Which B2B prospecting channel offers the best ROI in 2025?

Email, LinkedIn, Calls, SMS, or WhatsApp? For marketing, growth, and sales leaders like you, choosing the right channel is far from trivial. It directly impacts lead quality, your sales team’s mental load, and the overall performance of your outbound campaigns.

We’ve compiled the available data to help you make an informed decision. Let’s try to answer the tricky question: which channel should you use, when, and for what purpose?

1. LinkedIn: InMail, connection requests (with or without message), and DMs

Glossary

• InMail: Sponsored messages sent without prior connection.

• Connection request with message: Up to 300 characters.

• Connection request without message: Simple connection attempt.

• DM (Direct Message): Sent to someone you’re already connected with.

Response and acceptance rates

• InMail: 10% to 25% response rate (EmailSearch.io)

• Connection request without message: 31% to 50% acceptance depending on your profile

• Connection request with message: 29% to 32% acceptance (LaGrowthMachine)

• Personalized DM: 5% to 20% response rate (Evaboot)

Takeaway

Connection requests without a message surprisingly have high acceptance rates, despite contradicting the personalization trend. However, a personalized approach with prior engagement (likes, comments, etc.) can boost the acceptance rate to 74% (Mario Martinez Jr. on LinkedIn).

Recommendation: Great for initial targeted outreach. Just remember, volume is limited to 100 invites/week... which is already a lot.

2. Email: The classic, often misused

Key stats

• Open rate: 20% to 25%

• Reply rate: 8.5% on average (Klenty)

• Click-through rate: 1% to 3%

What works

• Short, personalized subject lines

• Emails focused on the recipient, not the product

• Smartly timed follow-up sequences (3 to 5 max — data shows going beyond 7 dramatically increases spam risk)

Limitations

• Heavy competition in the inbox

• Risk of being blacklisted or damaging your domain reputation

Recommendation: Essential for scaling. But requires solid segmentation and a good tracking setup. (Too few marketers/salespeople warm up their domains or configure them properly before blasting emails.)

3. Phone Calls: Losing steam, but still useful

Key stats

• Conversion rate: 2% to 5% (Cognism)

• Answer rate: Continually declining, especially in B2B tech

Strengths

• Enables real conversation

• Direct access to real objections

Limitations

• Intrusive if poorly timed

• Hard to scale

• Less accepted by younger generations

Recommendation: Best for warm leads or follow-ups after previous engagement (e.g. unread email).

4. SMS: The unexpected channel

Key stats

• Open rate: 98% (Notifyre)

• Reply rate: 45%

• Average read time: <90 seconds

Ideal use cases

• Appointment confirmation

• Post-contact follow-up

• Highly personalized nurturing scenarios

Recommendation: Extremely effective, but use carefully since it's not common in B2B. Best for closing or requalification phases — not for first contact.

5. WhatsApp: The relationship channel

Key stats

• Read rate: >90%

• Reply rate: 40% to 60% (BotPenguin)

Why it works

• Perceived as a personal channel

• Naturally conversational format

Limitations

• Requires a pre-existing relationship or strong personalization

• GDPR and intrusiveness concerns

Recommendation: Excellent for sales follow-up or humanizing exchanges. Use after establishing a relationship.

6. Which channel for which objective?

7. How to empower your sales team

• Map out your current prospecting journey and assign the most effective channels at each stage.

• Train your reps to use the right channels at the right time.

• Set up validated templates for each channel (DMs, emails, SMS). Tools like HubSpot let you create template libraries or snippets accessible directly from email or mobile for WhatsApp/SMS.

• A/B test channels across different ICPs to find what works best.

• Centralize response data to continuously improve your outbound strategy. It’s easier with email, but tracking feedback from LinkedIn DMs, SMS, and WhatsApp requires a more advanced setup.

8. Conclusion: Choosing is good. Combining is better.

The era of single-channel prospecting is over. In 2025, success lies in smart orchestration across touchpoints.

Every channel has its place. What matters most is timing, messaging, and perceived value. For you, it’s about giving your sales team effective tools they can benchmark, test, and improve.

One rule to follow: align relevance, timing, and experience.

Next step? Make sure every rep has a steady flow of qualified and enriched contacts and companies, so they can send the right messages, on the right channel, at the right moment — and get the best possible ROI.

Have you considered Charik for your sales intelligence integrated with your CRM?