Mastering the Art of Personalization in B2B Marketing

by Paiton McDuffie | Jul 15, 2025

The term “personalization” is frequently used in marketing, but in B2B, it’s often reduced to surface-level tactics. A {{FirstName}} here, a subject line tweak there, maybe a nod to someone’s geographical location in a social post. And sure, that’s technically personalization, but it’s not exactly moving the needle, and it’s not exactly impactful.

True personalization (the kind that drives real engagement and builds trust) goes deeper. It requires intentional data collection, smart segmentation, and messaging that reflects what matters to the humans on the other end of your emails, ads, and social posts.

Let’s explore how you can move past the basics and make personalization a meaningful part of your B2B marketing strategy.

Start With Smarter Data

Before you can personalize anything well, you need the right information. That means looking beyond the usual suspects (name, company, industry) and asking things like:

• What is this person’s role, and what keeps them up at night?
  • A COO and a Marketing Director at the same company likely have wildly different pain points.
• What markets or regions do they serve?
  • Messaging for a West Coast team in healthcare will look very different than something tailored for an East Coast player in manufacturing.
• What seasonality or timing matters for their business?
  • If your client’s busiest time is Q4, don’t pitch a major system overhaul in November.
• How familiar are they with your company or solution?
  • Someone who’s attended three webinars is in a different headspace than someone clicking a display ad for the first time.
• What channels do they engage with?
  • Are they liking your posts on LinkedIn? Clicking in emails? Showing up to events? The channel matters as much as the message.

The goal is to build a more complete comprehension of each person. Not just who they are, but what they care about and when they care about it.

Real Personalization, Across Every Channel

Once you’ve got richer data, you can start using it strategically across your entire marketing mix. Here are a few examples of how to leverage this enriched data:

1. Email: Forget the “Hi {{FirstName}}” — try segmenting your email lists by role, buying stage, or market served.
   • Example: Send a tailored nurture sequence to CFOs highlighting ROI and efficiency, while Marketing Directors receive a creative-focused case study.
2. Social Media: Use what you know to speak directly to a subset of your audience.
   • Example: Promote a new white paper on operational workflows, but write the post copy specifically for ops leaders.
3. Events (Virtual + In-Person): Make your follow-up smarter by using data from registration and attendance behavior.
   • Example: If someone only attended sessions related to customer retention, don’t follow up with a generic “Thanks for coming.” Instead, share an exclusive retention-related asset.
4. 1:1 Meetings & Sales Collateral: Empower your sales team with insight-rich profiles that help them come in warm.
   • Example: A sales rep walking into a meeting with knowledge of the prospect’s growth goals and upcoming product launch timeline can offer far more value than one who has only read their LinkedIn bio.

Pro Tip: Use technology without losing the human touch.

Yes, tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, or even a good ol’ spreadsheet can help you gather and organize this kind of data. But personalization only works when you also invest the time to interpret that data and use it in a human and relevant way. People don’t want to feel like a persona. They want to feel seen. If your personalization strategy makes someone say, “Wow, they get me,” you’re doing it right.

The bar for personalization is still pretty low in B2B Marketing, which means the opportunity to stand out is wide open. The teams that win are the ones who know more than just a name and a job title. They know what matters, and they tailor their messaging accordingly.