Ken Mahar, CEO and founder of digital marketing firm Email Broadcast, shares his expert advice for crafting and disseminating B2B emails that are sure to garner more clicks.

Q: Why is it critical to focus on email marketing?

A: It’s never been more important to have a real strategy, especially since face-to-face and retail interactions have been down. It’s a very important marketing channel. Everyone’s realizing that now. But it’s not just about sending more emails; you want to send more effective ones. First is to know your audience. If they’re older, don’t put it in 8-point font. That’s a mistake. If mostly executives read it, make adjustments so they can see it well on the types of screens they’ll be using while also making sure it’s mobile-responsive.

Q: What should the tone be?

A: The number-one problem is that companies don’t realize that people only care about themselves, and so they use email as a channel only to self-promote. They’ll say, “Well, we have a sale, so there’s something for them.” If you’re constantly on promotion or sale, it’s just more noise. We’re taking one client from messaging with “Hey, here’s some product” to “Hey, business owner, we know you have a problem, like you need more traffic. We want to educate you on using promo more effectively.” If people are driving by at 40 mph and a client has a feather flag with small details on it, that doesn’t work. We want to take them from a being a product or price leader to a trusted source by figuring out what their clients want, need and want to learn.

It’s important to be super authentic. We want our clients to have a human element. Even a big brand can be more humanized. The world has changed a lot this year, and there’s an esprit de coeur overlay that “We’re in this together.” We’re all just trying to be more flexible.

Q: What’s the top reason why someone will click on a message in their inbox?

A: It’s not the subject, and it’s only partially the message. It’s actually your reputation – how valuable you’ve been for them in the past. When you want to drive more opens, think about how to add value. Companies constantly look at email in a transactional way, as in, “What’s the ROI of this email?” Actually, it should be, “What’s the value I’m offering on this channel overall?” Entrepreneur Gary Vee has a book called Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. You give to your audience three times, and then you pose the ask. That way you have five times more eyeballs on your message when you do finally ask. Otherwise, you’ll be put in the ignore pile.

Q: How often should a company send emails?

A: When you’re creating a new campaign, figure out your audience, what’s important to them, and how often you need to send emails. Be realistic – how often do they actually need to hear from you? The default is once a month. Any less and you’re probably leaving money on the table. But your frequency is in direct proportion to the awesome content you create. It can’t be, “Oh, we haven’t sent an email in a while. Let’s put together something quickly for tomorrow.” We look at a campaign like a TV season – what’s the story arc? The messages can stand alone, but there’s also a larger story. So, you have to keep the messaging consistent. A big mistake I see political campaigns make is asking for money right off the bat without storytelling or onboarding their audience.

Q: What’s the secret to better subject lines?

A: Figure out what resonates with your audience by doing a split test. Are they more likely to click on a vague or specific headline? Do they prefer straightforward, detailed or click-baity? Look at what’s worked in the past. You don’t always have to stray too far from what you’ve been doing, but still test it. It could be something as vague as “Tip #6” and the recipient thinks, “I have no idea what that is, but I have to find out.” Also, marketers will read somewhere that the email should come from a person, but then your audience gets an email from Jim Spalding and they wonder who that is. They either delete or they click and find out it’s from a brand, but the company wasted time not putting their name there. They’re trying to make it more human, but they’re not fooling anyone.

Q: How do you measure click-worthiness?

A: Start with the end in mind. What’s the ultimate outcome you want from a campaign? And then work backward from there. It could be just telling a story for the moment because your big ask will be in six months. So, figure out what you’ll measure: It could be web traffic, sales, engagement, etc. Maybe this one email didn’t have the ROI you expected, but actually, the readers just have to hear about it multiple times.

Q: What should the design look like?

A: Email design should be scannable and have a nice blend of copy and images – if people see a wall of text, even a superfan will save it for later or delete it. Sometimes the whole email is an image. I don’t download images by default, so in my preview pane it’s just blank. You had three seconds to get my attention and you blew it. Interesting graphics can help tell the story, but they can’t be the whole story. I should still be able to get the message even without graphics downloaded. Copy should still be readable. Maybe include a link to the rest of the story so they engage with your blog. It’s important to respect their time.