If you sell a higher-value B2B service or product, you have three main channels for reaching new clients: cold email, paid ads, and LinkedIn. Each has its role. But they’re not equally effective for every type of sale.
Cold email: why deliverability is declining
Cold email was the king of B2B outreach for a long time. But in recent years, deliverability has dropped dramatically. Gmail and Outlook filter most cold emails into spam or the promotions tab. Decision-makers get dozens of these daily.
This doesn’t mean cold email doesn’t work. But it’s become a less reliable channel for opening first conversations, especially in higher-value sales where trust is key.
Paid ads: clicks aren’t conversations
Ads are great for awareness and remarketing. But for higher-value B2B sales, they have one fundamental limitation: they bring clicks, not conversations. Nobody buys a €10,000 service because they saw an ad. They buy it because they had a conversation with someone they trust.
LinkedIn: why it’s different for B2B
LinkedIn has one key advantage that cold email and ads don’t: the message lands directly in the decision-maker’s inbox. Not in spam, not in a promotions tab, not in a feed among 50 other ads. Directly to the person who makes purchasing decisions.
On top of that, a LinkedIn message comes with your profile — the person sees who you are, where you work, what you do. This builds trust from the very first touchpoint in a way email simply can’t.
The best strategy: LinkedIn as the core, everything else as support
The ideal strategy isn’t to pick one channel. It’s to use LinkedIn as the primary channel for opening conversations, paid ads for remarketing and awareness, and email for nurturing — for people who’ve already shown interest.
