• by Ray Schultz , March 29, 2019

B2b marketers are not spending wildly on email this year, judging from a study by GetResponse and Ascend.

Of those surveyed, 63% are moderately increasing their budgets. Meanwhile, 18% were decreasing their spending, writes Courtenay Worcester, U.S. director of marketing, GetResponse, on Martech Advisor.

The results correspond roughly to performance. Again, roughly 66% their B2B results are improving, versus 17% who say they’re on the decline.

Their main goals are increasing engagement (25%), lead generation (20%) and brand awareness (19%).

Other goals include conversions (18%), personalization (7%) and list growth (6%). 

Their critical challenges largely mirror those goals:

• Increasing engagement — 21%
• Increasing conversions — 19%
• Increasing lead generation — 18%
• Improving list data quality — 16%
• Improving personalization — 12%
• Increasing list growth — 8%
• Improving brand awareness — 6%

Asked to cite the most effective types of email, 26% cited single topic/dedicated emails, 23% cited personalization and 15% cited automated/lead nurturing (15%).

Worcester writes that email results can be "hindered by experience, dedication to the channel, clean lists, and the technology’s ability to overcome those top challenges.” 

She adds that one way to correct this is through "advanced analytics that provide a big picture view as well as micro insights."

The survey reflects responses from B2B companies with more than 500 employees (18%), 50-500 employees (26%) and firms with 50 or fewer (56%).