New Chart: B2B ranking of email tactics by effectiveness and effort required

by Jen Doyle, Senior Research Analyst

Emailing to house list both highly effective and commonly used


Click here to see a larger, printable version of this chart

In the above chart, the spheres for offers in third-party newsletters, emailing to third-party lists and social sharing are overlapped because they have approximately the same levels of effectiveness and effort required.

The testing of email subject lines presents a great opportunity for B2B email marketers because it has been rated as the third most effective email marketing tactic, and it has a lower level of effort required. Surprisingly, only half of B2B organizations participating in this year’s study indicated that they were currently executing this tactic.

Emailing to house lists is by far the most commonly used email marketing tactic, as nearly every B2B organization participating in this year’s study indicated that they currently practice it. Emailing a house list is also the most effective tactic and it requires a lower level of effort than other tactics. Email has become a popular method of delivering marketing communications to house lists as well as company notifications such as SaaS application downtime or customer account notifications.

Emailing to third-party lists and including offers in third-party email newsletters make up two of the three least commonly used email marketing tactics. This is likely because B2B marketers are aware that emailing to their house list and including offers in their house newsletter are far more effective tactics and they would prefer to expend their efforts in perfecting these tactics.

For additional research data and insights about B2B marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from the MarketingSherpa 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report.