By now, almost everyone is familiar with the inbound methodology. Create and share valuable content and prospects will find you. If you build it, they will come, right?
However, anyone working in B2B marketing–and especially anyone on the buying side–knows that cold email outreach is part of the B2B reality. It’s legal in the US, and it seems to be here to stay. In our experience, cold email can help create awareness and drive leads as part of a B2B marketing mix if done right.
Do your B2B cold emails cause recipients to hit the “report spam” button more often than benchmarks in your industry? If so, it’s usually because of one or more of these 5 reasons.
Bad targeting: Should you send 100 emails or 100,000? When the sending cost is the same, it can be tempting to send more. However, recipients are more likely to report spam for messages that are totally irrelevant and not just uninteresting. Imagine if you’re CEO of a healthcare organization and you get a solicitation offering to offshore your manufacturing process. Bad data leads to bad reactions.
Low value: Does your email bring value? If you give the recipient a gift–be it in the form of a great piece of insight or content, or even an offer that resonates with their pain–they are less likely to be offended by the unsolicited message. You might not want the offer, but it’s hard to be mad at someone who just offered you a valuable gift.
Too long: Do you make the recipient work too hard to figure out who you are, what you do, and–most important–what’s in it for them. Don’t present the whole pitch; share the benefit of hearing the pitch. Make it easy for them to take a baby step with you. If they get overwhelmed or frustrated, that spam button offers fast relief.
No easy way to opt-out: Most B2B buyers are used to getting cold emails. They’re also used to seeing an “unsubscribe” button they can tap if they’re not interested. If there’s no way to unsubscribe, they will use the spam button instead. Again, frustration creates a desire for relief.
Wrong timing: Make sure you understand the buying cycles in your business and try to make your emails land in the inbox at a time when people might actively want to shop. For example, when business owners shop for health benefits, it is often a big distraction from the operational needs of the business. Once the decision is set for the year, the business owner might not want to be bothered about this topic again until next year.
After you’ve gone to the trouble of solving all the technical issues of data acquisition, sending platform, deliverability issues, spam score, etc., don’t let these issues cause the recipient to hit that spam report button.
If you need help developing your outbound and inbound content strategy, contact us to schedule a free consultation.
