B2B Marketing with Dave Gerhardt

The Lead Nurture Email Playbook: What Works and What Doesn’t

May 19, 2025

Samar Owais, founder of Emails Done Right, shares her expertise on email marketing alongside Sheri Otto, CEO of Growth Lane Strategies, and Sofia Silva, Marketing Manager at Reachdesk. They analyze real B2B lead nurture emails, pointing out common mistakes like excessive AI use and convoluted CTAs. Focusing on building human connections, they emphasize that every email should be a conversation. With practical critiques, they provide valuable insights on crafting effective subject lines and the importance of clear, single calls to action.

58:59

Creator website

Episode guests

Sofia Silva

Sheri Otto

Samar Owais

AI Summary

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Every email should prioritize building human connections by using 'you' language instead of focusing on corporate jargon.

Marketers must avoid common mistakes like prioritizing brand messaging over customer needs to create more engaging nurture sequences.

A singular, clear call-to-action in emails is essential for increasing click-through rates and ensuring recipient focus.

Deep dives

Challenges Faced by B2B Marketers

B2B marketers today are confronted with the challenge of achieving more with fewer resources. As budgets shrink and timelines tighten, marketers must find ways to expand their pipelines without increasing expenses. This paradox of being asked to do more while having less has led many teams to seek efficient solutions. Tools like Webflow are gaining popularity as they help streamline marketing efforts, allowing teams to consolidate resources and enhance productivity.

Intro

3min

Mastering Email Strategies for B2B Marketing

7min

Mastering Email Marketing for B2B SaaS

14min

Unlocking the Potential of Email Marketing

2min

Mastering Email Engagement

14min

Mastering Lead Nurture Emails

8min

Evaluating Lead Nurturing Email Designs

2min

Evaluating Email Engagement

5min

Evaluating SaaS Email Marketing and Future Sessions

4min

#247 Lead Nurturing | In this episode, Danielle is joined by Samar Owais, founder of Emails Done Right; Sheri Otto, CEO of Growth Lane Strategies; and Sofia Silva, Marketing Manager at Reachdesk.

These three email experts came together for a live roast of real B2B lead nurture emails, submitted by marketers from the Exit Five community. You’ll hear the good, the bad, and the fixable, with practical insights on how to improve your own nurture sequences.

Danielle, Samar, Sheri, and Sofia cover:

The most common lead nurture mistakes B2B marketers make (and how to fix them)
Why every email should be treated as a conversation, not just a campaign
How to write nurture emails that create connection, not clicks for clicks’ sake

If you're building (or rebuilding) your nurture strategy, this one’s packed with real examples and expert feedback to guide your next send.

Timestamps

(00:00) - – Intro: Welcome to the Lead Nurture Roast
(02:39) - – Meet the Experts: Samar, Sheri, and Sofia
(06:36) - – What Is **Lead Nurturing, Really?
(09:29) - – The Problem with “We” Language in Emails
(11:51) - – The Biggest Mistakes B2B Marketers Make
(14:16) - – Why AI Isn’t Your Copywriter
(16:11) - – Teardown #1: Subject Line Gone Wrong
(20:41) - – How to Build a Nurture Sequence Around a Whitepaper
(23:21) - – CTA Overload and Why It Kills Clicks
(28:23) - – Teardown #2: Great Open Rate, Low Engagement
(32:17) - – The One-CTA Rule (And Why It Matters)
(34:59) - – Structuring Long Emails for Skimmability
(37:31) - – Teardown #3: Cold Lead, Wrong Email
(40:04) - – Re-Engagement Emails That Actually Work
(42:54) - – Use Social Proof Instead of Product Pitches
(44:34) - – Teardown #4: The Overloaded Onboarding Email
(47:29) - – What’s a “Micro Conversion” in SaaS Email?
(52:04) - – Time-to-Value and the First Action That Matters
(54:19) - – This Email Is... a Whole Sequence in One
(56:39) - – Teardown #5: Trust Email or Generic Spam?
(59:34) - – Why Specificity Beats Industry Buzzwords
(01:01:49) - – Final Scores and Wrap-Up

Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.com
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/
Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership

***

This episode is brought to you by Webflow.

If you're a B2B marketer right now, you’re probably being asked to do more with less - less budget, fewer resources, tighter timelines. And you’re expected to somehow grow pipeline anyway.

That’s why more teams are switching to Webflow.

Webflow is the website experience platform that helps you consolidate your stack, reduce program spend, and move faster. Instead of juggling a dozen tools and waiting on devs, Webflow gives marketing and design teams the power to build, launch, and optimize sites all in one place.

No-code flexibility. Dev-level control. Built-in A/B testing, SEO, localization, and AI tools. It’s everything you need to turn your website into your highest-performing channel.

It’s everything you need to turn your website into your most efficient, highest-performing channel.

Check it out at webflow.com/exitfive.