B2B marketing insights for
those targeting a niche
Insights, learnings and stories from the world of B2B marketing and communications, direct from Velo’s B2B agency team
B2B Strategy
B2B marketers are often asked to act quickly, but good results still depend on having a clear strategy. The challenge is deciding where to play, who to prioritise, what to say and how to balance long-term growth with short-term commercial pressures.
That means learning about audience strategy, market positioning, planning, propositions, campaign strategy, brand-to-demand balance, channel decisions, competitive context and the choices that shape better marketing.
Our insight articles explore how stronger B2B strategy leads to stronger execution, with practical advice on planning, prioritisation and decision-making.
B2B Sales Enablement, B2B Strategy
Conversation is the new conversion in B2B marketing
Trust matters in B2B, and it’s getting increasingly harder to earn and sustain. In our previous article on how B2B brands build trust, we split trust signals into two groups: signals about the company, such as credibility, reputation, expertise, stability and customer references, and signals about the people, such as chemistry, shared values, quality, responsiveness […]
B2B Audiences, B2B Campaigns, B2B Research, B2B Strategy
Can Reddit provide useful insights for B2B marketers?
Reddit conversations cover an enormous range of ground, from hobbies and politics to niche communities that have nothing to do with work. But only a narrow slice of that activity is useful for B2B planning. Reddit’s B2B activity is heavily concentrated. Analysis of 522 million Reddit mentions found that 67% of B2B recommendation activity happens […]
B2B Branding, B2B Marketing Leadership, B2B Strategy
How do senior B2B marketers tell if their B2B positioning is working?
If you’re the marketing leader accountable for how your business shows up, here’s a test that will tell you more about the campaigns you’re about to sign off than any positioning workshop will. Ask five people in your business “what is it we sell?” and see how many different variations come back. We use this test with marketing teams regularly, and the results […]
AI & MarTech for B2B, B2B Content, B2B Creative, B2B Strategy
When “good enough” stops being good enough
Somewhere in the country this morning, a marketing executive about eighteen months into their first proper job is being asked to plan a campaign, write it, design it, schedule it, report on it and brief three AI tools before tomorrow. They’re doing a decent job of it, all things considered. Nobody has ever shown them what a great job would look like. That, rather than […]
B2B Campaigns, B2B Creative, B2B Strategy, B2B Video
Why every B2B business should be thinking bigger about video
For years, we’ve talked about video as another marketing tactic: something to support a campaign, promote an event or sit alongside a product launch. I think that’s selling it short. One statistic recently caught my attention: pages featuring video are 53 times more likely to rank on the first page of Google than text-only pages. […]
B2B Marketing in Professional Services, B2B Marketing in Technology, B2B Marketing Leadership, B2B Research, B2B Strategy
How do you track market share without a big market study?
Formal market studies cost more than most challenger brands can justify, and revenue comparisons rarely help either. This piece sets out three practical proxies, brand search volume, competitor invoice patterns and tender win rates, that give a genuine read on competitive standing a board will recognise.
B2B Marketing Leadership, B2B Strategy
New to the role as a senior marketer? A 9-step blueprint for successfully taking over a team.
Taking over a marketing team is as much about people as it is about a plan. This piece lays out a 9-step blueprint for the first 90 days: understanding what success looks like, learning how the business and its customers really see marketing, and building the credibility that makes bigger changes possible later.
B2B Marketing Leadership, B2B Strategy
Received investment? How to make sure your marketing operation is ready to scale your activities and your company.
When private equity invests, marketing comes under immediate pressure to prove it can deliver growth fast. This piece sets out a seven-part readiness framework across market-facing and internal factors, potential, proposition, pipeline, perception, process, people and priorities, plus a 90-day roadmap for finding out what needs fixing first.
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 […]
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.
ABM, B2B Marketing in manufacturing, B2B Marketing in Professional Services, B2B Sales Enablement, B2B Strategy
How does running ABM campaigns in the defence sector differ from other B2B markets?
Defence buying doesn’t behave like other B2B categories: decision-makers are hard to identify, cycles run in years and switching a qualified component can cost more than it’s worth. This piece sets out what ABM actually looks like in defence, from manual stakeholder research to the trade-show playbook that gets you noticed.
B2B GTM, B2B Marketing in manufacturing, B2B Marketing in Professional Services, B2B Strategy
If AI data centres are where the money is, how do you position your products and services as relevant?
The real AI opportunity isn’t the software, it’s the infrastructure behind it: the power, cooling, land, construction and compliance work that data centres depend on. This piece sets out how suppliers in adjacent markets can sell outcomes and technical proof to get noticed by infrastructure buyers.
B2B Advocacy, B2B Audiences, B2B Marketing in Professional Services, B2B Strategy
How do you influence buying decisions before they’re even being made?
There’s an uncomfortable truth sitting at the heart of most B2B marketing right now. Recommendation is the most influential driver of revenue, but it can only be indirectly influenced – and it’s even harder to measure. The channels you can measure are rarely where the real decision gets made. The channels where it does – the peer conversation, the internal Slack thread, the industry […]
B2B Marketing Leadership, B2B Strategy
How to successfully integrate two marketing teams following an acquisition.
The acquisition has closed. Two businesses now sit under one roof – and so do their two marketing teams, running two sets of campaigns, two martech stacks, and two cultures. A senior leader now has a choice to make: keep both teams running as they are, or blend them into a single, reshaped function. That decision shouldn’t be made on instinct, or on whoever argues their case hardest. Get […]
Do you feel like the lights have gone off on your B2B marketing?
B2B marketing influence is getting harder to see, not less important. Explore how AI, recommendations and private buyer journeys are reshaping attribution, brand and demand.
B2B exhibitions cost money – evaluating them on leads alone will cost more.
Exhibitions are expensive. There is a stand to design and build. The travel to organise. The logistics to manage. The time out of the office. The follow-up that needs to happen afterwards. It is understandable that, once the event is over, the first question is usually commercial – how many leads did we get? The badge scanner has been out. The spreadsheet was […]
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.
How to choose the right priority accounts for your ABM programme
What your ideal customer really means In account-based marketing, identifying your priority customers is not about building the biggest possible list. It is about making deliberate commercial choices. Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is the filter that defines where you should focus your effort and, just as importantly, where you should not. It ensures your time, budget and energy […]
B2B Marketing in Professional Services, B2B Marketing in Technology, B2B Marketing Leadership, B2B Strategy
Why the orchestration of strategy into activation matters more than ever in B2B marketing
B2B marketing is evolving — because it has to. Economic uncertainty, shifting buyer habits, and a talent gap post-pandemic have reshaped the expectations placed on marketing teams — and the agencies that support them. Today’s successful B2B marketers are prioritising four things: 1 -Agility — to respond quickly in an uncertain macroeconomic climate. This is […]
B2B Branding, B2B Marketing in Insurance, B2B Marketing in Professional Services, B2B Research, B2B Strategy
Does brand matter when selling into a B2B niche?
Like Brexit-era Boris, there are two short answers here: yes, and no. But in B2B, short answers rarely get you far. No: Specification trumps story In industrial B2B – whether you’re selling sensors, safety signage or software – brand often takes a back seat. Buyers are responsible for production lines, compliance officers and procurement frameworks. […]
12 hard truths for B2B Marketers from 2025, and how to make 2026 easier
Buying cycles are longer. Budgets are smaller. And let’s not even start on the AI-generated content sludge. Sound familiar? B2B marketing in 2026 isn’t broken. But it is being stress-tested. The old playbooks and channels? Under pressure. Attribution models? Struggling to see in the dark. Martech stacks? Getting heavier without pulling harder. Pressure to show […]
Christmas comes once every year. In B2B, so does the January scramble – spend December getting ahead.
Here’s the thing: you’ve got a budget sitting there. Money that vanishes towards the end of a quarter. We’ve wrapped up a set of small, strategic projects that you can sign off on today, ensuring your Q1 is calmer, sharper, and more successful with minimal work from you. Think of them as a gift to […]
Why so many new B2B start-ups struggle and what it tells us about the importance of brand strength in B2B.
Launching a B2B start-up can feel like pushing a boulder up a mountain. You’ve got a product. You’ve got a proposition. You’ve even got some budget. But the leads don’t come. The sales cycle drags. And doors refuse to open. What gives? Often the founders’ willingness to continue. Here’s the hard truth: most B2B start-ups […]
The B2B Marketer’s Guide to 2025: How to maximise revenue and create demand
In 2025, for technology, professional services and manufacturing businesses, growth will come from striking a balance between acquisition, retention, and innovation. Whether you’re launching new products, entering new markets, or activating channel partners, this guide will help you create integrated campaigns that deliver measurable impact. As a B2B marketing agency specialising in these sectors, […]
B2B Strategy, Customer Experience
The B2B Marketer’s Guide to 2025: Trends for how to earn customer trust and loyalty
Next up in the series is trust and loyalty. These aren’t earned overnight. They’re built by consistently delivering value at every stage of the customer lifecycle – and doing it to high quality, every time. Looking through the lens of marketers in the technology, professional services and manufacturing sectors, we break this into three […]
The B2B Marketer’s Guide to 2025: How to lead in my niche with a strong brand, high awareness, and market preference
It’s that time of year again: trend report season! Yes, we know everyone’s doing trend summaries, but it’s for good reason. We’ve taken 214 reports and distilled the key trends* for B2B marketers targeting a niche in the Technology, Professional Services and Manufacturing industries to bring you a mini-series with curated actionable insights across four […]
Your competitors may be unwittingly cutting off their noses to spite their face.
The latest Gartner CMO survey reports that marketing budgets have fallen 15% YoY. Why? The adoption of AI and macroeconomic uncertainty. There are over 60 countries entering elections in 2024. Turbulence is an understatement. These factors are making long-term investments hard to justify. As a result, spending is falling and what remains is often […]
B2B Marketing Leadership, B2B Strategy
B2B marketing to a niche is harder than it looks – and under-appreciated
B2B marketers who promote a niche brand in a niche market are a rare breed. Quite simply, it is hard and demands one of the purest forms of marketing. With small audiences, each interaction and every message counts. You simply don’t have the gift of huge numbers to learn slowly. You need to plan, […]
What can B2B brands learn from Taylor Swift?
You don’t have to be a dedicated ‘Swiftie’ to recognise that Taylor Swift is a force to be reckoned with in the marketing arena. Swift’s astute strategies transcend music and offer valuable lessons for marketing – including B2B. This blog post is not to debate the merits of her as songwriter, performer or zeitgeist, […]
How to measure your B2B brand strength
You might think your brand is powerful, but how can you be sure? Do you have a method for tracking it over time to effectively manage it? You might think your brand is powerful, but how can you be sure? Do you have a method for tracking it over time to effectively manage it? As a B2B […]
How should B2B marketers approach 2024?
This article follows our “2024’s trends in B2B marketing for those targeting a niche” article and focuses on what you can do to navigate 2024 as a B2B marketer targeting a niche. This article follows our “2024’s trends in B2B marketing for those targeting a niche” article and focuses on what you can do […]
2024’s B2B marketing trends for those targeting a niche
We’ve sifted through over 75 individual trend reports to find what is relevant for B2B marketers, so you don’t have to! It’s that time of year when anyone providing professional services is sharing an opinion on the year ahead. And yes, we’re no different. What is different, however, is that we’ve identified what we […]
B2B Audiences, B2B Campaigns, B2B Marketing in manufacturing, B2B Marketing in Technology, B2B Strategy
What are the lessons for B2B marketers trying to create a new market for their product? Lessons from the BSRIA briefing on Air Quality.
After attending BSRIA’s Briefing on Air Quality, I wanted to share the lessons I observed for marketers taking products to market in Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) which apply to anyone bringing a product to a niche market. From HVAC to building services, many Velo clients — including BSRIA — are active in this space. And […]
How should you budget for the right balance for brand and sales activation campaigns when targeting a niche?
Over the years, there have been many B2B marketing studies that changed the industry’s thinking. You’ll be familiar with their headline results but often keen to know more – and to review the original source. This series of articles provides an overview of the research and how they apply for B2B marketers targeting a […]
B2B Marketing Leadership, B2B Strategy
What are the key metrics you should track as a B2B marketer targeting a niche to be able to justify increasing your budget?
It is important to plan your campaigns and measure their effectiveness carefully. But with so many metrics to choose from, it can be challenging to determine which ones are most relevant to your specific campaign goals. Whether you are focused on building brand awareness, generating demand, or enabling sales, the metrics you need may […]
B2B Campaigns, B2B Research, B2B Strategy
What marketing KPIs should you be tracking when targeting a B2B niche in your campaigns?
When planning KPIs for your marketing operation, ensuring that they align with your overall business goals is essential. This means selecting KPIs that will help you measure your marketing efforts’ success in terms of driving revenue and business growth. While revenue related KPIs are a common starting point, it’s also important to have the […]
What should you think about when building your B2B marketing strategy to target a niche?
B2B marketers who take a niche brand in a niche market are a rare breed. Quite simply, it is hard and demands one of the purest forms of marketing. With small audiences, each interaction and every message counts. You simply don’t have the gift of huge numbers to learn slowly. You need to plan, learn and […]
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