The B2B Persona Project provides insights into over 90 B2B personas, revealing crucial metrics such as average tenure, annual churn rates, and the financial implications of maintaining email databases. Key findings indicate that the average churn rate is 15% per year, resulting in significant loss of value, and that higher-ranking individuals tend to stay in their roles longer. This study aims to enhance email marketing strategies by offering a deeper understanding of the core personas within the B2B landscape.

1. T H E B 2 B
P E R S O N A
P R O J E C T
THE SECRETS OF DEMOGRAPHCIS

2. THE $7.5 MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION
It costs on average $150 to obtain a B2B
email address. Second that with the average
size of a B2B email database is 50,000 you
can easily see an email database as the most
expensive asset a market has, yet how much
do we know about them? Very little.
This project was set up to give marketers
better insights into email marketing by
providing deeper insights into the core
personas. It is the only study of its kind.

3. THE PROJECT
The project is a deep dive
into very specific aspects of
90+ B2B personas.
With in each person we have
been able to identify the total
size of that persona, the
average tenure of a person in
that role, and how many new
people enter that persona
each year.

4. H I G H L I G H T S

5. TOTAL B2B AUDIENCE
We looked at 21.3 million full-
time B2B professionals for this
study. In total, there are 60
million full-time professionals
make up the total B2B population,
representing 43% of all employed
individuals in the United States.

6. THE COST OF CHURN
The average email database of
50,000 addresses loses on
average 7,500 addresses each
and every year.
Losing over $1 million
dollars in value each
year.

7. AVERAGE TENURE
The average tenure of
an email address in your
database is 4.2 years
across all verticals of
business, roles with in
the company, and level
of seniority.

8. 7 Of all personas the highest churn
rate goes to Sales Professionals in
the Retail and Consumer vertical.
HIGHEST CHURN RATE
The lowest churn rate of any
persona goes to Executive Titles
with in the Finance role in the
LOWEST
CHURN
2 %
8
%

9. AVERAGE
CHURN RATE
The average persona
churns at a rate of 15% per
year. Meaning every year
your database loses 15% of
it’s power in reaching
your core audience.
51 %

10. SENORITY MATTERS
We found the higher your
position in the organization
the longer on average the
person tends to stay in that
role.
Making senior level
personas longer lasting
assets.

11. I T B U Y E R
H I G H L I G H T S

12. S I Z E O F I T P E R S O N A
Total 4,254,423
Medical 1,137,637
Finance 489,312
Manufacturing 680,611
TransportaUon 278,160
High Tech 772,151
Retail and Consumer Products 896,552

13. PERSONA #12
Business Vertical:
Department:
Seniority Level:
Total Volume:
Annual Growth:
Annual Churn:
High Tech
IT
Director +
77,125
10,006 per year
16% per year

14. M A R K E T I N G
H I G H L I G H T S

15. S I Z E O F M A R K E T I N G
P E R S O N A
Total 2,269,903
Medical 424,163
Finance 193,891
Manufacturing 319,340
TransportaUon 132,876
High Tech 358,691
Retail and Consumer Products 840,942

16. PERSONA #23
Business Vertical:
Department:
Seniority Level:
Total Volume:
Annual Growth:
Annual Churn:
Medical
MarkeUng
Manager
106,041
20,148 per year
19% per year

17. S A L E S
H I G H L I G H T S

18. S I Z E O F S A L E S
P E R S O N A
Total 4,705,331
Medical 513,585
Finance 1,018,805
Manufacturing 577,116
TransportaUon 315,588
High Tech 728,034
Retail and Consumer Products 1,552,203

19. PERSONA #77
Business Vertical:
Department:
Seniority Level:
Total Volume:
Annual Growth:
Annual Churn:
Retail and Consumer
Sales
Individual Contributor
1,000,932
210,195 per year
27% per year

20. H U M A N
R E S O U R C E S
H I G H L I G H T S

21. S I Z E O F H R
P E R S O N A
Total 1,2012,014
Medical 309,668
Finance 106,256
Manufacturing 198,964
TransportaUon 106,056
High Tech 160,382
Retail and Consumer Products 330,688

22. PERSONA #54
Business Vertical:
Department:
Seniority Level:
Total Volume:
Annual Growth:
Annual Churn:
TransportaUon
HR
Manager
26,514
3,712 per year
15% per year

23. F I N A N C E
H I G H L I G H T S

24. S I Z E O F S A L E S
P E R S O N A
Total 8,834,800
Medical 1,631,476
Finance 1,834,043
Manufacturing 1,106,661
TransportaUon 643,968
High Tech 899,104
Retail and Consumer Products 2,719,548

25. PERSONA #86
Business Vertical:
Department:
Seniority Level:
Total Volume:
Annual Growth:
Annual Churn:
Finance
Finance
Director +
183,404
18,066
11% per year

26. C O N C L U S I O N S

27. BOUNCE IS NOT A GOOD
MEASURE OF VALUE
One of the main ways email marketers
determine if an email is valued or not is to
simply see if it makes it to through. If it bounces
it is considered no good. This project actually
suggests it may be bad long before then due to a
person taking horizontal or vertical changes
with in a company having them leave the
persona long before a bounce occurs.
1

28. 2
INCREASED IMPORTANCE ON
SOCIAL HANDLES
Social handles currently tend to be tied to a
person rather than a persona. So they do not
change with employment, and may give a longer
connection to a person than email addresses.
However, if you have a social handle you still
must understand their current persona to be
relevant to them.

29. 3
IT SHOULD NOW BE EASIER TO
KNOW HOW GOOD YOU ARE
With the ability to now know how many people
are in your persona you can better evaluate your
efforts on email. These numbers are not
geographic however it is very easy for you to
apply your own calculations on top of these
numbers to better identify the true size of your
persona by geography as well.

30. F U L L R E P O R T
( C L I C K B E L O W )
h3ps://www.salesforce.com/form/marke@ngcloud/
conf/b2b-personas-targe@ng-audiences.jsp

31. T H A N K Y O U
Mathew Sweezey / @msweezey
Principal of MarkeUng Insights
Salesforce