Email vs.Telemarketing in B2B: Which You Should Use

4 MIN. READ

If you feel like you spend a lot of time chasing down leads for your B2B enterprise, you're not alone. In fact, 78% of B2B marketers report the most significant challenge they face is finding new leads. From prospecting potential leads to making contact to closing a deal, there's no shortage of barriers between a marketing campaign and a successful sale.

So, what methods are most effective for marketers? Traditionally, telemarketing has been a mainstay.

However, the advent of the information age has accelerated the popularity of other marketing methods, such as email. To learn the ins and outs of B2B email and telemarketing (and which you should use to sell your products or services), read on.

B2B Telemarketing - Often Misunderstood

Many marketers write off telemarketing, mainly if they come from a B2C background. However, it's important to note that according to the experts, B2B telemarketing is rated more effective than email marketing.

While B2C telemarketing is often conducted en masse via call centers, effective B2B telemarketing is significantly more nuanced. Making hundreds of robocalls about a product to random prospects won't work in the B2B space, where products are often large-scale and the decision-makers are executives.

Instead, B2B telemarketing requires the caller to know the ins and outs of a prospect to seal a deal. As a result, B2B telemarketing is more complicated - and more effective - than B2C telemarketing.

By far, the most critical element of running a B2B telemarketing campaign is having useful data. The more you know about a prospect going into a call, the more you have to work with.

In fact, it's no stretch to say that the efficacy of B2B telemarketing depends entirely on the data used to prospect potential clients.

Email Marketing - the New(ish) Kid on the Block

Email marketing has been stirring up buzz recently, and for good reason. Email marketing campaigns, on average, have an ROI of around 3,800%. In other words, for every $1 spent on email marketing, B2B marketers are getting $38 back.

These types of statistics have made email marketing attractive to B2B enterprises. Much like B2B telemarketing, the effectiveness of B2B email marketing depends almost entirely on the data used to prospect targets.

Which Marketing Method Should You Use?

The answer here isn't cut and dried. But if there were one, it would be this: both.

Telemarketing and email marketing should each have their place in your B2B marketing department. Here are a few best practices for each:

- For small mom-and-pop enterprises, try giving them a call. The reason? The owners may not use email much if they run a small store or business and you may actually get a decision-maker on the phone with your first call.

On the other hand, a call to a large enterprise will likely result in an annoyed secretary.

- For large businesses, use email to target prospects. Finding emails is often easier than finding phone numbers and you won't be written off as a robocall.

- If you want to avoid intruding, use email. Around 40% of people check their email 6-20 times per day, so you're not ruining your chances of being seen if you take this route.

- If you haven't contacted the prospect before, use email. After all, who likes a cold call? Try sending an email followed by a phone call if you don't hear back within a few days.

Whether you use email or telemarketing, there are a few universal rules of thumb:

- Don't hard-sell. That's what your prospects are expecting. Set yourself up as a valuable industry resource and thought leader regardless of whether the target buys your product or service.

Not only will this increase your chances of a sale, but it will also promote brand awareness effectively.

- Be human. This tip goes hand in hand with the above. If you cold-call with a sales pitch on hand or send an email that's all business and no personality, you're destined to fail.

Your brand should have an identity that extends through your prospecting attempts. Marketing efforts personalized to their targets are generally far more successful than generic sales pitches or formulaic CTAs.

Start with Quality Data

Whether you're doing email marketing or telemarketing, the key factor in your success will be the data you use. To this end, there's no better service than IndustrySelect.

IndustrySelect provides subscribers with up to 30 unique data points hand-verified by 80 data scientists that can help them identify and prequalify the best leads.

ata comes in the forms of phone numbers and email addresses as well as insightful data (news items, executive titles, etc.) that can help you understand a prospect.

With IndustrySelect, getting through to decision-makers stops being an "if" and starts being a "when." To learn more about how IndustrySelect can help your B2B enterprise succeed, visit our website and start your free demo!