Email marketing has long been an effective way for B2B marketers to reach customers, but COVID-19 has made email marketing critical as other channels are no longer effective. Higher email volumes mean greater risks of blacklisting and other pitfalls, especially for the inexperienced, as Mountaintop Data CEO Sky Cassidy explains.

CANOGA PARK, CA., January 17, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — The nature of email marketing has changed as a result of COVID-19, and it’s critical that marketers stay current. With more people switching to remote work, other mediums such as the phone and physical mail have become less efficient. But the higher volume of marketing emails saturating inboxes also presents a challenge for those less experienced in email marketing: how to beat the competition and ensure their email receives the attention it deserves. “There are several forces working simultaneously,” says Sky Cassidy, CEO of MountainTop Data. “On the one hand, people are going to send more emails. But on the other hand, more emails means more friction, which means you’re going to have more problems with email accounts. “

While a recent study found that users opened COVID-19-related emails 30% more often than other email campaigns, this increase in volume also led to a higher number of complaints.(1 ) Customers isolated at home due to COVID-19 lockdowns have led to increased e-commerce and higher email volumes. Email providers have responded to this increase in volume by changing rules around filtering and spam classification of emails. More emails were likely to end up in spam or undeliverable folders, and senders were more likely to be blacklisted. Therefore, this combination of factors meant customers were less likely to open the emails.

While the pandemic played a role in the changes that occurred with email marketing, Cassidy points out that another cause of confusion was the lack of defined rules for email marketing. To counter this, he suggests B2B marketers use their instincts based on the marketing insights they’ve gathered about their customers. “You have to go where your audience is and where they’re most likely to be receptive. In marketing, you’re constantly experimenting,” says Cassidy. “For example, you may notice that there is no response from physical senders, then conclude that those particular customers you were trying to reach are not in the office. So you need to find the most efficient way to join them.

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The most common pitfalls that inexperienced marketers tend to fall victim to these days include being blacklisted, outdated and incomplete information, damaged reputation due to higher bounce rates, and wasted time and money. . Cassidy also points to another major pitfall he’s seen hampering email marketing efforts: using newsletter platforms like Mailchimp and Constant Contact to send cold emails. Although these platforms are very useful, they were not designed to send cold emails to bulk contact lists that have been purchased or have not yet collaborated with your business. “People don’t realize that you can’t just upload 20,000 emails that you bought on these platforms and send them, [the newsletter platforms] frown,” Cassidy says.

Cassidy points out that in B2B marketing, it’s often necessary to have two or even three different messaging channels. “First you have your sales and engagement platforms, individual sellers sending individual emails, and then an automated version of that with those platforms. Then you have your marketing newsletter style, the direct marketing to existing opt-in people, and finally your cold chain email,” says Cassidy.

So how can novice email marketers avoid the other pitfalls and engage more effectively with this advertising medium? In addition to ensuring they are using the right messaging platform for the right purpose, it is also essential for marketers to ensure they have clean, accurate, and up-to-date data. To achieve this, Cassidy suggests creating a “hibernation list” to keep track of emails that go unresponsive for a long period of time. And when it comes to stale emails, don’t make the common mistake of assuming this problem is evenly distributed across your data. Cassidy points out that this is probably not the case when you consider that the turnover rate of CEOs, for example, is much lower than that of low-level IT people in an organization, or CMOs who have a turnover rate average less than two years. As a result, people end up getting rid of a lot of good useful data.(2)

For email marketing to be effective, marketers need to know their customer and their particular audience segment, Cassidy explains. The lack of social interaction that has plagued the world since the COVID-19 lockdowns began has led people to have stronger desires and expectations for personal connection with businesses.(3) Marketers must understand how the public thinks and feels, and what special value the product holds for them. Then they can personalize emails and subject lines based on specific customer information, making them more likely to grab attention. Over time, companies can build strong relationships with their customers and improve their reputation, making closing deals more likely. And for cold emails, Cassidy suggests keeping them “short, snappy, and to the point, like a billboard.” He points out that the shorter the message, the more likely it is to be absorbed and remembered by your audience.

Finally, when it comes to avoiding common email marketing pitfalls, it’s essential to ensure that you have the right keywords and attributes that will make your email appear authentic and less likely. to be marked as spam. Some of the surefire ways to get your emails blacklisted include putting a lot of text in all caps, using words like “free” or “discount” too frequently, or putting those terms in the email line. email subject.

While there will likely be a return at some point to other marketing mediums (such as telephone and physical mail), most of these changes in email marketing are likely to stick, according to Cassidy. . “Once we break the seal and everyone works from home, it won’t come back to everyone in the office.” However, it is important for marketers to continue to pay attention to where their audience is and where they are most receptive, as this can change based on factors such as company size, industry or niche. Cassidy says companies believe changes are needed to provide the most accurate and useful data, such as developing a method to flag remote workers, so marketers don’t waste time and effort. money by sending physical senders to them.

The good news, according to Cassidy, is that despite the pandemic, doing business is progressing, albeit with some slight adjustments. And now that digital marketers have endured the growing pains of these recent changes, they can reap the benefits. “People will likely continue to do more email marketing than they ever have before because they’ve now learned how to do it right. They’ve been blacklisted, fixed it, and do it. now in the right way.”

About MountainTop Data
MountainTop Data, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, has been providing data services for B2B marketing for nearly two decades. With an unwavering commitment to quality, they were the first company to guarantee the accuracy of their licensed data and business emails. They provide marketing lists, data cleaning, data addition, and data maintenance services. Their data services have been used by some of the world’s biggest brands across a host of diverse industries, from multinational telecommunications companies to office technology, PR firms and more. For more information, visit: https://www.mountaintopdata.com.

1. Afschrift, Marie. “Corona has changed email marketing.” Artegic, 1st of March 2021. artegic.com/blog/corona-a-change-email-marketing/
2. Olensky, Steve. “CMO turnover is highest in C-Suite, but the reasons why may surprise you.” The CMO Whisperer. cmo-whisperer.com/cmo-turnover-highest-in-c-suite-but-the-reasons-why-may-surprise-you/
3. Rotem, gal. “How to Transform Your Email Marketing as the Pandemic Continues.” Inc, 2021. inc.com/rotem-gal/how-to-transform-your-email-marketing-as-pandemic-continues.html

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