Siloed data sets have been a bad practice the data world has put up with for far too long. There’s a reason tightly siloed datasets have lasted as they have. They’re easy to create, difficult to connect, and most importantly, people need them. But after a few years in the data industry, I began to see the real problem with walled datasets: they stand in the way of true omnichannel marketing and hold your campaigns back from reaching their true potential.
In 2026, the cost of keeping B2B custom data separate from B2C data is higher than ever. B2B buyers now use an average of 10 interaction channels during their purchase journey, up from five in 2016 (McKinsey/shno.co). If your data only covers one slice of their life, you’re invisible on the other nine channels.
Linked Data Caters to Today’s Highly Mobile Audiences
The line between professional and personal lives hasn’t just blurred, it’s practically disappeared. In 2026, 80% of remote-capable U.S. workers operate in hybrid or fully remote arrangements, with 53% hybrid and 27% fully remote (Gallup via DailyRemote, 2026). About 35% of all working Americans do some or all of their work from home on any given workday (Bureau of Labor Statistics via WorldatWork, 2026).
What does that mean for marketers? Your B2B prospect is checking work email from the couch, browsing LinkedIn at the kitchen table, and shopping with their personal phone between Zoom calls. They don’t live in separate B2B and B2C worlds anymore. They live in one connected world, and your data needs to reflect that.
With traditional data, you might buy a B2B email list with appended postal addresses. That may be the foundation of many successful B2B campaigns, but you’re still targeting your prospects during only one part of their lives. The same issue exists with a standalone B2C list. You miss out on reaching decision-makers on channels that actually get their attention.
How Linked Data Expands Omnichannel Campaigns
Linked data is special because it includes both B2B and B2C data in a single, connected record. That means you can reach your prospects while they’re at work, at home, or checking their work emails from the living room.
The impact is real. Omnichannel campaigns see a 287% higher purchase rate compared to single-channel campaigns (CoolNerds Marketing). Cross-channel marketing delivers 91.3% customer retention versus just 29.8% for single-channel efforts (Amra & Elma, 2026). You can’t achieve those numbers when your B2B custom data lives in a separate silo from your B2C data.
A Real-World Example
Say a company wants to market a personal electronic device, like ties. The company already has a list of prospects from another campaign, but the list only contains B2B email addresses. By connecting those B2B emails to B2C data, the company would be able to send:
- Emails to its prospects’ personal B2C email addresses
- Direct mail ads to their home addresses
- Display ads across the open web
- Social media ads on platforms tied to personal accounts
- CTV ads to their household streaming devices
This gives the company the flexibility to find professional males using B2B data and reach them everywhere else using B2C data. One identity, multiple touchpoints, coordinated messaging.
Improves Onboarding and Custom Audience Creation
Linked data is also an invaluable tool for data onboarding and custom audience creation. Here’s why this matters:
The Match Rate Problem
Data management platforms match B2C emails at a significantly higher rate than B2B emails. When you onboard a traditional B2B list, you get lower match rates because decision-makers don’t spend much time surfing the web on their work devices during office hours.
Current benchmarks tell the story. Person-level identity resolution typically yields 5 to 20% match rates with B2B-only data, while adding personal email, phone, and postal address can push rates above 80% (OpenSend, 2026). Company-level identification ranges from 30 to 65% depending on the provider (DirectMail.io, 2026).
Linked B2B data that includes B2C email addresses results in dramatically higher match rates. When we developed StiristaLINK, our own linkage product, testing showed that it increased match rates by more than 27% versus B2B-only onboarding.
Social Media Custom Audiences
The same principle applies to creating custom audiences on social media. Most people use their personal email addresses when they create their accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms. B2C email addresses have significantly higher match rates on these platforms.
Using linked B2B data when you create custom audiences means you reach far more of your B2B prospects on social media. You’re not hoping the platform can find them by work email. You’re matching them by the personal email they actually signed up with.
Why B2B Custom Data Linked to B2C Matters More in 2026
The market has shifted. Here’s what makes linked data non-negotiable today:
The Channel Explosion
B2B buyers now complete an average of 27 distinct interactions across channels during a considered purchase (Forrester via The Starr Conspiracy, 2024). They consume 13 pieces of content before making a vendor decision (FocusVision via Geisheker, 2026). If your targeting only covers their work identity, you’re missing most of those 27 interactions.
The Privacy Shift
Third-party cookies are gone. B2C identifiers like personal email and phone number are now the most reliable, privacy-compliant way to match and target individuals across platforms. Linked B2B-to-B2C data gives you a first-party identity foundation that works in a cookieless world.
The Omnichannel Imperative
Organizations with integrated marketing efforts across channels see 10 to 20% gains in marketing efficiency (WiFi Talents, 2026). And 86% of consumers expect seamless experiences across touchpoints (Gitnux, 2026). Your B2B prospect is also a consumer. They expect the same consistency from B2B brands that they get from their favorite retail brands.
How Stirista Connects B2B and B2C Data
Stirista’s OMNA Identity Graph links 35M+ B2B contacts to their consumer identities, creating a unified view across work email, personal email, phone, device IDs, and physical address.
This means you can:
- Start with B2B custom data filters like industry, job title, company size, and revenue
- Automatically link those records to B2C identifiers
- Activate across email, display, social, direct mail, and CTV in a single campaign
- Measure the full journey from first touch to conversion across both identities
No more choosing between reaching someone at work or at home. Linked data lets you do both, from one platform, with one identity layer connecting everything.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is B2B custom data?
B2B custom data refers to business audience records filtered by specific attributes like job title, company size, industry, revenue, or technology usage. When linked to B2C data, these records become addressable across personal channels like email, social media, direct mail, and CTV.
Why does linking B2B and B2C data improve match rates?
Most digital platforms, social networks, and DMPs match users by personal identifiers like consumer email addresses. B2B work emails have low match rates on these platforms because people don’t register with them there. Linking B2B records to B2C data gives you the personal identifiers that platforms actually recognize, increasing match rates by 27% or more.
How does linked data support omnichannel marketing?
Linked data lets you reach the same prospect across their work and personal channels with coordinated messaging. Instead of running separate B2B and B2C campaigns that may or may not overlap, you run one unified strategy that follows the buyer across all touchpoints.
Is linking B2B and B2C data privacy-compliant?
Yes, when done through a compliant identity resolution partner. Stirista’s OMNA Identity Graph uses deterministic matching with consent-driven, first-party data. No third-party cookies required.
What channels can I activate with linked B2B-to-B2C data?
With linked data, you can activate across email (work and personal), display advertising, social media custom audiences, direct mail to home addresses, CTV/OTT streaming ads, and programmatic digital. All from a single audience record.
Want to see how linked B2B and B2C data works for your campaigns? Explore Stirista’s B2B audience solutions.
