Have you ever worked in the restaurant business? Ever managed a restaurant? If you have, you know how different each day can be and how different each customer can be. No two days, or two customers are the same. For anyone that has not worked in a restaurant, you'll still appreciate this as long as you've been to a few different restaurants in your life.
As B2B marketers, we need to think of email marketing in the same light as a restaurant manager would run his or her business. Here's why.
The Menu Design
When a restaurant designs a menu, they take several things into account. First, there is the aesthetic - the look, the feel. They consider what types of materials are used, what the layout will be and how this translates to the overall experience they want customers to have. How does the menu support the overall experience?
In terms of how this relates to B2B email marketing, think of your email as a menu. How are your email templates designed relative to your overall brand? Does your email marketing support your other digital marketing? Is it consistent with your branding? Will your customers and prospects associate the email layout with your website layout?
The Menu Content
Next in the menu development comes the items on the menu - appetizers, main course, desserts, perhaps a separate wine or beer menu. The dessert menu may be separate from the main menu. A restaurateur knows the importance of getting this right. Customers arriving for dinner don't want to start with the dessert menu. And, when they look at the main dinner menu, they want to see dishes that are relevant to them and the restaurant they chose. If you choose a steak place, you expect steak on the menu, not pizza.
As a B2B marketer, you likely have many products or services available to your customers and prospects. What content do you want to include in your email? You can't put your full offering in every email. That's a recipe for failure. This is where segmentation comes in for restaurants and B2B marketers. You need to understand your audience segments and give them the menu or email that is relevant to them.
At any given time in a restaurant, each table is at a different stage of the dining experience. Some are just arriving and want to order a drink and an appetizer. A savvy restaurant has a menu for just this segment. Others are considering the main course or might be on to dessert. Segmented menus allow customers to see what is relevant to them.
B2B marketers have clients and prospects at different stages in their relationship with your company. If you're sending emails to a brand new prospect, you should be communicating with them differently than you would to someone that is close to buying your product or service. The email content for each of these examples is similar to the restaurant scenario where some are ordering appetizers and others are ordering dessert. Remember, there are those that want to be nurtured through a sales process. There are others that want special offers. Still others that want to hear about the latest product developments. Give them the relevant content to their situation.
The Experience
When you go to a restaurant, do you go for just the food? Chances are your favorite restaurant has an element to the dining atmosphere that you like. Suppose you are designing the dining room. You don't want to have 50 tables that each seats 4 people. If you did this, you would quickly find yourself with half-filled tables or two tables being pushed together to accommodate a group of 8.
While the seating plan will never be exactly right, it pays to think about the different types of customers coming to the restaurant and their needs. Some may want to have a table for 10 in the middle of the dining room for an office party. Others may want a quiet table for 2 in the corner for a romantic dinner to celebrate an anniversary.
Your email segmentation should be thought of the same way. You don't want to design a one-size-fits-all email. There should be elements that are consistent across segments however the content, the timing of the email, the calls to action all should be flexible and variable based on the audience segment.
Restaurants frequently have a different menu for lunch than they do for dinner. They move tables around between lunch and dinner. Chances are they dim the lights or change the background music for the dinner service once the lunch crowd is gone. They are segmenting the experience. You should too as you send email.
Bringing It All Together
Want to keep your prospects and customers coming back for more and referring your business to their colleagues? Start thinking of your B2B email marketing in this segmented manner and you'll benefit through higher open rates, higher pass along rates, higher click rates, increased order sizes and order frequency, and higher profits. Send them the offers relevant to them based on what they've bought before or where they are in the buying cycle.
You'll need to begin by analyzing your prospect and client databases and creating segments. Once the segments are defined, begin thinking about the menu and the experience relative to the goals you are trying to achieve through email marketing. Taking this approach will increase your chances for success of keeping your customers coming back for another great meal over and again and help grow your referrals.