How Has Email Marketing in B2B Evolved in 2024? And What Can You Do About It? 

One of the many things the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated is the way businesses had to reach and connect to people during lockdown.  

Ecommerce saw a soaring increased in sales in many platforms, and a whopping 96.7% of this rate attributed to email marketing efforts. While B2C businesses have seen more of the benefits of active email marketing outreach, B2B email marketing has become an essential tool for other businesses to send a message across. 

Outside of the pandemic, business-to-business transactions are heavily taxed by factors such as lengthy decision processes, competitive landscape, and non-commodity goods. Positioning your products or services as a solution and need is what B2B email marketing aims for. 

Fortunately, one of the key changes brought about by the pandemic, one that is here to stay, is the increased reliance on email communication. It’s 2024 and this shift has forced companies to reevaluate their email marketing strategies and find innovative ways to capture the attention of their audience. 

Are your email marketing strategies falling behind? Here’s what you can do about it. 

It’s time to revisit your existing email marketing cornerstones 

If your B2B company has been relying on a mediocre email marketing strategy, you are missing out on numerous opportunities to connect with your target audience and drive business growth. A lackluster approach to email marketing can result in low open rates, high unsubscribe rates, and missed opportunities to generate leads and conversions. 

Before we delve into items such as personalization and email segmentation, here’s a question that we have for you. 

Are you certain you are offering value? 

Revisit your email marketing strategies. Realign your messaging and focus on providing value. The rest will follow. Note that B2B buyers are constantly bombarded with promotional emails from other B2B companies, not just your competitors. Entice unique content, provide value with insights, extend your offerings with exclusive resources, and nurture with personalized emails. The goal of B2B email marketing is for your audience to solve their challenges or make informed decisions with your content. 

People don’t read things through, but they do read  

People have shorter attention spans than ever before. This presents a challenge for B2B email marketers who want to capture and retain the attention of their recipients. To overcome this challenge, it’s essential to craft concise and compelling email content that gets straight to the point. 

The short attention span phenomenon can be attributed to the rapid advancements in technology and the increasing amount of information that is readily available to consumers. With the rise of short-form videos in social media platforms, the algorithm continuously catering to this tendency, and app notification marketing, people are easily distracted. 

This has had a profound impact on email marketing strategies for B2B companies. In the past, marketers could rely on lengthy, detailed emails to captivate their audience and convey their message. However, in today’s fast-paced digital landscape, emails that are too long or lack compelling content are likely to be ignored or deleted. 

To adapt to the short attention span phenomenon, B2B email marketing strategies have shifted towards concise, engaging content. B2B marketers now understand the importance of grabbing the reader’s attention within the first few seconds and delivering their message efficiently. This means crafting subject lines that are attention-grabbing and incorporating compelling visuals to convey the main points effectively. 

Less is more. 

Regardless how valuable your newsletter is, it might suffer from declining open rates, lowered engagement, and even high bounce rates if you don’t position your offerings straight away. Another thing to consider is understanding how to talk to leads on different stages of the buying funnel. The valuable newsletter in subject might have worked for top of funnel leads but will work on midfunnel and even bottom funnel leads. 

Considering all of these, revamp your email marketing strategy by creating shorter, more focused emails first. Started by sending out targeted email campaigns that address specific pain points or offer valuable solutions to potential clients. Additionally, experiment with subject lines that are concise, attention-grabbing, and directly relate to the recipient’s interests or needs. 

Once you’ve applied to these changes, monitor and observe for an improvement in open rates, click-through rates, and overall engagement. Remember, by adapting to the short attention span phenomenon and optimizing your email marketing strategies accordingly, you can capture and retain the attention of your B2B audience more effectively for sales conversions. 

Email personalization is key

Personalization is a game-changer in B2B email marketing. Doing so goes beyond simply addressing the recipient by their name; it involves understanding their pain points, preferences, and behaviors. People tend to positively react to personalized emails because it creates a sense of connection and relevance. When an email is customized specifically for the recipient, it shows that you have taken the time to understand their needs and preferences. This personal touch can make the recipient feel valued and appreciated. 

Moreover, personalized emails can help build trust and loyalty. When a recipient feels that the sender understands them and delivers content that aligns with their interests, it creates a sense of trust and credibility. This, in turn, can lead to long-term customer loyalty and advocacy. 

One of the key aspects you may be missing out on with a mediocre email marketing strategy is resonating with your target audience. Personalized emails have been proven to drive higher engagement and conversion rates. To effectively personalize your email marketing campaigns, it’s crucial to collect and analyze data about your target audience. This can include their browsing history, purchase behavior, and demographic information. With DemandScience’s global B2B data, you can segment your email list and create highly targeted and relevant content for each segment. 

Make it more fun with interactive and dynamic content in B2B email marketing

Gone are the days of static and one-dimensional email content. B2B email marketers are now embracing interactive and dynamic content to capture the attention of their recipients and provide a more engaging experience. Static emails with just text and images can often be boring and fail to capture the attention of the reader. On the other hand, dynamic and interactive content can include features such as embedded videos, sliders, quizzes, and surveys that encourage active participation from the reader and interact with the email. 

Dynamic content takes personalization to the next level by delivering customized content that changes based on the recipient’s preferences or behavior. For example, you can show different product recommendations to recipients based on their previous purchases or display pricing information specific to their industry. By incorporating interactive and dynamic content into your email marketing strategy, you can create more memorable and impactful experiences for your audience. 

Dynamic and interactive content in email marketing can help improve click-through rates and conversions. When recipients are actively engaged with the email, they are more likely to click on the call-to-action buttons or links, leading to higher conversion rates. Additionally, this type of approach to B2B email marketing allows businesses to gather valuable data and insights about their audience. By including interactive elements such as polls or surveys, companies can collect feedback, preferences, and opinions directly from their email subscribers. This data can then be used to personalize future marketing campaigns and tailor offerings to better meet the needs of the audience. 

Segment your email marketing list 

Divide and conquer. We have mentioned understanding your client’s buying journey and email list segmentation is a great start. Segmentation is a powerful technique that allows you to divide your email marketing list into specific groups based on various criteria.  

It helps B2B marketers target the right audience with the right message at the right time. By dividing and categorizing your email lists based on specific criteria such as industry, job title, company size, or past interactions with the brand, marketers can send more targeted and relevant content to each segment. This targeted approach ensures that subscribers receive information that is most relevant to their needs and interests, which in turn leads to higher engagement and a better overall customer experience. 

Email segmentation allows you to analyze and understand your audience better. By tracking the behavior and preferences of different segments, you can gain insights into what types of content resonate with each group. This data can then be used to refine future email campaigns, improve the overall marketing strategy, and drive better business results. 

How to segment your email lists: 

1. Demographic segmentation: This involves dividing the email list based on demographic information such as job title, industry, company size, location, or other relevant factors. For example, an email list could be segmented into CEOs of small businesses, marketing managers in the technology industry, or HR professionals in a specific region. 

2. Behavioral segmentation: This involves segmenting the email list based on the actions and behaviors of subscribers. This could include tracking whether subscribers have opened previous emails, clicked on links, downloaded content, or made a purchase. For example, an email list could be segmented into active subscribers who regularly engage with the brand and inactive subscribers who haven’t interacted in a while. 

3. Purchase history segmentation: This involves segmenting the email list based on past purchase behavior. B2B marketers can create segments for customers who have made previous purchases, repeat customers, or prospects who have shown interest but haven’t made a purchase yet. 

4. Industry-specific segmentation: For B2B marketers targeting specific industries, segmenting the email list based on industry can be highly effective. This allows marketers to send industry-specific content, case studies, and offers tailored to the needs and challenges of each sector. 

5. Life Cycle stage segmentation: This involves segmenting the email list based on where subscribers are in the customer journey. Segments can include new leads, active prospects, current customers, and lapsed customers. By delivering relevant content to each stage, marketers can nurture leads, drive repeat business, and re-engage lapsed customers. 

Using Email CPC Marketing for B2B 

As we gradually discover the fast-paced changes of 2024, B2B email marketing continues to evolve and adapt to the ever-changing digital landscape on top of the competitive niche of B2B. 

Email CPC (Cost Per Click) marketing is an effective strategy for driving traffic to your website and generating leads for your B2B business. This advertising model allows you to pay only when a recipient clicks on a link in your email, ensuring that you only pay for the desired action. 

When utilizing email CPC marketing, there are several factors to consider. First, it’s essential to have a compelling and enticing call to action that encourages recipients to click on the link. Second, you must carefully track and analyze the performance of your email campaigns to ensure that you are achieving a positive return on investment. Lastly, it’s crucial to find a service provider that is willing to work with you to continuously optimize your email CPC campaigns. 
 
With DemandScience, your email CPC campaigns don’t end with a massive blast. With reporting and analytics, you can easily adjust and test out different targeting options to maximize results. Let us embrace the future of B2B email marketing and unlock the full potential of this powerful marketing channel together. 

Read more about how you can gear up for 2024 with our Email Marketing Guide ebook here.