Email Marketing for Manufacturers

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First impressions really do matter: Studies have shown that over a third of email recipients decide whether to open an email solely based on the subject line.

The body of your email may be fascinating, well-written, and highly informative, but it makes no difference if people aren’t opening it to begin with.

Crafting a pithy, eye-catching subject line — one that gives users enough information to understand why opening the email will be valuable to them — is essential for drawing in buyers, engineers, procurement managers, and MROs.

Our writers will ensure your email subject lines clear and your offers appeal directly to the needs of your target audience

Email marketing that generates industrial leads

Industrial Marketing Email Example

When it comes to email marketing, too many industrial companies — and the agencies they work with — focus on just collecting the most contacts possible.

But instead of focusing on accumulating a ton of contacts, what you need to focus on is engaging them and turning them into customers. Email marketing can accomplish that, plus help increase your referrals.


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With Thomas as your partner, we take a big picture view of your email marketing efforts to ensure we are moving the right needles — boosting lead generation, reducing cost-per-acquisition, and improving retention, just to name a few. Also, we ensure your email marketing strategy is aligned with your overall inbound marketing strategy too — so you’re everywhere your buyers are. That’s what really counts. Here’s how:

Putting Together A Targeted And Segmented Email List

You may have great content, but if your emails aren’t reaching the right people, you won’t be garnering any new leads.

We'll spend some time cultivating a well-thought-out email recipient list, one that includes current customers, users who have provided their contact information on your site, valuable LinkedIn and other social media connections, and industry professionals with whom you’ve had meaningful interactions.

Through marketing automation and persona targeting, we'll tailor your messaging and personalize it so that it stands out in your prospects’ inboxes. We also create different email types — newsletters, promotional emails, personalized sales engagements — to best meet the needs of your prospects and customers, no matter where they are in their buying process.

It’s better to send an email to a smaller group of carefully chosen people than it is to bombard a huge group of users who likely don’t have any need for the content you’re providing.

We'll experiment with different emails for different groups of people — emails for procurement managers, for instance, or emails directed at designers — and gauge the response.

We'll also try out A/B testing, in which one group of people receive an email formatted in a different way than another group, in order to determine what your audience is looking for.  

Including Captivating Content

We speak the language of manufacturing, industrial, engineering, and procurement, and this knowledge imbues all the copy in our emails, from click-worthy subject lines to body copy that makes people take notice — and take action. We'll take the time to ensure you’re reaching out to the right audience with directly useful, informative content.

Has your company added a new capability to its list of services? Have you just purchased some new cutting-edge equipment? Do you have a list of valuable tips to help industry professionals succeed in their jobs?

We'll make sure your content and emails showcase exactly that.

Creating A Well-Designed UX

Creating a positive user experience (UX) is just as important as offering valuable content. If your email formatting is confusing, outdated, or just plain boring, you run the risk of quickly losing readers’ interest.

On average, recipients spend just 51 seconds reviewing an email campaign, so it’s critical to make a lasting, positive impression.

There’s an art to email marketing, and we know how to wield a digital paintbrush. We create emails that are easy to scan, engaging to read, and, most importantly, encourage conversions. Our email marketing campaigns avoid garish, overwhelming colors and fonts, and keep an eye on graphics and image sizes. 

Users can spot sloppy or lazy formatting, and an unprofessional or outdated image will only detract from your content.

We'll only use images that speak to your brand and relate to the content you’re offering. 

Ending With A Relevant Call To Action

Emails won't help you sell if they don't include an action item for your prospect to complete. All our emails include a specific call to action (CTA) toward the end of your email; these serve as a way for potential customers to stay in touch with your business once they’ve finished reading your email.

For example, if you’re pushing a new eBook, you may include a CTA encouraging users to download it. Or, if you’re announcing a new website design, you may simply direct people to your site.

Most CTAs are designed as buttons containing the given copy, but there’s a lot of opportunity for experimentation here.

CTAs are essential for analyzing whether your email was successful; various software options allow for easy tracking of user interaction with your emails, and changes and improvements can then be made for future campaigns.

Helping to drive your potential customers down the marketing funnel, CTAs can play a major role in converting your subscribers to customers.

Reporting Your Email Marketing Results

For many agencies, email marketing runs on autopilot. But not with Thomas. We continually evaluate your email marketing performance, perform A/B tests, and stay attuned to the latest changes in the marketplace in order to continually improve your results.

2020 Ultimate Guide To Marketing For Manufacturers

Learn how to improve your open rates and online conversions

The Ultimate Guide To Marketing For Manufacturers eBook Cover

Are you new to industrial marketing and need to learn how to build your own email marketing campaign? Or do you already have a couple of digital marketing campaigns going but you're looking to improve your results? Wherever you are in your marketing stage, this eBook will help you engage with buyers, engineers, and procurement managers and turn them into sales. 


Get The Ultimate Marketing Guide 

What are the best practices for email marketing?

We have a ton of resources and information to enhance your email marketing right here on our blog. Some top best practices we recommend include avoid misleading email subject lines, overly promotional content (talking about yourself too much), and mismanaging your email lists. Quality content is crucial — keep your messages between 200-250 words and keep your format clean for easy reading. 

Why are my emails not getting replies?

There may be a few reasons why your emails aren't receiving replies. Take a look at your reporting and see what your open rate is. If your emails are getting opened but you're not receiving enough clicks or replies, you may need to adjust your content messaging and your call-to-action. If your open rate is low, you may need some work with a better or clearer subject line that captures the reader's attention. Alternatively, make sure you're sending your emails from a real person's email address — not something like "noreply@manufacturingbusiness.com." Check out our 2020 Industrial Marketing Benchmarks and see if your stats meet industry standards.

What is the best email marketing system for manufacturers?

It really depends on your budget and business goals. We (and most of our clients) use HubSpot for email marketing since it’s included in the marketing automation tool — but if you’re looking for one-off campaigns, you could turn to MyEmma, MailChimp, or Constant Contact.

What's wrong with buying a list for my email marketing?

Do not, under any circumstance, buy or rent an email list. Contacts on a purchased or rented list don't actually know who you are, so your manufacturing company and brand will suffer — you'll come off as annoying. Reputable email marketing systems also won't let you send emails to lists that you've bought. You’ll need to build your email list up organically through your network and website —  and it's free!

How do I grow my email list organically then?

According to HubSpot, your email marketing database degrades by about 22.5% every year. Because people are constantly moving from one company to another, unsubscribing, or ditching email addresses, it’s your job to make sure you’re getting your email contacts up to date and growing. How? Adding new email marketing campaigns with fresh content and offers keeps your email contacts engaged. If they’re engaged enough, they will always look forward to your email – and they may even forward your email to a friend! So make sure you include social sharing buttons and an Email to a Friend button, so you gain access to their network too. 

Besides offering new content, you’ll need to build it up organically through your network and website. You can also grow your email marketing list through social media — CTAs on your Facebook page and YouTube subscriptions. An industrial marketing agency can help organize all of that for you.

Learn more in our post How Sales & Marketing Pros Can Grow Effective Email Prospect Lists

Why is personalization in email so important?

There are 205 billion email messages sent every day, and most are deleted within seconds or routed straight to a junk folder. Email marketing shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. After all, the design engineers you want to connect with don’t think like the procurement folks you want to do business with. You’ve got a lot of competition — and very little time to make an impression.

What type of tone should my email be written in?

Keep writing clear and concise, and avoid snarky or sarcastic phrasings.

It may come off well in speech, but tone can be easily misconstrued on the internet. Showcase yourself in a way that accurately conveys your company’s personality, and take the time to review all content to eliminate errors and confusing phrasing.

Here are additional resources to make sure you're creating the best emails for buyers, engineers, procurement managers, and MROs.

Engage prospects and turn them into customers with email marketing