This is the third of a series of articles on the top B2B marketing trends that will reimagine the way we see marketing in 2024 and beyond. If you haven’t read the first two yet, I highly recommend you do. Here are the links:
In this blog post, we will be discussing the key B2B email marketing trends that will redefine marketing and growth in the coming years. We will learn how email marketing has evolved over the years, what its future looks like, and much more. I have saved the best for the last. So make sure you read till the end.
The evolution of B2B email marketing
Since many of us were born into the digital era, we don’t realize what a revolution email marketing was. The history of email dates back to 1971. According to Mail.com, the first email was sent in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, a young engineer at the firm of Bolt, Beranek, and Newman. However, it took another 20 years for email to see widespread adoption as companies like Microsoft and AOL started offering email services.
From the 1990s to now in 2023, email has undergone a lot of changes. What initially required coding knowledge could now be done with the click of a few buttons. Once limited in capacity, modern email marketing tools can send tens of thousands of emails at once. But what is really surprising is the fact that despite the introduction of various other channels that are ‘cool’, email remains to be one of the highest ROI generating channels for B2B and B2C businesses equally.
Today, we have a wide variety of email marketing tools – from full-fledged marketing automation platforms like HubSpot to specialized outbound email tools like Salehandy. We also have innovative email tools like xIQ that leverage AI to enhance the effectiveness of the channel.
7 B2B email marketing trends to watch out for in 2024 (and beyond)
When it comes to trends in B2B email marketing, there are a few that have been around for a while, whereas some are relatively new. We will look at both categories today. Following are some of the most important trends and changes that will reshape email marketing in the coming years:
B2B email marketing trends for 2024
- Personalization beyond what tools offer
- Video emails
- Interactive emails
- Privacy rules to make email analytics tougher
- Application of AI beyond content generation
- Integrating email with other marketing channels
- Multi-touch email marketing campaigns
1. Hyper-personalization – a B2B email marketing trend that will stay
When email tools introduced the ability to personalize emails using the firmographic (such as company name) and demographic characteristics (such as first name) of the recipient, it was seen as a revolution. But as everyone started to apply this type of personalization, it no longer became a differentiator.
This is where hyper-personalization makes a difference.
Hyper-personalization in B2B email marketing refers to crafting emails that are truly 1-on-1. They are like emails you would write to a friend. You do detailed research on every prospect and write the email as if it is written to him/her.
If you are doing this as part of an outbound marketing campaign sequence, the best practice is to write the first email as a hyper-personalized one and then add the prospects to an automated cadence.
We discussed this technique in detail in this edition of The Skalegrow Newsletter. Do give it a read to know more about it.
With competition increasing and email open and response rates going down, this is a powerful tactic to stand out among the noise. The idea here is to personalize the first communication as much as possible (including the subject line). 2024 will see a higher adoption of this technique in B2B.
Also read: Account based marketing strategy – hyper-personalization throughout the funnel
2. Video emails
This is another tactic we discussed in a Skalegrow Newsletter edition. One of the things that remained unchanged in email marketing for a long time was the content format. It was just a combination of text and images. That after a while became old school (and boring for many).
Video emails put an end to this.
They add a personal touch to your emails and help you send emails that stand out. Tools like Bonjoro, Hippo Video, and Lemlist make it easy to send video emails. Have a look at the below video by Bonjoro to understand how this works:
According to Oberlo, adding videos to your email can increase click rates by 300%. Also, according to SalesLoft, teams that use video enjoy a 16% bump in open rates and a remarkable 26% increase in replies. So clearly, video emails have an impact on the success of your marketing efforts.
So far, video emails have mostly found their way into large enterprises and a few tech-savvy startups. However, we are likely to see an increased usage of video emails in the coming years. This can also be attributed to the inclination of humans towards video content.
3. Interactive emails
Many companies use interactive emails to improve the engagement rate and number of responses of their email campaigns. According to Martech Advisor, interactive email content increases the rate of click-to-open by 73%. It can be one of the ways to differentiate yourself amid the digital noise.
Following are some of the elements you can include in an interactive email:
- Forms
- Calendar booking
- Polls
- Shopping cart
- Spin wheels
- Quizzes and puzzles
- Interactive images and carousels
Today, interactive emails are most commonly used in the B2C and e-commerce space. Since many believe that B2B email marketing has to be ‘serious’, a vast majority have stayed away from it. Also, some don’t see a benefit in using specialized interactive email tools like MailModo.
I have a different opinion though. Interactive emails can definitely get more people to engage with your emails. But here’s the thing. It’s not about how cool the elements you use are. Rather, it’s about what you do with them.
For example, if you are adding a survey to your email, you should ensure that the survey meets a genuine business cause and is not created for the sake of it. A few ways of using surveys effectively include collecting product reviews, analyzing reasons for customer churn, consolidating customer objections, etc. Essentially, the idea is to use interactive elements for the benefit of the business and not to try it simply because it is a shiny new thing.
4. Increasing privacy rules – a far-impacting B2B email marketing trend
The launch of iOS15 offered users the option to hide their opens from email platforms. This means that the open rate you see in your email marketing platform will not be accurate. It poses a serious challenge to marketers since open rate is a key metric based on which email marketing campaigns are optimized.
In addition, with Google soon deprecating third-party cookies, privacy-related restrictions are only going to rise in the coming years. This is a necessary evil that all marketers have to live with.
The next obvious question is, how should B2B marketers adapt to this new shift?
There are two steps involved in this:
- Ensuring quality in everything you do. Whether you know someone has opened your email or not, if the person is really interested in your content, product, or solution, he/she should come to you without fail. Here, concepts like zero click content and demand generation become highly relevant.
- Instead of trying to measure everything, measure what is possible and derive correlations from the limited data available. For example, right after you sent out an email campaign, did you see a sudden spike in direct traffic? This could mean that people who read your email checked out your website. What eventually matters is whether you got leads and conversions, and not the accuracy of the underlying data.
5. Application of AI beyond content generation
We all know how AI writing assistants like ChatGPT and others can be used to generate content for emails. However, the application of AI in B2B email marketing is beyond content generation. I briefly touched upon a tool called xIQ earlier. What the tool does is curate content dynamically based on the characteristics of the recipient (industry for example). This is a great example of how AI can applied to email marketing.
Other applications of AI in email marketing include:
- Audience segmentation
- Optimizing subject line and copy for better results
- Personalization at scale
- Automated email workflows
In 2024 and the years ahead, we will see more use cases emerging for the application of AI in email marketing. This could also lead to a higher adoption of AI in marketing in general.
6. Integrating email with other marketing channels
Despite omnichannel marketing being discussed quite often, not many tend to use email marketing in combination with other B2B marketing channels. Email can be a powerful tool when used alongside channels such as:
- YouTube & video marketing
- Paid ads
I have discussed this topic in detail in one of my other articles. Visit it using the below link to learn how to effectively integrate email marketing with other B2B marketing channels:
How To Integrate Email Marketing With Other B2B Marketing Channels
As more and more marketers realize the value of integrated email marketing, other channels can be boosted using it and vice versa.
7. Multi-touch email marketing campaigns
Multi-touch email marketing is not an industry-standard term. By this, I am referring to using disparate email campaigns to target your ideal customers.
For example, let’s say you want to target CFOs of SaaS companies with a revenue of $100M to $500M in the US. The conventional approach in outbound email marketing is to initiate an email sequence. But the challenge here is that most of the recipients on your list might not have heard about you (unless you are a large brand already). So you need to create some familiarity among them about you. One of the best ways to do this is to start an email newsletter campaign where you consistently share educational content related to your niche.
Once at least a portion of the people on your list ‘see’ you through your newsletter campaigns, you can start your sales-driven email marketing or cold calling campaigns.
We discuss this technique in detail in the latest edition of The Skalegrow Newsletter. Read it here.
Final words about B2B email marketing trends
While new trends have had their fair share of contributions to changing B2B email marketing, the fundamentals of emails have remained the same. A good subject line, preview text, copy, proper sequencing, quality of the list, etc., have always been the most critical success factors – and will remain that way for a while. My recommendation is that when you keep abreast of the latest and the coolest, make sure you get the basics right whenever you run email marketing campaigns.
Skalegrow – B2B email marketing services
With marketing getting tougher and tougher, every wrong foot you make might hamper your growth. What you need is the right guidance and a helping hand. This is where Skalegrow can make a sea of difference.
Skalegrow helps IT, tech, SaaS, and embedded systems companies leverage new-age marketing tactics to grow their business. Check out the below intro video to learn more about what Skalegrow brings to the table:
Email marketing is one of our focus areas. We are already helping some of our clients generate leads and improve brand awareness using innovative email marketing techniques. Visit our email marketing services page to learn more about how we can help. You could also write to us at info@skalegrow.com.
About the author
Naseef KPO is the Founder and CEO of Skalegrow. He comes with rich experience across multiple areas of B2B marketing including content marketing, demand generation, SEO, account-based marketing, marketing analytics, revenue attribution, marketing technology, etc. He writes thought-provoking and relevant articles on The Skalegrow Blog and his weekly LinkedIn newsletter Elevate Your Marketing.
Prior to starting Skalegrow, Naseef led large marketing teams in multi-million dollar B2B organizations where he made significant contributions to the topline growth of the business. He has also appeared on numerous podcasts where he shared his thoughts on trending marketing topics such as the application of AI in marketing, startup marketing, ABM, and B2B content marketing, just to name a few. Being the founder of Skalegrow, he is currently focusing on helping its clients stay ahead of their competition by using innovative yet practical marketing tactics.
You can connect with Naseef KPO on LinkedIn.
