Trends & Takeaways: The Five-Minute Fix to Improving B2B Campaigns

This week's trend: B2B Marketers are ignoring email footers

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Trend:
With a huge jump in using email for lead nurturing in the last several months, it’s only natural that the latest trend in B2B marketing is to add personalization. (Sales is, of course, a relationship-building process.) Email marketing is now a huge component of the B2B sales cycle, and frequently uses methods to deliver messages appearing as if they come from an individual sales representative.

What we’re noticing, however, is that many companies are completely ignoring their email footers. The footers, typically used for simple opt-out instructions, often include logos of their marketing or technology providers and links that are irrelevant to the message’s original intent. This happens because many email service providers insert standard footer fields for all their clients, regardless of industry.

Takeaway:
The end result is a mismatch of messages. On one hand the content is carefully written, personalized and tested to present relevant information to the sales prospect. But on the other hand, with footers that appear highly commercial, the email says that they still haven’t graduated to sophisticated lead nurturing. It tells the potential client that details aren’t important.

What B2B Marketers Can Do (The Five-Minute Fix):
With all the efforts focused on personalizing the message itself, marketers should take some time to test and evaluate their footers. Don’t trust that the footer which is automatically inserted by your ESP is how it must be – take control over it and change it to be more appropriate for your industry. Look for the following red flags that your business’s footer should be revamped to look less commercial:

• Logos and links to the email service provider should be removed. This is essentially free advertising for them and not appropriate in a personalized B2B campaign.
• “Forward to a Friend” language should instead use the word “Colleague.”
• Social links referencing Myspace are probably irrelevant in your industry.
• Footer lacks details of which business is sending the email.
• Consider if a link to your privacy policies would be appropriate.
• Are social sharing links really appropriate in the footer when the email is personalized?
• Depending on your objective, consider using the footer to ask for referrals.
• If you have data on how they got on your mailing list – use it in footer merge fields! It’ll discourage opt outs and reinforce trust.

There are probably a few things we’re missing, but the bottom line is: test emails, and read the entire email from header to footer. If any of it sounds B2C, you should take the few minutes to change it. It’s a subtle yet efficient way to appear more relevant to sales prospects.