The main B2B emailing trends in 2023 and best practices
To evaluate the effectiveness of an email campaign, several indicators can be used. Here are the main ones.
Opening rate
This is the ratio of emails opened to the total number of emails sent. The higher the open rate, the more visible your campaign is. It's also a sign of a relevant email subject line, brand trust and a qualified contact base.
So what is the email open rate over the past years? On average, it is 22.22% for B2B(Source: Plezi). But this varies greatly from one industry to another. And for good reason, companies in the education and training sector have a higher open rate with an average of 25.06%.
On the other hand, B2B services, human resources, finance and consulting have a lower opening rate with 20.69%.
Moreover, this rate also varies according to the type of email sent: prospecting, marketing automation or newsletter.
Click-through rate
This indicator evaluates the conversion of your emailing campaign. Indeed, it measures the ratio between the number of clicks of a link present in your email (CTA to a sales page, a webinar registration, a page of your website, ...) and the total number of emails sent.
As such, the click rate is always lower than the open rate. On average, it is 3.06%. And here again, there are great disparities from one sector to another.
For example, B2B services have a click-through rate of 2.44%, compared to 3.97% for media and events.
Bounce rate
Through the bounce rate, the objective is to measure the deliverability of your emails. Indeed, some email addresses may not exist (either because of a deletion or a typing error). This is called a hard bounce, since you will not be able to recover the contact. But it is also possible that your emails do not reach their destination because of a full mailbox. In this case, it is called soft bounce.
Regardless of the cause, the average bounce rate for B2B emails is 0.96%.
The real estate, construction and industry sectors show the worst performance with an average bounce rate of 1.15%. On the other hand, the media and events sectors take care of their emailing data, with an average bounce rate of 0.56%.
Unsubscription rate
The unsubscribe rate for BtoB emails is 0.21% on average; with a good performance of 0.18% for media and events and a rate of 0.24% for construction, real estate and industry.
Good to know: it is better that your prospects unsubscribe from your emails, rather than receiving them in their spam. And for good reason, this influences the deliverability of your emails. You must therefore maintain a qualified database to optimize the delivery of your emails in 2023.
Ellisphere offers Data Quality solutions for your databases, as well as the purchase of BtoB files to feed your emailing campaigns.
Click to open rate (CTOR)
This is the ratio between the click rate and the open rate. It is one of the best indicators, since it measures the performance of an emailing campaign. Indeed, it is useless to have a good opening rate if your prospects do not click on your CTA. You must therefore combine these two KPIs to maximize the return on investment.
In BtoB, the CTOR is 13.24% on average. Unsurprisingly, the media and events sector recorded the best performance with a click to open rate of 16.73%.
In contrast, B2B services, human resources, finance and consulting have an average CTOR of 11.35%.
These different indicators allow you to compare the efficiency of your emailing campaigns with your competitors. And if your performance is lower than the rates presented above, it is always possible to remedy this by applying the good practices that we will detail.
6 best practices for your email campaigns in 2023
Implementing good emailing practices can improve all of the above statistics to convert more.
Segment the contact list
67% of sales are lost due to poor qualification (Source: Marketing Sherpa). And when we know that email is still the preferred communication channel for companies in 2022, it is essential to qualify each lead .
As such, don't hesitate to segment your contact list through "personas" to send the right message to the right person. You can separate your audience into several categories according to their level of interest and maturity. For example, cold, lukewarm or hot prospects, loyal customers, VIPs, former customers, ....
This will allow you to personalize the content of your message.
Good to know: in addition to the segmentation of the target, don't forget to regularly update your contact list to keep it relevant and qualified.
Send personalized emails
In 2023, consumers will once again face multiple solicitations. To keep the attention of their target, companies will have to reinvent the customer relationship, especially through email personalization. This concerns the content of the message according to the profile defined at the time of the segmentation, the addition of the first name of the potential customer, the frequency of sending, etc.
To effectively personalize your email campaigns, you will need qualitative data. Datalists help you to improve the quality of your database for your emails.
Send emails at the right time
In addition to sending the right message to the right person, you also need to deliver your emails at the right time.
For BtoB companies, it would be Monday or Wednesday, preferably between 6 and 10 am (Source: the moderator's blog). In reality, this can vary from one industry to another. To identify the best times to send your emails in 2023, you can consult your analysis tools.
Moreover, follow-ups after a visit or a cart abandonment are also very good scenarios for your emailing campaigns. So don't hesitate to do lead nurturing and to accompany your customers in the conversion tunnel.
Integrate artificial intelligence into your emailing strategy
Today, AI is everywhere. And it is particularly useful in emailing campaigns. Indeed, the data collected during email campaigns can be used by machine learning to improve your performance, while saving you time.
For example, artificial intelligence can automate customer interactions, personalize the customer journey, quickly identify responsive customers, segment your target, etc.
In 2023, more than ever, the use of AI appears to be a necessity . And for good reason: 68% of marketers were using it in 2022, compared to 60% in 2021. This number is likely to increase dramatically with the increasing use of ChatGPT in the coming years. So if you don't want to fall behind the competition, integrate machine learning tools for your email campaigns.
Putting forward your values to communicate
"88% of customers believe trust is more important in times of change." (Source: salesforce Focus Marketing study). Consumers trust organizations that share their values more . You need to identify the characteristics that differentiate you and the values you hold dear. This will allow you to create a close relationship with your prospects and customers, but also and above all, to improve the conversion of your email campaigns.
Measure your campaigns
A good email campaign is not born overnight. It is the result of a multitude of tests and improvements that allow you to respond as closely as possible to your customers' needs. But in order to succeed in your test and learn strategy, you need to measure the performance of each of your emails.
Written by Cédric Fauconnier-Anglade, Ellisphere