News

The signs are subtle but costly: Email open rates are slipping, ad engagement is inconsistent and buying journeys stall without warning. Welcome to B2B buyer disengagement—what I call “quiet quitting” the funnel.

This silent withdrawal isn't dramatic; it happens as decision-makers become overwhelmed by content, touchpoints and noise. And let's not forget that "68% of millennial B2B buyers prefer self-service research tools over speaking to a sales rep, and many complete up to 70% of the buying process online before engaging with a supplier," according to Salesforce.

Many marketers respond by ramping up their activity, but increasing the volume of messages or automation without a strategy only amplifies fatigue. As the CEO and founder of a performance marketing agency specializing in B2B acquisition campaigns, I can tell you that answers to this challenge exist. Here are four actionable strategies we use to re-engage quiet quitters affected by content overload:

1. Audit Your Content For Relevance (Not Just Volume)

Even with growing email budgets, consumers are feeling over-marketed. A recent study found that 33% of respondents report being overwhelmed by marketing emails. The reality today is that sending more content only adds to the problem.

One way to cut through the noise is to audit your content with a relevance-first lens. Consider these questions:

• Does this asset solve a specific, current pain point for the targeted prospect?

• Is it personalized by buyer role, stage or industry?

• Does it offer unique insight or third-party validation?

Additionally, utilize multi-format delivery, such as short videos, infographics and carousel posts, to cater to time-constrained buyers. This approach enhances accessibility, providing decision-makers with easy-to-consume content that they can incorporate into their busy schedules.

Combining relevance with accessibility improves your chances of engaging your targeted prospects, even if you previously identified them as disengaged.

2. Shift From Channel Thinking To A Smart Integration Strategy

It's no secret that single channels rarely drive conversions. Yet, many marketers still operate in silos—email here, display ads there and LinkedIn the next day. Through our own experience with B2B marketing, we know that it takes 12-15 touches to spark engagement with a B2B buyer.

The answer isn’t about volume; it’s about orchestration and channel integration. Try launching awareness with a direct mail piece, followed by a personalized email, then serve a retargeted ad. Switching the link-click email and ad sequence entirely can have a significant impact on engagement.

Also, test different orders of outreach, not just channels, to find out what works best for each prospect. By sequencing intelligently—aiming to connect with buyers in the right way and at the right time, depending on their personal preferences—you can elevate pipeline velocity.

3. Watch For Intent, Not Just Clicks

Quiet quitting doesn't mean buyers vanish; it means they stop visible engagement. Traditional metrics, such as open or click rates, often overlook subtle signs, including repeat website visits, time on page and the number of webinar replays viewed.

Marketers need to dig deeper. By leveraging digital intent signals, for example, you can unlock a segment of buyers whose digital behavior indicates that they are interested in what you have to offer or that they have an intent to buy. These signals are based on actions such as the websites they’ve visited and the content they’ve downloaded.

By merging the signals with AI-driven predictive models and a high-quality B2B prospect database, you can surface a precise list of quietly engaged prospects to fuel your future campaigns. Our team has found this approach to be successful for targeting and engaging warm leads using CTV and programmatic advertising, email marketing, social media and other channels.

4. Clean Your Data, Then Enrich It

Sometimes silence is data decay in disguise. That’s why consistent list hygiene is essential for marketing today, including removing invalid or stale contacts, replacing any missing or inaccurate data and enriching your records with more robust prospect data to enable improved relevance and engagement.

Taking enrichment a step further, one of the newer B2B customer acquisition strategies we use is to match our agency’s B2B contact data to consumer data attributes, with the combined B2B2C dataset enabling us to gain a more complete view of each prospect. The premise behind it is this: today’s B2B decision-makers don’t just engage through work email. They stream CTV, scroll social platforms and interact across a range of personal and professional touchpoints.

To unify those touchpoints, start with a B2B buyer’s company IP address to uncover the titles of the buyers most likely to be the decision-makers within that organization. From there, you identify key consumer contact data such as mobile advertising ID, connected TV ID and/or personal email. You then connect the dots between the professional role and the personal attributes and structure a campaign around the unified B2B2C contact data. It's still a B2B offer, but you use consumer channels to promote and evangelize.

With a unified B2B2C audience file, with privacy regulation compliance baked in, B2B marketers can:

• Gain deeper insight into the individual beyond the job title, enabling stronger personalization.

• Reach prospects across both professional and personal environments to boost engagement potential.

• Tailor messaging to align with behavior and preferred channels, improving relevance and response rates.

Marketing With Empathy And Precision

Today’s B2B buyer isn’t ghosting you out of indifference—they’re overloaded, distraction-saturated and skeptical of generic outreach. Reengaging them won’t happen by sending more or louder messages. Instead, restore funnel momentum by better understanding your target audience and their interests, sequencing systematically and prioritizing data accuracy and content relevance.

When silence isn't apathy but a chance to reconnect thoughtfully, marketers reclaim not only attention but also trust. And as LinkedIn reports, 94% of marketers agree that building trust is the key to B2B success.

Find Paula Chiocchi on LinkedIn and X. Visit Paula's website.