3 MIN. READ
Using email as a method of prospecting to industrial companies can be challenging. Over 75% of prospecting emails are ignored or deleted without being read. This type of treatment can be avoided simply by attempting to establish a real relationship with your prospect. Here's how.
How to Improve Email Prospecting to Industrial Companies
Industrial Prospecting emails are extremely popular because they are simple to distribute, are easily tracked and analyzed, and have a relatively predictable response rate. That being said, many sales departments experience dismal response rates for reasons that are easy to address.
When inundated with 100 or more emails per day, it becomes reflexive for recipients to simply hit the spam button and ignore them all. Considering that many prospecting emails are generic and impersonal, you really cannot blame them.
If your email is treated as spam, it is likely because it fails to create a connection before attempting to solve a problem. Wouldn’t it be better to ask your audience what their problems are first rather than blindly assume? Fortunately, there are several ways to create a connection that lets companies know that your emails are not spam.
Related: 78 Email Marketing Statistics Every B2B Marketer Should Know
1. Do the Research
Researching an industrial company - who they are, what they do and how they do it - is the fastest way to learn about what they need. Five minutes of research can take your prospect email from a generic greeting to a personalized, attention-getting introduction. Even using just fundamental data about the company can help you craft your message to fit their needs.
This research will allow you to offer help that the company actually desires. If your abilities and services do not match up with their needs, it will come across as spammy and a waste of their time.
Showing that your expertise can enhance their mission will improve the chances of connecting with them.
Learn more about compiling this type of research in our five-part series on researching industrial sales leads.
2. Know Who to Talk To
While researching, you also need to find the right person to contact. If you need to speak to somebody in procurement, it will not do as much good to send emails to their head engineer.
That individual may be able to help you but most likely will be busy with other tasks and may not have the time to engage with you. Utilizing a list of critical personnel will help guide you to contacting the right individual.
Read on to learn how to access the right contacts for your campaign.
3. Provide Examples
Providing proof of what you can deliver for a company can drastically improve your conversion rates. One study shows that social proof increases these rates by 468%.
In manufacturing, this means referencing other companies in the sector or even other sectors that have seen benefit from your services. This provides an impartial reference point for any prospect to consider your services.
4. Make it Personal
Finally, you want to personalize your emails. Using a template can be a useful starting point, but using a boilerplate email has a certain “sales” feel to it.
Since manufacturing marketing is not the same as a massive email campaign for generic website design and other less specific services, you can afford to take some extra time to really make the email different. Personalized emails give people a sense of uniqueness, which can boost conversions by 10%. Generally speaking, the bigger the potential deal, the more personalized the email should be.
Some of the ways to personalize include:
• Referencing competitors and what they're doing to get ahead.
• Including information on their target demographic and what can be done to capture more of them.
• Identifying industry-relevant data.
• Including the position and title of the individual being addressed.
• Mentioning content created that can be useful to the company.
• Highlighting personal interests if they are similar to the individual being addressed.
Company profiles available on IndustrySelect provide a wealth of information on individual companies such as major compeitors, news articles on the company, products manufactured and more. Click here to see a sample.
Land New Customers with IndustrySelect
Now that you have a top-notch email campaign all ready to go, make sure you're reaching the right audience for your product. IndustrySelect can help you build the most effective list possible. Get access to a live database of 500,000 industrial companies, updated in real time and drill down to the data you need, based on industry, geography, company size, execuive function and more. IndustrySelect Premium helps you build the most effective list possible, containing all the features you love about IndustrySelect plus the holy grail of email marketing: direct executive emails. Want to give IndustrySelect a try? Click here to start your free demo.