Everyone gets email. Everyone does not open or read every email they get. These are two very well-known “facts” you can count on. I’m sure if you’re anything like me you get hundreds of emails a day; and no matter how much I’d like to open and read each one it’s simply not humanly possible. What does this mean? Well it means some emails get filed before I ever see them, and other emails get a quick glance at the headline and nothing more. That’s just the cold hard truth of email inboxes. And I’m sure your email is similar. So here’s my question for you. Do you think about this when you are writing your emails? You’re engaging in b2b email marketing and you’re working hard to get maximum opens. Are you thinking about your email marketing strategy?

Your readers have inboxes just like you. They have rules, labels, and spam filters just like you do. Here are 5 best tips for writing emails. I won't guarantee that you’ll see 100% open rates on your email as a result of these 5 tips but they are a great starting point.

1. Be Short

You don’t have to write a novel when composing an email. Think about the emails you like to receive when they are short and to the point you can very quickly skim the contents and determine the importance of the letter. When you’re writing your emails to your audience keep this in mind. They want to be able to read it quickly. Don’t reveal too much information (we’ll talk more about this later).

2. Be Specific

There’s nothing worse than trying to guess at the purpose of an email. If you don’t understand why the email has been sent you’re unlikely to read it or take any action as a result. Create your emails with purpose. Identify a handful (at most) of items you want to share and give a clear specific action you want the reader to take. (e.g. Click this link to read this article! or maybe Leave a comment here)

3. Be Consistent

Don’t share conflicting information. You don’t want to appear dishonest in your communication and you don’t want to say one thing in your email and another on your website. This is especially true with b2b email marketing where all your emails are tied to a corporate or business website. You have to make sure you are consistent, in your voice, your tone, and your content. Consistency encourages trust.

4. Be Relevant

Ok, another personal story. I get emails every day on all types of things: products, services, and more. Some of them are completely and totally irrelevant to me. (No, I don’t need to volume pricing on air conditioning units.) You should be using your marketing automation software to make your b2b email marketing effective and relevant. You do this by correctly building your lead lists, and your lead profiles. Managing your leads correctly will let you target them with relevant information in your emails.

5. Be Interesting

The last tip for writing better b2b emails is a simple one, in fact it’s almost more of a personal plea. Please be interesting! Your readers will appreciate your emails so much more if they are witty, entertaining, and interesting instead of just another boring, drab regurgitation of information. This is a harder concept in b2b email marketing since the topics are more business oriented, but if you have correctly identified your voice you can always fine ways to be interesting.

These are my best 5 tips for better b2b email marketing. I’m sure there are more that are good and I’m sure you also have some that you have found to be important when formulating your b2b email marketing campaigns and implementing a strategy for email success. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Have you found something that works well for increasing opens? Let’s work together to rid the world of the pointless emails at least since it doesn’t appear we’ll be free from email any time soon!