hero texture
Trends

B2B Lead Nurture: Evaluating Personal Email vs. Business Email Addresses

Published on Aug 14, 2024

B2B Lead Nurture: Evaluating Personal Email vs. Business Email Addresses
Jennifer Goforth Gregory
Jennifer Goforth Gregory studioID

Picture this: you have a shiny new list of B2B email leads to pursue. As you scroll through the list, you notice a handful of addresses with personal email extensions such as Gmail and Yahoo.

Your first instinct might be to toss personal email addresses to the side and focus solely on the business addresses. But hold your horses. Many marketers mistakenly believe personal email addresses have no value as B2B leads. However, this is a false assumption. You’re doing yourself a disservice by automatically throwing out leads with personal email addresses. 

In fact, C-level executives across all size companies use personal email addresses about half the time.

Pursuing the right personal email addresses may lead you to your next loyal and lucrative client. You also honor your prospect’s decision of how they choose to communicate with you by using their personal email.

📧 Related Resource: 2024 Best Practices for Email Marketing Campaigns: A Guide for Demand Generation Marketers

Why People May Use Personal Email Addresses for Business 

Autofill 

When someone starts to fill out a lead generation form, the browser typically autofills an email address as soon as the person begins typing. Because most people use their personal address when making purchases, this address usually pops up first. Instead of retyping a new email address or searching for the right one in the list, many people simply use the first address that’s provided.

Access to Business Messages

Often, executive assistants prioritize and respond to emails on behalf of company leaders. If a corporate leader wants to prevent emails from being deleted or marked as “junk” by their EA, or simply avoid cluttering their work inbox, they may enter their personal email. 

Lack of Time

With only limited hours in a workday, many marketers, especially executives, read long-form content in the evening or on the weekend. By using their personal email, they can easily access the content from personal devices, such as laptops or tablets. 

Upcoming Career Move

If someone anticipates changing jobs soon, they may use their personal email so they will continue receiving emails even if they leave their current position. With their personal email, you can build a relationship that lasts throughout their entire working career regardless of where they are working. 

studioID Tip

Think twice before requiring professional email addresses on your lead forms. Some organizations make the mistake of eliminating the ability for people to use their personal email addresses to fill out lead-generation forms.

Gartner Digital Markets found that requiring professional email addresses on a form leads to an average decrease of 52% in the form’s conversion rate. 

🗺️ Related Reading: 2024 Demand Gen Field Guide: Everything Marketers Need to Know

Who Uses Personal Email?

A Marketing Sherpa study found that 55% of professionals prefer using their personal email when filling out a lead generation form for long-form content. 

The study also broke down by job title how often people use their personal emails on lead generation forms. Interestingly, the size of the company makes a difference in what emails they use, with employees at smaller companies more likely to use personal email regardless of their job title. 

Here are some key statistics on email use from the study:

  • Individual contributors at companies with fewer than 100 employees use their personal email 69% of the time. Those at companies with more than 5,000 employees use their personal email 49% of the time. 

  • Managers at companies with under 100 employees use their personal emails 59% of the time. Managers at companies with more than 5,000 employees use their personal email 36% of the time. 

  • Senior directors at companies with fewer than 100 employees use their personal email 63% of the time. Those at companies with more than 5,000 employees use their personal email 40% of the time.

🎯 Related Reading: From MQL to Customer: 7 Most-Effective Lead Nurture Tactics

Are Business Email or Personal Email Leads More Valuable?

The answer is neither. High-value leads can result from either type of email address. Instead of eliminating personal emails, marketing and sales teams need to understand how to best use each. Consider the following pros and cons for both types of emails.

Business Emails

  • Allow you to determine the name of the company to further qualify the lead

  • Enable you to find out more information about the person through LinkedIn, such as location, experience, and role 

Personal Emails

  • Have a longer lifetime value and will not bounce with job changes

  • Often have lower spam/attachment criteria, making it easier to land in their inbox

All leads hold the potential to be valuable, whether a person chooses to use a business or personal email address. By accepting personal emails and pursuing the leads, companies ensure they don’t miss great leads. However, if you find your personal email leads aren’t converting at the same clip that you’re business emails leads are, you might want to experiment with ranking personal emails lower on your lead scoring so that you nurture these prospects longer than those using business email addresses. 

When you ask prospects for their email address, they make a decision about how they want to communicate with your company. Companies should not force people to interact with them using a specific type of email, but instead respect the person’s decision.

Your sales team has leads. Now what? View the infographic to give your sales team the best chance to seal the deal.

LeadNurtureInfograp_PromoAssets_V3_Springboard_inline-CTA_2892 × 1088px.png

Tags: