Holiday marketing is mostly associated with Business to Consumer (B2C) companies. But even Business to Business (B2B) companies can create a successful marketing campaign to take advantage of the season and increase sales. Email marketing is one of the most successful approach to reach existing customers as well as attract new ones. For existing customer holiday gives you a reason to thank for their business and send holiday cheers. For new customers holiday allows you to the opportunity to invite them to try your business for the first time. Use the tips below to get in the holiday spirit and create successful email marketing campaign.
- Provide Unique Deals
One of the most successful strategies you can deploy with email marketing is create a unique deal for your B2B customers. Come up with a service you will only provide to businesses that make purchases during the holiday season.
For example, if you sell office equipment, you could offer a free consultation to each client that orders a certain amount before January 1st. During this consultation, you’ll assess the most efficient way each company can use their office space and/or find ways they can save money on their office supplies.
You can even offer different tiers based on when people order. So, those that respond to the emails before Cyber Monday get the best deal whereas those that wait until January 1st will have to settle for far less.
- Create Scarcity
Even though it goes without saying, it’s still a good idea to stress the fact that any deals you’re offering are only available until the holiday season is over. Scarcity is a powerful force and there is no better time to use it than during a B2B holiday email marketing campaign when you have a hard deadline approaching.
For example, if you sell physical products, mention that you’re clearing out your inventory before the end of this quarter to make room for new merchandise. Therefore, once your current line is all purchased, you’ll be moving on. This sale will never be offered again.
If you offer a service, your email marketing campaigns can focus on how you only have limited personnel to support so many purchases. For example, a team of consultants might offer reduced rates for the following year but can only accommodate the first 10 companies that either sign up or renew their contracts at this discounted price.
- Leverage Social Media
Social media and email marketing tend to work very well with each other, even for B2B companies. There are a number of reasons for this. The main reason this will help your B2B holiday email marketing campaign stems from followers. You see, more than one person from your target companies may be following you.
This is helpful because, if you introduce great deals solely through email, only one person from a target company may see it. Then, that person may pass on the offer. After that, no one else at the organization will ever hear of the sale you were running.
Instead, spread the word through social media. Even if the person on your email list ignores it, someone else from their company may see it and show interest. You may see substantially more responses to your messages.
Of course, the other benefit to this strategy is that it’s great for creating leads. Companies that weren’t originally in your funnel may suddenly hand over their email addresses in order to be considered for this deal. Even if they don’t qualify for this holiday offer, you still have that all-important address going forward.
- Deploy Account Based Marketing (ABM)
If your company is already using an account-based marketing (ABM) approach with clients, use the segmentation advice outlined earlier. By segmenting, you can home in on clients who are likely to make a purchase with the right amount of attention.
The goal is to lock in a cross-sell or upsell before the first of the year.
Otherwise, now would be a great time to get hyper-specific about targeting your current list of clients. Go through that last step with your clientele. Create a list of clients likely to upgrade or add services.
Even though the clock is ticking, take some time with this step. It will involve each teammate doing research on all preexisting customers. Your team will want to ensure they understand client needs and past purchases.
- Don’t Get Carried Away
With all that said, it’s possible to get too caught up in the holiday spirit. While a B2B holiday email marketing campaign can produce amazing results, don’t lose sight of what has been working for you so far.
The “holiday season” typically stretches from the beginning of November until the first of January. That’s a lot of potential emails. It would be a real shame if you completely ditched what’s engaged your readership thus far for two whole months just so you could chase a holiday theme.
By all means, embrace the above advice, but don’t overhaul your campaigns to the point that they become completely unrecognizable. Use the holiday theme to double-down on what you already know works with your leads and current clients.
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