The Covid-19 pandemic forced B2B buyers and marketers to find new ways to communicate and re-imagine existing channels of engagement. Research from people-based marketing platform LiveIntent revealed that 94% of B2B marketers are prioritizing and scaling their email marketing programs for 2021 and beyond.
LiveIntent conducted a study with more than 200 senior publishers and marketers about their email usage throughout the pandemic to explore their challenges and successes. The poll specifically uncovered how marketers and publishers effectively engaged buyers in their inboxes with newsletters, driving leads and revenue as a result.
“Amid millions of Americans sheltering at home to avoid the pandemic over the last year, we saw an explosion in email performance,” said Kerel Cooper, CMO at LiveIntent, in a statement. “This is likely a result of the direct and trusted relationship between a publisher and a consumer. It makes sense that during a time of crisis people would turn to the places they trust the most to keep them informed. We anticipate this relationship continuing to grow as we navigate the vaccine roll out and our new post-Covid-19 world.”
One of the biggest takeaways from the study was the greater investment in email in response to the waning use of third-party cookies, with 87% leveraging email newsletters as part of their go-to-market (GTM) strategies. As a result, 47% of publishers and marketers saw increased response and engagement rates from target buyers and a 52% increase in CPMs.
Another interesting trend was the inclusion of third-party ads within the newsletters themselves, as 65% of respondents reported gating their newsletters and embedding third-party ads to drive more leads and revenue while engaging prospects and buyers. Respondents ultimately highlighted the improvement of their first-party data quality, all while keeping buyers informed and engaged.
Additional takeaways from the study include:
- 90% of marketers ranked email as important or very important to their success in 2021;
- 51% leveraged email marketing programs to drive website traffic; and
- Email was used for building stronger relationships with buyers (36%), collecting first-party data (30%) and driving subscriptions (34%) in 2021.
“Brands and publishers are in urgent need of tools that can bridge identity beyond the reach of walled gardens,” Cooper continued. “This research, and the adoption of our identity framework, validates the power of email to fill that role, driving engagement and future business growth after the third-party cookie goes away.”
