Email marketing has been the bread and butter of marketers for over two decades. Its importance for B2B lead generation in particular cannot be overstated.
However, the world is changing. With the rise of AI, changing customer expectations, and a host of other factors, marketing is not what it was in the past. What may have been incredibly effective in the past, such as email marketing, may no longer work as intended.
This does not mean that it does not work. Far from it, email marketing is just as effective as it was in the past. Even now, it brings in $36 for every $1 spent, according to the latest reports. It just depends on how you use it.
And that’s what we’re going to do now: master email marketing. By the end of this blog, you’ll hopefully be better prepared for using this strategy to amplify your B2B lead generation capabilities.
Technology and customer expectations have brought about changes that have drastically altered the way email marketing works in 2025. Keeping that in mind, here are a few fundamental tactics you should use if you want to succeed in using email marketing for B2B lead generation.
The now iconic quote made by Dewey from Malcom in the Middle, “The future is now, old man”, perfectly reflects the state of the market right now. Millennials and Gen Z are slowly replacing the previous generation. According to the latest reports, the percentage of B2B companies actively targeting different generations looks like this:
How does this shift impact B2B marketing? In many ways, in fact. To understand this, take a look at the characteristics of this younger generation:
These characteristics have changed how marketers approach them. According to this report, the current top priorities for marketers are as follows:
According to the same report, 92% of marketers now plan to either maintain or increase their investments in activities that enhance brand awareness.
Similarly, marketing activities have gone from direct attribution models to indirect attribution models. This means that the objectives have shifted from direct sales to fostering a positive relationship with the brand.
For the foreseeable future, successful B2B lead generation will depend on email marketing activities that focus on building brand perception over direct conversions.
Similar to how customer expectations regarding messaging have evolved, customer expectations regarding their preferred media have undergone significant changes as well. Visual storytelling has now overtaken text-based content in bringing the highest ROI.
According to this HubSpot report, 21% of marketers claim that short-form videos bring in the highest ROI, followed by 19% claiming that it’s images. Regardless, these are the top media formats used by B2B marketers according to the same report:
As you can see, many of these are not compatible with emails. However, going in line with the indirect attribute model, email marketing can still be useful. It can raise awareness about your social media channels and notify your audience about content with a higher potential for achieving your objectives.
Additionally, emails can still be used to build engagement. One way to build email engagement is by incorporating interactive elements. According to this Litmus study, 97% of marketers use interactive elements in their emails. The same study also identified which elements are most effective:
Whether emails are used as a gateway to other content or as a means to build engagement, one thing is certain. Strategic content creation is essential for success in today's landscape. This may be why 30% of marketers now consider content creation the most important skill required in email marketing.
There are many types of emails used for email marketing. According to research, marketers primarily use seven types. Here they are, based on popularity:
Not all of these are equally effective. Some are statistically more likely to bring in a higher ROI.
Based on the research mentioned above, 18% of marketers claim that customer engagement emails bring in the highest ROI. This may be the reason why it is the most popular type of email used by B2B companies, with 65% using it.
However, this is not uniform across all industries. In fact, the most popular types of emails vary by industry as follows:
The key takeaway here is that, regardless of the effectiveness of different types of emails, some are more effective and need to be prioritized. The answer to how depends on your B2B lead generation strategy, industry, and your audience’s reaction to each, if you have the right tools to measure it.
AI is the most revolutionary technology currently impacting B2B marketing. As per the latest reports, 92% of marketers claim that AI has impacted their role, with a third stating that the impact is significant.
Regardless of the nature of the impact, AI is an incredible tool that can vastly enhance email marketing and, in turn, B2B lead generation. Based on research done by Litmus, these are the uses of AI that have been most impactful in email marketing:
Among these, generative AI is the most accessible, with tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Jasper, and the like being used. According to a McKinsey study, 42% of marketing and sales teams now use generative AI.
The rest may not be as accessible as generative AI, but are incredibly useful as well. They are also available on many email marketing platforms that currently exist. Cirrus Insight's Meeting AI provides automated research on prospects, allowing you to tailor your emails to best fit each person.
Email marketing platforms are more than a tool to automate emails. With the additional capabilities brought on by AI, email marketing platforms are now a robust tool that’s necessary for success.
Based on the latest research, these are the most popular email marketing tools currently available, and the percentage of marketers using them:
Most Popular Email Marketing Platforms |
|
Email Marketing Platform |
Percentage of marketers using it |
|
Mailchimp |
34% |
|
Salesforce |
29% |
|
HubSpot |
24% |
|
Adobe Campaign Standard |
16% |
|
SAP Marketing Cloud |
15% |
|
Constant Contact |
14% |
|
Adobe Marketo |
14% |
|
Active-Campaign |
13% |
|
Campaign Monitor |
10% |
|
Oracle Responsys |
9% |
|
Klaviyo |
9% |
|
Oracle Eloqua |
8% |
|
SendGrid |
6% |
|
Acoustic Campaign |
5% |
|
Others |
11% |
All of these email marketing tools have their own advantages and unique features. Choosing one depends on your budget, required integrations with your CRM, and your particular B2B lead generation strategy.
However, a few of them have unique features that make them the preferred choice for a few segments. Here is a brief overview of which platform is popular among which segment:
If your business falls in any of these categories, you know where to start looking for the perfect email marketing platform for your business.
Personalization is one of the most effective ways of succeeding in B2B lead generation. The impact of personalization on sales is as follows:
In essence, 96% of marketers have seen a positive impact on sales with personalization.
However, personalization is not as easy as it sounds. In fact, 16% of marketers claim it is the top operational challenge when it comes to email marketing.
Utilizing a robust email marketing tool can be beneficial in this regard. But it is AI that is making a significant step in making this easier.
According to this HubSpot study, this is the impact of using AI for personalization:
Knowing that you can utilize AI and email marketing tools to enhance personalization is only half the battle, though. Knowing how to use it is perhaps more important.
Fortunately, this study found out which personalization strategies have been most effective:
These statistics are not absolute. However, this serves as a good benchmark for allocating your marketing resources effectively.
Segmentation is a core principle of marketing. Email marketing is not an exception to this rule.
Newer technologies, such as AI, just make this easier. An effective AI-based tool can analyze vast amounts of data to help you segment your audience more effectively.
Your segmentation strategy may depend on your target market, objectives, and overall B2B lead generation strategy.
However, these are the segmentation strategies that are most effective for email marketing:
Of course, all of these are subject to change based on your industry, TAM, and ICP. These are still good benchmarks to follow when building a segmentation strategy.
Mastering email marketing is not just about technique. Sending more emails is just as valid as a marketing strategy.
A very interesting fact, based on recent studies, the percentage of marketers taking more than two weeks to send an email dropped from 62% in 2024 to 6% in 2025. This means that the ability to send more emails increased significantly.
The same study also showed how frequently companies send emails for marketing purposes:
Factors such as company size, industry, and geographic location also affect this frequency, as:
Perhaps unsurprisingly, companies that send emails daily are more likely to have CTRs of above 5%. In the same vein, 45% of companies sending emails daily, 36% sending them weekly, and 28% sending them monthly see an ROI between 36:1 and 50:1.
And while the majority of companies in various segments and industries follow certain standards, adhering to them is not recommended, except as a general guideline.
Somewhat related to frequency, the timing of sending should also be incorporated into your lead generation strategies. Email Blast by Cirrus Insight allows you to send personalized emails at scale, increasing your audience reach at a fraction of time.
According to the same study mentioned above, these are the factors that marketing teams rely on when choosing send times:
Among these, companies with higher ROI generally opt for segment-specific time targeting to identify optimal send times.
The only way to truly gauge your success is to keep track of the necessary metrics.
The majority of marketers, namely 22%, cite the difficulty in measuring ROI as the biggest roadblock to achieving email marketing objectives.
With the trend towards indirect attribution models and the difficulty in calculating email leads, determining ROI for your email marketing campaigns becomes difficult.
However, the same study identified the distribution of ROI among companies, which can be used as a benchmark:
One factor that the study indicates to have a proportional relationship with ROI is the number of professionals in the marketing team dedicated to email marketing. On average, marketing teams with 25-25% employees dedicated to email marketing are likely to see an ROI between 36:1 and 50:1.
Conversely, there are other metrics that you can easily track to measure your success, such as open rates and CTR. Based on research done by Malichimp, the average values for these metrics are 35.63% and 2.62%.
These metrics have a deep relationship with each other and are a useful benchmark for gauging the success of your B2B marketing strategy. These are statistics from this study, which you can use for comparison:
The relationship between these metrics is also directly proportional in nature, with 22% of companies with a CTR of 5% or more also having open rates of over 40%.
Unfortunately, the study also mentions that improving these metrics is the top operational challenge for email marketers, with 25% of marketers reporting this as their top concern. Tracking emails is important, and with Buyer Signals you can get insights into opens, clicks, and replies.
There are numerous ways to improve these metrics. However, the simple fact is that companies that dedicate at least 15% of their marketing budget to email marketing are twice as likely to see open rates of over 40%.
Technology will always evolve, and customer expectations are always dynamic. Email marketing, known for its high ROI, may go out of vogue in the future, but it remains an effective B2B lead generation strategy today.
However, the success of email marketing depends on strategic planning, the allocation of resources, and the effective use of technology. The tactics mentioned in this blog can help you along the way, but to truly succeed in B2B marketing, you must always be prepared to adapt to new changes.