Sample Output

Sample TIE Delivery

WEEK 18, 2026

This is an example of what lands in your inbox every Monday morning. Real delivery to a real beta user (Sarah, B2B go-to-market consultant).

Email

Newsletter Draft

Subject line options:

1.Before they ask for a demo, they've already decided
2.The data that makes LinkedIn non-negotiable right now
3.58.5% of your clients' buyers never click on anything

Three things connected this week: where buyers actually research, which channels are converting, and what content survives AI curation. Short on context. Long on what to do with it.

TrendYour clients' buyers decide before the first call

Numbers first.

58.5% of Google searches now end with zero clicks. ChatGPT has 900 million weekly active users. And the average B2B purchase cycle is 272 days — 81% of that time spent in research mode, before any supplier is contacted.

By the time a founder gets on a discovery call, the buyer already has a view. They've searched, scrolled, and reached a conclusion about whether this company belongs on the shortlist. They're not evaluating from scratch.

For your clients, this isn't a content problem. It's a pipeline problem. If they're not showing up during that 272-day window — in AI answers, LinkedIn feeds, search snippets — they're not losing deals on calls. They're not getting on the calls.

What to do this week:

  • Ask each client to search the 10 questions their ideal buyer would Google before a first meeting. Note whether the founder appears anywhere in the results.
  • Add a "buyer research phase" to your ICP workshop: where does this buyer go in months 1–9, before they know they need a solution?
  • Frame it plainly: "You're invisible during the decision-making process." That usually lands.
[ADD CLIENT EXAMPLE HERE — one real example here would strengthen this considerably]
TacticLinkedIn is the only B2B channel showing positive ROI right now

LinkedIn published benchmark data this week. Worth saving:

LinkedIn: 121% ROAS. Google Search: negative ROI. Meta: negative ROI.

Cost per company influenced: LinkedIn $90 · Google Search $127 · Meta $148.

Budget share is moving too — LinkedIn up from 39% to 41% of B2B ad spend. Non-branded search down, with CPC up 29% and click-through rate down 26% year-on-year.

The mistake most teams make: measuring LinkedIn on click metrics, same as paid search. Wrong comparison. LinkedIn isn't direct response. It's where founders get into the shortlist during that 272-day research phase. Measured at account level — which target company saw your content — it wins consistently.

What to do this week:

  • Save these numbers. Use them in your next proposal or retainer review when channel mix comes up.
  • Reframe LinkedIn to clients: not "brand building" — "pipeline stage 1." That framing resonates with commercially-minded founders.
  • If a client is running non-branded Google search: propose reallocating 20% of that budget to LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads for 90 days. Use the benchmark data to frame expectations.
ToolThe content defensibility test

Kevin Indig studied 354,000 pages. Finding: one question answered thoroughly outperforms five questions answered adequately. Comprehensiveness isn't the signal. Depth on one specific thing is.

Ann Handley adds the AI filter lens: if an AI could have written it, an AI will summarise it before a human ever sees it. Generic content collapses at the inbox. Specificity and voice get through.

Add one question to every content review with clients: "What's in here that AI couldn't generate from existing sources?" A named client moment, a hard-won observation, a counterintuitive data point. If the answer is nothing — don't publish it.

The practical starting point: help each client name their one "owned question." The thing they can answer better than anyone else in their niche. That's the content strategy for the next quarter.

Your LinkedIn Post This Week

Editing checklist:

LinkedIn just published its B2B ad benchmark data. One platform showed 121% ROAS. The other two showed negative ROI.

LinkedIn was the one that worked.

Cost per company influenced: LinkedIn $90 · Google Search $127 · Meta $148.

Budget share is shifting accordingly: LinkedIn up from 39% to 41% of B2B ad spend this year. Non-branded search is down, with CPC up 29% and click-through rate down 26% year-on-year.

The reason most teams miss this: they're measuring LinkedIn on click metrics — same as they'd measure paid search. That's the wrong comparison. LinkedIn isn't direct response. It's where founders get into the shortlist.

The average B2B purchase cycle is 272 days. 81% of that time is spent in research mode, before any supplier is contacted. LinkedIn is the channel where buyers form a view during that window. Measured by which target accounts saw your content — not who clicked — it wins consistently.

[ADD CLIENT EXAMPLE HERE]

Here's what to do with this:

  • Save the benchmark numbers — use them when channel mix comes up in a proposal or retainer review
  • Rename LinkedIn in client conversations: not "brand building" — "pipeline stage 1"
  • Introduce company-level reach into reporting: which target accounts saw the founder's content this month?
  • For any client running non-branded Google search: propose shifting 20% of that budget to LinkedIn Thought Leader Ads for 90 days

The measurement shift matters more than the channel shift. Most B2B founders are underinvesting in LinkedIn because they're evaluating it with the wrong ruler.

If you advise on channel mix — how are you currently making the case for LinkedIn to founder clients? And does this data change anything?