Email has been underestimated for years, and yet it remains one of the most profitable marketing channels in existence. At Ecomwise, we see this every day with our clients: from consumer brands boosting their turnover with a well-timed newsletter, to wholesalers keeping their buyers engaged via email between orders. In this article, we take you through the latest developments in the field of email marketing, with a specific focus on the practices of B2B wholesalers. We also provide a concrete step-by-step plan to genuinely reach your target audience.
Why email is still the hardest working channel
Where social media algorithms are constantly changing and advertising costs continue to rise, email remains a channel that you have control over: you own your list, you determine the message, and you do not pay an advertising platform to reach your own customers. That pays off. Research has shown for years an average return of between 31 and 36 euros for every euro spent on email marketing, and that return still holds true today.
For B2C companies, the focus is often on impulse purchases, promotional campaigns and customer loyalty: the average open rate here is around 19.7% and the conversion rate around 2.8%. B2B emails, on the other hand, have a slightly lower open rate (15.1% on average), but once recipients open an email, they are significantly more likely to click through: B2B campaigns show a click-to-openratio that is around 23% higher than for B2C. This is consistent with how buyers work: they open fewer emails, but when a message is relevant to their role or their ordering process, they actually take action on it. It’s therefore no surprise that 81% of B2B marketers use email to stay in touch with their target audience, and that 77% of B2B buyers themselves cite email as their preferred channel for business communication.
That is extra relevant for wholesalers. A consumer webshop can lead to a purchase based on a single session; in B2B e-commerce, a customer often first has to request an account and have it approved before seeing prices or availability. Email is then indispensable for following up on that request, building the relationship, and guiding the customer towards their first and subsequent order.
The main trends of recent years
Email marketing has undergone significant development in recent years. A number of trends that have now become commonplace:
Segmentation and automation are no longer just “nice to have”, but the norm. Segmented campaigns generate up to 760% more revenue than untargeted mass emails, and automated workflows (such as welcome sequences, abandoned basketemails and reactivation campaigns) generate, on average, sixteen times more revenue per email sent than regular newsletters.
Privacy has changed the measurement landscape. Since Apple Mail Privacy Protection can artificially inflate the number of opened emails, the open rate as a primary KPI has become less reliable. Marketers are now focusing much more on clicks, responses and actual revenue per sent email.
Stricter authentication requirements have become the norm. Major mailbox providers such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Apple now require senders who send more than 5,000 emails per day to have correct SPF, DKIM and DMARC settings. Without this technical basis, your email simply won't land in the inbox anymore.
Today's latest developments
Where recent years were mainly characterised by segmentation and automation, we are now seeing a number of new, more far-reaching shifts.
Artificial intelligence is the new cornerstone. AI is no longer seen as a standalone tool, but as a standard component of the email marketing stack: from subject lines and send times to full-scale content generation and predictive segmentation. Around 63% of marketers are now actively using AI, with adoption expected to rise to 97% in the coming years. This is particularly valuable for B2B: highly personalised B2B emails achieve open rates of nearly 42% and click-through rates of over 6.5%, well above the average.
Mailboxes are becoming “intelligent”. Inbox providers are looking increasingly critically at behaviour: does someone scroll through your email, delete it immediately, or actually reply? Based on that, providers determine which senders get a prominent place in the inbox and which are filtered out. Reputation and relevance weigh heavier than ever.
Quality beats quantity. People now receive between 50 and 120 emails a day, and two-thirds feel overwhelmed as a result. More than half of recipients say that for this very reason, they unsubscribe when they are approached too often. Fewer, but more relevant emails work better than a high mailing frequency.
Email is becoming part of a bigger picture. Nowadays, email rarely stands alone: it is combined with SMS, WhatsApp, website personalization and advertising, with each channel being deployed at the right moment so that the customer experiences one coherent story instead of disconnected points of contact.
Zero-party and first-party data are becoming more important. With the disappearance of third-party cookies, email marketing is increasingly relying on data that customers actively share themselves (preferences, interests) and on behaviour that you observe yourself (clicks, purchases, visited product pages).
What this specifically means for B2B and wholesalers
For wholesalers and other B2B players, the coming years will bring a few additional points to bear in mind. On average, a B2B email list loses 20 to 30% of its relevance each year due to changes in job roles, organisational changes and inactive contacts: all the more reason to continue recruiting and cleansing the list on an ongoing basis. Furthermore, effective B2B programmes are increasingly combining firmographic data (company size, sector), the contact’s role, engagement history and purchase intent, rather than relying on a single attribute. And because purchasing decisions in B2B often take longer and are made by several people within an organisation, email works best when set up as an ongoing system that guides a lead from initial contact, through negotiation, to the eventual expansion of the partnership.
Strategic choices: how to reach your target audience as a wholesaler
The following step-by-step plan helps you to use email marketing effectively within your B2B organisation.
- Map out your target audience before you segment. Look at company size, sector, contact person's job title and stage in the purchasing process. Five to seven sharply defined segments based on behaviour work better than dozens of demographic pigeonholes.
- Collect data step by step. Ask for at most one additional piece of data per email (progressive profiling) rather than using a long sign-up form. This allows you to build a rich customer profile without friction, fully in line with privacy-first working.
- Set up email as an ongoing system, not as isolated campaigns. Think in phases: onboarding after account application, nurturing during orientation, support during evaluation, and targeted upsell or reactivation emails after the first order.
- Sort out your technical foundation first. Ensure correct SPF, DKIM and DMARC settings, even if you are (still) below the limit of 5,000 emails per day. A good sender reputation is the prerequisite for everything else.
- Personalise beyond the first name. Tailor content to sector, job role and previous ordering behaviour. In B2B in particular, this pays off noticeably: highly personalised campaigns demonstrably show higher open and click-through rates than generic newsletters.
- Meet what really matters. Do not rely blindly on open rate, but on clicks, replies, inbox placement and revenue per sent email. That gives a fairer picture of what works.
- Connect email with your other channels. Align email with your website, WhatsApp or, where applicable, telephone follow-up by your sales team, so that a buyer receives the same, cohesive message everywhere.
- Keep your list healthy. Clean up inactive contacts regularly and keep actively acquiring new, relevant contacts: that is how you compensate for the natural annual decline of your B2B database.
In conclusion
Email marketing is, especially now, no longer a supplementary channel, but a foundation for a healthy e-commerce strategy, for both B2C brands and B2B wholesalers. The basics (segmentation, automation, a clean technical setup) remain leading, but those who really want to stand out now combine this with the smart use of AI, sharp personalisation and a clear view on the right metrics. At Ecomwise, we are happy to help wholesalers and e-commerce companies put this strategy into practice: from technical setup to a well-considered segmentation and content plan.
Curious about what this can do for your organisation? Please feel free to contact us. After all, we already help a number of our clients with the successful deployment of email marketing. That is how you work effectively towards revenue growth and your brand identity.
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