HubSpot Email Marketing: Best Practices and Campaigns B2Bs Need Now

Laura Sheptoski
Posted by Laura Sheptoski on March 9, 2021
hubspot email marketing overview

There aren’t many B2B email marketing tools that can boast a 3,800% return on investment (ROI) — but email marketing can.1 It’s an impressive potential payout and likely a key driver behind the 121 emails an average customer receives on any given day.1

How do you rise above the chatter to claim a spot in prospects’ minds or build even more loyalty in the hearts of existing customers? Three words: HubSpot Email Marketing.

HubSpot Email Marketing is the easiest way to bring your email marketing strategy to life. The user-friendly tool provides templates that guide you through the process. Drag-and-drop features let you create and modify promotional, automated nurturing, automated RSS, and other emails without frustration or delay. Given the importance of email marketing first impressions, knowing exactly what your email will look like pre-send is a significant advantage.

But HubSpot Email Marketing isn’t strictly for aesthetics. Detailed analytics accompany each email send so you know exactly what’s performing — and what’s not — and adjust your strategy accordingly.

Let’s take a look at how HubSpot Email Marketing can improve your B2B email marketing effectiveness with an overview of:

  • When to leverage B2B email marketing
  • HubSpot Email Marketing best practices
  • Email marketing campaigns that improve ROI

When To Leverage B2B Email Marketing

One of the beauties of email marketing is its versatility. B2B marketers rely on it for a number of popular touchpoints including:

  • Relationship building through personalized interactions
  • Top-of-mind brand awareness and product marketing to encourage prospect engagement
  • Lead generation and nurturing through timely, relevant content promotion
  • Automation of internal notifications for efficient lead management

All are a worthy investment of time for your marketing and sales teams, but time is often at a premium. HubSpot Email Marketing simplifies the process to help you use email marketing to your best advantage throughout the buyer’s journey.

HubSpot Email Marketing Best Practices

With efficiencies come best practices, and HubSpot Email Marketing can help you implement action steps to understand, measure, and improve results. Some easy wins with the HubSpot tool:

  • Subject line A/B testing: Subject lines need to be appealing. Comparing the performance of two versions demonstrates what your audience gravitates toward and will click. Further, consider personalization. Seeing their name in the subject line may create a brief pause that leads to a click. Emojis — used sparingly and appropriately — also make messages stand out.
  • Personalization tokens: Email is efficient, but it can feel impersonal at times. Using personalization tokens within the email body — sparingly — can give the message a more conversational and individualized feel.

smart-email-content

  • Graphics: Incorporating a visual into the email body succinctly communicates your main message — a game-changer considering that about 80% of recipients scan emails instead of read them.2
email-graphic (1)
  • Website click-thru: Your email should include at least one clickable element that drives traffic to your website, generally a hyperlink or graphic CTA. Choosing to include multiple links to your website can be instructive in that under the HubSpot Email Marketing “Analyze” tab you can view a breakdown of what’s resonating better with your audiences.

email-data

  • Re-send: It’s been about a week since your email blast. Did everyone see your message? HubSpot data provides the answer, and the re-send function lets you target those in your audience who received but didn’t open your email. Using a headline variation may prompt action.
  • Embedded video: HubSpot Email Marketing doesn’t allow for native video embedding into emails, but there is a solution. Include a thumbnail image of the video with a “play” button icon that is hyperlinked to a video autoplay that opens in a new tab.

These are but a few ways HubSpot Email Marketing can put time, effort, and ROI on your side. Check out the free HubSpot Academy email marketing certification course for a deeper dive into the particulars.

Learn more about: Why Go HubSpot

Email Marketing Campaigns That Improve ROI

Getting dramatic ROI results is possible with help from HubSpot Email Marketing. Connectivity is the key, and these easy setup and send options give B2B email marketing an extra boost:

  • Welcome emails: Automating an email campaign to welcome new contacts converting on your website is both an acknowledgement and an opportunity. Welcome emails should provide high-level, helpful information to contacts with the goal of using it to drive traffic back to your website.
  • Retargeting campaigns: Neglect customer list segmentation at your own peril. Without it, your email messaging can’t speak to specific needs or pain points and, by extension, isn’t effective in drumming up relevant up-sells, cross-sells, or even referrals. It’s an opportunity no B2B marketer or salesperson can afford to miss.
  • Re-engagement campaigns: If recipients haven’t opened or clicked your  last 11 emails, the contact is considered unengaged, and HubSpot defaults to not sending additional messages. But, just because contacts “go dark” doesn’t mean they’re a lost cause. Set up a dedicated re-engagement campaign to keep your content — and brand — in front of them.
  • Sales enablement: Automation isn’t just for external marketing campaigns. HubSpot workflows can also send personalized emails to your sales team to notify them when new leads are generated, when a lead needs to be followed up with, or when a lead has progressed to sales qualified status. This improves sales efficiency by removing friction for your prospects and your sales and marketing teams, helping your team close more deals.

Using simple tools like the HubSpot Email Marketing tool is fundamental to B2B marketing and sales success, and an essential part of a complete inbound program. Get more tips to optimize your email marketing performance in our free cheat-sheet, 10 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR B2B EMAIL METRICS

New Call-to-Action

1HubSpot, The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing | HubSpot, Undated

2Emma, 18 Must-Know Email Stats for Marketers, Undated

Topics: Marketing Technology, Email marketing

Improve Your Inbound Marketing Efforts