What do B2B decision-makers actually want to read? The next lame sales jargon? Hey, even the good old brochure has its raison d’être. But here’s another question: What will LinkedIn doomscrollers stumble across? On vacation? On the cell phone? Or on … wherever.

And then: how do you offer them a new perspective on a topic they already know? And without it becoming silly?

Well, you treat the topic seriously. Wrap it up a little tongue-in-cheek. Like this, for example.

This whitepaper for HQ revenue was created with the goal of generating leads during the summer slump and is just getting started.

Team size: 1.5 (author/editor + 1/2layout)

Marketers love newsletters … because they often sell well within the company: The statistics are easy to bend, even if things don’t go sooo well – and the effort is kept within limits. In other words, classic ‚low hanging fruit‘.

What marketers tout as the unbreakable marketing tool, recipients almost always see as collateral damage: You have to check that stupid box because otherwise you won’t get anything else.

So how do you turn this relationship around – and what can newsletters be used for in B2B?

First: You turn up the effort a little bit – and thereby create a channel for customer loyalty, which hardly any other channel can achieve. Second: You use the channel for messages that fit exactly there. Third: You think twice around the corner – and comment on current events by embedding your own offering in them.

Cost: One hour of creativity in the quiet corner. One hour of writing. Results: Smiling B2B decision-makers who feel understood. If only because a twinkle in the eye and professionalism are not contradictory.

Valsight develops a SaaS for the CFO/FP&A divisions of large companies and corporations. Commerzbank, among others, is quite happy with the software solution for simulating complex financial scenarios.

In this instance, too, a story is at the center: the core implementation team had taken advantage of the trainee (20, w) to put the veteran controller warhorses (40+, m) in a deadlock. If she could get it right, the execs would have a hard time complaining about it being too tricky. Couldn’t write it that way. But a little differently.

This case study became a win-win-win case itself. For almost all parties involved.