Building B2B relationships for a custom product brand, through cold email

The brand makes custom, branded products and sells them mostly to individual customers. Businesses buy exactly this kind of product in bulk, for teams, events and clients.

The B2B direction existed only on paper. Orders from companies came through referrals now and then, and nothing brought them in on purpose.

• B2B sales did not moveCompany orders depended on referrals, with no steady source of new business buyers
• No clear targetNobody had defined which types of companies are most likely to buy
• Nowhere to send a buyerThe website spoke to individual shoppers, with no page for a company placing a custom order
• Ads could not reach themA procurement buyer is not searching on the day an ad runs, so the conversation has to start in their inbox

• B2B landing pagesProblemBusiness buyers landed on a store built for individual shoppers.What we didSeparate landing pages for company orders, explaining custom branding, volumes and how to request a quote.
• Buyer strategyProblemThere was no picture of who the ideal business customer is.What we didA marketing strategy defining which types of businesses need a custom branded product and when they buy it.
• Research and dataProblemThere was no list of companies to contact.What we didUsing data tools we collected potentially interested companies and removed the ones without a real buying need or decision maker.
• Email strategy and launchProblemA generic sales email gets ignored.What we didA sequence written around the buyer’s own calendar, with a link that checks interest in a custom branded product, sent from a warmed-up domain.

In the first wave, 3 of the 16 people who replied asked for a quote or a mockup straight away. Every company that said no gave the same reason: they had already bought for the season. Nobody turned down the product itself. Across seven weeks and about 200 contacts, the outreach produced 28 qualified leads.

Smartlead, campaign stats

• Warm B2B leadsContacts of companies that replied and showed interest in a custom branded product
• Proof the channel worksBusinesses that had never heard of the brand opened the email and wrote back
• A campaign ready to scaleThe same list criteria, landing pages and emails can now be rolled out to every similar business across Canada