The 10 Commandments for B2B Marketing Emails

Sometimes B2B marketers get jealous of B2C marketers. Those silly B2C brands can send out a discount or sale email any old time, it’s so easy! Meanwhile B2B brands are over here wondering what on earth to say that’s not, “Hey, remember us? Come back and buy!”

I know because I’ve been there. And no matter how seasoned a content marketer you are, and whether you’re B2B or B2C, your number one job remains wondering, “How do I make people care?”

I’m going to share some email marketing tips for B2B with you today, but these won’t be your standard “use these awesome action verbs verbs” or “subject line tricks to increase open rate” tips. No, we’re going to talk about how to craft marketing emails that provide value and get you ROI. 

Don’t get stuck wandering the marketing desert for 40 years. Learn the 10 commandments of B2B marketing emails and find redemption.

1. Thou shalt know thy audience

This is the first commandment of marketing in general: Know your audience. If you don’t know who they are and what they want, your only hope is to luck into mild success. 

You don’t have to mold your emails to your existing audience. If you know what your target audience looks like, shape your content to that. Those who don’t fit the audience will ultimately unsubscribe, leaving you with an email list of the types of people you want.

2. Thou shalt provide value

People will only open your emails regularly if those emails contain something valuable. For B2C businesses this often means a sale or promotion. 

If you know your audience well, you know what they struggle with. What pains are they experiencing, and how can content from you be a salve for that pain? Perhaps your product has a steep learning curve; use your newsletter to share shortcuts, usage tips, or ways your product addresses those pains.

Maybe your target audience requires up-to-date industry knowledge because they’re in client-facing roles. Create marketing emails to help them do that! 

And if you want to send out a newsletter that just provides company updates, please don’t. The hard truth is that neither your customers, target audience, not the general public care about your latest team retreat, new office space, or employee of the month. 

Exceptions to the no-company-updates rule include: Introducing a new CEO or announcing an acquisition.

3. Thou shalt warm thy email list

I’ve worked with and for B2B businesses who want to start up/restart an email newsletter. But if you haven’t emailed your list in three months or more, your list is cold. Email marketing best practices dictate you should reach out to your list and make sure they still want to hear from you.

Yes, it can be painful to stomach sending out an email that’s basically, “Do you still like me? Yes/No,” but it’s important. If you don’t and recipients don’t remember you, they may unsubscribe at an otherwise higher rate or, even worse, report you as spam. And that will really throttle your future email success.

Once you warm up your list, commit to being in touch regularly. Once a month is great. You could even go every other month if you need, but don’t let those relationships lapse. To hold yourself accountable, put your email newsletters on your content calendar.

4. Thou shalt favor brevity

You might subscribe to emails from industry leaders that are long, thoughtful essays. Your marketing emails should not be that. Controversial opinion: A business is not a thought leader, a person is.

If you’re doing a roundup of industry news, consider writing a very brief, one-sentence summary and then hyperlink to a blog post you’ve already published on the same topic. This enables recipients to choose how much they want to read, engages them more with your content, and ties your content strategy together. 

In the quest for brevity, think of your emails as tools to push people toward your other content. Don’t be afraid to link a call to action to landing pages, blog posts, social media posts, and more. 

5. Thou shalt know thy CTA

Know the purpose of your email before you write it. And remember that in one brief email, you should only have one CTA. 

You can have more than one hyperlink, but everything in the email should point to one singular CTA. Maybe it’s a free trial (though only for leads, not customers), asking people to check out product updates, sign up for an event, or other specific actions.

This is also necessary when you’re putting together email marketing campaigns, which are a series of emails that aim to convince recipients to do that one thing. You might have three emails, but there’s still only one CTA. 

6. Thou shalt write for thy CTA

Most people think they know how to write a marketing email. Most of those people are wrong, or we wouldn’t have this commandment. 

If your CTA is to get recipients to sign up for a webinar, do not waste precious words on something unrelated. Instead, formulate copy around the same topic as the webinar to entice the signup. 

Then have your CTA as high up as possible. Make it loud and clear. Don’t count on anyone scrolling to take action.

7. Thou shalt be convincing

“Our next webinar will be the second Tuesday of next week,” is not convincing or interesting email copy. You have to make people care.

It’s much easier to be persuasive when you know your key messages and how to create them. Use your existing key messages as guidance and do a brief exercise to determine your key message for your email.

Your key message is not “Sign up for our free webinar.” Instead, your key message may be something like “Understand the latest industry regulation changes and create a detailed action plan on our free webinar with [regulatory expert].

Remember: [Value] by [how] with [capabilities] will help you quickly formulate a simple, effective key message.

8. Consistency shall be thy name

This ties in with many previous commandments, but once you get going, commit to being consistent. Work writing emails into your content calendar and digital marketing strategy. Match up what you’re asking recipients to do with your overall marketing goals.

That kind of synergy makes it easier to be consistent because you’ll know what to write about, when to write about it, and the impact your emails will have.

9. Thou shalt honor thy recipients

A key point to remember is that often, email is the only direct line we have to customers and leads. Do NOT abuse that privilege, for once that connection is lost, it’s nearly impossible to get it back. 

An email marketing strategy deserves reverence, thought, and intention. Approach each email as you would a phone call to each individual customer. What would you say that would make them say, “Thank you so much, this was really helpful”?

10. Thou shalt have a personality

Don’t be afraid to infuse some pizazz, some verve, into your emails. You may find it increases your engagement because people actually enjoy reading what you send. 

You don’t have to get all wild, but a joke or even colorful wording can go a lot in forming a connection with your audience. 

These 10 email marketing commandments are ultimately about connecting with your audience in a meaningful way. Literally no one wants another indistinguishable, soulless email pitch. Give your list a reason to be and stay on your list, because you have a lot of good to share.