To clear the air and any confusion, you can email both B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer) based on the following parameters:
B2B (Business to Business) in 5 steps
- Make sure the business you are targeting is relevant to your email.
- Define your legitimate interest when emailing them.
- Allow them to unsubscribe easily and/or to opt-out of future emails.
- Keep your database clean and up to date.
- Make sure the business email is not a personal name, example:
- wrong: john@businessname.com (unless you have prior consent)
- wrong: mary@businessname.com (unless you have prior consent)
- right: info@businessname.com
- right: support@businessname.com
- right: contact@businessname.com
- right: enquiry@businessname.com
- right: hr@businessname.com
- right: marketing@businessname.com
- right: ceo@businessname.com
- etc…
B2C (Business to Consumer) in 5 steps
- Don’t pressure or confuse individuals to grant you consent by making it a pre-requisite for signing up to your site and/or service. Keep it simple and let them decide.
- Adjust your lead generation and consent forms, permitting the users to opt-in freely, be specific, keep it simple, and easy to understand.
- When collecting data for multiple marketing channels (sms, postal mail, email…) give the user the option to pick which channels they wish to receive communications from you. Provide separate options for each channel.
- Be clear with your audience should the information you collect from them is likely to be shared with 3rd parties.
- Allow them to unsubscribe easily and/or to opt-out of future emails.