Do you want to build a B2B email list to grow your subscribers and revenue?

B2B email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach existing and potential customers.

It’s why just about every successful company has a B2B email marketing strategy.

But, how do you build a B2B email list in the first place?

Fortunately, there are powerful, yet simple, tactics you can use to turn more of your website visitors into email subscribers.

By the end of this article, you will know exactly how to build your B2B email list.

Why You Need a B2B Email Marketing Strategy

Before we get into the practical tips, let’s first look at the reasons you need a B2B email marketing strategy in the first place.

You might have heard that email continues to have the highest return on investment and engagement.

But, does B2B email marketing work?

Let’s take a look at some B2B email marketing statistics:

• 40% of B2B marketers say email marketing is key to their success
• 77% of B2B companies use an email marketing newsletter as part of their content marketing strategy
• 79% of B2B marketers find email to be the most successful channel for content distribution
• 59% of B2B marketers cite email as their top channel for revenue generation

So, maybe that’s why you’re wondering, “How do I make a B2B email list?”

Now, if you’re searching for solutions online, you might have read about buying an email list.

Of course, buying a list sounds like a great idea. Right away, you can tap into a list of warm leads that are already interested in your industry.

Right?

But, the truth is buying an email list is a waste of time and money.

Here are some of the reasons you should never buy an email list:

• The quality of the list isn’t guaranteed
• Your email service provider might forbid purchased lists
• You can come across as spammy

Now, that you know why should avoid buying a list, let’s take a look at the best strategies for growing a B2B list that will grow your subscribers and revenue.

How to Build a B2B Email List

Below, we’ve handpicked the best strategies for building a B2B email list. These are techniques used by us and our customers to skyrocket our email list growth.

Let’s begin.

Verify Leads Before Adding Them to Your B2B Email List

Your B2B email list is only valuable if it’s filled with real people who are actually interested in your content and services.

In other words, a B2B database full of fake, incorrect, outdated emails isn’t going to deliver the kind of results you’re after.

So, how do you make sure you’re only adding high quality leads to your B2B email list?

OptinMonster is the best tool for verifying B2B leads before adding them to your email list. It allows you to create eye-catching lead capture forms that prevent fake signups and misspelled emails.

OptinMonster’s Lead Verification protects your B2B email list.

Here’s how it works:

• Prevent spambots from getting on your list
• Block specific IP addresses from submitting an email address
• Correct emails that are misspelled in the optin form

Why do successful B2B companies verify leads?

There are a few reasons you need lead verification.

To start, most email service providers charge by the size of your list. Fake or incorrect emails all count towards your total. But, these dud emails deliver zero return to you.

Another reason you should filter your leads is to protect your email sending reputation. If you’re only sending your emails to people who are genuinely interested, you’ll get more engagement. This, in turn, boosts the reputation of your IP address.

Getting started with lead verification is incredibly simple.

All you need to is sign up for an OptinMonster account.

Here’s a step by step for how to verify an email address and qualify your leads.

Choose the Right B2B Email Marketing Provider

If you want to build your B2B email list, you need to find the right email marketing service provider.

The right email marketing service provider lets you easily send target campaigns.

Here’s what to look for in an email marketing service provider:

• Drag and drop builder: easy to use tools to create beautiful email newsletters
• Marketing automation: send personalized emails in bulk
• Segmentation: divide your subscribers into groups based on their preferences, interests, and more

Use B2B Lead Magnets

A lead magnet is an incentive that marketers offer to people in exchange for their email addresses.

But, how does a B2B lead magnet help grow your list?

People are more likely to join your mailing list when they’re getting immediate value in return.

Typically, a lead magnet is a piece of downloadable content, like:

• eBook
• Checklist
• Guide
• White paper

So, what makes a good B2B lead magnet?

There a few things your lead magnet should do if you want people to download it:

• Solve a real problem
• Specific
• Instantly accessible

Consider your ideal customer when you’re coming up with ideas. What are they struggling with? What’s one thing they wish they could change?

Inbound Marketing is a B2B marketing agency that increased conversions 189% using lead magnets.

Use Multiple B2B Lead Forms Across Your Website

To boost your B2B email list, you can add different B2B lead capture forms across your website.

Here are some of the types of popups and optin forms you could use:

• Lightbox: a popup that covers the content behind it
• Fullscreen: takes over the entire screen with a single call to action
• Notification bar: alert bar typically at the header or footer of the screen
• 2-step optins: popup on click or Yes/No Forms

Depending on how you use it, each of these forms is capable of exploding your B2B email list.

Here’s an example of a lead magnet ReliableSoft used to increase its B2B conversions by 300%.

And here’s another optin form from Lead Guru, a B2B digital marketing agency.

Lead Guru used OptinMonster’s MonsterLinks feature to create a popup on click that converted 81.8% of visitors.

Try testing different forms to find the best-performing ones for your business.

Experiment With Gated Content

Gating your best content is a way to increase your B2B email list.

Gated content is online content you have to fill in a form to access. The form might ask you to add your name, phone number, company, and email address.

In addition to blog posts, content you can consider gating includes:

• White papers
• Webinars
• Research reports

Now, there are pros and cons to locking content. On the one hand, you can use gated content to segment your email list and better understand your subscribers.

For example, Photowebo increased conversions by 3806% using gated content.

However, some companies have unlocked all their content because people don’t want to fill out forms.

A good approach is to include gated content alongside ungated content. Another tip is to lock content that’s truly valuable and shareable.

Check out this article for more content locking strategies: How to Use Gated Content to Skyrocket Engagement & Conversions

Segment Your Email List

Segmenting your email list lets you send targeted, personalized emails to your B2B email list.

The reality is personalized emails are more effective than generic messages you broadcast to your entire email list.

That’s why every successful B2B email marketing includes segmentation.

One way to segment your subscribers is to use lead magnets on your site.

Let’s say you create a guide about choosing the right Customer Relationship Manager (CRM). Now, you know people that opt in to receive that piece of content are interested in CRMs. So, you could target email marketing campaigns around CRM for those site visitors.

This is the strategy RocketBots used to increase its mailing list. RocketBots created specific lead magnets for specific pages.

That’s it. We’ve covered the best ways for building a B2B email list. If you want to add more subscribers to your B2B email list right away, you should get OptinMonster.

Here are more practical resources for generating more leads:

• Email Marketing Made Simple: A Step by Step Guide [+ Examples]
• 9 B2B Lead Generation Best Practices (That Actually Work)
• 5 B2B Email Marketing Best Practices You Need to Try

Ready to generate more B2B leads from your website? Get OptinMonster today.