B2B Breakdown Series – Episode II

Welcome to our next update of the B2B Breakdown, our blog series where we examine the efforts of B2B marketers that we encounter in the real world. Each week, we choose a B2B message and take a deep dive into the messaging, the marketer’s profile or website, and the company profile or site. We’re aiming to discover tips and tricks for B2B marketers using real-world examples of best practices, as well as areas for improvement. Today, we’re meeting John Doe from Convesio. 

Review of Initial Outreach

For today’s post, we’re looking at a cold email we received from John at Convesio. We don’t recognize either John or Convesio, so this is a truly cold email. Once we open it, John is initially off to a great start. The message says we’re a valued partner, and he’s reaching out to keep us in the loop. This personal messaging is a nice touch, but it feels slightly disingenuous for a cold contact.

There are some other missteps in the rest of the message. John says he’s run a speed test, but he’s missed the parameters for our URL. There are also some spelling mistakes and other kinds of errors that you never want to include in a B2B message.

Finishing up the email, the messaging doesn’t truly talk to us as an individual. This is the first email we’ve ever opened from John or Convesio, but it reads like we’re just another person on their list. There’s nothing to help us understand the benefits of Convesio, or how Convesio might help our pain points.

There’s also no reason why we’d want to spend our valuable time talking to John. John is trying to drive us towards a fifteen-minute call, even though this seems early in the marketing funnel to push for a call. After all, this is the first time we’ve ever interacted with this company. We’re not their partner, even though the email keeps referring to us that way, and when we’re finished reading, we still don’t know who Convesio is.

Section Highlights

• Friendly opening message
• Inclusive wording—“valued partner”

Areas to Improve

• Misspellings, missing parameters, and other mistakes
• No acknowledgment of first contact or cold message
• Pushing for a call too early

Review of John’s LinkedIn Profile

Our next step after reading this email is to hop over to LinkedIn and take a look at John himself. At first glance, John’s profile could be improved. He has a poor headshot, no background header image, and he could generally add more information to his profile. His summary states “Increase Engagement, Grow Sales, and Specialize in Customer Continuity,” but he doesn’t tell us specifically what that promise looks like or how he’ll be helping us.

From looking at his profile, we can also see that we aren’t connected on LinkedIn. Again, we still feel like just another email on his list.

Scrolling further down John’s profile, we can see that he’s consistently engaging on LinkedIn. It’s always a positive sign when we see someone using the platform consistently. John has posted great posts with interesting content, but again, there’s nothing to explain who he is, or why he’s reaching out to us.

Finally, we can see John is a Marketing Automation Manager, Convesio Freelance. We still haven’t found the story of why he reached out to us, but we’re curious about what we can learn about Convesio.

Section Highlights

• Interesting, engaging content
• Profile links to the company’s page

Areas for Improvement

• High-quality graphics
• Make a clear promise of how he can help me

Review of Convesio’s LinkedIn Page

Immediately, we can see that Convesio is following a lot of best practices for brands on LinkedIn. Their logo is prominently featured and their canvas background image highlights their recent, 2021 awards. This tells us both that Convesio is likely good at what they do, and that they keep their LinkedIn up to date.

However, we can also find some opportunities for Convesio to improve right away. It’s hard to see how they help their target audience. We do see that they specialize in WordPress websites, but nothing about what their software does, or what results you can expect when you work with them.

Another positive aspect of Convesio’s page is that they’re active on LinkedIn multiple times a day. This lets us know that they contribute to the community, but ultimately, we’re still unsure what it is they do.

Section Highlights

• Consistent branding
• Showcasing their accomplishments
• Active LinkedIn members

Areas for Improvement

• Product descriptions
• Brand promise
• Expected Results

Review of Convesio’s Website

When we leave LinkedIn and head over to Convesio’s website, unfortunately, we’re still having a hard time finding out what this company does. We may not be their target buyer persona, but since they sent us a marketing email, we should be able to discover the benefits they’re offering us. 

Their page seems to be built for an overview and it does provide a lot of information. Once we scroll down below the fold, we can see they provide stress-free WordPress hosting for agencies. We wish it was more clear and easy to find what we need.

Section Highlights

• Lots of information

Areas for Improvement

• Highlight their services
• Maximize the hero section above the fold

Keep Learning and Improving as a B2B Marketer

Whether you recognized your own best practices in this breakdown or identified some areas where you can improve, there’s always something we can learn from other B2B marketers. Keep an eye out for the next edition in this series to see how we can keep growing.

We get it. It can be hard to read a long article like this, retain all the information, and then apply it to your business. If you find yourself in this situation, click here to hop on a call with us. We’ll be able to talk about the details of your business and give you some advice on where to take your content and more.

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