This is part one of a two-part post that looks at how you can optimise email marketing strategies to improve conversions from interested leads into bonafide customers.
Email marketing continues to deliver outstanding ROI, despite all the new and wonderful ways marketers use the digital realm. It’s usually the pass or fail factor that decides whether potential leads will travel further along the sales cycle or drop out.
It can be particularly powerful in B2G marketing because it’s the primary method of communication with contracting authorities, especially in the early engagement and follow-up periods.
Email campaigns aren’t without their challenges, though. For instance, they must comply with the strict regulations that govern public sector procurement.
Let’s start with the basics.
Understanding Public Sector Email Marketing Campaigns
Public sector buyers don’t have oodles of time to spend going through the dozens of emails that land in their inboxes daily. Like the rest of us, however, they can’t resist an intriguing subject line and pre-header content.
An intriguing subject line has to deliver content that meets expectations. It’s not an easy job, which is why it’s best handled by professional B2G marketers.
Compliance with Procurement Regulations
Many regulations govern public sector procurement. There’s the new Procurement Act, for a start. However, there are also international regulations, especially for data protection and email content security.
UK GDPR
The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) was born in the EU. It’s regarded as the strongest privacy and security law in the world – with emphasis on digital data security.
When the UK withdrew from the EU, it developed its own version called the UK GDPR, which is very similar to the original but with a few differences to suit the national procurement landscape (e.g., devolved nations).
Data Protection Act 2018
The Data Protection Act governs data security alongside the UK GDPR. The Act ensures that anyone or any business that uses personal data must guarantee its safety by:
- Using data fairly, lawfully, and transparently
- Using it for a specified purpose
- Using it only when it’s relevant to the purpose
- Only keep it for as long as necessary
PECR
The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) governs data security alongside the GDPR and Procurement Act. It provides privacy rights for electronic communication and covers things like marketing calls, email marketing, texts, and faxes. It also covers cookies (and similar tools) and data security.
Trust & Credibility
The public sector is risk-averse. There’s a lot at stake when you work with taxpayers’ money, not to mention their sensitive information. Buyers must be able to count on your integrity, professionalism, and data security measures.
You must ensure that buyers can trust you, otherwise your email campaign will tank. Open rates will be poor, and click-through rates, even worse. Guess what that does to your conversions. It’s not good.
Trust generates goodwill. Buyers want to open your emails because you never fail to deliver value, even if it’s just some cheer to get them through the day. They’re likely to follow your lead through the email campaign, ultimately hitting your conversion goal. It could be registering for a webinar or using a voucher for a product they purchase often. It must be relevant to their needs to maintain trust and goodwill.
If you lose trust (or couldn’t secure it in the first place), your emails are likely to be ignored, deleted unread, or reported as spam. Expect a surge in unsubscribes.
Stick to a schedule; for example, emails go out at 10 am every Wednesday. Ideally, you want subscribers to look forward to your weekly emails. They can also use the grapevine to endorse your brand – telling their circle to subscribe so they can get the awesome value you provide every Wednesday too.
Email Marketing Best Practices for Public Sector Procurement
There are several ways for suppliers to optimise their strategies. Here are four email marketing best practices you should incorporate into your future campaigns.
1) Segment and personalise emails
Segmenting uses customer data to split your subscribers into logical groups. For example:
- All decision-makers
- All heads of department
- Clients who need product XX
- Clients who need YY services
- Clients in the city of ZZ
- Clients in region AA
- Clients who registered for the webinar BB
Email marketing methods vary by group, for instance, you wouldn’t use the same approach for products XX and YY services. Instead, you tailor marketing campaigns to be relevant to each group’s needs.
You must understand what makes each group unique and then refine your email marketing strategy to address their pain points.
The type of email you send is also important, for example, event-related emails look different to welcome emails for new decision-makers.
2) Structure & design
Email structure is more important than you might think. Research has shown that two of the reasons marketing emails fail to achieve their objective are:
- Too wordy/poorly written
- Boring
You can resolve these issues by adapting your email structure and design. Here’s a brief look at how you can improve your open rate when targeting government buyers.
Responsive design: This means designing emails so they are mobile-friendly. For example, a single column ensures emails retain all design elements when people switch from laptops to smartphones.
Inverted pyramid: Press releases follow this format. Start with all the important details at the top. (You have three lines to capture interest before people bounce out of boredom). The content then flows down naturally to the CTA at the bottom.
Images with people: Research shows that subscribers react positively to images with people in them. It’s like an invitation to share email content CC because it’s so good. This depends on the type of email, for example, an event email is likely to benefit from images with people.
Sense of urgency: Exploit FOMO. People like to be included so they often leap into action before they miss out. Again, this is something that can work well with events: “Seats are limited! Register now!” or “First 10 people to register get a free signed copy of speaker TT’s book!”
Subject line and preheader: You have limited time and space to motivate people to open and read your email. You need a catchy subject line. You know this. But you also need killer preheader content. This is the little description that follows the subject line. If the subject line is less than catchy, your killer preheader can save you.
Optimise content: You attract interest with your killer subject line and preheader. Now, your email content must increase interest. That means value.
How does one provide value?
One provides a solution to a pain point. Pain points are subjective and don’t need to be big to be a problem. For example, there’s a skills shortage, so host a live training webinar that addresses one skill. It could be on data protection or transitioning from an old legacy system to a digital platform.
Whatever you choose to do, make sure the email is about the solution and not about selling your product or service. This must be reflected in your CTA.
You need a strong CTA that links your value proposition (not the sale) to buyers’ needs.
3) Optimise deliverability
Deliverability is about successfully landing in an inbox. It’s trickier than it sounds because there are several ways to end up in a spam folder, or worse not make it past the guardians of the email gates. You can avoid spam filters and be granted entry by the guardians if you follow the tips below:
Send from a person and not an entity. Basically, use a name in the email address: happyjohnson@gmail.com or happyjohnson@johnsoncomedy.com.
Avoid ‘no reply’ addresses because your reader has to search the email to find the actual address or be directed to the contact form on a website. It’s annoying and you don’t want to annoy the people who should be on your side.
The best way to avoid spam filters is to avoid spammy words like ‘free’ and stay away from overenthusiastic punctuation. No !!!! or ???? or !?!?!?
Also, avoid ALL CAPS. PEOPLE DON’T LIKE TO BE SHOUTED AT!!!
We could go on, but avoiding spam filters and getting past the gate guardians is a whole new post.
4) Opt-in Opt-out
This isn’t a tip. It’s the law. The UK’s data privacy policies require email marketers to use double opt-in for new subscribers. It ensures that buyers really, truly consent to receive marketing emails from your company.
On the flip side, you must very clearly give them the option to opt out of email communication. This is the unsubscribe button and it must be clearly displayed on emails.
We’ve reached the end of part one. Join us for part two, where we look at different email strategies and how to measure the success of email marketing campaigns.
