7 Email Marketing Strategies for Manufacturers

Whether you’re hoping to raise awareness, nurture new leads, or re-engage prospects that have dropped out of your sales cycle, a robust email marketing strategy can help you achieve your business goals. Here are seven tips to make yours more efficient, effective, and profitable.

01. Choose the Right Email Marketing Software

First thing's first — the success of your email marketing efforts relies heavily on the software you use. If you’re not currently using an email marketing software, this should be your first step.

A good email marketing software will enable you to create, segment, personalize, and automate engaging emails for your leads and customers. It will also have features to track and analyze data, so you’re able to see which types of emails perform better than others. While we’re obvious proponents of HubSpot, any email marketing software that can connect to your CRM will put you in a much better position to import leads, stay on top of warm prospects, and up- or cross-sell to existing customers.

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02. Build a Strong Email List

An email list is basically a list of email addresses that you collect, store, and use to distribute information to. If you’re starting from zero, building a strong email list can seem a little out of reach. However, it’s an important thing to start if you want to cultivate a loyal email subscriber base with ultra-qualified leads.

There are resources out there where you can buy extensive, pre-made email lists, but buying contacts is never a good idea. Remember, the benefit of email marketing is that you get to speak directly to people who have already indicated an interest in your product or service. Buying lists defeats that advantage. Quality > quantity totally applies here, too. Instead of buying an email list, try some of these strategies to create an effective email list from the ground up:

• Include a pop-up or CTA on your website where users can subscribe to email newsletters
• Collect email addresses from people who visit your booth at trade shows (this is HUGE in the manufacturing industry!)
• Create enticing content offers that users can download after entering their email address. For manufacturers, capabilities downloads and product catalogs always work well here!
• Promote your email newsletters on your social media accounts and email signature

And once you've curated a solid list of prospects, make sure you don't kill it. Check out these 8 Bad Email Marketing Habits that are Killing Your List to make sure you're not turning great prospects away.

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03. Use Segmentation and Personalization Tools

Once you’ve created an email list, it’s time to segment it. As mentioned above, any good email marketing software will allow you to segment email recipients into multiple separate lists based on whichever factors you decide. Some common email segmentation criteria include:

• Buyer’s journey stage (awareness, consideration, decision)
• Which product/service they’re interested in
• Industry/job title
• Location

During the segmentation process, it’s important to become very familiar with your buyer personas. Know what your recipients want, and speak directly to their needs. Little touches of personalization, like inserting their name into the subject line or mentioning their company name, go a longer way than you’d think.

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04. Nail Your Subject Line

People judge emails by their subject lines all the time. And when their inboxes are full of other companies’ marketing emails as well, you need something that will stand out and encourage them to open it instead of deleting it.

So what makes a subject line “catchy,” you ask? Usually something short and sweet that sparks either a sense of urgency, curiosity, and/or timeliness. Take some time to really put some thought into what you want those 40-50 characters to communicate. And if you need some more inspiration, HubSpot has a resource on tips to improve your subject line that’s definitely worth a look.

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05. Write Valuable Content

If your subject line was catchy enough to get your prospect to open your email, you need to ensure there’s also quality content within it — otherwise, they’ll be less likely to open your emails in the future.

In the manufacturing industry, education is a huge component of lead generation and lead nurturing. Our world is built on continuous improvement, and your leads are looking to learn about the tools and technologies you’re developing. Therefore, the content of your email needs to focus more on adding value for readers, and less on making sales. This helps boost your credibility and industry authority, making them more likely to trust you, engage with you, and purchase from you. Need some ideas for types of content to include in your emails? Try a few of these:

• List of resources, such as your most recent blogs
• Industry news and trends
• Product and service highlights
• Sales or discounts
• Case studies
• Changes within your company (events, employment, etc.)
• Any information you find many of your customers don’t know, but could benefit from

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06. Direct Traffic to Other Helpful Site Content

After a lead opens your email, give them something to do. Directing them to other helpful content on your website is a great email marketing strategy to help keep them engaged and learning more about you.

From reading blogs to downloading content offers and even filling out contact forms, there is no wrong answer when it comes to which CTA to include in your email. Pick whichever one aligns with your current business goals and what your email marketing campaigns are trying to accomplish.

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07. Take Advantage of Email Marketing Automation

Email automation is a way to create and send effective emails to the right prospects without having to manually do the work every time. Usually a component of your email marketing software, email automation is a huge time-saver, and it helps you be smarter about who you’re sending to, what you’re sending, and when you’re sending. I mean, you’re a manufacturer. You should be all about streamlining processes.

In most cases, email automation works by automatically sending an email (or a series of emails, known as a workflow) to a particular lead once they meet a certain trigger. For example, it could automatically send a “welcome” email to someone who signs up for your blog subscription. Or, it could automatically send a “we miss you” email to someone who’s been inactive for a while, trying to re-engage them. Among other things, email marketing automation will allow you to:

• Personalize and improve customer experiences
• Create a series or sequence of automated emails based on customer behavior
• Improve your own productivity

Need Help Giving Your Email Marketing Strategy a Boost? 

If your manufacturing company is in need of some email marketing help, Evenbound can help! Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to improve what you’re already working with, our knowledgeable digital marketing experts can guide you through best practices — helping you pull in more qualified leads in no time. Contact us today to learn more about our services.