Marketing Effectiveness

Does it pass the human test?

Recreating the art of communication in a digital world

Has technology made us lazy in how we communicate? Technological advances mean we can communicate more widely and more quickly over a variety of channels and now algorithms can monitor and predict behavioural patterns to improve understanding of a customer or prospect’s buying habits.

Sounds great, so with all of this new intelligence, why is it that so often B2B communication campaigns fail to hit the mark?

Exploring the hypothesis

Email fatigue and digital noise are often cited as two main reasons why some B2B marketing campaigns flounder. When campaigns fail to deliver, it is invariably marketing that gets the blame as the organisation is “disappointed” in performance.

In an age of hyper-targeted messaging with “persona development” and extensive analysis of the “buyer’s journey”, both driven by data and research, why is it that the message often fails to resonate?

Digital communication is not a silver bullet, but it is a tool to share messages and is essential to modern marketing. To be successful, all communications need to be customer-centric with the audience in mind, be topical, relevant and provide the audience with factual, actionable information or tell them something they may not know or have not thought about. A good example of this is when communications apply current trends or new technologies to pain points to solve specific challenges.

Content is key, yet all too frequently, it is little more than a “sales pitch” which rarely solves real-life challenges and in today’s unsettled world, often can come across as tone deaf.

People are at the heart of communications

In the B2B world, people buy from people, they work for people and with people. With this goes all the human traits, such as happy, sad, angry, stressed, rational and in today’s world – irrational behaviour, too. AI may have revolutionised the way we track behaviour, but technology cannot replicate human emotion. People are not robots.

When developing content, one size rarely fits all. Organisations with business challenges, such as change, digital transformation or cost reduction, also employ people. All too often, whilst automation will alleviate many issues around accuracy, speed, and reduced cost of manual intervention, there is very little mention of the impact on people, other than you can redeploy them to do more productive, creative and interesting work. Appealing in theory, but where is the actionable information that helps them with how that is implemented and how it should be communicated?

People need real and actionable information in communications to help them make informed decisions, manage change, and retain and attract staff – which is a massive global issue. We should also not forget to consider the “what is in it for me?” factor. This applies to all of us. We are human beings.

A final point to bear in mind is to differentiate between an organisation’s buying journey and those “humans” involved at different stages in that process. Those who initiate are not always the same people as those who research and select suppliers, those who validate proposals and those who make the final decision.

As people, they will use a variety of ways to gather information – peers, personal networks, websites, searches, analyst reports, etc. One thing is for sure, most of these “humans” will check out your website. What they want is proof that you understand their challenges, know how to solve them and can ‘walk the talk’. Importantly and often overlooked, it matters if people ‘like’ your organisation, relate to its core values and if they will enjoy working with you. In B2B marketing, customers rarely browse aimlessly, they have an objective to meet and a job to do – they are looking for something specific, so accessibility, brevity and speed are of the essence.

Taking the next steps

Keep it customer-centric: Put people at the centre of your campaigns from start to finish. Do not get side-tracked by pressure to talk only about your organisation’s offerings.

Test, learn, optimise: Validate your content with your personas with a small test pilot and refine accordingly. Taking an agile marketing approach reaps rewards as you can test and fine-tune to understand what comms and channels really drive engagement.

Ask yourself:

Would I read this?
Do I think this is boring?
What is in it for the audience and why would they care?
Is it topical, relevant and actionable?
Do you have the right data to make a difference?
What do I want the audience to do – call to action?
If the audience wants more information, can they find it easily and is it accessible?
Does your website really deliver the right experience?

Use everyday language: Think about how you personally communicate with other people. Does it pass the human test?

Remember data and research are essential in mapping out personas but if your answer to question 1 is no and to question 2 is yes, then think again.

Finally, don’t be lazy: Utilise the intelligence provided by technology to guide you and get your message out, but use your common sense to humanise.

Communication that drives behaviour

Bright is an expert in B2B communication and understands how to balance data-driven insights and human-centric messaging to communicate with the right audience at the right time, in the right place, and with the right tone. Discover how to inspire action and drive change with impactful communications – drop us a note to chat further today.

Learn more about Bright’s content and creative services, guaranteed to get your audience fired up to interact with your brand.

At Bright, we pride ourselves on being B2B marketing experts that drive results through marketing agility. We embed an iterative and data-driven approach, leading the charge to better results and the ability to adapt and change at pace.

Shine a light on your marketing campaigns with Bright.

Get in touch with us today to discuss all things agile.

B2B marketing communications

August 1, 2022 Alexandra Jefferies Marketing Effectiveness

How many times have you, or someone in your team, spent hours crafting a piece of content? Agonising over the right phrases to use, making sure the content looks visually appealing, that the format is seemingly easy to consume, only to find that when it goes live, it doesn’t get the ‘big bang’ results you originally anticipated?

We’ve all been there, trying to uncover why it isn’t landing, maybe a shorter headline will help? Maybe a different graphic on the front cover? Is it cutting through the noise? Unfortunately, there is not just one right answer, it could be a whole host of reasons.

It may sound simple, but the way to create truly compelling content is by understanding your target audience, through this understanding you’re able to create something that is truly of value to them.

Where do you start when writing compelling content?

Something that is often overlooked when it comes to creating compelling content is relevancy. To get the traction you were looking for, your content should be timely and speak directly to your target audience and their pain points, regardless of if you’re creating a compelling case study or short social media content.

Understanding your target audience through developing an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Persona(s), you can collate unique characteristics which can help uncover average revenue, number of employees, number of customers, budget, industry, geography, and purchase process but it should include other information such as pain points around their role and industry, but also personal fears, aspirations and needs.

Once compiled, you can then tailor your content to specifically address these points – without this level of information, you can end up speaking about a subject matter that has very little relevancy or is of little interest. For instance, if your ICP includes HR businesses with 10 people that only operate within the UK, it is probably best to steer away from trends in the US…

Have you kept your audience in mind?

Now you’ve established your ICP, it’s pivotal to consider how you’re already communicating with your prospects, and at which stage they are within the buying cycle. For instance, if you’ve only recently started to communicate with them, it’s likely that they’ll still be in the awareness phase, so creating compelling content that keeps you front of mind for them will be key.

Considering what stage they’re at within their buying cycle isn’t the only thing to keep in mind, going back to your ICP and based on the information you collected, you should also have an understanding of what makes them tick and what motivates them day to day. Knowing this information will inform which format the content should be presented – for example, you should probably steer away from creating a whitepaper for time-sensitive individuals, and instead may want to opt for more snackable pieces of content that they can get value from in short doses.

Pinpointing how they typically like to consume content will also have an impact on how you leverage this and the channels you utilise. For instance, if through your ICP development you know you’re your audience typically spends a lot of time on Facebook, then you may want to target them there.

Are aesthetics important?

So now you’ve established your ICP and done your research about what makes them tick and considered how and where they typically like to spend their time, we should now shift our attention to the content itself. How many times have you read something that was completely lacklustre and switched off after the first paragraph? Well, you’re not alone…

The human element to your content shouldn’t be understated, in B2B it’s easy to forget you’re talking to another human behind their screen, so don’t forget to show some personality, sometimes being a little controversial or incorporating a light-hearted joke can help to attract attention in the saturated B2B market and become memorable, keeping your business front of mind.

Finally, don’t forget about your content’s curb appeal, your copy may be elegantly written, and personalised to each individual business but if it visually doesn’t look great – you may see that your audience hits the exit button quicker than you’d like. Ensure that the format and layout of your content flows and is easy to follow, include relevant imagery and eye-catching visuals, and sometimes it pays to think outside of the box, it’s not just B2C that can be fun!

How do you measure your content?

Now your piece of content has gone live, how do you know if it’s compelling? At this stage, it’s important to separate feelings from the facts and resist making educated guesses.

The data and insights from your website content will help you identify if the content is compelling in the eyes of your audience. Bounce rates, dwell times, downloads, conversions, and heat maps are a great place to start… but beware of vanity metrics! For instance, if your content has a high bounce rate, this may indicate that the information within the content isn’t providing added value, or if a heat map is showing a cold spot on your eBook, it may be a sign to switch up the format of the page.

It’s important to continually test and learn, further optimising to hit the sweet spot and leveraging that data-driven insight moving forward.

Learn more about Bright’s content and creative services, guaranteed to get your audience fired up to interact with your brand.

Shine a light on your marketing campaigns with Bright.

Get in touch with us today to discuss all things agile.

July 4, 2022 Alexandra Jefferies Marketing Effectiveness

Performance marketing: Just another buzzword?

We explore the fusion of agile and performance marketing for B2B marketers.

What is performance marketing?

You’ve probably heard the term performance marketing used a lot recently, and you may be wondering is this a methodology? A collection of channels? Or just another buzzword that’s being used in the industry? Simply put, performance marketing is an umbrella term for online marketing and advertising programs where you pay when a specific action occurs, these typically include generating a lead, sale, click or a download.

Performance marketing directly relates to sponsored advertising, social media advertising and search engine marketing. Depending on which platform you’re using, you will pay for an action, for instance, a cost per impression (CPM), cost per click (CPC) and cost per lead (CPL).

Although performance marketing is defined as such when an action is complete, setting up a performance-driven campaign will vary depending on which platforms you use, and what actions you want your audience to make.

What are the benefits of performance marketing?

There are many benefits to performance marketing in comparison to traditional marketing. Due to the nature of performance marketing, regardless of the channel you’re operating from, it’s easy to track performance, which means that if there is any indication that the campaign isn’t performing as expected, this can be identified early on and optimised in line with the data, ultimately resulting in a low risk, high impact activity.

Another benefit of performance marketing is ROI, depending on your overall objective and only paying for a specific interaction, this means budget isn’t utilised on vanity metrics or performance indicators that isn’t related to your overall objective.

What are the fundamentals of performance marketing and how do you measure it?

Now we’ve unravelled what performance marketing is and the benefits, let’s dive into the fundamentals of performance marketing and where to start when you’re looking to launch activity and how to measure it.

Firstly, setting marketing objectives is key, without clearly defining this at the start of your campaign it can be difficult to optimise and measure. Setting your objective is a crucial first step, are you looking to increase brand awareness? If so impressions and engagement across social channels may be your overall goal, you should then look at what this means in terms of tangible key performance indicators (KPIs), what is your total audience size and what is the number of impressions you’re looking to achieve? Or perhaps this is a click through rate (CTR) above 13%.

Once you’ve set your goal, you need to establish the content you’re planning to leverage. Refer back at your personas and identify what their pain points are and how your product/service can help alleviate their current challenges. Your persona should also include information on how they typically consume information, ensure that your content is aligned to your findings.

Now you’ve established the right-fit content, it’s now time to prepare your campaign and set up activity ready for launch, this will vary depending on the platform you use. Once you’ve set up, aligned and launched your campaign, it’s now time to monitor and optimise, whether you’re embarking on a brand new activity or launching a campaign on a platform that has typically worked for you before, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, this is where performance marketing and agile marketing meet.

The collision of agile and performance marketing

Performance marketing is an umbrella term, agile marketing is a methodology that allows marketers to respond faster and adapt at pace. Using agile marketing practices within your performance campaigns can ensure that you continually drive results.

Once your performance campaigns have been set up, it’s key to revisit, realign and review throughout. Not every marketing tool or social channel will drive results for your overarching goal, it may be that your audience isn’t as present on the platform, or the content you’ve leveraged may not be as impactful on your audience as you had hoped.

Running your performance marketing campaign in sprints will allow you to test new channels, audience groups, visuals, and messaging in a constructive way. Through sprints you can plan review and optimisation sessions, splitting your campaign into shorter periods of time, to reveal results quickly, as opposed to a more rigid traditional marketing methodology. Review your overall goal and drill this down into each sprint, what engagement level do we expect to see within a 3-week period of a particular channel, or perhaps it’s a click-through rate (CTR) above 7% initially to continue running activity for the next sprint.

The agile marketing methodology will ultimately enable you to be dynamic in your performance marketing approach, uncovering patterns and insights quickly to learn and adapt fast.

Don’t be bewildered by buzzwords

Don’t get lost in the language – performance marketing is simply a method of ensuring each action taken on each channel is utilised effectively and is measurable through metrics. Don’t be bewildered by buzzwords, Bright can help decode the detail and shine a light on the latest marketing trends.

Get in touch with us today to chat all things agile.

May 30, 2022 Alexandra Jefferies Marketing Effectiveness

How to make Account Based Marketing successful with agile marketing principles.

How many times have you tried ABM and it’s not quite worked or driven the success you wanted it to? Or even struggled to get everyone internally on the same page?

Some sales teams see ABM as a risk, narrowing your activation to a select group of accounts compared to being out there for all to see. Others see it as talking to those most likely to buy and therefore more efficient use of budget. Both are right.

ABM can be categorised in three ways:

1:1 – is your hyper-personalised, highly targeted campaign, talking to a select group of individuals.
1: Few – is slightly broader, talking to your selected accounts with some commonality. This could be vertical-specific or common pain points.
1: Many – this is your broader approach that will talk to everyone in your target audience with an overarching message.

The following steps apply to all three categories and will guide you to making your ABM campaign, a successful one.

Data

In ABM, data is king. This might sound simple but selecting the right accounts and getting the correct data surrounding them is crucial. Get this step wrong and the rest is significantly less effective.

Starting with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), building your Total Addressable Market (TAM) and then narrowing down your audience and understanding the Decision-Making Unit (DMU) composition. These are the foundations of your campaign. Take your time here and be confident that you’re targeting the best accounts that fit your brand and service offering.

What is ICP?

An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a detailed profile of your ideal customer who would benefit the most from your product or service, used to customise marketing and lead generation tactics.

What is TAM?

TAM stands for Total Addressable Market which refers to the total market demand for a product or service. It’s the most amount of revenue a business can generate by selling their product or service in a specific market. Businesses can use TAM to estimate a specific market’s potential for growth.

What is DMU?

The decision-making unit (DMU) is a collection or team of individuals who participate in a buyer decision process. Philip Kotler defines the decision-making unit or DMU as “all individuals and groups that take part in the decision-making process relating to the negotiation of products /services”.

Alignment & metrics

This is a small but crucial step. Make sure that all stakeholders agree with the campaign and its steps, for example, sales & marketing need to be aligned to ensure the successful and seamless delivery of the campaign. This might sound obvious but in the cold light of day, misalignment and internal non-engagement with campaigns will result in missed business opportunities.

At the same time, we all must agree on what success looks like for this campaign. Success for marketing and success for sales can have different success metrics, so defining KPIs is key for everyone to get the most out of every campaign.

Speaking to your audience

Now you have settled on who you want to target, and everyone is aligned internally, the next step is understanding how you’re going to talk to them. Persona research, common pain point analysis, industry trends and value proposition development are all elements, that when combined, will help to form your messaging hierarchy.

Now you need to define which elements will resonate with the targeted individuals? Why your business? What problem do you solve? Why risk change? So many questions we will need to answer to move targets into and through your pipeline.

Fearless creative

Earlier, we said that data is king, and it is, however, a campaign creative is a very close second. With the marketing world becoming increasingly competitive and the cost of acquisition going up, standing out in a saturated marketplace is business critical. Creativity – conceptual and visual – can become the difference between winning and losing the attention of ICP’s in competitive business landscapes. Take a stand with your creative – be brave, be different and most importantly, be memorable.

One of our goals in marketing is to create memorable and actionable campaigns. This translates into business when you become one of your target audiences’ top three options when considering a change. That, in itself, is a success and will translate into pipeline opportunities.

Channels & execution

“Marketing is just LinkedIn ads, right?” This was an opening line from a sales director in a recent presentation. To a degree, he’s right and to a great degree, he couldn’t be more wrong. Whilst LinkedIn is a critical channel and one that has grown significantly during the last three years, it isn’t the only viable option available to reach your ICP. Direct mail, content syndication, sales development rep outreach, display ads, email nurture sequences, and many more options may be more appropriate, or impactful to get the right results your campaign.

This is where we go back to knowing our personas. Where do they spend their time? What do they value? Where and how can you get their attention? For some it is a direct mail landing on their desk and getting physically in front of them, for some it’s a catchy subject line from an email nurture sequence. Ultimately, no one channel will be the silver bullet. It will be a combination of tactics which all build towards moving you into their top three. Oh, and yes, LinkedIn ads are usually part of most campaigns nowadays. Music to the ears of the lovely Sales Director I mentioned earlier.

Data lead optimisation

Now, this is where we make the difference. Data allows us to see what is truly working and what needs more work. Which message is getting the most attention? Which image is driving the most clicks?

The crucial part of this is to not only review the data but to act on it. Make every touchpoint work harder. At Bright, we apply a test, learn and iterate approach to every marketing activity. This agile methodology gives us regular opportunities to review, assess and adapt to make sure your campaign is as effective and efficient as possible.

ABM is a great tool in the armoury of every marketer. Whether that is 1:1, 1: few, 1: many or a combination. Getting to the right people and propelling your business into their consideration options and ideally into that magical top three.

In summary; Be methodical with your data. Seek alignment, Speak to your audience. Be brave with your creative. Be agile, test, learn, iterate and follow the data.

At Bright, we pride ourselves on being world-leading B2B marketing experts, driving results through marketing agility. We embed an iterative and data-driven approach, leading the charge to better results, faster time to market, sustainable growth, and the ability to adapt and change at pace. Everything you need to have a successful ABM campaign and much more.

Shine the light on your marketing campaigns with Bright.

Get in touch with us today to chat all things agile.

May 13, 2022 Alexandra Jefferies Marketing Effectiveness

Four trends in the future of FinTech marketing

Insights from marketers on the ground, discussed at the annual FinTech B2B marketing conference.

As with many other sectors, the financial services industry is going through a continued period of disruption. Digital-first services are changing the way customers interact with brands as the move towards digital has increased customer’s expectation on service.

When I was asked to join the FinTech B2B Marketing Conference as a guest panellist, I was keen to share insights and experiences of agile marketing in the FinTech market, however the real value was found in the conversations had with my marketing peers about the immediate and undeniable factors that are influencing the marketing landscape for FinTech marketers today.

Navigating this ever-changing environment is tough at the best of times but navigating it post-pandemic brings its own host of disruptions. Here are four trends that I think will be influencing the industry over the coming months.

The role of critical thinking in data analytics

The goal of collecting and analysing data is to turn information into valuable insights and to create valuable insights, we must ask valuable questions. Our attention has too long been focussed on the hard skills in data – coding, visualisation, modelling etc. What seems to be far lower down the totem pole are the soft skills for making data useful, accessible, and valuable. Most importantly, the ability to critically think and analyse.

Critical thinking is a manner of thinking that employs curiosity, creativity, scepticism, analysis, and logic – the good news is, that critical thinking can be learned and upskilled. Finding the balance between trusting the data and our gut feeling is the key to discovering insights that add value.

The pandemic and the marketeer

I’m sure like me, you’re fed up with talking about the pandemic and how it has affected business over the past two years, but inevitably, it’s still impacting channel performance and creative a skills gap in the market.

The data we have on channel performance from the last two years is skewing our predictions – what worked in 2020 to deliver on demand gen seems to be shifting again. LinkedIn for example is currently working better for small businesses than it is for larger organisations – something that has changed dramatically over the past year and a half.

The great resignation, influenced by the pandemic means that the quality of contact data has become an issue as many people have left roles, challenging marketers to maintain and clean databases to ensure campaigns remain successful.

When one succeeds, we all succeed – the value in partnerships

Budget allocations have shifted over the past few years, with more money being invested into digital marketing and less on live events. Now that events have resumed and audiences are keen to attend, where will the money come from to satisfy both needs?

Brands need revenue and growth and have little appetite for further risk. Partnership marketing is a perfect antidote, brands can partner up on complimentary services and solutions to share resources and create value led events without having to risk the costs. The current circumstances highlight the virtues of creative, direct teamwork, so my advice is to find innovate ways to create long lasting relationships and partnerships that work for everyone.

Brand vs. Demand Generation

An age-old debate which every marketeer has had to negotiate, the truth is both are just as important, and one does not work without the other. A business with amazing brand presence but no leads will struggle to sustain itself. Whereas businesses that prioritise demand gen, tend to get a lot of prospects interested in a solution but will evidently lose out to competitors that have a stronger brand identity and clear values that cut through an already overpopulated market.

The financial services sector has always been considered as agile, with the requisite to adjust to ever-changing external factors. This inherent dynamism makes it an exciting and cutting-edge marketplace with scope for disruptive marketing tactics and experimentation at every turn, from brand to local and central levels. How can you enable experimentation approach, with a growth mindset and agile marketing approach to how your team execute.

Discover how Bright can inject agility into your business to maintain an edge on competition. Get in touch with us today to chat all things agile.

May 11, 2022 Lydia Kirby Marketing Effectiveness

Bright enlists corporate advisory consultancy, Cactus, to help navigate expansion

During these changeable times, businesses are increasingly seeking ways in which they can adapt and transform with a more agile approach. Due to the increased requirement for marketing agility, driven by the unpredictability caused by the pandemic, world-leading B2B agile marketing consultancy, Bright, has experienced more demand than ever.

Founded in 2013 by Zoë Merchant, Bright’s goal was to accelerate business growth for its clients and push their marketing forward through greater agility to achieve better results. Nine years later, Bright’s goal remains the same, now with a team of 21 agile marketing specialists and a roster of market-leading, technology, publishing and engineering clients.

To navigate the next phase of growth, driven by a collective passion for evolution, Bright has teamed up with Cactus – Europe’s leading corporate advisory and growth consultancy for agencies.

Cactus is uniquely positioned to supply corporate commercial development support, operational guidance and expert financial advice, having worked with over 2,500 agencies globally and some of the fastest growing agencies in their territories. With these credentials, 2022 is set to be a landmark year for Bright’s growth.

“It’s an exciting time for Bright, agile marketing has moved beyond nascent and we’re seeing clear benefits to those businesses that change their way of working to fuel business growth, through greater adaptability, client centricity and a data driven approach.
Bright’s on a mission to drive marketing agility forward and we continue to expand how we deliver our services and work alongside clients to co-create, coach and train marketers to become more agile.”
Zoë Merchant, Managing Director of Bright

“Bright is a remarkable business, one with huge potential to be a leader in the industry and one we’re thrilled to be working so closely with. They have such an interesting proposition and a truly unique service offering for their clients”.
Danny Turnbull, Managing Partner for Consulting at Cactus

Discover how Bright’s approach to agile marketing can equip teams with the expertise to adapt to a fast-paced, changeable business environment, take advantage of opportunities for growth and transform your business.

Bright is a world-leading B2B agile marketing consultancy, providing strategic marketing services, supporting transformation through co-creation and training for tech & professional services firms.

Bright’s team of expert B2B agile marketing practitioners inspire businesses to think and act differently; embrace curiosity and use data-driven insights to drive continuous learning, improvement and transformation, always putting the customer at the heart of activity.

February 14, 2022 Zoe Merchant Marketing Effectiveness

Four things B2B marketers need to focus on now

2021 has been a bumpy year so far, starting out in the firm grip of the pandemic and rapidly evolving into a more positive outlook for most firms as society and economies started to unlock and learn to live with Covid day-to-day.

Bright has been flexing our agile marketing muscles this year with a focus on experimentation, testing, rapidly learning, and building on success for clients to remain lean whilst taking advantage of every opportunity a fast-moving and unpredictable market allows. We’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of B2B marketing as we’ve strived to embed new ways of working to bring greater marketing agility across our tech & consulting-focused clients. So, what have we learned – here are the top four things marketing teams need to pay attention to now:

Data trumps opinion

As agile marketeers, we rely on data to fuel our learnings and inform where we invest more time and effort next to improve marketing output and impact. Closed feedback loops are critical for marketers to evaluate and assess the performance of an activity. This means marketers have become savvier at setting KPIs and metrics to measure and evaluate success. There is still room for gut instinct and experience, but it must be backed up with insight.

Dealing with data has meant marketers need to develop skills around data analysis and synthesising data from disparate sources quickly to pull out the key learnings and make decisions around where and how to drive improvements.

What if you have no data to start with? Then marketers must be creative and tap into their networks to find look-alike data or industry benchmarks to put an initial stake in the ground and learn from there.

Farsightedness

The pandemic truncated markets and forced budget reduction and freezes[i], and the resulting uncertainty has made everyone much more near-term in their focus. Marketers need to make sure they balance short term tactical activity with meeting longer-term strategic goals and know the difference between the two.

Although all marketers have, without a doubt, become more resilient, agile marketers have found it easier to prioritise and pivot to match the disruption in the market. Agile marketing doesn’t mean there isn’t a plan, its focus is on using short sprints to move towards long-term goals. Learning to set and balance near-term KPI and metrics with the long-term strategic goals and priorities is a critical skill for marketers to develop.

Agile marketing relies on adopting a test, learn and build closed-loop model – these cycles of experimentation are often short, and sprint-based. Agile marketers benefit just as much from some second order thinking skills[ii] to make sure their experiments are robust beyond just the initial intent and factor in longer-term impact beyond the sprint they are in.

Patience is a virtue

Marketers are spending an increasing amount of time justifying their budget investments. However, it must be considered that any marketing process takes time, especially in complex high-value B2B tech sales cycles. Marketers need to be honest and open about the time it takes to build momentum, especially around brand activities. A recent LinkedIn study found that digital marketers often measure ROI too quickly. While the average length of a B2B sales cycle is six months, only 4% of marketers measure ROI over 6 months or longer^[iii].

Agile marketing helps marketers to work in a more sustainable, and ultimately leaner, way. Enabling you to show ROI early by optimising successful activity via the test, learn, and build cycle, discarding or changing things that underperform quickly. Metrics in agile marketing cover both sprint-based outcomes to show short-term performance impact combined with longer-term (campaign or project) KPIs for ROI which aligns with the business goals. Agile marketers were more confident that they were able to demonstrate ROI than those taking a more traditional approach[iv].

Breaking down internal silos

A major challenge faced by marketing teams is that they lack permission to be curious and experiment. Hence, marketing teams are still struggling to form cross-functional teams to become more agile and breaking down internal silos. This often leads to a painful lack of customer centricity reflected in poorly constructed value propositions and campaigns.

The great tech marketing teams are focused on new ways of working as a cross functional team – what they can learn, where they can improve, and how it aligns to their business goals.

[i] Bright 2021 B2B marketing trends report – #1 area of challenge for marketers is doing more with less (page 6)

[ii] https://www.techtello.com/second-order-thinking/

[iii] https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/success/insights-and-research/marketing-ROI

[iv] Bright 2021 B2B marketing trends report – confidence in measuring and demonstrating ROI to leadership (page 15)

October 29, 2021 Zoe Merchant Marketing Effectiveness

The disruption caused by the global pandemic has led to some profound changes in our values, attitudes and behaviours to both our personal and work lives. For B2B marketers, this has accelerated the adoption of some existing trends, such as digital transformation and the increased use of data to understand and respond to changes in buyer behaviour, and embedding new ways of working through a more agile approach to marketing. It also helped to create some interesting new trends which we expect to see gain momentum in B2B marketing in 2021.

Customer centricity at the forefront

Most businesses think they know their customer, but there has been a tendency for businesses to focus on what they want to talk about, rather than what their customers want to know or will find most useful. The disruption of 2020 has certainly shone a light on this. Suddenly people were thinking and behaving differently, both in their personal and work lives, and buying decisions were often put on hold. In a poll conducted at our recent ‘Personas and buyer journey’ online bootcamp, we found that only 10% of attendees felt that their existing personas and buyer journeys were helping them hit their sales targets. In 2021, organisations will be focused on truly understanding what their customers want, their business environments and how they can best support them. Customer centricity therefore needs to be at the very forefront of every marketing decision, campaign and communication. Data and martech have key roles to play in achieving this consistently and at pace.

Being data driven is now fundamental

The need for marketing to be driven by data saw a renewed emphasis due to the chaos of the pandemic and the change in behaviours that followed. Marketers now need to be more data-driven than ever. To do this they first need to get better at capturing data. According to a recent report by IDC and Seagate, 44% of data available to organisations goes uncaptured, and 43% goes unused. Organisations also need to get better and distilling and activating data to turn it into actionable insights for the business. While there is certainly a role here for new AI technologies and machine learning to help make business decisions, most organisations need their marketing teams to get better at harvesting, understanding and gaining insights from data which drive improvements and allow meaningful interactions with the prospect or client.

Location displacement

The pandemic turned how we live and where we traditionally do things on its head. The requirement for us all to stay at home during national lockdowns and to continue working from home if possible, even when restrictions were eased, led to an increased demand for online experiences. These included the rise of virtual events, interactive tools or gadgets that make your prospects’ lives easier (such as this campaign ROI calculator) and personalised social selling that engages at a 1:1 level. This is expected to continue in 2021 and beyond. In response to this, digital marketing not only needs to be front and centre, but ensuring a seamless omni-channel user experience is now a standard expectation in B2B.

Emotional connection

Emotional connection was a big trend in B2C marketing in 2020 as organisations sought to tap into and reflect the emotions that people were experiencing. A study by the B2B Institute at LinkedIn showed that strategies that appeal to emotions are 7x more effective at driving long-term sales, profits and revenue than those just delivering rational messaging. Research conducted by Google also shows that B2B purchasers are almost 50% more likely to buy a product or service when they see personal value (i.e. an opportunity for career advancement or confidence and pride in their choice) and 68% of buyers who see personal value will pay a higher price for a service. B2B marketers need to become increasingly savvy on how to make best use of content and messaging to build an emotional connection with influencers and buyers in 2021. Those who can create campaigns that successfully appeal to people’s emotions will differentiate themselves from the pack.

Curiosity culture

As our approach to marketing at Bright is based on agile principles, we know that experimentation and failure are the start of success. For example, how do you know for sure if an emotion-led or benefit-led message is more effective? You have to test and experiment in order to learn and build. Of course, your data processes and analytics are the key to understanding what is working and what is failing. As more marketing functions adopt agile marketing principles, we expect to see an increase in curiosity and experimentation in B2B marketing campaigns.

Agile is the key

In fact, adopting agile marketing processes is the key to embracing all of these trends effectively. Understanding how to make proper use of data and research to drive decision making is the backbone of agile marketing. Testing different approaches, channels or messages (emotional vs rational) and constantly iterating and improving is another critical element of agile marketing. Agile marketing builds resilience, helping you pivot and adapt to current trends, and ultimately drive better results from your marketing that support your business goals. To find out how you can adopt agile marketing to better manage disruption during this pandemic, get in touch with a Bright expert.

January 25, 2021 Zoe Merchant Marketing Effectiveness

The top B2B tech trends to watch in 2021

In response to the chaos and disruption caused by COVID, in 2021 we can expect to see technology being used to help us navigate our way out of the pandemic and set us on the path to recovery. To help you prepare for what’s ahead, we’ve gathered the top B2B tech trends of 2021.

Is your data agile and adaptive?

One thing that will remain constant throughout 2021 is change. Businesses that are set to react and adapt quickly to change are more likely to succeed. And with the pace of change driving digital transformation at speed, data also needs to be readily available and up-to-date to keep up. Gartner describe ‘intelligent composable businesses’ as organisations with better access to data, insights and the ability to respond quickly to those insights.

Data also needs to be adaptive and tuned for machines rather than humans according to Deloitte. As machine learning takes over, older data models and infrastructure designed to support decision-making by humans rather than machines will slow down progress. Organisations need to disrupt the end-to-end data management chain by deploying new technologies and approaches. These include advanced data capture and structuring capabilities, in-depth analytics to identify connections between random data sets and next-generation cloud-based data stores. These all help to support complex modelling. Essentially, the aim is to allow for growing volumes of data to be agile and adaptive, ready for machines which can then be evolved to make real-time and scalable decisions that humans cannot.

AI or machine learning — place your bet

Machine learning is set to rapidly take over as the driver of organisational performance due to its ability to discover patterns and anomalies, generate insights, and make intelligent predictions and decisions. However, according to Deloitte, many organisations are suffering from clunky development and deployment processes that slow down experimentation and collaboration amongst product teams, operational staff, and data scientists. The solution for 2021? A combination of engineering and operational discipline to drive business transformation known as machine learning operations – MLOps. MLOps is the application of development operations tools and approaches to industrialise and scale machine learning. This ranges from development and deployment through to ongoing maintenance and management.

It’s important to recognise though that as machine learning develops, AI will not stand still. Bain predict the next trend in AI as “edge AI” – a network infrastructure which makes it possible for AI algorithms to run on the edge of a network, closer to or on the device collecting the data. With the shift to home working and changes in network traffic, edge AI is set to accelerate due to its ability to preserve bandwidth and increase efficiency by processing information much closer to the devices that require it. This reduces latency issues and accelerates the generation of insights while lowering cloud services usage and connectivity costs and disruption.

AI engineering is also shifting to incorporate itself within DevOps, rather than sitting as a separate entity, with the aim to increase the value of AI projects and reduce issues of governance, scalability and maintainability. Gartner predict that the operationalisation of AI will allow for more responsibility and accountability when it comes to trust, ethics, fairness, interpretability and compliance.

Get ready for the inevitable crackdowns

Big tech crackdowns are springing up everywhere for large companies within the UK and US. It’s not a surprise that governments are therefore ready to implement new acts, code of conducts, legislation and penalties to regulate large tech companies, with the main focus on increasing competition and data privacy (BBC). But it’s not just governments set to strike. As cyberattacks increase and undermine the current approaches to cybersecurity, Gartner recognise that the threat has expanded due to the increase of a remote workforce. In 2021, a cybersecurity mesh that allows the identity of a person or thing to define the security perimeter is paramount.

Deloitte turn to the growing trend of ‘zero trust’ to implement this mesh – where every access request should be validated based on all available data points, including user identity, device, location, and other variables. Data, applications, workloads, and other resources are treated as individual, manageable units to contain breaches, and access is provided based on the principle of least privilege. Automation and engineering are required to properly implement zero trust security architectures and can help strengthen security posture, simplify security management, improve end-user experience, and enable modern enterprise environments.

The same goes for data – 2021 is set to be the year for blockchain to take centre stage. According to The Drum, as decentralised finance continues to grow over the next few years, and increased demand for online financial products, it will need to constantly address the balance between decentralisation, security and scalability. Government bodies are incorporating blockchain for their activities, which suggests the regulation surrounding blockchain will become ever more key. With the likes of Google Cloud taking steps to become a network block producer, it won’t be long before blockchain will be the new norm.

Operate anywhere

With the increase of home working set to continue into 2021, we’re not going to see the use of collaboration technology diminish anytime soon. Deloitte suggest that as companies further embrace home working approaches, the digital workplace’s deficits can be counteracted by embracing its positive aspects, including the data generated by workers own tools and platforms, and being able to monitor staff productivity. These can help organisations optimise individual and team performance, as well as customise the employee experience with personalisation, enabling remote work to be more productive and cost-effective than traditional offices.

Gartner agree that an anywhere operations model will remain after the pandemic is over. The “digital first, remote first” model should be the default for business going forward and even physical spaces should be digitally enhanced. Both Gartner and the BBC refer to the contactless check-out system in physical stores as an example for 2021. Doors have also opened to a new remote working market for tech firms to exploit. The BBC expect more packages to be offered by internet service providers and tech firms, as well as enhanced security options, IT support and collaboration software.

Equality with technology

With companies embracing, or at the very least introducing diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) as one of their business imperatives for 2021, the need for strategies that address bias and inequality are set to grow. Deloitte note that while HR often lead DEI strategies, technology leaders are required to play a critical role in designing, developing, and executing tech-enabled solutions to address increasingly complex DEI challenges. Deloitte expect to see a rise in organisations adopting new tools that incorporate advanced analytics, automation, and AI. These include natural language processing and machine learning, to help inform, deliver, and measure the impact of DEI effectively and reduce bias.

Keep your finger on the pulse with health tech

Health tech is set to soar in 2021 and beyond as rapid acceleration of health data collection gives the industry a huge opportunity to utilise emerging digital capabilities. These include AI and Machine Learning to improve treatment and care. We’ve already seen how they were critical in creation of the vaccine, as well as in contact exposure tech, and models to calculate transmission rates. Health care apps are set to dramatically increase in users and health tech start-ups are likely to start popping up in droves. The Drum predict health tech will become instrumental in helping us all manage our personal wellbeing, as well as the quality of work for medical staff, and saving lives.

In summary…

Whilst technology trends are set to drive continued disruption, they are also key opportunities for businesses. Organisations who can embrace a ‘digital first’ approach will see themselves recover more quickly in 2021 and thrive in the years to come. The same can be said for organisations who are able to respond quickly, build resilience and adapt with pace – in other words those with agility.

Interested in finding out how agile marketing can increase your ROI and align with your business goals? Book in a virtual cuppa with one of our agile marketing experts – we specialise in working with clients from the IT industry: h ello@brightinnovation.co.uk.

January 19, 2021 Alexandra Jefferies Marketing Effectiveness

6 steps to writing engaging B2B blog content

How to effectively articulate complex tech and consulting solutions

You’re a smart B2B marketer, business leader or industry expert — but do you struggle to write content that entices and engages your target audience, demonstrates the value of your products or services and showcases your expertise? For anyone who wants to become more visible as a thought leader, we’ve gathered writing tips and guidance on how to write engaging B2B blog content that captivates and resonates with your readers.

Step 1: Build a strong foundation for your content piece

Before you begin writing, create an organised outline to ensure your argument is clear, concise and impactful. Use the following questions to help you lay out the subject, purpose, format and more:

Main subject: Are you discussing a trend or event, or highlighting a challenge or problem that needs a solution?
Audience: Who is this for? What information do they already have? What do they need to know?
Relevance: How does your content relate to their work, business, goals or interests? Why should they care? How will it benefit them?
Story: Is there a story to tell? What happened to who? Where? When? Why? How?
Format: Does the subject require classic blog prose or would a list, interview or step-by-step guide format work better?
Research: What do you need to learn to write this piece? Can you find any stats on the subject? What can you add to existing research?
Impact: What action should the reader take after reading? How will this benefit your business?

Step 2: Present the value right away

Next, pull out the value of your content. What is the key information you want your readers to take away from your writing? What is your purpose — to guide, educate or inform? Once you’ve pinpointed why anyone should read your piece, be sure to state the value right in your title to grab attention.

Studies show that popular content titles use ‘How to’, and ‘3/5/10 ways to’, ‘why…’. These titles are eye-catching and assure the reader of a quick, easy and informative reading
Title format that works: Numbers + verb/adjective + target keyword + rationale + promise

Examples:

3 reasons why you’re not a high-performing organisation
How to hire the best talent and keep them happy and productive

Step 3: Choose a conversational tone of voice

Before you begin, find your tone of voice. Despite what your brand guidelines might say, it’s best to write B2B blog content in a friendly, personal way as if you were having a natural conversation with your reader — remember that you’re writing for the web! It’s also important to remember that you can write with a serious tone without sounding too formal or academic. The last thing you want to do is bore or scare your reader away. Keep the following in mind as you write:

Talk to the reader directly using ‘you’ and ‘your’
Avoid sounding robotic by using with contractions: You’re, we’re, isn’t, aren’t, can’t
Explain tricky technical jargon and acronyms whenever possible
Stick with the active voice to keep your writing clear and energised

Step 4: Clearly demonstrate your expertise

No matter your subject, you want to show your readers that you know your stuff and that you understand the challenges they’re facing in their business. As you write, keep the following in mind.

Always try to strengthen your statements with an interesting fact or proven stat
Use tech or inside-industry phrases and expressions where relevant (but not too many!)
Reference or link to your case studies, credentials and client advocates
Turn lengthy or complicated paragraphs into bulleted lists and give instructions in a step-by-step numbered list to avoid overwhelming the reader with information

Step 5: Organise your content for easy reading

In our digital age, people love to scan and read quickly. Make sure you lay out your content piece in a way that puts key information first and explains your point clearly and efficiently. Here’s how to do just that:

Introduction (100-150 words approx.)

Set the scene for your B2B blog content:

Present the issue, problem or lesson to be learnt
Tease how you’ll discuss it or lay out the solution
Explain why it’s important for the reader to learn about this topic — what is the benefit?

Main body (400-600 words approx.)

Lay out the main points to the topic you set up in the introduction:

Present each point with sub-headers that summarise your argument — this is vitally important for keeping those fast readers engaged
Loop back to the introduction in each section, giving context or background information
Remember that each point should contain a “PEE” – Point, Evidence and Explanation. Explain how your offering or solution will help the reader understand recent trends, reach their goals or solve their problem

Conclusion (100 words approx.)

Wrap up your argument with a brief statement that summarises your argument, then end with a strong call to action to prompt your readers to engage further with your brand:

Keep your summary to one line — short and sweet
Highlight the value again by reiterating the benefit to your reader
Hyperlink your call-to-action (CTA) to take the reader to your homepage or solutions

Step 6: Tell them what to do next

Now that you’ve taken the time to share knowledge, be explicit about the next step you want them to make to find out more about your brand. Motivate them with an energising call to action:

Keep it short, about 5-10 words
Start with an action verb, such as ‘get’, ‘find out’, ‘see’ ‘learn’, etc.
Be creative and avoid using the dull and old-fashioned ‘click here’ or ‘here’
Give a sense of urgency by using ‘today’ or ‘now’
Make sure it’s relevant to your blog topic and doesn’t feel out of place

Example: Want to learn more about XXXX? Book a meeting today.

Becoming a B2B thought leader in your space demands engaging, strong content — but knowing what to write about and how to sell your point isn’t always easy. If you follow these six easy steps, you’ll create B2B blog content that grabs attention, encourages conversation and tells your readers that you’re someone they can turn to for advice and guidance. For more content tips and tricks, see our insights into writing content for your website, blog and social media pages.

If you prefer to leave it to the experts, our content team at Bright are here to help you reach your business goals through blog writing. Get in touch today at [email protected]

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January 7, 2021 Zoe Merchant Marketing Effectiveness