Leveraging Data Analytics for Personalisation in B2B Food and Nutriton Sales and Marketing

Why Data-Led Personalisation Matters in B2B Food and Nutrition Marketing and Sales

B2B buyers expect experiences tailored to their needs—whether that's timely ingredient or product recommendations, relevant content formats, or communications aligned to their job role and industry. And when they receive personalised messaging, engagement naturally increases, performance lifts, and results improve. 

The reason is simple. Personalisation reduces the noise buyers have to sort through and delivers what's most useful to them in that moment. This could be in the form of a technical whitepaper, trend report, webinar session, commercial conversation, or direct email. 

For suppliers, it means stronger engagement, higher quality leads, and more efficient use of one’s budget. For buyers, it means clarity and confidence in choosing the right partner. HubSpot’s 2025 State of Marketing report affirms this, with 96% of survey respondents reporting that personalised experiences have increased sales. And on the other hand, 29% of respondents in HubSpot’s 2025 State of Sales survey admitted that the sales process not being personalised enough is one of the biggest reasons prospects back out of deals. Together, these insights make one thing clear: personalisation is now a deciding factor in whether buyers move forward or walk away.

And this is exactly where data analytics becomes essential. It turns fragmented interactions across channels into a clear buyer picture—enabling marketing and sales teams to personalise with accuracy.

Personalisation starts with understanding your audience—think who they are, what they're interested in, and how they behave across your digital ecosystem. And here are three ways data analytics enables this:

1. Segment-Based Personalisation: In B2B food and nutrition, the most effective segmentation blends firmographics (industry, region, company size, job function) and behaviours (content downloads, webinar attendance, form fills, product interests). This combination builds a more complete picture, allowing teams to tailor campaigns by audience needs, pain points, and buying signals rather than generic assumptions.

2. Predictive Ingredient or Product and Content Recommendations: By analysing patterns in buyer behaviour, data models can predict exactly what a lead is most likely to engage with next. Examples of this include recommending relevant industry reports and similar product categories, or prioritising leads based on interest clusters. This turns your content marketing ecosystem into a proactive engine rather than a static library.

3. Behaviour-Led Follow-Up: Your sales and marketing teams can also use data analytics to personalise their outreach with precision. By analysing behavioural signals like webinar participation or whitepaper downloads, you can tailor conversations to match what the buyer cares about most. This turns outreach from generic check-ins into relevant, context-rich interactions that build trust and accelerate deals.

Personalisation isn't a one-time effort; it's a cycle of learning and refining. And getting personalisation right calls for aligning your data, systems, and workflows. Here's how to build a scalable approach:

1. Data Integration: Fragmented data is one of the biggest roadblocks. Unifying your CRM, digital channels, event data, and analytics platforms gives you a complete view of the buyer. With a single source of truth, marketing and sales can finally speak the same language.

2. Automation: Automation brings consistency and speed to your campaigns. It enables triggered journeys based on behaviour, timely follow-ups after downloads, sessions, or event interactions, and personalised nurture tracks based on interest signals. This reduces manual work and ensures buyers never fall through the cracks.

3. Continuous Testing: A/B and multivariate testing help you understand which messages, formats, and channels resonate most with each audience segment. Testing is essential for improving your engagement rates, content performance, and lead quality.

At Smartcore, personalisation sits at the heart of how we help suppliers connect with buyers worldwide. This is powered by our first-party data, behavioural intelligence, and a digital space designed to tailor every interaction. 

When you secure a Smartcore digital product or package – particularly ones that include targeted email campaigns or personalised nurture journeys – you’re provided with our Datacard to refine your audience selection. While the full Datacard experience is exclusive to Smartcore customers, you can explore its capabilities through our FREE Audience Reach Calculator, which mirrors its core functionality. Simply select your target audience from our global buyer database and segment by product and industry interest, job function, job level, and geographical location (across 228 data points). This helps you understand the granularity and personalisation you can action and gives you an estimate of your first-party data reach with us.

Smartcore Lead Insights is our AI-powered lead intelligence platform built specifically for the B2B food and nutraceutical industry. It collects and analyses behavioural signals from across the Informa Markets events and digital ecosystem. These include both physical and online interactions—think visits to your stand or editorial sessions at Fi Europe or Vitafoods Europe, attendance to the Fi Webinar Series, Vitafoods Insights Webinar Series, or custom webinars, content downloads across our industry-specialised Ingredients and Finished Products Network, Vitafoods Insights, and Fi Global Insights channels, and more. These touchpoints are analysed, enriched, and transformed into actionable insights that help suppliers personalise their follow-ups with confidence and precision.

Here are a few ways Smartcore Lead Insights enables more personalised sales and marketing:

• Buyer Intent Score: Quantifies how close a lead may be to making a purchasing decision, helping you tailor messaging and follow-ups to match their buying stage.

• Lead Behaviour: Surfaces behavioural patterns and content preferences, enabling more personalised engagement that aligns with each buyer’s interests.

• Data Enrichment: Enhances the quality and depth of your existing lead data, supporting more targeted campaigns, stronger engagement, and better ROI.

• Segments: Allows you to group leads into defined segments by demographics, interests, behaviour, or engagement level — unlocking tailored outreach at scale. 

Personalisation is now a defining factor in B2B food and nutrition marketing and sales success. Buyers engage with content – whether it’s email outreach, LinkedIn messages, whitepapers, webinars, or infographics – when it reflects their needs and priorities. And data analytics is what makes that level of relevance possible.

From segmentation and predictive insights to automated journeys and custom content, personalisation helps suppliers strengthen engagement at every stage of the purchase funnel. Being data-driven is what we’re all about at Smartcore; and personalisation is built into everything we do. If you’re looking to explore our (data-analytics-driven) smarter digital marketing campaigns for brand awareness, lead generation, or thought leadership (even those for boosting your presence at Fi Europe or Vitafoods Europe), book your free, no-obligation Smartcore demo today. And if you want to learn more about Smartcore Lead Insights, request your live 30-min demo here.