8 Reasons You Should Write Email Copy for B2B Companies
By Steve Slaunwhite

Imagine you’re the new marketing director of a small software company …

Your first task is to improve sales by getting more “free trial” prospects to buy when the trial ends. Right now, the conversion rate is 27%. So you hire a freelance copywriter to re-think and rewrite the free trial follow-up emails.

Turns out, that copywriter knows a thing or two about writing great emails! The ones she crafts for you boost conversion rates to 34%. That translates into tens of thousands of dollars in new sales for the company.

What would you think of that copywriter? Chances are, she’d be your hero. You’d probably scramble to find more email projects for her to work on.

That’s one of the great things about being an email copywriter, especially for Business-to-Business (B2B) companies. You get a lot of appreciation and respect.

Here are seven other reasons why email copywriting is such a terrific gig.

2. Lots of work.

B2B companies do a lot of email marketing. The Direct Marketing Association reports that these companies will spend 50% more on email marketing than they did last year. That’s huge.

In fact, it’s difficult to find a company that isn’t into email marketing in a big way. B2B companies rely on compelling and persuasive emails to generate leads, follow up on free offer campaigns (such as white papers), build relationships with their target markets, and directly sell their products and services.

The better those emails are written, the better the results. B2B companies know this.

3. It’s mostly short copy.

Yes, there are exceptions. But for the most part, emails for B2B companies are “short copy” gigs. Most run 300 to 800 words, with 450 words being the average.

That means you can craft one of these emails in less than half a day. If you’re experienced, it’s not unusual to knock off an entire email campaign — say, a series of five emails with a short landing page — in just one or two days. When you consider that you can charge at least $2,000 for that (which is reasonable), that makes writing email copy very profitable.

4. It pays well.

Writing email copy for B2B companies typically pays more than other projects of similar length. You can charge twice what you would to write a product page. Three or even four times what you can get to write a blog post.

In fact, email copy is one of the highest paying specialties in B2B.

Why is that? It’s simply because email pays off big for B2B companies. A skillfully written series of emails that get a high response can bring in dozens or even hundreds of new customers. That’s why good email copywriters are so valued and paid so well.

5. Regular work.

Landing a white paper gig is wonderful. It’s a high-paying assignment. But most companies only need a new white paper once or twice a year.

Writing email copy, by contrast, is often a steady gig. It’s not unusual for a company to need help writing emails every month, or even every week. I know a copywriter who gets regular work writing email copy for a training company, and that single client makes up more than half her business!

Get good at writing email copy and you can get very busy, very quickly!

6. The better you get, the more you’re rewarded.

Email marketing is the most measured type of marketing B2B companies do. Within hours of sending out a campaign, a company will know the open, click-through, and conversion rates.

So if your email copy is effective, it will get noticed right away.

If you get good at this — writing email copy for B2B companies — you can expect to be rewarded in a number of ways:

• More repeat business. (Probably a lot more.)
• More demand for your services.
• Ability to charge higher fees.

7. Less hype.

I’m sure you’ve received marketing emails packed with excited, emotionally charged copy. Those are rare in the B2B world. In fact, email copy for B2B companies tends to be more down-to-earth, conversational, and fact-based.

Yes, these emails need to be highly persuasive. No doubt about it. However, you’re writing to businesspeople who mostly need clear details about the product or offer, and its features and benefits.

If you dislike writing emotionally charged or “sales-y” copy, I suspect you’ll love the Business-to-Business style.

8. Less competition.

Sure there’s competition, like in any business. However, it’s not as intense. In fact, I’m surprised more writers aren’t going after email copywriting projects. I’ve seen mad scrambles of writers going after blog writing gigs, but email gigs, not so much. Yet, email copywriting pays better and there’s plenty of work to go around. There’s 5.7 million companies in the U.S. alone and 95% need emails written.

So, those are my eight reasons why you should at least consider writing email copy for B2B companies. It’s one of my specialties, and I love it. If you’d like to expand your freelance business in this area, and learn the best practices and techniques for writing great emails … then, go for it!

What questions do you have about writing email copy for B2B companies? Let us know in the comments.