In B2B lead nurturing, finding the delicate balance between content prospects are familiar with and fresh, new insights can be a game-changer. Get it right, and you create an engaging experience that builds trust and drives conversions. But lean too heavily on the familiar, and you risk boring your audience. Go too far into uncharted territory, and you might overwhelm them. The challenge? Crafting a strategy that integrates both to capture attention and inspire action.
Why Familiarity Alone Won’t Drive B2B Conversions
Take, for example, a recent optimisation test for a B2B SaaS client, focused on abandoned cart emails. Rather than just stating the obvious—”You recently viewed this product”—we took a more subtle approach. The email content incorporated items that the subscriber had engaged with in the past month, creating a more natural feel. The result? Higher engagement. Subscribers clicked, downloaded, and made purchases at a better rate than in previous “viewed item” emails. Interestingly, many bypassed the initial item altogether in favour of related products.
Could this suggest that prospects prefer discovery over what’s simply familiar? It’s a compelling theory, and one that can only be confirmed with continuous feedback and engagement from customers. With the help of AI-powered tools, we can now personalise content at scale and speed, getting faster, more insightful feedback from testing.
The previously-held wisdom was that reminding customers of products they’d already browsed would prompt further purchases. But new findings indicate that such reminders can push prospects to explore even more. For B2B, where buyers often engage in extensive research before contacting a vendor, relying solely on familiar content might leave brands appearing passive or out of touch.
The Risk of Overfamiliarity in Lead Nurturing
Familiarity can be comforting, but it can also lead to stagnation. Many marketing technologies promise to eliminate generic, impersonal messages, but too many B2B campaigns still fall into the trap of offering uninspired content. Outdated data, irrelevant messaging, and repetitive content fail to stimulate prospects, instead frustrating them with what feels like a lack of insight or innovation.
Low engagement rates often reflect this problem. Rather than establishing a deeper connection or showcasing thought leadership, brands risk becoming irrelevant when they rely on recycled ideas or outdated strategies. The reality is that the B2B landscape is constantly shifting, and customers expect brands to evolve and provide more than the basics.
Discovery Gone Too Far: When Content Misses the Mark
On the flip side, an overwhelming focus on discovery can also derail lead nurturing efforts. If content is too niche, too technical, or simply too advanced for a prospect’s current understanding, it may push them away instead of drawing them in. The key is to align content with where a prospect is in their buying journey. Offering advanced solutions too early can lead to confusion and disengagement.
Consider these missteps:
- Overly technical content: Sending a deep-dive whitepaper to a lead just beginning their research will likely overwhelm them.
- Premature upselling: Suggesting premium products before a lead has even explored your core offering is often counterproductive.
- Irrelevant recommendations: Suggesting products outside a prospect’s past interests or current needs can appear tone-deaf.
- Too many options: Providing an overwhelming number of choices without guiding the prospect can cause decision paralysis, particularly if they’re not yet familiar with your brand.
A more effective strategy might involve creating cornerstone pieces of evergreen content—such as original research or thought leadership pieces—that add real value while subtly guiding prospects toward discovery. This content can build brand credibility, strengthen your positioning, and introduce new insights at the right moments.
A Cautionary Tale: When Discovery Fails
It’s not always about being ahead of the curve. A technology client once launched a highly ambitious white paper based on future trends, featuring expert interviews and deep industry analysis. The problem? The company didn’t test the content with prospects beforehand. The result was one of their lowest engagement rates ever. Feedback from a trade show revealed that the content was simply too far ahead of the audience’s current needs and understanding. Despite the quality of the information, it was perceived as impractical and out of touch.
The lesson here: Discovery is essential, but it must be grounded in the customer’s present reality. Test and validate your ideas before going big with content that could miss the mark. Two years later, the client is updating the white paper to better reflect current trends—proof that timing and customer readiness are critical.
Finding the Sweet Spot: Balancing Familiarity and Discovery
So, where does that leave us? The key to successful lead nurturing lies in balancing relevance (familiarity) with fresh insights (discovery). This combination, what we might call “personalised discovery,” involves understanding where prospects are in their journey and delivering content that resonates with their immediate needs while sparking curiosity about what lies ahead.
To achieve this balance, consider the following steps:
- Data-Driven Segmentation: Move beyond demographics and segment prospects based on their behaviours and interactions. This allows you to tailor content to what they know and what they’re ready to discover.
- Progressive Profiling: Gather insights over time and use them to refine your outreach. By gradually collecting information, you can personalise your messaging without overwhelming the prospect.
- Content Mapping: Align your content with each stage of the buyer’s journey, ensuring it’s relevant to where they are in the process, from initial awareness to consideration and decision-making.
- Recommendation Engines: AI-powered engines can suggest products, content, or services based on past behaviours, while also introducing relevant new options to spark discovery.
- Dynamic Content: Personalise the content experience across various touchpoints, including email, web, and account-based marketing materials, based on real-time data from each prospect.
- Continuous Testing: Use A/B and multivariate testing to refine your approach over time. This will help you find the perfect balance between familiarity and discovery for each segment of your audience.
A Customer-First Approach
Ultimately, successful lead nurturing is about listening to the customer and anticipating their needs. With the right balance of familiar and fresh content, you can engage your prospects in a way that feels both personal and forward-thinking. Technology should empower, not replace, human creativity. It’s time to move beyond generic personalisation and embrace a strategy that surprises, delights, and adds real value to the customer experience.
In the ever-evolving world of B2B marketing, the ability to blend the familiar with the new will set your brand apart—and drive the conversions that matter.
Source; https://martech.org/finding-the-sweet-spot-between-relevance-and-discovery-in-b2b-lead-nurturing/
