISLATION (CASL). Canadian law applies to commercial messages (email and texts sent to mobile) sent from or to Canada (except emails that are solely

transactional), and has some distinct differences compared with the U.S. CAN SPAM Act. CASL requires either express consent or an existing business relationship. Noncompliance carries stiff penalties.

ANALYZE THE DOMAIN DISTRIBUTION OF YOUR LIST. If you find a high percentage of emails going to large ISPs, such as Google, Yahoo and Hotmail addresses, you’ll need to be extra vigilant about bounces, opens, clicks and spam complaints. A recent Return Path study showed that 16% of business services emails went to a spam folder or were never delivered at all. Be sure you work with your ESP to implement feedback loops so that any spam complaints are reported, and you can respond to unsubscribe requests in a timely manner.

Deliverability And Governance

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If you’ve set clear, specific objectives, your email campaign results analysis can be straightforward.

Common B2B email metrics include:

} Opens, clicks

} Bounces, unsubscribes

} Conversion, like downloadsor form fills

} Conversion to aqualified lead

} Revenue per thousand

Experts agree that it is important to select metrics as far down the funnel as possible for the most meaningful feedback.

“It’s about sales pipeline contribution, not opens and clicks,” Matt Heinz said. “Too many marketers measure only immediate engagement and don’t look at longer-term impact of email programs on lead production and sales opportunity creation.”

Measurement And Campaign Analysis

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“It’s about sales pipeline

contribution, not opens

and clicks.”

Matt HeinzPresident, Heinz Marketing

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For email to sustain its place as a top-performing lead gen channel, a solid data strategy is the most durable foundation on which to build effective email marketing messages and campaigns.

It’s no surprise that email has remained effective for many marketers targeting business professionals. So much of their attention is captured by the in-box. According to a McKinsey Global Institute analysis of IDC data, 28% of a high-skill knowledge workers’ average week is spent reading and answering email.

And data quality — accurate, up-to-date information on dynamic B2B organizations — is key to reaching the right prospects and customers with effective, relevant email messaging at the right time.

Targeting is high on the list of modern marketers’ goals. In fact, one-third of marketers (34%) said their primary database goal is to enable targeting to specific segments for better engagement, according to Demand Gen Report’s Database Marketing and Contact Acquisition Survey Report. Forty percent of respondents cited

targeting segments, reaching total addressable markets and growing the database to add new contacts, as their top three goals, which suggests marketers do seek a comprehensive approach when it comes to database marketing.

With solid data processes, careful campaign planning and trusted data providers, marketers can ensure email marketing strategy remains on track.

Conclusion

A solid data strategy is

the best foundation for

effective email marketing.

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About SynthioSynthio is an end-to-end B2B data management provider with the largest and most accurate global contact database, updated in real-time. With an industry-leading Data as a Service (DaaS) Platform, customers benefit from origination of net-new leads to full service appends. Synthio offers the most reliable data solution available, due to its self-reported nature. We identify inaccurate records, correct them, and add 50+ fields of self-reported data, including a validated email address – tested with our proprietary software. We have served over 1,500 customers since 2011 and were recently named the #194 fastest growing private US company by INC. 500.

About Demand Gen ReportDemand Gen Report is a targeted online publication that uncovers the strategies and solutions that help companies better align their sales and marketing organizations, and ultimately, drive growth. A key component of the publication’s editorial coverage focuses on the sales and marketing automation tools that enable companies to better measure and manage their multi-channel demand generation efforts.