Hot take: ABM content used to be way too salesy for me

Back in 2022 I was writing ABM nurture emails that basically screamed "buy our product" in every paragraph. Barely got a 2% click rate. Now I lead with a case study from a similar industry first, like a recent one for a mid-size SaaS firm in Austin, and then softly introduce our solution. Click rates went up to around 8% after that shift. Has anyone else found that toning down the pitch works better with enterprise buyers?

3 comments

3 Comments

barbara_baker572mo ago

Came across a similar shift when I was helping a buddy with his small biz emails. He was pushing hard on features and getting nowhere, so I told him to try telling a story about a client who had the same problem first. It was like a light switch flipped - open rates went up fast. I think people just want to see themselves in the story before they hear about the product. Have you tried using video clips of real customers instead of just text case studies?

the_paul18d ago

Yeah the video thing is actually huge. I swapped in a 90 second clip of a customer talking about how they were stuck before our tool and it crushed. Text is fine but seeing someone's face and hearing their frustration hits different. The key is making sure the customer in the video is as close to your target buyer as possible. Same industry, same job title, same kind of problem. If they see someone who looks like them it builds trust way faster than any bullet point list of features ever could. Also keep it short. People's attention span for a video in an email is like 60 seconds tops. Any longer and they click away.

patricia3172mo ago

Hang on, you went from a 2% click rate all the way up to 8% just by leading with a case study first? That is a huge jump, I honestly didn't think small changes like that could move the needle that much with enterprise buyers. It sounds like those folks really need to see proof from someone just like them before they listen.