In this article, Denise Zimmerman explains how B2B marketers can apply B2C email marketing techniques for success.

According to Forrester's Q2 2006 Business-to-Business Marketing Effectiveness Survey, email ranks third as a marketing tactic used by B2B marketers-- right behind public relations and ahead of direct mail. There is clearly a strong move from B2B marketers to embrace interactive more fully and explore a host of different online tactics.

From a features and functionality perspective as it relates to email marketing software there is not much of a difference between B2B and B2C email marketing-- on the front end. There are some companies that may speak to B2B in their marketing, their press releases and even in their strategic relationships but the supporting systems are really not that much different. It appears that B2B marketers are raising their level of sophistication in how they might use these solutions, borrowing to some extent from their B2C brethren marketers yet in consideration of their own unique needs. The great divide between B2C and B2B actually reveals new opportunities for B2B marketers.

After sending out an email campaign you will receive lots of “reply-to” emails (such as unsubscribe or challenge-response requests, bounces and blocks). These are most generated automatically and go back to your sending address and not your bounce-handling address.

Based on analysis of recent distributions of EmailLabs’ newsletter "Intevation Report", these “reply-to” emails account for less than 2% of the total mailing list, but they can affect list integrity if you don't act on them promptly.

There are six types of email replies:

1. Out-of-office replies
2. Auto-acknowledgements
3. Inactive addresses
4. Challenge-response requests
5. Blocks and bounce reports
6. Feedback, rendering problems and unsubscribe requests

In this article you can read how you should act on them.

In this month's issue of Subject Lines there's an article called "Keys to Success: Killing the Producer". In this article, Tricia Robinson, states that change management and rushed campaigns are always the reason big mistakes are made.

To improve the likelihood of error-free campaigns try the following, she suggests the following:

• Never schedule a campaign less than one hour before it is set to go
• Establish a campaign checklist
• Agree to only send one message type
• Check, double-check for the unsubscribe
• Keep clean master templates
• Don't skip the QA process
• Don't approve until you're ready to go<

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Consider an average email campaign that generated 40% open rate and 5% click rate. This means that 60% of the audience probably saw the subject line and did not open the email and another 35% opened the email but did not find any call to action compelling enough to click. All this information is available to you in real time.

Here is the opportunity to send your second best subject line to everyone that did not open. If this subject line generated 25% opens then you have just boosted your overall opens to 55% of the total audience. That's not all; your clicks went up from 5% of your audience to 8% of the total audience.

The most important trick here is timing, i.e., how long do you wait before you send the second subject line. We generally recommend waiting 3-6 days after sending your original mailing or as soon as your open rates and response rates begin to flatten. Sending the second subject line too soon could generate spam complaints and drive your opt-out rates higher than normal.

Source: Bluestreak's "BlueNotes" newsletter.

Executing an email campaign is very easy and relatively inexpensive. It's often regarded as "an ideal channel to gather some more leads -- quick and cheap". However, if you put very little thought into planning the details of the campaign, you will do more harm than good in the long term.

Here are some tips to execute email campaigns that work:

• Segment your list and run more targeted campaigns to each segment. Not only will you avoid list fatigue, but your conversion rates will also be much higher when you target the right people with the right message.
• Personalize your emails as much as you can. Start with "Dear {name}" and refer to your recipient's industry, job title, area etc.
• Include value-added content. Don't tell your recipients something they already know but make sure to offer them something new - like new industry research results, a best practices white paper, a seminar featuring a well-known industry expert or customer speaker, etc.
• Understand the triggers for spam filters and write your content with these triggers in mind.
• TEST, TEST, and TEST again before you send because the devil is in the details.

Source: Go-To-Market Strategies