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Email is still the cornerstone of business-to-business (B2B) marketing. According to recent research, 73% of buyers prefer it, which means it's not going anywhere. However, the same research shows that email-only campaigns delivered 29% fewer leads year over year. That's a wake-up call for those marketers still relying on siloed tactics.

Here are six lead-gen approaches that my team recommends for amplifying outcomes and building a sustainable pipeline in today's complex B2B landscape.

1. Personalization Powered By AI And Intent Data

AI has moved beyond being a buzzword. It's now a business driver, especially when it comes to targeting and personalization. Tools like Adobe Marketo Engage and HubSpot's smart content allow you to adjust messaging in real time based on user behavior, and that's only the beginning. The emergence of generative AI has made at-scale B2B personalization more achievable, enabling customized subject lines, calls to action and body copy that adapts to the buyer’s context.

This strategy becomes even more potent when you layer it with intent data—digital signals that reflect online buyer behavior and interest. You can identify and engage warm leads more efficiently across programmatic ads, social channels and email. The result is higher-quality conversations with B2B prospects who are already interested in what your brand offers.

2. Multichannel Retargeting To Drive Conversions

Buyers interact across multiple platforms, and based on my agency's experience, it now takes 12 to 15 touchpoints before a prospect engages. Today's more results-driven lead-gen approaches include multichannel retargeting and sequencing, such as:

• Serving programmatic ads to those who open your email

• Retargeting those who don't open them with LinkedIn or display ads

• Using behavioral triggers to sequence the next-best action

From our experience with Fortune 1000 clients and other companies, we've found that multichannel retargeting is significantly more effective than single-channel efforts. The takeaway is to keep your messaging visible, relevant and consistent across channels.

As the founder of a B2B data compiling and performance marketing agency, I can tell you that modern B2B buyers demand more personalized, timely and cross-channel engagement. Getting lead generation (lead gen) right today requires a smarter, more connected strategy that blends data, AI and content to meet buyers where they are.

3. High-Quality Data

No campaign will perform without solid data behind it. Yet research shows that email lists decay by roughly 28% per year, leading to wasted spend and poor targeting. Keeping your contact database clean, current and complete is now a fundamental requirement. Whether using first-party data or sourcing third-party data from partners, you can elevate campaign performance by validating email addresses, titles and other business attributes.

Investing in custom data sets tailored to your audience and ideal customer profile can further improve results for omnichannel acquisition campaigns across email, connected TV, programmatic display and direct mail. Precision beats volume, especially when budgets are tight and expectations are high.

4. Building A More Complete Prospect Profile

One emerging trend in data strategy is business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) matching, which involves linking professional contact records to consumer data to create a more holistic prospect view. The way we approach B2B2C matching for client campaigns is to first build a custom audience of business prospects sourced from our B2B contact database. The prospect data includes attributes such as their business email address, firmographics and job title.

Next, we leverage our B2C records to weave in consumer attributes for each of those prospects, such as their personal email address, LinkedIn profile or residential address. Our data scientists use automation and tools to ensure precision matching. The type of consumer attribute can vary based on what is required for each campaign or channel. For example, for programmatic campaigns, a hashed personal email is all that is required for use in a demand-side platform.

Ultimately, we create a single B2B2C audience file, which we provide to our clients to fuel their omnichannel marketing or for use as a custom audience that can be delivered to the destination of their choice to drive programmatic and/or social activation.

By blending personal and business attributes (while respecting privacy and compliance), we’ve found that more robust prospect profiles enable B2B marketers to:

• Better understand the person behind the professional title, which leads to improved personalization

• Put messages in front of prospects at work and at home to increase opportunities for engagement

• Match messaging to behavioral and channel preferences to enhance relevancy and engagement

5. Thought Leadership—Episodic And Innovative

According to Edelman, 75% of decision-makers and C-suite executives say thought leadership has led them to research products or services they hadn’t thought about before. When it comes to thought leadership, brands need to be innovative. For example, you can use series-based storytelling to build momentum and repeat engagement by developing episodic content strategies that span email, video, podcasts, ads and social platforms. While fresh content like this fuels search engine optimization (SEO) and organic visibility, thought leadership earns trust and elevates brand perception.

6. Influence Through Community And Creators

Today's B2B buyers are increasingly turning to trusted influencers, digital creators and communities to inform purchase decisions. That’s why augmenting your lead-gen strategy through collaboration with niche creators or partnering with respected industry groups makes sense. It allows you to tap into new, high-value audiences, build trust by association and increase your reach without diluting your message.

This shift reflects a broader change in B2B behavior as buyers turn away from polished sales pitches and migrate toward the opinions of third-party experts and micro-influencers. The brands that embrace this reality—by embedding their message within trusted ecosystems—stand to gain the most.

Modern B2B lead generation is no longer about blasting emails and hoping for clicks. It is driven by data quality and precision, cross-channel cohesion and humanized engagement. Whether you're targeting IT leaders, financial executives or small business owners, the common thread is that people want to connect in meaningful, personalized and contextually relevant ways.

Marketers who embrace this mindset—supported by innovative tools, clean data and thoughtful content—will build their pipelines more effectively and win long-term trust. And in B2B, trust is the most valuable asset of all.