Dminorstudio Newsletter
July 1st, 2026
Hey, Stephen here.
Every quarter, I have the same conversation with a B2B marketing leader.
"We need more leads."
I ask: "How are the leads you're getting now performing?"
Long pause.
"Honestly? Most of them don't convert."
That's where to look first. Not at the volume. At what's coming in.
The number obsession
I've worked with B2B companies in the US and China for over 15 years. Manufacturing. Technology. Professional services. The pattern is the same everywhere.
When growth slows, the first move is to generate more leads. More ads. More cold emails. One more SDR hire.
More activity hits the pipeline. Conversion doesn't move.
Sales teams spend 60-70% of their time chasing contacts who were never close to buying
Marketing gets measured on MQL volume, not on how many of those leads closed
Cold outreach campaigns generate more replies, not more revenue
Most marketing leaders know their lead count is inflated. They keep reporting it because nobody has asked them to report close rate instead.
What your marketing strategy actually needs
I've seen small marketing teams close more deals than larger ones. The variable is targeting.
When you know exactly who you want to reach, your content gets specific. Campaigns convert more of the people they touch. Sales walks into conversations with context.
Your team doesn't need 500 leads a month. They need 50 from companies that actually have the problem you solve.
A written ICP before any campaign goes live
Intent signals tracked: pricing page visits, guide downloads, 3+ email opens in a sequence
A shared definition of "qualified" between marketing and sales, written down and agreed on before anyone dials
Marketing gets measured on leads. Sales gets measured on revenue. Nobody is measured on whether they're chasing the same buyer. That's why the gap stays open.
Building trust before the first conversation
B2B sales cycles run 6-12 months. Sometimes longer.
During that window, your buyers are reading, asking peers, and forming opinions about vendors they haven't spoken to yet. By the time they book a call, most of them already have a shortlist.
The companies on that shortlist showed up consistently before the call. The ones that didn't get found at the end, once the buyer had already leaned somewhere.
Content by buyer stage: problem-aware, solution-aware, decision-ready
Email sequences that run 8-12 weeks with something worth reading in each one
LinkedIn content that reaches your buyer profile every week, not just when you have something to sell
What changes when targeting gets specific
Here's what I tell marketing leaders who ask me about lead generation.
Get specific about who you're targeting before you decide how many leads you want.
When the right buyers come in, close rate goes up. Sales cycles shorten. Your team works deals that move, not contacts that go dark after the first message.
Define your ICP using firmographic and behavioral criteria. Job title and industry are starting points, not a finished definition.
Firmographic: company size, industry, revenue, geography
Behavioral: pages visited, content downloaded, emails opened, events attended
Agreed pipeline metrics: close rate, average deal size, sales cycle length
One thing I didn't cover here: what a working ICP definition actually looks like in practice.
Hit reply and send me yours, even a rough version.
I'll tell you what I'd tighten based on what I see with clients.
Want to browse past issues? Click here.
P.S. Need help with your B2B digital marketing? Schedule a free 30-minute discovery call by replying directly to this newsletter.
👨💻 EXECUTIVE MARKETING INTELLIGENCE
AI is everywhere, but the real edge in B2B still comes from human creativity paired with smart data. Good read on why emotional storytelling still closes deals, and why AI works best as a co-pilot.
Most marketers walk into budget meetings with too many dashboards. A good reminder to stop defending your work and start connecting marketing to the business outcomes CFOs actually care about.
Platform dashboards grade their own homework. This article makes a strong case for building your own attribution system with UTM tracking and GA4 instead of trusting the numbers the platforms hand you.
📊 CHINA MARKET ADVANTAGE
C-Beauty brands now hold 57.4% of a $141B market. Chinese consumers buy identity, not ingredients. If you're selling into China, stop leading with product specs and start showing up on Xiaohongshu with emotional relevance.
For the first time, Douyin, Tmall, and WeChat all ran full 618 promotions at the same time in 2026. If you're targeting Chinese consumers and sat this one out, your competitors got a head start for the rest of the summer.
Chinese outbound travel is back, with 10 million more cross-border trips projected this year. Travelers now decide where to eat, shop, and visit through Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and Gaode Map before they even land. Worth reading if you market to Chinese travelers.
🎬 THAT’S A WRAP
Before you go: Here are 2 ways I can help
B2B Digital Marketing Solution — We help B2B companies grow business through proven B2B digital marketing approaches.
China B2B Digital Marketing Solution — We use China-specific digital marketing approaches to help B2B companies grow in China market.
Until next time,.
— Stephen Tseng
