Read Helena's Blogs
Insights, learnings and stories from the world of B2B marketing and communications, direct from Velo’s B2B agency team
Helena Phillips
Holding senior roles at B2B marketing agencies for most of her career, including over a decade of experience in B2B financial services marketing - particularly insurance - HP leads Velo’s strategic marketing projects.
ABM, B2B Audiences, B2B GTM, B2B Marketing in manufacturing, B2B Marketing in Professional Services, B2B Strategy
How to build trust in your brand when targeting the defence sector
Most B2B marketing runs on proof: named customers, published outcomes, a case study for every objection. Defence marketing rarely gets that version of the game. Contracts stay classified. Customers stay unnamed. Case studies still exist, but they carry more weight when built to fit those limits rather than despite them, and the real competition usually starts before […]
B2B Content, B2B Marketing in Insurance, B2B Marketing in manufacturing, B2B Marketing in Professional Services, B2B Sales Enablement
How B2B marketers can prepare winning sales decks
Most sales decks fail because they’re built like brochures: complete, generic and impossible to adapt mid-conversation. This piece sets out a framework built on SPIN selling and five fast-moving elements, context, clarity, contrast, character and call to action, for decks sales teams can actually flex in the room.
AI & MarTech for B2B, B2B Marketing Agency Selection, B2B Marketing Leadership, B2B Strategy
How are we using AI across our marketing? A look behind the curtain
Velo doesn’t bolt on AI tools one at a time. It runs them as a connected ecosystem: brand-trained models, automated agents and generative tools working across research, planning and delivery. This piece goes behind the curtain to show how human judgement stays central to every layer.
Sales and marketing alignment in ABM is a myth
If you’ve been to any B2B marketing event in the last few years, you’ve likely sat through more than one session on the need for sales and marketing to be ‘aligned’. It sounds like progress. Two teams working in harmony. On the surface, it feels right. But the very idea of alignment creates a problem. Alignment implies separation. It assumes […]
B2B Events, Customer Experience
5 ways B2B exhibitions have evolved. Have you?
B2B exhibitions are becoming increasingly important and increasingly central to how specialist markets connect. We know because we’ve been there. Across 2026, Velo has participated in the major exhibitions that matter to our sectors, including Utility Week Live, MACH, Fire Safety Expo, The Health & Safety Event, The Workplace Event, BIBA and more. These are not fringe moments in the marketing calendar. […]
Does ABM work in long, complex buying cycles?
There is a common belief in certain sectors. “Account-Based Marketing does not work here.” You hear it most in markets with long sales cycles, complex procurement and heavy reliance on industry frameworks. The thinking is simple. Decisions are slow, structured and often predefined. Marketing cannot influence them in the same way. Or can it? What makes these markets different These environments are […]
ABM, B2B Content, B2B Marketing in Insurance, B2B Marketing in Professional Services, B2B Strategy
Why is storytelling vital in ABM?
Storytelling in B2B is often misunderstood. It is not about entertainment for its own sake. It is about making information meaningful, memorable and trusted. After all, even in B2B, there are still people at the other end. At its core, storytelling reflects how people actually make decisions. B2B buying is human, memory-driven and trust-led. Storytelling is the thread that connects those elements. It […]
How ABM can influence the dark funnel
Let’s get one thing straight. The “dark funnel” is not a funnel – it’s what happens when real buying behaviour refuses to fit neatly into your reporting. The dark funnel is everything that happens outside your visibility: the conversations you can’t see, the recommendations you can’t track, and the moments that never show up in your analytics. It is the Slack message between colleagues. […]
Is there such a thing as intent in an ABM program?
What your ideal customer really means Intent has become B2B marketing’s favourite shortcut. The promise is seductive. Find the accounts that are “in market”, focus your effort there, and watch conversion rates climb. The problem? B2B buying doesn’t work like that. Intent exists. But not in the neat, predictable, high-confidence way it is often sold. First party intent is the […]
From pilot to programme: 8-step approach to scalable ABM
Scaling ABM means building a structured, always-on programme, not running bigger one-off campaigns. This piece walks through the eight steps that take a pilot to a repeatable engine: from account selection and data to sales alignment and reporting that proves commercial impact.
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