Love Letters

I've been listening to a fabulous podcast* recently and one of their episodes was about the disappearing art of letter writing. Entitled "Letters! Actual Letters! When the best - and perhaps only - way to say something is to write it down."

Now, this isn't a paper versus digital debate. Rather, a call for heartfelt versus homogeny. Yes, heart! In business communications! How many handwritten letters are not bespoke to their intended recipient? How many are mass-produced and posted? You get the point.

For example, have you seen LinkedIn lately?! It's a much more emotional platform than in previous times (IMHO) and what I mean by that, is that the 'selling' isn't solely focused on products and services, features and benefits, or even business impact and ROI (while all relevant and important in the right place).

There is a lot more focus on individual connection. The reveal of a personal challenge, the invitation to be brave, the transparent style of communication founded on values, ethics and a people-led approach. Obviously, a commercial business still needs to sell stuff to survive, and I know some people can feel distinctly uncomfortable with blurry boundaries around feelings and 'work' but there's definitely a more emotionally intelligent feel in the direction of B2B outbound. The push is to position as a supplier that can help customers grow and thrive and to be recognised as a company, consultant (and employer) who values people over product and profit.

Humanising the B2B sales funnel means creating content that connects with the recipient on a personal level. This builds trust, which, with time and continued attention, helps establish meaningful relationships with potential clients.

?So what does this look like?

Awareness Stage (Top of the Funnel)

At this stage, prospects are just becoming aware of a challenge or need. This is the time to make your content more relatable and empathetic.?

Share knowledge with compassion: Create blog posts, videos, or infographics that highlight common pain points and industry insights. Focus on understanding their problem and steer clear of promoting your product. An example might be a blog post titled, "Why scaling your business feels so hard—and how others in your industry overcame it."

Storytelling: Share success stories that focus on the customer's journey rather than just product features. Use case studies that narrate the story of how a company navigated a complex decision, highlighting emotions and real struggles, not just numbers.

Personalised engagement: It's never too early to offer free tailored advice via interactive content or tools - this could be an online Q&A or a quick assessment or review. Or a video recorded just for them based on some basic information you've captured or even inferred from LinkedIn posts or company communications. If this could be a long-term client, which is what we all want, then believe me, this is well worth your efforts.

Consideration Stage (Middle of the Funnel)

At this stage, prospects are comparing solutions. Humanising your content here involves showing how your solutions align with their specific goals, and creating content that focuses on relationships.

Authentic Thought Leadership can look like long-form content (whitepapers, eBooks, webinars) that showcases expertise, but with a conversational tone. Avoid jargon and speak in a way that feels genuine.

A free download or resource that not only covers industry trends but also includes quotes and insights from your team, makes it feel more like a personal guide.

Behind-the-scenes content: Introduce your team members through interviews, videos, or "day in the life" profiles to give your company a human face. (Ahem, #MeettheExperts ;-) This could include video interviews of key team members sharing why they love solving customer problems.

Customer testimonials featuring real customers and their actual voices, to share their experience in their own words. Unscripted video testimonials or even user-generated content make the message more relatable.

Decision Stage (Bottom of the Funnel)

At this point, while prospects are closer to making a purchase, the goal is still to make the experience feel individually relevant and to minimise any potential friction.

One-to-one conversations offer direct access to real people for final questions—whether it's through phone calls or virtual meetings with senior team members. This provides the human touch at a critical decision-making moment. Be sure to talk to all the stakeholders if you can. The more 'love letters' you share, the more champions you have who get what you do. They are then equipped and motivated to go share the love even further.

Hyper-personalised materials: At Sales Engine we bang on a LOT about tailored sales materials - whether RFI, RFP, discussion docs, proposals or presentations. These should be incredibly customised to address unique pain points and business needs. This might include a demo video that shows how your solution would fit into their specific workflow.

Create social proof case studies: Content that highlights the human aspect of customer success stories. Focus not just on the numbers but on how your solution improved the lives of the decision-makers and employees. “How ABC company reduced downtime by 40%, giving their team more time to innovate” is a more enticing read than the technical nuance of your product - unless of course your audience IS the technical bods, who love that shizzle.

Post-Purchase (Retention and Advocacy)

Humanising the funnel doesn't stop at conversion.

Creating meaningful content for customers after the purchase is what builds trust and reputation and ultimately, long-term relationships. It's not called a customer JOURNEY for nothing. We're talking a lifetime of letters not a Tinder swipe.

Onboarding with a personal touch: It's not hard to provide individually tailored onboarding content, such as welcome emails with the name of their account manager or videos or audio that address their unique use case. This might be a personalised "Thank You" video from your customer success team, introducing key contacts and providing next steps.

Highlight customer successes through interviews, articles, or interactive content. Let your customers become advocates by making them the heroes of your story, like regular "Customer Spotlight" collateral that shares inspiring stories from different industries or diverse customer personas. Don't only focus on big-ticket customers either. Show that you value ALL of those individuals or companies that have chosen to work with YOU.

You can build customer communities via forums, webinars, or social groups where your customers can engage with each other and your team. This fosters a sense of belonging and makes your brand more than just a vendor. This might be an exclusive LinkedIn group for customers to network, share advice, and receive direct support from your team. It might be a bespoke online space that details all the projects you have done together and where you can share insight, feedback and ideas for future collaboration.

The bottom line is everyone wants to feel individually important yet part of something that offers the potential for a positive connected experience. So in business, as in life.

Key things to remember:

Conversational tone: Keep your language approachable and less formal to encourage two-way dialogue.

Empathy first: Show that you understand the person behind the decision-making role.

Interactive experiences: Use polls, free reviews and open-ended questions to engage with prospects in a meaningful way.

Visual storytelling: Use images, videos, and infographics that depict real people to give your content authenticity.

Every company has its own service-based cultural community. If you can tap into what makes that tick and even better, what inspires it to bloom, then DO THAT.

Your love letters will be pinging all over the place.

Author: Fay MacDonald

Comments welcome on LinkedIn and also on a (real) postcard please.

*This American Life podcast (more on that soon)

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