50% of B2B marketers report that email marketing is their most effective channel. No surprise, it is cost-effective, easy to scale, and one of the few channels that lets you directly reach decision makers. With the right approach, email can become your strongest tool for nurturing client relationships, guiding prospects through the sales funnel and generating leads.

In this blog post, we’ll cover seven proven B2B email marketing tactics to get better ROI from emails.

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1. Be Selective With Your Email Service Provider  

Selecting the ESP (Email Service Provider) that fits your needs is essential for scaling campaigns effectively.

A good ESP not only ensures reliable deliverability, but it also provides you with the tools for automation, analysis, and customisation you need to manage large-scale campaigns without losing productivity or insight.

Platforms like HubSpot, Salesforce (aka Pardot), and Mailchimp offer advanced segmentation, automation, compliance tools, deliverability optimisation, and analytics.  

Choose an ESP that fits your needs for long-term use, whether that’s advanced automation for nurturing leads, robust reporting for tracking ROI, or integrations with your CRM.

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2. Build Quality Email Lists

Reaching more people can increase the chances of conversion. Still, when it comes to list building, prioritising data quality over contact volume is a non-negotiable if you want to see results.

An email list with outdated data, for example wrong job titles, bouncing email addresses, won't only harm campaign metrics. It can also damage sender reputation, reducing deliverability and making it harder for even clean, high-quality campaigns to reach inboxes in the future.

When building a B2B email list:

• Use organic list-building tactics: Grow your list with genuine subscribers. You can obtain opt-in by offering gated content (e.g. eBooks, whitepapers), website forms or by contacting previous customers.

• Maintain a clean list: Regularly verify and update contact data - B2B data decays up to 22.5% annually due to role and company changes.

• Avoid purchased lists: Relying on external or purchased lists often leads to lower engagement, deliverability issues, and regulatory risks.

Marketers who adopt these quality-first, email list building approaches achieve higher engagement rates.

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3. Segment and Personalise

You’ve probably received an irrelevant email before and thought, ‘Why are they emailing me?’ This is where segmentation comes into play. Without it, in the best case you’ll get an unsubscribe; in the worst case, your emails could be marked as spam, negatively impacting deliverability and even damaging your brand reputation.

Segmentation (78%) and message personalisation (72%) are the most effective strategies for email marketing campaigns.

There are several types of B2B email segmentation, most popular ones:

• Demographic Segmentation: Focuses on attributes such as job titles, department, and seniority level.  

• Firmographic Segmentation: Divides audiences by industry, company size, and location.

• Behavioural Segmentation: Groups prospects by their engagement history, such as resource downloads, website activity and event attendance.

• Intent-Based Segmentation: Uses signals like buying intent that’s gathered from content interactions and external data.

Apply these segmentation strategies combining them with personalisation, and you’ll be able to deliver messages that are highly relevant to each segment.

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4. Share Value

Nobody wants to find a sales pitch in their email. Email marketing is most effective when you offer something relevant, interesting and useful. Know who you're emailing and what matters most to them.

Talk about their industry, common pain points, and consider where they are in their buying cycle.

Give them valuable content like blog posts, eBooks, webinars or case studies. By giving value, you show your brand as a problem-solver. So when someone's ready to buy, they're likely to get in touch with you.

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5. Automate with Precision

Set up automation workflows that respond to individual behaviours and buyer journey stages, instead of sending out generic drip campaigns. Research shows that companies with email automation have 80% higher engagement rates.

Use behaviour-based triggers such as clicks, downloads, and site visits to activate personalised follow-ups.  

Even in automated campaigns, keep the human touch through personal sender names, personalised replies and conversational copy, because no one wants unauthentic follow ups. With so many AI tools, even automatic follow-ups can sound somewhat personalised and natural.

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6. Stay Human

No one likes to read generic copy. Even in B2B prospects now expect a conversational and natural tone in communications, remember, at the end of the day people buy from people.

To make your emails sound more human:

• Use conversational tone.
• Keep sentences short and avoid jargon.
• Be authentic.

Extra tip: read your email out loud to make sure it sounds natural.

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7. Maintain Message Clarity & Formatting  

The people you’re reaching out to may be receiving hundreds of emails per day, so you must respect their time and make your messaging easy to understand at a glance. Here’s how to format your email:

Get straight to the point: When writing the first few sentences, stop and ask yourself if your point is clear from the start.

Use CTAs: Ask yourself first—what do you want to achieve with your email? Do you want your prospects to download a whitepaper or RSVP to an event you’re hosting? Whatever your goal, guide your readers toward it with a strong CTA.

Break content into short, easy-to-digest paragraphs: People usually scan emails rather than read them fully. Break up your content into digestible pieces with clear headings so more readers understand the purpose of your email.

Keep it short and sweet: Your prospects don’t have time to sort through all their emails. Chances are, they delete anything that looks unimportant. Keep your emails concise and focused on delivering quick value.

Use engaging, short subject lines: Your subject line is sometimes your one and only chance to make an impression. Write something that sparks curiosity, creates FOMO, or evokes any emotion that encourages your prospects to open and read your email.

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📖 Useful read: 50 B2B Email Marketing Subject Lines That Work

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Conclusion  

Email marketing tips are not just about sending an email to a long list of contacts; they’re about delivering value to your prospects while building your credibility.

By focusing on segmentation, personalisation, automation and valuable content, you can generate higher engagement rates, improve lead quality and strengthen conversions.

Implement these strategies and see how email marketing becomes a powerful driver of revenue and lasting business relationships.  

At MyOutreach, we specialise in helping B2B SaaS companies reach the full potential of email marketing tactics.  

By using intent data and our B2B data lists, we make it easy to reach your ICP, nurture relationships, boost brand awareness and drive measurable results.  

Interested in learning more about how we can make your business succeed? Let’s chat!  

FAQs

Q1: What are the most effective B2B email marketing tactics?

The most effective tactics include segmentation, personalisation, automation, creating valuable content, using clear CTAs, maintaining message clarity, and A/B testing.

Q2: How often should I clean and update my email list?

B2B contact data decays rapidly - up to 22.5% per year. Regularly verifying and updating your list ensures high deliverability and engagement.

Q3: Can automation replace human interaction in email marketing?

No. Automation improves efficiency, but maintaining a human touch through personalised copy, individual replies, and relationship-focused messaging is important for long-term success.

Q4: How do I know which ESP is right for my business?

Look for platforms that support advanced segmentation, automation, compliance, deliverability optimisation, and analytics. Popular options include HubSpot, Pardot, and Mailchimp.

Q5: How should I measure the success of email campaigns?

Track engagement metrics like open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and ROI. Use A/B testing to continuously refine subject lines, content, and CTAs for optimal results.

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