Email isn’t dead. You’re just doing it wrong.
I’m sure you’ve heard someone somewhere declare that email marketing is dead.
“No one reads email anymore.”
“Inboxes are too crowded.”
“People only pay attention on social.”
Yet every morning, hundreds of millions of people all over the world do the exact same thing – they open their inbox.
In fact, for business professionals, email is often the first thing they check in the morning and the last thing they close at night. Not to mention the frequent inbox opens throughout the day.
And email open rates have remained remarkably consistent over the past 20 years, despite the explosion in social channels and platforms, more general marketing noise and an increase in privacy protections.
Email remains an extremely high-performing channel for ROI, with studies showing a return of $40-$50 per dollar spent.
The problem isn’t email. The problem is how most businesses use it.
Why email feels like it doesn’t work
For many companies, email is used very randomly and narrowly:
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Sales promotion
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Discounted offer
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Product announcement
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“Book a call”
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“Limited time offer”
It’s all urgency with no substance. Send enough emails like this, and understandably people stop paying attention. Not because they hate email, but because they hate being sold to constantly.
The difference between campaigns and nurture
Most email strategies are built around campaigns. A campaign starts, a few emails go out, then everything goes quiet again. Until the next campaign (which could be months away).
Not surprisingly, this stop-start approach fails, and helps create the illusion that email “doesn’t work”.
Because relationships aren’t built in bursts of random activity. They’re built with consistent presence over time. This is especially true in B2B, where buying cycles are long.
That’s where nurture comes into its own.
The power of always-on email nurture
A good nurture sequence doesn’t try to drive immediate action and close deals. It does something much more powerful. It keeps you visible and useful.
When done well, email nurture:
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Educates prospective buyers
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Shares valuable insights
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Sparks ideas
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Reinforces expertise
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Builds authority and trust
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Keeps your business and brand top of mind
Over time, something very important (but subtle) happens. You become part of your audience’s mental shortlist.
Why this matters in B2B
B2B buying cycles are long. The moment someone reads an article, downloads a white paper or fills in a form is rarely the moment they’re ready to buy.
But it might be the moment they start paying attention.
And if you disappear after that moment, you lose the opportunity. If, however, you stay present thoughtfully and consistently, something different happens.
When the time is right, they reach out to you. Not because you pushed harder. But because you were top of mind when they were ready.
We’ve written about the ‘rule of three’ before. In a nutshell, studies have shown that when someone moves into buying mode, they default to the search engine of their mind and typically come up with one to three businesses that they think can solve their problem.
And here’s the kicker. In 90% of cases, they eventually buy from one of the businesses that first came to mind.
Why email nurture sits at the heart of our programs
The importance of being visible, relevant and top of mind over long B2B buying cycles cannot be overstated. This is why email nurture is the beating heart of The Demand Stream.
It’s not a hard sell channel. We don’t slavishly check click throughs and conversions from email.
Instead, we use email to provide a steady stream of relevant and useful ideas and insights to keep you visible with a carefully curated group of people who will eventually become buyers in your category.
No pressure. No spam. Just a consistent presence in the place where professionals already spend a lot of time every single day.
Email isn’t dead
But bad email is. The companies that are seeing great results from email aren’t shouting louder or sending daily.
They’re simply showing up consistently with something worth reading, quietly building trust and staying top of mind during long buying cycles.
If you want powerful and effective email nurtures but are not sure where to start, talk to an expert at The Demand Stream.