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According to Harvard Business Review, companies are spending a total of around $1.5 billion on email marketing. For most of us, that sounds like a lot. But when you consider that businesses are spending over $150 billion on digital advertising per Forrester's research, the bigger picture becomes clearer.
Email marketing can have an astounding 3800% ROI in part because it is a lower-cost way to nurture early marketing qualified leads (MQLs) into sales qualified leads (SQLs). But that's not all.
Email marketing reaches people who are already interested in your company and like what you offer. They're just waiting for the right time or an appealing offer. Email also connects with tech savvy consumers in a way that they prefer. That includes Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and even Gen Z.
People across demographics see email as essential to their lives, a fact which B2B technology marketers can use to their advantage. The key is email conversion rate optimization (CRO).
Conversion Rate Optimization Tips for Email Marketing
1. Optimize for mobile.
Around 50% of email opens happen on mobile devices, according to HubSpot. Mobile marketing email reading is also commonly a "waiting" activity, so people check their emails while in line at the grocery store or waiting for a meeting to start. This means people have fewer distractions and may spend more time reading your email if it interests them.
A mobile-optimized email doesn't just fit well on a small screen. That's the bare minimum. It also:
- Has a subject line short enough that it doesn't get cut off (around 30-35 characters with spaces)
- Doesn't have big blocks of text
- Uses a large enough font, so zooming isn't necessary
- Visually appealing CTA buttons that stand apart from other clickable text
2. Segment to increase relevance.
Segmenting is one of the most powerful tools you have for increasing email marketing ROI. Segmenting can improve the open rate and click-through rate because people expect that the email will be relevant to them. You end up with a much more engaged subscriber list, and you can more quickly identify subscribers who only get your email because they're too busy to find the unsubscribe button.
Using email management tools your marketing team can efficiently gather data and determine how best to segment emails. Then segment by factors like:
- Demographics
- Behavioral data related to your B2B technology company
- Position within their company
- How long they've been signed up
Email marketing automation helps your B2B technology company send the right message at the right time to optimize conversion rate optimization and increase email marketing ROI.
3. Create quality segmented content.
Creating segmented content doesn't necessarily mean you have to create three or 10 times the content, depending on the number of segments you choose. Often, you can repurpose existing content to make it more relevant to each segment. But a word of caution. Don't let your team get lazy. To achieve the highest email marketing ROI possible, you need dynamic content. Conversion rate optimization always includes consistently improving your content, workflows, and how you use marketing automation.
4. Customize the subject line.
If the subject isn't relevant, prospects never open the email to see how valuable the content is. The subject that works for one segment may not work for the other, so learn about your segments through segment-specific analytics to enhance subject lines for each group.
For each segment, consider adding:
- Something that will make this specific segment curious.
- Local information, if segmenting geographically.
- Preview text to add context and pique interest.
5. Be a person.
Well, of course, you're a person, but your messaging may suggest that the email is coming from a faceless B2B technology company. Prospects respond better to emails from people, so don't be afraid to say, "Hey, this is Dylan. I noticed you closed out of our live chat before we could answer your question. Is there anything I can help you with?"
6. Avoid the spam filter with a double opt-in.
So often, conversion rate optimization is about eliminating barriers and streamlining the process, but in the case of email ROI, it's much more critical that you build an engaged email list. Just like buying followers on Twitter won't get you much traction, signing someone up who isn't engaged doesn't do much good. So, ask them to confirm that they wish to sign up to:
- Reduce going to spam filters, which can impact your business’s overall email health.
- Have subscribers who find great value and are likely to be customers.
- Take an opportunity to make a special offer to convert them now instead of later.
7. Use behaviorally-triggered emails.
Timing is everything in marketing. Thanks to marketing automation, it's a whole lot easier to nail it. Set up email to go out to an email subscriber when they take a specific action, such as:
- Abandoning a cart.
- Preemptively abandoning a live chat window.
- Downloading an advanced content piece.
- Joining your subscription list.
- Submitting a form.
Take Advantage of Email Marketing
To get the most out of your inbound marketing strategy, it's critical that you learn how to achieve an ROI that reflects all the time, energy, and resources you’ve spent.
We encourage you to see how one B2B technology company generated $10 million in revenues by re-thinking how they generated sales qualified leads. Download the case study here. 
