Most B2B emails amount to “nurture” or “drip” campaigns: a series of emails that try to move prospects down the sales funnel. The reality is that these emails don’t get opened. The few that do get opened are more likely to annoy the recipient than result in anything positive. What if you could re-think how B2B email marketing is done? How about taking a content marketing approach to your B2B emails? After all, the majority of the people on your email list are NOT in the market to purchase your products or services right now. So focus less on selling product and more on building trust.

1. KEYNOTE
Dennis Shiao
FOUNDER AND HEAD OF RETENTION
ATTENTION RETENTION LLC
How to Re-Think Email
Marketing to Create Better
Results
SAN FRANCISCO, CA ~ JULY 10 - 11, 2023
DIGIMARCONSILICONVALLEY.COM | #DigiMarConSiliconValley

2. How to Re-Think Email Marketing
to Create Better Results
Dennis Shiao
July 11, 2023

3. About Me
● First job out of college: software developer
● Completed the 100th Boston Marathon
● Accidental freelancer
● Runs the Bay Area Content Marketing
Meetup
● Passionate about personal branding
On Twitter: @dshiao

4. B2B Email Marketing
Image via Pexels

5. How My Email Address Is Acquired
● I download a white paper
● I register to attend a webinar
● I attend an in-person conference
● It’s scraped off the web (bad)
● It’s purchased by a list broker (bad)
Now, let’s think about what happens next...

6. How Brands “Deliver Value” via Email :-)
● I get put into a “drip campaign”
● I get put into a “nurture track”
● An SDR starts emailing me (and calling me)
● I’m subscribed to a “newsletter”
All with the goal of accomplishing the following...

7. Email Nurture Metrics and Goals
● Email opens
● Link clicks
● Register for the next webinar
● Download the related white paper
● Request pricing (yeah, right)
● Request a meeting with Sales (yeah, right)
REALITY: The recipient of these emails is more annoyed than anything.

8. I tried email nurture campaigns
many times. They just don’t work.

9. False Narratives
That we can guide users down the sales funnel with our
email nurture.
That email sequences can nudge users into a buying
decision.
Exception: brand new categories.

10. Key Lesson for ALL B2B Marketing

11. Key Lesson for ALL B2B Marketing
The vast majority of B2B marketing messages could be falling on deaf ears, with up to
95% of businesses not in the market for most goods and services at any one time.
This deceptively simple fact has a profound implication, according to the Ehrenberg-
Bass Institute’s Professor John Dawes, author of the latest installment of a major new
study carried out for the LinkedIn B2B Institute.
According to the report, companies change their providers of services such as
banking, legal advice, software or telecoms around every five years. This means that
only 20% are in the market for those services in a given year and just 5% in a given
quarter. The other 95% are not in the market at all.
Article link: https://www.marketingweek.com/ehrenberg-bass-linkedin-b2b-buyers/

12. Let’s look at some example emails

13. Email Example

14. Email Example

15. Email Example

16. What Those Emails Had in Common
● It’s all about them
● Their content, their webinar, their offer
● Doesn’t really serve me
Remember: I’m not in the market to buy just yet. What value are you providing
me with these emails?

17. Let’s consider a new approach

18. Definition: Content Marketing
“... a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable,
relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience —
and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
– Content Marketing Institute
“Solving the same customer problems as your product but through media you create
and distribute.”
– Jay Acunzo

19. A Content Marketing Approach to Newsletters (Email)
● Think audience, audience, audience: will my audience appreciate this?
● Promote others over yourself
● Be generous with attention and promotion
● Provide a unique point of view and exclusive content (i.e., commentary over
links)
● Give value and it will come back to you (or your brand) over the long term

20. Mindset Shift
From leads to subscribers.

21. Leads vs. Subscribers
Leads Subscribers
Lead Status Opens
Lead Score Clicks
Opportunity Conversion-% Replies
Unsubscribes
Goal: convert to opportunity Goal: retention and
engagement

22. Taking a Newsletter Approach to B2B Email
● Make your newsletter a thing
● Put a real person’s name in the From line
● In every issue, include a personalized greeting from that person
● Provide exclusive content in the email (i.e., can’t be found elsewhere)
● Promote others (i.e., in your industry) more than you do yourself

23. Great Example

24. Great Example

25. The “Content Corner” Email Newsletter

26. Content Marketing Approach: It Works
● Revenue attributed to the “Content Corner” newsletter: $50,000
● Cost to manage the newsletter: $0
● ROI = INFINITE 😎

27. Questions?
Connect with me on LinkedIn or find me on Twitter (@dshiao)