Figuring out how to build a B2B email list from scratch seems daunting. With B2B, the sales cycle is always longer, so you don’t want to build an email list with lower-quality prospects. And you want a high-quality list, you want it to build it as fast and securely as possible.
The ROI of building an email list is the highest among all B2B marketing activities.
You need a strategic approach and that’s what the blog post is about. This blog post will teach you the exact steps to build a B2B email list from scratch.
1) Get a Trusted Email Service Provider
The first step to building a B2B email list from scratch is to choose a trusted email service provider. To officially send emails to a bulk of email contacts, you need a provider with automated features.
Choosing the right email marketing service provider, will not help you save time, but also leverage all the full potential of email marketing.
If you’re planning to build a B2B email list from scratch, make sure the service provider has features like landing page builder, A/B testing, and marketing automation.
2) Create an Email-Centric Offer
In order to collect email, you need to do something for your customers. You must entice people into signing up for your offer, namely sharing some information about them.
People won’t provide you with their email addresses for nothing. To create an offer that invites people to sign up for your email list in exchange for a free gift.
One of the best ways to capture email information is to create a B2B lead magnet such as a free ebook, presentation, whitepaper, webinar registration, free course, etc.
3) Create a Lead Form on your Website
Pop-ups if used rightly, can be a great tool to capture lead information. B2B content marketing can give you credible traffic on your website and the lead form will help you capture this traffic. This technique is great since you can segregate your traffic based on what the audience was consuming while filling up the form. This will help you understand specific pain points your customers are facing.
4) Craft Clear CTAs
Very few people will deliberately search for your email list. Therefore, you need to provide a way to sign up through content and website copies.
At the end of your blog posts or website content, you can add a clear CTA asking them to sign up for your email newsletter. Even if you are able to convert 10% of the traffic, you will get substantial email subscribers.
5) Create a High-converting Landing Page
Your landing page plays a huge role in converting your traffic into email subscribers. It should clearly state the benefit of joining your email newsletter, the frequency of your emails, and how your content can help them.
A high-converting B2B landing page will have a strong headline to capture their attention, an enticing copy, an image to convey the message.
6) Leverage Social Media Accounts
B2B businesses do not consider social media as a tool for marketing. But if used right, it can help you take your brand forward. Social media helps you share bite-sized content around your business. And if you are getting a better reach, you can convert some of it into email subscribers.
You can run social media ads urging your followers to subscribe to your newsletter. Social media is a great tool to promote your lead magnets as free offers and maximize their reach.
7) Create a Referral Program
Sometimes, you don’t have a large network or huge traffic to leverage. It’s difficult to scale your email list-building strategies in such cases. But there is a way around it. A referral program helps you utilize other people’s networks and in return, you can pay them in commission.
Discounts, coupons, special offers will incentivize people into getting email subscribers for your business. There are various tools that can help you create a customized referral program.
8) Host a Webinar
Webinars have become a powerful top-of-funnel marketing tool for many B2B businesses. The news of a free webinar spreads faster and people are actually excited to receive free information. This is a great tool to introduce your brand to new people and you can ask them to subscribe to your newsletter to stay in touch for future updates.
Conclusion
Building a B2B email list from scratch is not something that happens overnight. You need strategic measures and a lot of patience to make it happen. The steps mentioned above will provide you with a framework and spark some ideas to be utilized for your own brand.
And remember, what’s matters the most is not how fast you can build your email list but what quality of prospects you can bring into it.