• Why Most B2B Emails Miss the Mark

    Why Most B2B Emails Miss the Mark

    You’ve seen them.

    You’ve probably sent them.

    Those marketing emails that talk at you, not to you.

    Despite all the tools we have, too many brands still send email blasts that ignore context, intent, and buying stage.

    The fix? Lean into the power of your CRM and the data it holds. When you combine firmographics with real-time activity data, personalization becomes more than a buzzword.

    It becomes your best-performing strategy.

    Personalized Email Strategies That Convert

    Firmographic Personalization

    Start with the basics. Company name. Company size. Revenue. These attributes shape pain-points, buying committees, and product needs.

    Use personalization tokens to reference company details or elevate your approach with smart content that dynamically adjusts messaging based on firmographic list segments.

    For example, if you’re targeting startups — think companies with fewer than 50 employees and under $10M in revenue — your messaging should reflect speed and simplicity. Something like:

    “We help small teams move fast with onboarding that takes 15 minutes or less.”

    Behavioral & Activity-Based Personalization

    This is where you stop guessing and start meeting leads exactly where they are.

    When you personalize based on what someone is doing, not just who they are, you can meet them at the exact moment they’re ready to engage.

    • Use Lead Stage as a Behavioral Signal – Match your message to where leads are in your funnel. Someone who just became a Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL) doesn’t need the same content as someone moving into Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) territory. Use lifecycle changes as a trigger to shift your message accordingly.
    • Act on Page-Level Engagement – If someone is repeatedly visiting a pricing or product page, it’s a clear sign they’re evaluating. That’s your moment to share content that moves them closer to a decision. A well-timed follow-up might sound like: “Still exploring [Product]? Here’s how a team like yours implemented it in 30 days.”
    • Trigger Real-Time Follow-Ups Based on Engagement Patterns – Move beyond fixed email cadences. Use automation to send relevant follow-ups based on real-time actions:
      • Pricing page view → one-hour delay → email with FAQs and a pricing breakdown
      • Guide download → two-day delay → webinar invite on the same topic
    Geographic Personalization

    Location adds another layer of relevance. It can influence when you send emails, what content you share, and how personal that outreach feels.

    Use time-zone based sends to make sure your message lands during their workday, not yours.

    If you’re hosting a regional event or tradeshow, use location data to invite the right people in-market:

    “We’re coming to Chicago next month. Want to meet our team?”

    Industry-Specific Personalization

    Your leads want to feel understood. Speaking their language and solving their industry-specific challenges helps build trust from the first touch.

    Smart content lets you swap in use cases that reflect their world. And your CTAs and visuals should do the same.

    Generic phrases like “See how we help companies like yours” can fall flat. Instead, speak directly to the pain points that matter:

    “Reduce compliance risk with audit-ready documentation.”
    “Scale user onboarding without scaling headcount.”

    Source- or Referral-Based Personalization

    Where someone found you tells you a lot about what they’re looking for and how to follow up.

    Someone who came from paid social might just be starting to explore a topic. In that case, meet them with content that builds curiosity and adds context:

    “Thanks for checking out our post. Here’s a deeper dive into that trend.”

    Meanwhile, a lead from organic search is likely looking for an answer or solution. That’s your opportunity to guide them:

    “Navigating [Challenge]? This guide outlines what to do next.”

    Match the tone, format, and CTA to the referral source, and your message will feel like a natural next step.

    Post-Purchase & Cross-Sell Personalization

    For the times when you can’t get ahead of it, sometimes you need to do some damage control. Following a crisis, controversy, lawsuit or regulatory issue, executives need to rebuild trust, project accountability, and speak with empathy and authority. 

    Interested in learning more or ready to get a media training on the books for your company? Learn more about Matter’s Media Training Services.

    Personalization that Performs

    Relevance + Timing + Context = Conversion

    Use this formula and your leads won’t just notice your message – they’ll act on it.

    And when you combine CRM segmentation with automation platforms like HubSpot, you can create a feeling of 1:1 communication at scale.

    If you’re looking to turn your CRM into a revenue-driving machine, let’s work together to build a personalization strategy that actually converts.

    Alexandra Enayat

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  • 2025 Marketing Trends Unwrapped: Evolving from 2024’s Landscape

    2025 Marketing Trends Unwrapped: Evolving from 2024’s Landscape

    From AI breakthroughs to micro-moments, here’s how marketing hit all the right notes in 2024 and will continue to sing loud in 2025.

    With 2024 behind us, marketers are now fixated on what comes next. The trends that dominated last year have set the stage for 2025, proving that marketing is a constantly evolving playlist of innovation and adaptation. Here’s how the industry’s biggest hits from 2024 are poised to evolve and amplify 2025 marketing trends.

    1. AI Everywhere

    58% of companies using generative AI apply it for content creation.

    53 AI Writing Statistics & Trends

    AI tools are becoming the ultimate duet partner for creatives.

    Generative AI has gone from a novelty to a necessity, transforming so much across industries. From spinning up social media posts to developing full-scale campaigns, AI is empowering marketers to focus on strategy and creativity while the tech handles the heavy lifting. The result? Campaigns that are faster, smarter, and more tailored than ever.

    Key takeaway for 2025: The role of AI will continue to expand further into more of the marketing workflow enhancing analytics and personalization, helping brands hit the right note with audiences at every touchpoint. Bear in mind that as AI continues to evolve at a rapid pace, if you’re not intentional and well-informed as you wield these new tools, your efforts could backfire.

    2. Short-Form Reigns Supreme

    73% of people believe videos between 30 seconds and 2 minutes are most effective.

    Wyzowl’s 2025 Video Marketing Statistics

    Reels and Shorts are playing on a loop.

    In 2024, bite-sized content proved its staying power, and the appetite for quick, captivating, and off-the-cuff videos isn’t slowing down. Platforms like Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are the go-to for delivering memorable brand messages in record time.

    Key takeaway for 2025: The challenge for brands will be balancing fresh content, embracing trends, and staying authentic to who they are all while maintaining a certain level of quality and keeping up with the speed of social. Think: nimble, creative, and keeping your dial tuned in to your audiences’ preferences.

    3. Hyper-Personalization

    73% of customers feel treated like unique individuals by brands.

    Salesforce State of the Connected Customer 2024

    Personalized emails, ads, and content are like a custom mixtape for customers.

    2024 made it clear: customers want experiences tailored just for them. Whether it’s an email that feels like it was written specifically for the recipient or an ad that speaks to a unique need, hyper-personalization has redefined engagement.

    Key takeaway for 2025: Leveraging persona-based analytics to drive insights, brands can deepen relationships with their audiences, proving they’re not just listening but also responding with intention.

    4. Sustainability Hits Center Stage

    88% of consumers seek information on a company’s CSR initiatives when considering a purchase.

    Corporate Social Responsibility Statistics 2025

    Turn up the volume on highlighting company green initiatives and employee programs.

    As consumers become increasingly eco-conscious, brands that prioritize sustainability will continue to shine. Whether it’s through transparent reporting or campaigns that showcase environmental impact, sustainability is no longer optional—it’s a business imperative.

    Key takeaway for 2025: To resonate authentically with consumers, companies should align their messaging with their values, ensuring that their sustainability efforts are embedded into the core of their business’s mission.

    5. Voice Search Optimization

    1 in 5 people globally are using voice search.

    62 Voice Search Statistics 2025

    Digital assistants and voice technology will soon be part of everyday life. “Hey, Alexa, what’s next?”

    Voice search is quickly becoming second nature, and brands need to optimize for this hands-free tech. From conversational SEO to voice-friendly content, 2025 will be about making sure your brand is easy to find—whether your audience is typing or talking.

    Key takeaway for 2025: With smart speakers and digital assistants continuing to rise, voice search optimization should be a top priority for marketers

    The Encore: Marketing in 2025

    As we look ahead, 2025 promises to be a blockbuster year for marketing:

    • Total Ad Spend Worldwide: Forecasted to hit $1.07 trillion (WARC).
    • Most Streamed Platform: Instagram Stories, leading the charge with its engaging, short-form content.
    • 2025 Rising Star: LinkedIn Ads. With its professional audience, LinkedIn is rapidly becoming the go-to platform for B2B marketing, offering unparalleled access to decision-makers and industry leaders.

    From the growing role of AI to the dominance of short-form video, 2025 is shaping up to be a year of opportunity and evolution. The key to success? Embrace innovation and craft integrated marketing strategies to resonate genuinely with your audience, and you’ll elevate your brand… all the way to 11.

    Here’s to hitting all the right notes in 2025!

    Marc Checket

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  • 5 Ways to Take Your Email Strategy to the Next Level

    5 Ways to Take Your Email Strategy to the Next Level

    The reality is, most leads aren’t ready to buy the first time they interact with your brand. Buying cycles fluctuate among industries, services and products, which is why lead nurturing is such an essential part of your digital ecosystem. Email marketing is one of the fastest and most cost-effective forms of lead nurturing to date.

    To run an effective email marketing program, it’s important to make sure your organization is utilizing automation to its full potential. Understanding and implementing email best practices can significantly elevate your email strategy and deliver a clear ROI for your business.

    Whether it’s Constant Contact, Hubspot, Pardot or another email marketing system, segmenting and nurturing your leads with email workflows is a huge driver in building relationships and moving leads down the funnel. If you want customers to buy from you, you must stay top of mind by getting in front of them multiple times. 

    Here are the top 5 ways to ensure success: 

    1. Segment Your Audience’s List

    Segmenting your email lists allows you to develop targeted messaging for your audience personas. Marketers have noted a 760% increase in revenue from segmented campaigns. Through segmentation, you can achieve high levels of personalization by collecting data on individuals who are interested in your product or service. 

    2. Focus on Personalization 

    In today’s marketing climate, the answer to delivering emails that successfully drive conversions and brand awareness is personalization. Start the email with a first name personalization token and use insights from behavioral or web analytics to customize the content throughout the email. You should also include personalization in the subject line, as it’s proven to increase open rates exponentially.

    Here are three different ways to use web insights and behaviors to segment and personalize your email communications to make your customers feel like you see them as a human and not a number:

    Demographics

    The first way marketers can segment emails is by using demographic data — such as age, gender, company position and income level — to tell you about a contact’s needs and interests. For example, if you’re hosting a local event in Boston and you know a segment of your audience lives in the city, you can target them with a specific email. Gather demographic information and behavior through forms on your website with tools like HubSpot or Mouseflow

    Email Engagement

    Email engagement is another easy way to segment your lists — and it can have a huge impact on your overall email campaigns results. 

    You can create a re-engagement email campaign for inactive users that can include a coupon or discount to get these contacts to re-engage, or you can create an email offering VIP access to products for users who consistently engage with emails. And in most email marketing platforms, you can create lists based on email marketing activity – last email open date, click date, etc.  

    Website Behavior

    Keeping track of a visitor’s website behavior is another simple way to get more information about visitor interest. Website behavior is an extremely powerful data set to utilize, and in some platforms, you can easily view a contact’s behavior on your site. 

    You can trigger targeted email workflows based on a page view or specific form fields submitted by users: 

    • Individuals who visited one page but missed another related page 
    • What videos people watched or what buttons they clicked
    • Content they downloaded 

    3. Add Visuals to Your Emails

    While your emails should be informational, it’s important to provide as much information as you can through visuals — be they graphics, videos, infographics, gifs or images. 

    Most individuals skim through emails, so having visuals that will catch their eye and make them read the content is critical. The examples below show how updating an email with a few images, CTAs and graphics make a big difference in the overall look and feel of the email. 

    4. Automate Your Email Campaigns

    Creating quality leads that convert prospects should be the main goal of any email marketing program. Automation helps move leads down the funnel and into various stages of the buying journey in a scalable way. 

    Automated emails help deliver consistent brand messaging at the right time for each individual. Effective automated campaigns help move people from awareness to consideration to the decision stage.  

    Some automated email workflows that work well for B2B and B2C organizations are: 

    • Welcome Workflow: A top-of-funnel workflow used to bring new leads into the funnel who may not be looking at specific products or services. Often triggered by a sign-up form on the homepage or highly trafficked webpage.
    • Abandon Cart Workflows: Used mainly in B2C to remind consumers they left an item in their cart, offering an incentive to purchase. 
    • Post-Purchase Workflow: Builds brand awareness and loyal customers through continuous engagement after users have purchased.

    Amongst these highly effective workflows, there are others — such as post-event, product-specific, industry-specific workflows — that all enable a strong email marketing program. 

    5. Test as Much as You Can

    Many email platforms allow you to test various parts of your email to understand which content resonates most with your audience. A/B testing subject lines can help increase open rates, while testing CTA buttons helps you to analyze what language made your readers click through. It’s essential to utilize data to continuously optimize and improve your email campaigns.  

    Ready to level up your email campaigns? Fill out the form below and our email experts will be in touch.

    Kendall Pope

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  • Why Every Marketing Strategy Should Start with an Audit

    Why Every Marketing Strategy Should Start with an Audit

    Before you go to the grocery store, you check your fridge to make sure you don’t wind up with four cartons of eggs – again. When you build a marketing plan for your brand, you’re going to want to conduct an audit. Brand audits are the fridge-checks of marketing. 

    In marketing, audits reveal areas of opportunity, trends in the market, background on an industry, target audience information and unique brand features. The details and insights your brand may uncover during an audit are extremely valuable when it comes to developing your brand and marketing strategy. Similar to taking fridge inventory before shopping, you may review your brand’s Instagram posts to get a sense of the messages, images and brand info that’s been shared to determine if it’s resonating with your target audience, if it’s following best practices and if it’s driving results for KPIs.

    Ultimately, the goal of a brand audit is to provide a holistic view of your marketing operation, analyze your competition and inform a brand and marketing strategy that positions you to reach your goals. 

    Main types of marketing audits:

    An audit can include many things, and the type of audits you execute may vary depending on your brand’s needs or project goals. When beginning any form of an audit, it’s important to conduct one-on-one interviews, focus groups or research studies with both internal subject matter experts at your organization and with your customers. You should ask them questions about your brand and products or services, and try to learn more about their experiences. Additionally, ask them about their pain points, goals and values. Gathering information directly from your customers can help you build buyer persons, plan for messaging and more.  

    Next, you’ll want to conduct various audits of your existing marketing. For our fully integrated clients, we recommend the following types of audits:  

    1. Messaging Audit: Analyze the messages and sentiments in the marketplace about your brand and your products or services. Understanding how your brand is being portrayed will help to identify areas of opportunity, as well as highlight what’s being done successfully. ​ 
    2. Content Audit: Review the content assets being used to drive your marketing objectives. Whether it’s to educate prospects on your solutions or drive leads to convert, this is a crucial step in understanding how to best leverage your current content, and how you can improve new content. All these details will inform your content marketing strategy.
    3. SEO/SEM Audit​: Assess your website’s organic and paid search rank in a search engine to provide insights and optimizations that will improve how your prospects find your brand. Additionally, you’ll be able to understand where you rank for the keywords that are relevant to your industry. An SEO/SEM audit can also provide insights into what your audience is searching for.  
    4. Social Media Audit​: A brand’s social media presence often influences a prospect’s first impression of the brand, meaning it can provide key insights for important optimizations. The audit should include both paid and organic social media to provide a holistic view of how the brand comes across to your customers.  
    5. Email/Marketing Automation Audit​: A lead-nurturing program using email is one of the best tactics to include in your overall marketing strategy to reach your goals. Review your current CRM/MAP to look for areas of opportunity to optimize emails, workflows, lists and your overall marketing automation system that fits in with the larger lead nurture strategy, content promotion plan or customer engagement efforts. 
    6. Website Audit​: This can encompass a variety of exercises, from audits of a website’s messaging and content, to branding and design, to UX and technical audits. This in-depth exercise provides a 360-degree view of how your brand comes to life on one of the most important owned channels: your website.  
    7. Competitive Audit: After you’ve conducted the above audits for your brand, it’s important to  take an in-depth look at your competitors so you know where you stand against them — and how you can stand out in the market. Look at their website, messaging, positioning in the market, content and media channels (organic and paid search and social) to provide insights into how you can improve your presence and representation in each area. This can be as intricate as necessary and should focus on providing insights for the main goals for your marketing strategy.

    To gather the details necessary for a holistic marketing strategy that will help you achieve your goals, consider tapping into third-party research tools. These tools can provide the data needed to fully round out your strategy and support the insights gathered for the internal and external interviews and other audit findings.  

    Once you complete your audit, you’ll have a holistic understanding of your position in the market, how best to highlight your unique value propositions to resonate with your buyer personas, clear direction on content and messaging, and so much more. 

    Brand audits are highly strategic and can be a cumbersome project for an in-house team to produce. Audits require a large time commitment, the right third-party tools and the brand strategy experts to conduct stakeholder interviews and research, analyze the marketing efforts, contextualize the data, and produce actionable insights that will help you develop a strong brand and marketing strategy. At Matter, our team of strategists help brands at all stages achieve their goals through these methods. Interested in learning more? Contact us today!  

    Sara Roberts

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  • Marketing Jump Start Part II: Optimizing Your Digital Ecosystem

    Marketing Jump Start Part II: Optimizing Your Digital Ecosystem

    While the digital landscape has changed over the past few months, businesses are still looking to accomplish the same goals: generate leads/sales, drive awareness and/or engagement, and sustain or grow their leadership position. To do so, it’s imperative to focus holistically on optimizing your digital ecosystem. A consistent focus on the following programs will help your business continue to succeed: 

    • Optimize your website/landing pages. 
    • Consistently evaluate your paid, owned and earned media strategies. 
    • Nurture leads with effective email marketing/marketing automation strategies.

    When your digital ecosystem is a well-oiled machine, your marketing efforts will drive brand awareness and preference, as well as increased engagement and higher quality leads. 

    Step 1: Optimizing Your Website/Landing Pages 

    Your media programs, social media channels and email marketing campaigns may be in good working order, but if you’re website isn’t functional or on-brand, you simply won’t succeed. At the center of a healthy digital ecosystem is a well-crafted company website. Here’s what you should focus on to ensure your website is ready to support your digital efforts: 

    Branding and Messaging:

    • Make sure your branding and messaging make sense. What is your website about? Does the tone and manner of the content match your brand? Is the brand identity consistent throughout the website? Is the design visually appealing, clean and straight-forward? Your brand positioning should be clear and obvious on your home page and your content should be easy to scan.

    Navigation & UX:

    • Do you have goals to track performance? What is each page trying to achieve based on your UX strategy? 
    • Keep your site or landing page’s main navigation simple and intuitive. Don’t get too carried away with bloated “mega-menu” designs unless they are necessary. Prioritize “above the fold” content that intrigues users to scroll down and further engage with your site. 
    • Make sure to incorporate CTAs to show the next steps. You want to take the user down a path that helps them make an informed decision. Be sure to add a CTA enticing visitors to follow your social networks, and include follow and share icons in header and footer. 
    • Don’t set it and forget it. Continuously test your homepage and be sure it’s helping you reach your goals.

    Search Engine Optimization:

    • Every page of your website is a potential search engine entry point, so assign a primary keyword topic to each. Placing that keyword in areas of emphasis like the title tag, main heading and even the URL helps Google identify the main topic. 
    • Don’t skimp on copy, especially for your most important or competitive keywords. Google typically won’t rank pages with “thin” content (one or two sentences) very highly. Images and video can help boost your standing, too. 
    • Mobile friendliness and page speed have become big parts of search algorithms. No matter how great your content is, if your webpage loads slowly on mobile devices, chances are Google won’t serve it up to searchers. 

    Step 2: Evaluate Your Paid Media Strategies to Drive Traffic and General Leads 

    Consumer habits, business drivers and competitive landscapes have changed in this new business environment, so now is the time to reset or re-evaluate your existing digital programs to ensure you’re continuing to drive maximum effectiveness. Start by defining goals and budgets through one of these methods: 

    • Top down: What is my budget? At a reasonable cost per lead or cost per sale, what results am I likely to generate? 
    • Bottom up: What are my sales goals? At a reasonable cost per lead or cost per sale, what budget do I need to secure to reach these goals?
      • Next, identify your target segments and understand their media consumption habits and purchase influences. Detailed personas and journey mapping are the best practice tools for this job. 
      • Re-assess objectives, current results and KPI’s of all existing programs – The most effective way to evaluate your paid media campaigns are through the objectives set from launch. 
    • Consider or re-evaluate all valuable media vehicles – Aside from the traditional banner ads and search results, adjust to focus on high converting channels within your industry trends. 
    • Ensure you have relatable content that drives engagement – Providing viewers with valuable content in exchange for their information is a great way to drive traffic to your website and helps to generate more qualified leads. 
    • Utilize a dashboard that offers real-time results for consistent assessment – The most successful campaigns are the ones with eyes constantly on them. Evaluate, optimize and re-strategize based on the real-time results provided from dashboards. 
    • Consistently track and optimize until performance is steady – Digital campaigns need attention throughout each program. Weekly and sometimes daily changes are necessary to increase performance and stay on track to meet the established KPIs. Once a test channel is proven out, it can “graduate” to a proven place in your plan. 

    Step 3: Are You Nurturing Leads with Emailing Marketing or Marketing Automation? 

    Whether it’s Constant Contact, HubSpot, Pardot or another email marketing system, strategically tracking and segmenting your leads with a nurture strategy is a huge driver in building relationships with your prospects and moving leads down the funnel. Here are five steps to ensuring a successful start: 

    • Attract: Capture leads with a compelling and concise lead capture form that is personalized enough to sustain interest 
    • Personalize: Promote an offer or content that is attractive enough to motivate your customer segments. 
    • Engage: Create a workflow strategy for each segment that will nurture the relationship and drive prospects down the funnel. 
    • Create: Design and develop emails that are attractive and well-crafted, utilizing graphics and imagery where possible. 
    • Test: Once you’re up and running, continue to optimize your strategy! 

    Is your digital marketing ecosystem driving high quality leads? Fill out the form below and let’s talk about what optimizations you can make today.

    Jeff Tahnk

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  • The problem with Gmail Priority Inbox

    First, a disclosure: I am an unashamed Google fan-boy.  And, as a service, I’m sure Gmail Priority Inbox will shine like most of the others. The problem is, it is just one more crutch for individuals to use in dealing with too much email. (more…)

    Matter

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