Have food and beverage companies fallen behind the email marketing curve? The average return on investment (ROI) for F&B email marketing is somewhere between $36 and $42 for every dollar spent. Email can nurture prospects for retail or B2C companies and get them to buy now. For B2B companies, it’s an excellent lead generation tool.
But before you can email anyone, you need their email address. That’s where building an email list is essential. Every company along the F&B supply chain can benefit from building a targeted, quality email list. Having a list of interested prospects is crucial for the success of your business. It enables your marketing team to connect with new prospects, educate existing customers, and ultimately drive sales from both groups.
Let’s explore the best practices and effective strategies to help you build B2B email lists that will elevate your marketing efforts.
Why Build B2B Email Lists for Food and Beverage Distributors?
Before we dive into the specific tactics, let’s take a moment to understand why building B2B email lists is so important for food and beverage distributors. Here are some key benefits:
1. Targeted Audience
You need to build a list specific to your industry. When you have a targeted audience, you can modify your email campaigns to their specific interests, needs, and preferences, making your messages more personalized and impactful. Reaching the right people with relevant content increases the chances of engagement and conversion.
2. Relationship Building
Email marketing allows you to establish and nurture relationships with potential and existing customers. Over time you will build trust, loyalty, and brand affinity among your subscribers by consistently delivering valuable content and offers.
3. Cost-Effective Marketing
Email marketing is cost-effective. HubSpot touts an ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, while Omnisend reports an ROI of $40. Either way, email works. A well-segmented and engaged email list maximizes your marketing budget by focusing email campaigns on those interested in your products or services.
4. Measurable Results
Email marketing provides a rich data source allowing you to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns. You can measure typical metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. More importantly, you can discover what doesn’t work and improve your copy.
Now that we have explored the benefits of building B2B email lists let’s understand the best way to create these lists.
Best Practices for Email Lists
Even though email is a highly effective method for generating leads and sales, it’s only good if the people you send them to want to receive them. Use these best techniques, and you’ll know the people on your list want to hear from you.
1. Create Compelling Lead Magnets
One way to entice professionals in the food and beverage industry to join your email list is by offering a lead magnet. A lead magnet has a perceived value in exchange for a visitor’s contact information. Consider creating lead magnets like:
- Industry-specific whitepapers or e-books
- Case studies highlighting successful partnerships or projects
- Infographics or cheat sheets with helpful information
- Webinars or online courses tailored to industry challenges
- Access to exclusive content or resources
By offering valuable and relevant lead magnets, you can attract high-quality leads genuinely interested in what you have to offer.
2. Optimize Your Website for Lead Generation
Maximize the potential of your website as a lead generation tool by optimizing it to effectively capture the contact information of visitors who express interest in your products or services. Here are some strategies to consider:
- Utilize opt-in forms strategically positioned throughout your website. They make it easier for visitors to subscribe to your email list.
- Add a modal or lightbox pop-up to appropriate pages. Pop-ups convert from 11% to 42%, growing your list faster.
- Persuasive web content and optimized landing pages can improve the conversion rates of your lead generation forms. More visitors will be compelled to provide their contact information and become leads.
- Implement exit-intent pop-ups to capture the attention of visitors who are about to leave your site.
- Incorporate compelling calls-to-action (CTAs) throughout your website, directing visitors to subscribe to your email list.
- Improve search ranking by optimizing your website for search engines. SEO best practices increase the website’s visibility, leading to more potential leads.
Remember to keep your opt-in forms simple and easy to fill out to minimize friction and increase conversion rates.
3. Leverage Social Media Channels
Social media platforms are another potential source of leads. Use LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook platforms to promote your lead magnets and encourage food and beverage industry professionals to join your email list. Consider the following strategies:
- Share snippets of your lead magnets on social media, enticing users to click and provide their contact information to access the entire resource.
- Run targeted ads on social media platforms, specifically reaching out to professionals in the food and beverage industry.
- Join relevant industry groups or communities on social media and actively engage with members, providing valuable insights and directing them to your email list.
By leveraging social media channels, you can increase your visibility and attract a broader audience to your email list.
4. Implement Double Opt-In
It’s the best practice to require a double opt-in process. Doing so ensures your email list contains only interested subscribers. With double opt-in, visitors receive an email asking them to confirm their subscription after they provide their contact information. This extra step helps ensure your email list contains individuals who genuinely want to receive your emails. It also helps you stay compliant with anti-spam regulations and laws like GDPR.
5. Personalize Your Email Content
Make your emails personal if you want to build strong relationships and get your emails read. Tailor the emails to the needs and interests of F&B professionals. Here are some personalization tips:
- Use the recipient’s name in the subject line or throughout the email to create a sense of familiarity.
- Send targeted emails to each segment using data such as industry role, preferences, location, purchase history, or other factors.
- Incorporate dynamic content that changes based on the recipient’s previous interactions with your emails or website.
Personalizing your email content can make your subscribers feel valued and increase their chances of engaging with your emails.
6. Provide Content That’s Valuable and Relevant
Keep your subscribers engaged and interested in quality content. Share industry news, insights, best practices, and tips that food and beverage industry professionals would find useful, such as:
- Recipe ideas and cooking tips
- Trends, innovations, and new ideas in the food and beverage industry
- Product updates and launches
- Success stories from your customers
- Expert interviews and guest contributions
Valuable and relevant content keep email subscribers engaged and eager to open your email. It helps build trust and credibility and keeps them interested and invested in your offer.
7. Optimize for Mobile Devices
With Over half of all emails getting opened and read on mobile devices, ensure that you optimize your emails for mobile viewing.
- Use responsive email templates. They automatically adapt to different screen sizes.
- Use a clear and concise subject line that fits within the limited space on mobile devices.
- Keep your email design clean and uncluttered with large fonts and easily tappable buttons.
- Test, test, test your emails on various mobile to ensure a seamless viewing experience on every device.
By ensuring that your emails are mobile-responsive, you can provide a seamless and user-friendly experience for your subscribers, which improves engagement and conversions.
8. Encourage Social Sharing
Encouraging social sharing helps expand your reach and attract new subscribers. When your existing subscribers share your content on social, your brand becomes more visible and reaches a broader audience. This activity can lead to more website traffic, higher engagement, and potentially more sign-ups to your email list.
Consider the following strategies:
- Add social sharing buttons for popular platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.
- Include a call to action asking subscribers to share your email with their colleagues or connections.
- Offer incentives or rewards for subscribers who refer others to join your email list.
By incorporating social sharing buttons in your emails and providing valuable and shareable content, you make it easy for your audience to spread the word about your brand, ultimately helping you grow your email list
9. Monitor and Analyze Your Email Campaigns
Like a NASA engineer monitoring a rocket launch, you need the same level of diligence regarding your campaigns. The most obvious metrics to track are open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. However, you can track up to 24 metrics to provide greater insight into your campaign’s effectiveness.
Consider these three best practices for email monitoring:
- A/B tests every element of your emails, including subject lines, CTAs, images, and email design.
- Use email analytics tools to track and analyze the performance of your campaigns.
- Send emails based on the various segments in your email list. Tailor your campaigns accordingly.
Testing and monitoring allow you to refine your strategies and improve your results.
10. Provide an Easy Unsubscribe Option
While building and growing your email list is important, providing an easy unsubscribe option for your subscribers is equally important. Each email you send must include a clear and visible unsubscribe link. By respecting your subscribers’ preferences and allowing them to opt-out quickly, you maintain a positive reputation, keep your list clean, and ensure compliance with anti-spam regulations.
Can I Buy an Email List?
It’s tempting to take the shortcut of buying a ready-made email list. However, buying email lists is not recommended. List sellers will claim a 95% “good address,” but the other 5% can kill your email delivery ability. If you send too many emails to spam traps, your account can get flagged by Google or other parties, crippling your email marketing.
Purchased email lists can harm your email marketing program and violate consent rules under GDPR and other privacy legislation.
Build a Quality Email List and Your Reputation
Building B2B email lists for food and beverage distributors is a valuable strategy. You connect with your target audience, nurture relationships, and drive sales. By applying the best practices outlined here, you can build a high-quality email list and a reputation for delivering quality, relevant content. With a strategic approach and continuous optimization, your B2B email list will become a powerful tool for growing your business in the food and beverage industry. Contact us today if you need help with your email content.
