Most B2B publishers send a lot of email. Newsletters, event promotions, sponsored sends for advertisers. Every one of them comes back with a report, and most of those reports get a quick look and then sit there.
That's a shame, because a click from the right company at the right moment is about the warmest lead an ad sales team will get. Someone at a firm you'd like to sell to has just shown an interest in your event, your awards or an advertiser's product. The trick is turning that into a conversation without misreading the data or getting the rules wrong.
Opens are the weakest signal
Start with what not to rely on. Open rates were always a rough measure, and they're rougher now.
Apple's Mail Privacy Protection is designed to stop senders "learning information about your Mail activity". In practice, images can be loaded on the reader's behalf, so an open can be recorded when nobody has read anything. Other mail apps block images, so a real reader may never register as an open at all.
Clicks aren't perfect either. Some company email security systems check links before the message reaches the reader, and that can look like a click. If a company clicks every link in a newsletter within a second of it arriving, it probably wasn't a person.
So treat opens as a trend line for the whole list, not a reason to ring anyone. Clicks are better. Clicks on particular links are better still.
Which clicks are worth a call
Not every click means "please sell me something". Someone reading your news story about a rival isn't in the market for a page of advertising. The useful clicks are the ones that say something about intent:
- Event and awards links. Booking pages, entry details and sponsorship packages.
- Advertiser content. A click on a sponsored feature or e-blast shows interest in that category, which is useful for the advertiser and for your own sales team.
- Media pack and rate card links. If someone at a company clicks "advertise with us", that's about as clear as it gets.
- Repeat interest. Several people from one company clicking on the same topic over a few weeks is worth more than one person clicking once.
The company matters more than the individual here. In B2B selling, you're usually trying to start a conversation with a firm, and the person who clicked may not be the person who buys. That's why it helps to see clicks grouped by company, with the company's record alongside.
Check the rules before you build the routine
Two sets of rules apply, and they're easy to mix up. We covered the marketing side in our post on consent and legitimate interest. Tracking is a separate question.
The ICO's business-to-business marketing guidance says PECR's email consent rule "doesn't apply to corporate subscribers", such as limited companies. Sole traders and some partnerships count as individuals, though. And UK GDPR still applies to named people at those companies, because a work email that identifies someone is personal data.
The tracking itself falls under a different part of PECR. The ICO's guidance on storage and access technologies says that where tracking pixels store or access information on a reader's device, regulation 6 applies. The same goes for tracked links that do so. That rule covers every kind of subscriber, not just individuals.
There is an exception for statistics, added after the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. But the ICO is clear that it "does not allow you to monitor or track individual visitors". Following up a named reader's clicks is tracking individuals. So it's worth checking with whoever looks after data protection that your consent wording and privacy notice cover it. Then readers aren't surprised to get a call after clicking a link.
Two more points from the ICO. The right to object to direct marketing is absolute, so if someone says no, that's the end of it. And before ringing anyone, screen the number against the Telephone Preference Service and the Corporate TPS. The ICO notes its B2B guidance is under review after the 2025 Act, so keep an eye on it.
None of this stops you using email engagement for sales. It just means doing it openly and keeping good records.
A simple follow-up routine
Once you're comfortable with the rules, the routine doesn't need to be clever. What matters is that it happens every time, not just when someone remembers.
- Pick the campaigns that count. Events, sponsored content and anything with a commercial link. Not every news bulletin.
- Look at clicks by company, the next morning. Interest fades quickly. A list a fortnight later is a list nobody rings.
- Check the company record first. Are they already an advertiser? Is a colleague already talking to them? Did they say no last month? Two reps calling the same firm about the same thing looks careless.
- Make the call about them, not the click. "I saw you clicked our email" is a bit unsettling. "We've got a few stands left at the show and I thought of you" is a normal sales call.
- Record the outcome. Called, interested, not now, asked not to be contacted. If an objection isn't recorded centrally, the next campaign will put them back on someone's list.
- Look back each quarter. Which campaigns produced conversations, and which produced bookings? That tells you where to put effort next time.
Keep reachability and consent apart
One practical trap. A bounce isn't an unsubscribe. An address that bounces is a delivery problem: the person may have moved jobs, or the company's mail server had a bad day. Someone who unsubscribes has told you something about permission.
If your system treats the two the same, you'll either lose readers who were happy to hear from you, or carry on mailing people who've said no. Keep them as separate fields and handle them separately.
Where we fit in
In Adeptis, our all-in-one platform for smaller publishers, campaign reports sync from your email platform and list the companies that clicked, with address, phone number and click count. Those companies are the same records in the Adeptis CRM, so a rep can see the advertising history and consent before picking up the phone. Adeptis also keeps bounces and unsubscribes apart, as above.
If you'd like more of the right people at the companies that are clicking, prospecting finds contacts published on those companies' own websites, with the source page recorded for each.
If you'd like to see a campaign report and the companies list working, book a demo and we'll walk you through it.
Rob Sherwood is Managing Director of Adept Data Services. He has spent his career in subscriptions and circulation, at WDIS, Optima and CDS Global before founding Adept.