The Trap

It was from a very reputable company, it was about lead management. The perceived value equation was there, mostly based on their brand reputation. The content was average. I made a mistake. I fell for the nice headline. Gave my phone number, email, company name, position. 20 minutes later the first email comes through: “after seeing you viewed some content on our site, I am curious, what brings you to XXXXXXXX? What is the best time for 10 min today?” 

Every day since has been a phone call, for about two weeks. Not once in any voicemail or in the direct follow-up email has anyone actually taken time to learn a thing about me, or the company I work at. They did not even make reference to the content I downloaded in their first email touchpoint. 

Lead generation is about building relationships, relationships are built on empathy and empathy builds trust and trust forms long-term relationships. Empathy in this business is about taking time to understand the person or people you are talking to, not at a surface-level, but with more depth. From branding and advertising to lead generation. 

B2B marketers: you don't need to gate your content, if it is good enough and insightful enough, people will come to you. Or, ask for contact details after the initial value exchange with the intent to add more value. Be cautious to use technology and a process that pulls you away from the very people you want to connect with. Surface-level interactions lack empathy. If you are going to gate your content with email and contact details, the content should be extremely compelling, and the nurture approach in the follow-up well planned, a plan that adds value to your conversations and your brand. 

30,000 foot view: technology and process can bring us closer to people and enable a symbiotic relationship. But sometimes they can do the opposite and it ‘feels good’ cause you got five ‘leads’ today, put them in your funnel and showcased 25% growth this week. 

It starts with depth of insight vs. width. Move to a content strategy and experience design, then, to deepening relationships with an engagement process that enables empathy and customization. In this case specifically, there was a lack of depth in the content idea. There was no thought put into the content experience and they lacked empathy and value-add in the follow-up. The process was massively scalable – I was just one of a thousand leads that got tossed into the funnel. The opportunity to make empathy scalable is there, it has to start from step one.