Your B2B Email Marketing Strategy Is Probably Just Scheduling Emails
Table of Contents
Where to start?
There’s a big difference between sending emails and having a strategy. Most of the time I find myself facing this situation. Am I just sending emails? Where am I going? What’s the goal? When will this give me results?
If your B2B Email Marketing Strategy Is Probably Just Scheduling Emails, keep reading.
The first step to avoid spiraling is segmentation. This is where the main culprit lives. Information is key, but where do you start?
Must have: These points are non-negotiable for B2B strategies.
- Contact basic information: Full name, work email, phone number.
- Complementary information: Job position, company, industry.
- Interaction: A form submitted, a networking contact, a cold outreach — anything that ties you to the person without invading their privacy.
- Nice to have: More than one contact under the same company.
This is your starting point for creating lists. You want to use them to identify the why and how you’re going to reach users — whether it’s by industry-specific content, relevance by job position, or competing companies.
Perfect scenario to use AI. Here’s a prompt for Claude to help you work faster: “Help me identify which contacts cover all this information: Full name, work email, phone number, job position, company and industry. Place them in a new spreadsheet.”
Lead Scoring
One question I get all the time: why aren’t my emails selling right away? Well, not every lead is ready to buy — stop emailing like they are. You need a lead scoring system before you craft your messaging.
You need to establish a visible roadmap to understand who your target audience is, which industry you’re a better fit for, who needs to review information about the company, and what the usual time is for a user to acquire your product or service.
You can use this as a starting point. Score is usually from 0–100 points.
| Factor | Scoring | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Demographic | +5 for ideal job titles; +10 if in target industry | Targets leads matching your ideal customer profile. |
| Email Open Rate | +2 for opens; +5 for repeated opens | Shows interest in your content and willingness to engage. |
| Click-Through Rate (CTR) | +5 for clicks; +10 for multiple clicks | Indicates deeper engagement with the content shared. |
| Sign-Up Source | +5 for referrals; +3 for organic sign-ups; +5 for paid sign-ups | Referrals usually indicate higher quality leads. |
| Website Engagement | +4 for visiting post-email; +6 for resource downloads | Suggests active interest in your offerings beyond the email. |
Workflows and Automation
This is gonna depend highly on the platform you use and the plan you pay.
The workflow is not the automation — it’s the thinking behind it. A good workflow covers:
Triggers: Which actions on your emails trigger a follow-up. For example, a click on a button triggers a follow-up email. Let’s say you’re offering an ebook — a downloaded ebook triggers a follow-up with complementary information or an engagement nudge.
Branches refer to the different paths that can occur within a workflow based on specific triggers or conditions. Someone downloads the ebook, they get a follow-up with additional resources. Another user only clicks the call to action — that triggers a reminder to download the ebook.
Exit conditions are criteria that define when a lead should leave a workflow. This ensures leads don’t receive irrelevant emails and helps maintain engagement. If a lead makes a purchase after receiving several resources, they exit the workflow to avoid further sales prompts.
Once you define the workflow, then you implement the automation.
Remember this: Workflow = Theory. Automation = Technical.
Message Design
Track the customer journey: I’m not going to go knee-deep on this — there are literally thousands of pieces of content on it.
Build your messaging around where the audience is. Awareness content vs. decision-stage content. If a lead requested specific information about a product, don’t introduce the entire catalogue as your core message. Give them useful resources in a language familiar to their industry. (Now those lists come in handy, right?)
B2B audiences don’t want to hear from you every day — but don’t be afraid of being too frequent either.
Perfect time to talk about my favorite subject: A/B testing. Understand your audience, try different times and dates, keep an eye on open rates, and repeat. This will give you a clear idea of when and how much they want to hear from you.
And finally — keep a consistent brand voice. If you’re not sure about the tone, go back to the brand manual. If there isn’t one… well, this is not the blog you should be worrying about.
Tracking and Measuring Success
If you’re only tracking open rates, you’re flying blind.
Open rate is a must — but what actually matters: click-to-open rate, reply rate, conversion rate, unsubscribe rate by segment, and deliverability score.
Bonus tip: Keep the database clean. Get rid of inactive contacts by moving them to an “INACTIVE” list. That way you can keep trying to reach them in a more conservative way and create a re-entry workflow.
Platforms to consider
HubSpot — powerful, expensive, built for teams with a CRM already in place.
Mailchimp — accessible, mid-range, good for getting started but limits grow fast.
WordPress Newsletter — basic, cheap, great if your site is your hub and budget is tight but forget about automatons.
Brevo — the hottest alternative to HubSpot at a reasonable price. Not a paid mention, sadly.
A B2B email marketing strategy is a system, not a nice design and a catchy subject line. If you can’t explain why each email exists and who it’s for — it’s not a strategy yet.