Adding a personal touch to your B2B email marketing campaign elevates your messages to more than just vehicles to tout your products and services. These campaigns allow you to reach prospects on a more individualized level, provide information that meets their needs and build trust. With that in mind, here are a few tips:

Personalize It

Personalize your emails by having them come from a leader on your team who will personify your brand. Introduce the voice and face of your emails as a real human being who thoroughly understands the recipients’ industry. Let them know there is an actual person available to talk about their business needs. Add specific contact information (not just a generic “contact us”) and be sure to follow up.

One message or group of messages can’t resonate with a large, generalized audience. That’s why you should focus on a targeted segment. Get to know your buyers and find out what kind of information they are looking for.

And be sure to add a personalized touch to your subject line to improve open rates. Keep the subject line relevant to your recipients, their business and the content you are offering. Include a call-to-action or a question that prompts them to open the email. But avoid overtly sales-oriented wording or language that could send your email into the spam bin.

Drip It

By releasing useful content to your targeted email audience over a designated timeframe, you can establish your business as relevant, while keeping your brand in front of them.  Again, knowing your audience is key. Who makes the buying decisions? Who will your solutions benefit most within the company? They might not be the same person. Having someone submit contact information to receive content from you is great. But it’s even better if that person has decision-making authority or influence over the person who does. Because there usually are several people involved in the purchase decision, it is important to address each of their pain points through your content.

When it comes to your email campaigns, timing is everything. Consider how long it takes to turn a prospect into a buyer. Then, come up with a schedule that engages prospects throughout the buying process. Make sure to analyze this process carefully. If you send too many emails, you will see an increase in unsubscribes. If you send too few, you won’t make a lasting impression.

Manage It

Marketing automation technology can help you strengthen lead generation when used in strategic email and web tracking campaigns. Software like Pardot, Marketo, eTrigue and Hubspot allows marketers to create custom campaigns with personalized content. These campaigns automatically respond to prospects based on their actions and predesignated criteria. This analytic software also performs user-specified tasks and automates repetitive functions, which saves time and increases efficiency in identifying viable leads.

However, it’s important to remember that this technology is just a tool. You still have to send industry-specific content that your recipients want and that will trigger a response from them. By developing and sending usable information tailored to your audience, you prove your value to them. In turn, they are more likely to respond to your personalized outreach.