How to Time B2B Email Marketing Campaigns for Success [Interview]

Email marketing professionals know how important timing can be in terms of campaign success. That being said, a report from Yesmail revealed that in the second quarter of 2016, Thursday was the best day for sending email marketing campaigns.

For more insight into what works specifically for B2B marketers, we spoke to Marie Honme, senior marketing strategist at Yes Lifecycle Marketing, about the report.

THE REPORT RECOMMENDS WEEKEND MARKETING EMAIL DEPLOYMENT — WHAT ARE SOME OF THE FIRST STEPS A B2B BRAND CAN TAKE TO LAUNCH A SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN IN THIS DIRECTION?

“With B2C, consumers are engaging during the week and converting over the weekend. For B2B, this doesn’t easily apply. That said, B2B marketers can still take note of this behavior pattern. Can you spot a pattern like this within your own metrics? It may not be a Thursday-to-weekend pattern. For example, perhaps they are reading the email on Sunday night and calling your sales team on Monday morning.

It’s also especially important to note what part of the sales cycle your customer is in. A one-size-fits-all approach may appear to work with high enough volume, but you never know who you might be turning away in the process. Marketers should look carefully at the data to understand actionable behavioral patterns for each target audience within your file.”

IT APPEARS THAT MARKETERS ARE HONING IN ON THURSDAYS, BUT COULD YOU SEE ANOTHER BIG SHIFT (IN DAY OR TIME) IN FUTURE QUARTERS?

“Speaking strictly for B2C, the findings in the report may help support the development of a multi-part messaging strategy that’s designed around piquing consumer interest during the week and driving the conversions over the weekend. This means we may see increased weekend volume in the quarters to come.

For B2B, on the other hand, it will likely require a bit more creativity to leverage this particular behavioral trend, perhaps triggers or location-based tech. Considering how many people are in the always-on mode, it would be a mistake for B2B marketers to ignore the concept of weekend conversion completely. In the end, there is no one magical day that the bulk of a brand’s emails should go out on, as many different factors across different industries that skew this data. While reports like this offer a helpful guide, it shouldn’t be an ‘end all, be all’ for brands’ email marketing plans.”

DO YOU PREDICT MORE POSITIVE NUMBERS FOR MOBILE EMAIL MARKETERS, ASIDE FROM THE DROP IN MOBILE CTO YEAR-OVER-YEAR)?

“Definitely. As the report notes, despite the drop, mobile is still trending upward. We fully expect to see mobile clicks and conversions to continue increasing going forward as mobile increasingly becomes the new home base for email.”

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES YOU’VE SEEN B2B EMAIL MARKETERS FACE? WHAT SHOULD BE THEIR NEXT STEPS GOING FORWARD?

“Oftentimes, common challenges include properly identifying a customer’s journey(s) and key milestones, and this is crucial in paving the right communication path. Adapting to the always-on world is a new challenge rooted in the changing landscape of business communication. How and when people are interacting with business communication has definitely changed, and it would be amiss not to make sure B2B marketers are getting in front of the client at the right time and in the right place to inspire the right action or decision.

It’s easy for B2B email marketers and email marketers in particular to get caught up in just one statistic from reports like this. While we want marketers to take away more from our report that Thursday had the highest open rates in Q2, other statistics, such as conversion rates, email volume percentage, and industry-specific numbers can paint a bigger picture and give marketers the insights they need to be brave and creative in shaping their email marketing plans.”

WHAT DID YOU FIND TO BE THE MOST SURPRISING STATISTIC FROM THE STUDY?

“What’s most surprising was the overall behavior pattern – consumers read and also click on emails during the week, but the conversion is more concentrated on weekends, specifically Saturday, which converted at 4.6 percent. The fact that the highest engagement also happens on Thursdays which tend to have the highest volume is also something to note.”

Visit the Yesmail website to get your free copy of the Q2 2016 Email Benchmarks: Day of the Week Performance report today.

About Marie Honme

As Senior Marketing Strategist, Marie provides strategic consultation and insight for Yes Lifecycle Marketing clients, and has created marketing strategies for various companies including Coca-Cola, HP and U.S. Bank. With over fifteen years of experience in the digital marketing space, she is passionate about developing strategies that deliver a complete brand experience while supporting long-term consumer engagement. Marie has also spearheaded the development of mobile reporting and analysis for the organization by designing new ways to track and measure mobile engagement. In addition, she has co-authored the Yesmail Email Marketing Compass, a quarterly benchmark report resulting from the analysis of over 5 billion emails sent across 20 industries.